One-Punch DxD: Legacy
by ahsoei
Summary: Originally was titled, 'Dragons and Heroes: Legacy'. When the strongest hero alive gets thrown into the world with supernatural entities, his son got caught in it and gained lively companions. Would it be possible for his son to inherit his power as well? As the hero started another quest to find out the origin of his power. WARNING: OOC! Possible AU in later arcs.
1. Prologue

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

* * *

**Alright folks, ahsoei here with another story. Honestly I wish I could have finished first with my Gintama fanfics, but the idea and desire inside me cannot be contained anymore so my head just said, 'screw it, I have to let it out now'. And so here's another crap came from the humble me. Please R&amp;R and please no flame! Thank you and enjoy. m(_ _)m**

* * *

**Prologue**

That was supposed to be just another day for Saitama. Any other day where he woke up, got into a fight or any crisis that involves villains, humanity and doomsday, end it with a punch (or maybe more, depending on how strong the enemies are), go back home and wash his gloves, as well to receive either zero gratitude or even accusations of him being a cheater. Honestly, all he had ever done is using his power to save the day and almost no one believes him. Not that he can blame them, but people everyone can at least believe his method of training. But still, he cannot blame them. That day, Saitama and his so-called cyborg apprentice, Genos, were engaging another smart-ass lunatic that built a machine that according to him, can generate a portal to different dimension and he might as well planned to unleash whatever the hell was sleeping within. Subduing the lunatic and his lackeys were easy enough, but deactivating the already activated machine is the tough part. While Genos was trying to deactivating the machine manually, Saitama just had to decide to just punch the machine away into oblivion. The result was, due to malfunction a black hole was generated and it sucks everything unfortunate and close enough into the darkness. Saitama who destroyed the machine first-handed of course was the first one to be pulled in.

* * *

"SENSEI!" shouted Genos as he quickly grabbed into some structures that seemed can hold long enough. And his other arm reached out just to be able to grab Saitama's hand in a nick of time.

Saitama was relieved that his companion managed to grab him as he saw the 'lunatic' as well as his lackeys were screaming in terror as their bodies disappeared into the hole. "Whoa, you saved me, man!" said Saitama as he let out a sigh of relief. "Don't let go, 'right?!"

"Hnngghh….!" Genos grunted as he tried to pull Saitama towards him, using his strength to fight against the air current. "Hang in there… Sensei… Just a bit more….!" Said Genos as he kept pulling, but the force from the black hole was really strong due to how close the distance the two heroes with the hole.

Saitama's eyes widened as he saw that the structures Genos was holding on could not hold their ground and would soon crumbled, then after contemplating few seconds, the bald hero let out a small smile for a moment then he said, "Um… Y'know what? I guess you can let go, now" with laid-back tone.

"What!? What are you saying!? I'm not letting you go!" said Genos with desperate tone. But at the same time, he could not deny that the structures he held on couldn't last longer and the black hole before them would not disappear any sooner.

"Cut the melodrama, Genos" said Saitama with straight face. "This is not some romance where a couple were desperately clinging on their lives. Well, we WERE clinging for our lives now, but still!" said Saitama as his faced hardened, "You've gotta lemme go or we'd both die! You know what's the best choice!"

"But I still want to have more missions with you… And I still want to learn more from you…." Genos said as he realised the fact. He had to let go or he will also sucked into the black hole. "You saved me countless times, you even put up with my selfishness and my quest of vengeance! I haven't repaid you yet!"

Genos was truly indebted to Saitama. At first he wanted to learn the origin of Saitama unmatched strength so he can be strong enough to defeat the crazy cyborg that took everything away from him in his past, but his self-proclaim teacher not only willing to take him in, he also taught him many things, but he also helped him quell his hatred. Truthfully, after Genos was finished with his quest of vengeance, or rather his hatred and his past, the cyborg doesn't care anymore about Saitama's power origin. Even if he still wanted to be stronger, it was for the sake of becoming a hero like Saitama. If he was still fully human, Genos would be crying right now.

"Geez, you're really too serious for you own good…" said Saitama as he snickered. "You don't need to learn anymore. Hell, you're not even my disciple to begin with!" Saitama declared as he slammed his fist onto Genos' arm that was holding him.

Genos' eyes widened as his arm got crushed into pieces from Saitama's hit. He wanted to use his remaining arm to grab Saitama again, but his reasoning got the better of him. Genos only gapped with a face filled with shock, fear, and slight betrayal as he saw his teacher got further away into the black hole. "I'll leave things in your care now, BUDDY!" was Saitama's parting words as he smiled and put gesture of someone saying goodbye.

Few seconds after Saitama had disappeared into the darkness, the hole disappeared as well. Leaving the cyborg on the rubbles as his body fell on knees. "SAITAMAA!" Genos' voice was heard loud that day.

* * *

Dark… That was Saitama's first thought as the portal connecting him and the world got closed before him. The man tried to move, but he could not feel anything at all since his inside a vacuum space. Saitama also realised that there was no air to breath either. It seemed that holding breath could do the trick for now, but Saitama was aware as well that he could not keep this up forever. He had to do something quick before he died from suffocation.

If he could actually die from suffocation, that is.

''_Shit… I really can't go where I want to…_'' thought Saitama as his body kept floating mindlessly in the space.

He could not feel that his legs and hands, touched or made any contact with anything, and by the manner of his body floating, he assumed there was no air for him to breath whatsoever as well. It had been already quite some time since he got sucked into the oblivion. Saitama still remained floating in the void space while holding his breath. While he had quite confidence to be able to survive without air to breath for some time longer, Saitama still believed that a fresh air would be highly appreciated – not able to breath sucked balls.

Breathless, not able to move, Saitama was finally overwhelmed by dreadful boredom. _"Maybe I should just go to sleep, but I can't sleep peacefully if I can't breath… can I?"_ Saitama thought as he did not really understand about the mechanism between void space and human body. He was never academic type to begin with.

However, when Saitama decided to go 'fuck it' and did…. Something utterly foolish (probably, most likely), suddenly a sense of comfort washed over him. It was… oddly comfortable, like Saitama was placed on the softest bed he had ever felt. Not that he was tired or anything, but when he was enveloped in such comfy warmth… he automatically closed his eyes in content. He had been wanting to sleep for some time, after all. Sleep came first, he could think whatever was happening later after he had awoken.

In addition, not that he cared that much, but there was also _air_ for him to breath with.

The last thing he recalled before falling into blissful sleep was a large glowing balls that resembles a pair of yellow reptilian eyes, belong to a giant figure looming over him. The last things he heard before he finally succumbed into unconsciousness were,

"It's been a while…"

"…Never thought you're gonna showed up…"

"… entertain me more…"

"…do something about that little prick of infinity…"

"_Wha… What?_" thought Saitama as he finally passed out. _"Meh… Whatever. Time for bed."_

* * *

Saitama was walking on an empty street at a local suburban area. As he walked through the night, the bald hero tried to run over things that had happened to him. From what he had gathered, after all those fiasco about black hole, space and mysterious giant figure that probably saved him from…. What he thought as the most boring situation and location in his life, that he thought could have actually killed him.

Saitama was found asleep on a random dumpster by a police whom was patrolling that area. After few questionings, small interrogations about his appearance and tattered weird outfit, etc., Saitama was fortunate enough to be able to sneak away from the police station without much problem. Saitama figured from the map inside the station that he is still in Japan, but not his Japan. There were no city Z, Y, or whatever city with alphabetic in this country. There was no Hero Association, in fact, the policemen from before thought it was some kind of cosplay convention or some other strange cult or group or something. Another thing was that his name was not on any registry. This led him to escape from the police station or he would have been put in jail or had to go through with some protocol bullshit that irritated him.

Currently, he was looking for a place to sleep for the night, as he still felt… kind of lethargic from the earlier sleep – he did not actually want to get up from that kind of sleep for a while.

He found a local park and decided to sleep on a bench there, sleeping outdoors did not really appeal him, but the weather was pretty nice and the cold of the night wind did not bother him at all. Saitama approached the bench and he laid on it then he relaxed his body.

"_Still… That giant figure earlier… What was that?_" thought Saitama as he stared at the night sky.

From his memory, he could tell that the giant figure was definitely not a human, and was insanely powerful. Saitama bet that giant figure could actually give him a real challenge. Thinking someone (or something) that was at least on par with him make him excited for some reasons.

"But that why was its power so familiar…?" Saitama remembered the sensation that kept him alive in that space. "_And he said 'it's been a while'…. Does it mean that we met each other before?_" Saitama could not recall that he ever met such a being before.

Can it be something that had fought him in the past? Did he meet him again for revenge? Not likely, since if so, he could have just left him floating aimlessly in space for who knows how long, or just attacked him right there. Whoever or whatever that figure was, Saitama concluded that the being could give him some answers. "_Well, whatever. Let's just sleep for now…._" Thought Saitama as he let himself fall into the dream world until…

"KYAAAAH!" a scream was heard echoed through the park.

Not being able to ignore his heroic instinct, Saitama quickly ran into the source of the scream. Upon arriving at the source, Saitama found a scene where there were a young woman, frightened, dropped on the ground facing a giant monster that resembled a deformed giant ogre, or orc, or whatever creature from the horror movie he used to watch back then. The said creature stood around 5 meters tall and it wielded a giant club ready to smash the frightened woman to bits. Seeing her incoming doom, the woman closed her eyes accepting her fate.

BAAM! CRACK!

Only to feel that the hit did not come at her at all, instead it was replaced by the sounds of earth cracking beneath her and something hard clashed against the giant club. The woman opened his eyes slowly to see a figure of a man looming over her. His right hand was holding off the creature's giant club while both of his legs were slightly buried into the ground, causing several cracks and lines on it. But nonetheless, the man protecting her was standing firm and not harmed at all.

"Uh, you alright? Did you get hurt anywhere?" said the man looked over his shoulder.

"Ye… yes" said the woman not believing the sight before her. A single, average-looking man, not to mention his bald head did not help his appearance at all, stopped a giant club of a creature several times his size without breaking a sweat. And how is his face remained calm like that? Isn't he supposed to be a bit more panicked? Those were the thoughts of the woman who stared in both shock and amazement.

"_I guess even in this world, I still need to play hero…_" thought Saitama as he stared at the creature before him.

"Hmm? Another human? And you seemed strong… I guess the stronger would taste better… And two humans will taste even better!" said the creature with rough voice as he lifted his club once again to deliver another killing blow.

WHAM! CRASH!

The said creature did not have another moment as his body was obliterated immediately right after Saitama landed a hit on him. "Cut it out, will ya? I just want to sleep already, to be honest…." Said Saitama in reluctant tone. Indeed he felt that his fight ended up boring as usual, but he really can use a good night sleep right now. But before so…

"Um… Can you stand?" asked Saitama as he turned around at the woman who had her mouth gapped by such display. The woman could not believe that the man before her just defeat such monstrosity with one punch, and he did that effortlessly, as if he was just swatting a bug.

"Um… Hello? Miss? Can you stand up on your own?" asked Saitama again with worried look as he waved his hand in front of the woman's face.

"Huh? Eh? Ah… Yes, I'm fine. Thank you…" said the woman as she stood up. "What was that thing?" asked the woman as she took a quick look at the remnants of the creature.

"Who knows? Might be just some random monsters that preys upon people at night." said Saitama with a shrug as he took another glance at the woman he saved. In his home, monsters like this are daily occurrence.

To be honest, Saitama was a bit impressed. This woman is tougher than she looks. Most people would have passed out or scared shitless from fear when faced by such creature. Yet this woman quickly recovered after being terrified by a monster. Not to mention, now that Saitama had a better look on the woman, Saitama must admit that the woman is quite a good-looking. Her brown-hair was tied into pony tail and she looked quite modest as well.

"_Focus, focus…_" thought Saitama as he shook his head a bit. "Can you walk home by your own?" it was quite rare that Saitama ever offer such hospitality towards a person he had saved before, since he usually just walked in, punch and walked out. But after seeing a woman before him, Saitama himself had no idea what has made him to do such a thing.

"Yes, I can get home by myself. My house is just around that corner. Thank you for saving my life…" said the woman smiling as her face blushed a little. Saitama quickly averted his gaze somewhere else.

"Well then… If you say so, I guess I'll take my leave now… " said Saitama with a yawn as he walked off.

"Wait!" shouted the woman stopping Saitama on his track, looking at her over his shoulder. "Who are you?" asked the woman in wonder.

"Just your average hero who got lost, that's all. Good night, then…" said Saitama nonchalantly as he walked off again. But he stopped on his tracks again when he felt someone tugged on his tattered cape. He looked over and found the woman was gripping his cape.

"If you don't mind… You can stay in my house for tonight…" said the woman as her blushed brightened slightly, her eyes was covered by the bangs of her brown hair.

"Eh?"

"It's the least I can do in return after you saved me…" said the woman as she averted her gaze to the side.

"No, no thanks. I can manage by myself…" replied Saitama as he tried to let go the woman's grip.

"Well, no offense here, but you looked like you don't have any place to stay. You look like a total bum with that get-up…" said the woman eyeing Saitama's appearance. "Also, you said that you just want to sleep earlier, which means that you were quite exhausted despite being strong enough to beat that monster with a single punch. Don't you think a nice warm bed under a roof would be a suitable place to rest for the night?" said the woman with a smile trying to persuade her hero.

"Well… It's true, but…"

"No buts! A gentleman should not refuse a lady's offer into her house! Especially if the gentleman had saved the lady from peril! It's not time to be modest now!" cut the woman with stern tone.

"…(sigh)… if you say so, then… Don't mind if I do…" said Saitama in acceptance.

"Good, now let's go. It's getting very late", said the woman as she grabbed Saitama's hand and pulling him to her house. "Hold on", said the woman stopping after she took few steps. "May I know the name of my guest tonight?" asked the woman as she held on Saitama's hand.

Saitama found out that despite still using his gloves, the woman's grip was very warm for many reasons. "It's Saitama…" said the man as he snapped out from his private moment.

"Just Saitama? I want your full name if you don't mind", asked the woman again as she put her face closer towards Saitama's.

Saitama flinched slightly. He just realised that he only ever introduced his first name to other people, not even Genos. Where had been his manners all this time? After contemplating for a while, Saitama decided it will not hurt to give the woman a proper introduction, considering that this world's system has not recognise him. He smiled and responded the woman's grip as he grip back her hand gently, "It's Hyoudou. Hyoudou Saitama at your service".

* * *

**(Time skip – many years later)**

It was early in the morning when a 17 year-old boy with brown hair woke up from his bed. After rubbing his eyes for a while, he let out a yawn as he stretched himself, got out from the bed, and he opened the curtain of his room's window. Seeing that the sun has not clearly risen up yet, the boy decided he can start his daily morning exercise.

"Okay… Now let's do this again…" said Issei with determination as he had put on his track-suit and headed out of the house.

**[Morning, partner]** a voice said greeting him.

"Ah, g'morning, Ddraig. Let's do our best today again, shall we?" replied Issei as he looked at his left arm.

His daily exercise contains 50 times push-ups, 50 times sit-ups, 50 times squats and 5 km running, and trained with his, as the heavenly dragon had explained him around 5 years ago, the boosted gear until the time his mother wakes up and had prepared breakfast for him. Note that he has been doing this ever since he was 10. And the training with his boosted gear was added by himself after he found out about the dragon few years after his training started. It was all started after he, Hyoudou Issei, had spent his childhood without knowing his father that he finally asked his mother about his father's whereabouts.

oXo

**_(Flashback)_**

"Mom, mom..." asked a 10 year-old Issei as he ran towards his mother in the kitchen.

"Yes, Ise?" replied his mother softly as she had just finished with the dishes.

"Why don't I see daddy around? Do I even have one?"

His mother only silenced for a few moments and she simply walked to the dining table to set up plates for dinner. "Of course you have a daddy, silly. It's just that… He travels a lot… And he probably not coming home, at least not anytime soon…" said his mother with a sad tone.

"Why's he going away, then? Where'd he go?" asked Issei as he sat on the table.

"He's just saying goodbye all of a sudden after coming back from work one day, and he disappeared… Just like that" Issei's mother replied closing her eyes in reminiscence.

"Does daddy…. Not love us anymore?" asked Issei as he gazed downwards with sad expression.

"No, no… sweetheart… Daddy still cares about us. He sends money occasionally so we can sustain ourselves, you know?" Issei's mother said to comfort her son.

"Then why did he have to go? Why did he leave us by ourselves?" asked Issei with more intrigued tone.

"I… I don't know, sweetie… One thing I know from your father is, that your father can be a very selfish and unpredictable person. I didn't know what he's thinking that time and I still don't know until now" said Issei's mother as her eyes gazing into a blank space.

"Then why did you marry dad?" asked Issei tilting his head.

"It was probably love at the first sight, Ise… Ever since that night when your father saved my life…" said Issei's mother smiling at the memory.

"What? Dad saved your life?" asked Issei with surprised look.

"Yes… Back there, your father was very cool… Like a superhero. And I think he is the strongest man alive I've ever seen…" said Mrs. Hyoudou as she put one hand on her blushing cheek. "But he always caused me so much trouble, even after you came to our life, Ise…" Issei only nodded slowly, sinking his mother's thoughts about his father into his head. For his mother acting like that, he could not help but to believe that his father is not only an enigma to him, but also a very strong one. And being a hero? He had to admit it might sounds cool to have a hero as your father.

"Anyway" her eyes looked at her son again, "Remember Ise, when you'd grown up, make sure you'll become a man who won't make a girl cry, become a man who prioritize a girl's happiness, okay?" Her son only nodded resolutely in reply.

Mrs. Hyoudou still remembered the day her husband gone leaving her and their 2 year-old Issei by themselves. She could not help but crying that night, while she knows that her husband has a good reason for what he did, but she could not understand why. But until now, she still believes that her husband will return home someday as she looked at their family picture inside the cabinet. In the picture, both parents in casual clothes with Saitama happily carrying a baby Issei in his arms.

"I've decided, mom", her son's words snapped her out of her reminiscence. Mrs. Hyoudou looked at her son who had a determination in his eyes.

"I want to be stronger, so I can bring dad home. Even if I have to drag him along the way!" said Issei clenching his fists.

At her son's declaration, Mrs. Hyoudou eyes widened for a second. Until she could not help but snorted in giggle, remembering another thing when her husband decided to take his long-time journey.

**(_Before Saitama left home_)**

"Ah, one more thing, honey. About our son…" Saitama turned back to his wife. His wife wondered what Saitama wanted to say.

"I got a… feeling, some kind of. That when he learns about… This…" said Saitama gesturing their current situation. "He's probably gonna looking for me. So…" Saitama said as he handed an unsealed envelope. "I want you to give this to him. Inside there are instructions what he needs to do if he wants to meet me" said Saitama as his wife studying the content. His wife's eyebrows creased slightly.

"Why… Why would Ise need to do this? I don't understand…" asked Mrs. Hyoudou as she put the content back into the envelope.

"Trust me, honey. It's just that… I got a hunch that when our kid decides to look for me, it's gonna be a hard path. I don't know how long would he take, but I want at least for him to be prepared…" replied Saitama with slight uncertainty in his voice. "But now that's what I believe in. I felt a potential inside him, so I've decided all this" said Saitama with resolve.

"How can you be so sure about this? Especially about our son?" asked his wife as she held the envelope close to her chest.

"What else do you think? It's our son we're talking about, right?" replied Saitama with a confident smirk.

(_Back to current flashback_)

"_How right you are, dear… Look at our son… He really wants to see you now…_" thought Mrs. Hyoudou as she finished giggling.

"Um… Mom? What's funny?" asked Issei seeing his mother giggled all of a sudden.

"Nothing, sweetie… I just remembered something. Wait here." Said Issei's mother as she walked up to one of the drawers, and she took out an envelope, the very envelope her husband left behind before his departure. And she gave it to her son, which he accepted reluctantly.

"Ise…" said Mrs. Hyoudou with stern tone. "Your father had seen this coming, thus he left this for you if you ever wanted to see him. Read this carefully, and whether you can do this or not depends on your resolve. Do you understand?" asked Mrs. Hyoudou to his son. I

ssei only looked at his mother then to the envelope. After thinking for a while, Issei tightened his hold on the envelope as he looked up to his mother with resolution in his eyes. "Yes! I'm gonna be stronger so I can drag dad back home!"

Issei's mother only smiled at this. "One more thing Ise…." said Mrs. Hyoudou as she went back on her seat and she placed her chin on both hands. "Hm?" Issei looked up again before he left the dining room. "When you met your father, can you give him a punch for your mother?" asked Mrs. Hyoudou with a sweet smile. Kind of too sweet, in fact.

"You bet 'cha!" replied Issei enthusiastically as he ran up to his room.

Seeing off her son, Mrs. Hyoudou let out a sigh as she stared at the ceiling. "_You better get yourself prepared, dear…. Fu fu fu…_" She thought as her smiled widened again.

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

While Issei was finished up with his squats, his mother was peeking from the window of her room without his knowledge. Seeing her son had finished some parts of his daily training, she smiled as she saw her son ran off out of the house to finish his 5 km run (note that of course Mrs. Hyoudou has no idea about Issei's boosted gear). "_How I wish you can see this, dear_…" she thought as she walked away to prepare breakfast.

Meanwhile, with Issei running through the neighbourhood, he could not help but to remember his father's letter to him. The letter contains his training regimen and few notes at the end. Issei was well aware that even after all the trainings those past years. Issei still craved for more power, as his instinct keep telling him that his current strength is still nowhere near his father. If he could not beat his father, his father may not want to go home. So he decided to make himself stronger until he is strong and matured enough to take on whatever heading on his way. However, the end note in his letter somehow bugs him.

'_P.S. While you're doing all this training, make sure to take good care of your hair. (y)_'

That particular sentence worries him a bit for some reasons he could not fathom. "_What does that mean?_" thought Issei as he kept running.

**[Uh… Why don't you take a look at your old man's appearance again?]** said Ddraing voicing his opinion. His voice somewhat showed a slight worry as well.

After contemplating of what Ddraig said for a while, Issei stopped on his track. He rummaged through his hair as more sweats pouring down his face. "_Okay… It's still there…_" thought Issei until he chuckled in both relief and nervousness after remembering his father's bald head. He snapped out of his stupor as he started running again, trying to get rid of uneasiness about his head. What had happened to his father's head is not going to happen to him right? … Right?

_To be Continued..._

* * *

**And that is how it all began, folks! I know it was very OOC, but I can't help it! It's a fanfiction, anything can happen! Besides, Saitama must have reached at least a bit of maturity… Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts about this. And fyi, I plan to make Issei here to be… different than the original canon. Obviously, I'm not going to make Issei to be able to do Saitama's one-hit kill, since it will kill the plot itself. So I may take few ideas how Issei will fare himself in this story. R&amp;R, don't be too harsh on me. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	2. It begins

**Chapter 1: It begins**

**Thank you very much for your reviews! m(_ _)m And regarding about 'this' Issei and Saitama… I guess I can't make Saitama fight too much, or at least I'm gonna keep Saitama's interference as low as I can, since Saitama's power can spoil everything…. And as for Issei, sure he will be stronger than canon, but I must apologise about this Issei, since some readers expect that Issei will be a 'monster' like Saitama. Too bad, indeed Issei is Saitama's son and I will make Issei to be stronger than canon. But I don't plan to make him become a total OP or badass right off the bat and this Issei will not be as powerful as everyone expected, but still very strong nonetheless. I'm trying to make Issei to have a gap or weakness or having him lack of something. For more detail I'm gonna explain what is in my mind at the end of the chapter. So here's the real beginning of this crossover! Enjoy!**

**Oh, I forgot to say this during the last chapter: I do not own neither Highschool DxD or Onepunch-Man. **

_(Flashback, several years ago)_

"Hello there"

Saitama, who was clad in his tattered hero outfit, with his usual white cape replaced with a hooded cloak, turned his head towards the source of the voice to see a man in his mid 20s with black hair, golden bangs, and black goatee, the man also clad in purple coat with black belts adorning them and charcoal coloured trousers with black shoes. Apparently Saitama was in some town in the middle of China in the middle of the night, the crowded street where Saitama wandering on had been left by civilians since it had past most of business hours. How did he end up in China? Saitama himself still wonders about it. Before he met this man, Saitama was just wandering around without money, food and with only his bag hang on his shoulder and his little knowledge about chinese. When the stranger took a good look on Saitama's face, the former shows that he had barely ate anything for past few days.

"Uh… Can I help you?" replied Saitama with his remaining strength. He also relieved that there is someone who seems can speaks fluent Japanese for him to ask around.

"Nothing much. I just want to see the man who saved the daughter of a comrade", said the man with a carefree shrug. "The name's Azazel. What's yours?"

"_What? What is this guy saying? And 'daughter'? Is he talking about that little girl from Japan? Or is he talking about a different girl?_" thought Saitama as he recalled that he indeed saved a little girl a while back before he left Japan. But during his journey before he ended up in China, Saitama also had saved quite number of people and there were girls among people he had helped. But back to issue at hand. "It's Hyoudou Saitama. Nice to meet you…" Saitama said with ragged voice, raising a hand in greeting. Despite his poor state, Saitama could not help but feel something dodgy about this Azazel guy. His name was already dodgy enough. He may be starving right now, but if something goes wrong, he can always punch his way through, although it will be a really pain in the ass for him.

GRUUUU…..

"Hahahaha! Looks like you can have a horse for dinner right now. Come on, I know some good places that still open around here. My treat!" said Azazel bursting with laughter as he turned around and walked away.

"Wait, you sure? I mean, we just met and all…" said Saitama reluctantly following Azazel. The former was still suspicious about the latter, but the former's stomach kept telling him to follow the stranger before him. Saitama had no other choice than to play along for now. Although a sense of trust was built at the same time as well.

"It's fine, consider this as my gratitude for saving one of my kind. Now come with me!" said Azazel heartily as he kept walking.

_(At a certain Chinese restaurant during the flashback)_

"(burp)…. Thanks for the food!" said Saitama in satisfaction with towers of bowls and plates on his table. "Fueeh…. You really saved me back there. Thank you very much!" said Saitama nodding in gratitude and leaning back on his seat.

Azazel only snickered at this. "Heh, I didn't expect you to eat this much, though… Nevermind that. Let's get down to business, shall we?" said Azazel as he put his hand together in Ikari Gendou style, while his smile still plastered on his face. Saitama widened his eyes as 6 pairs of jet-black crow wings spread out from Azazel's back. "Let me re-introduce myself again. My name is Azazel, the leader of Fallen Angel organisation known as Grigori, nice to meet you."

Saitama only remained calm despite the stranger who treated him supper suddenly grew 12 black wings in front of him. "Um… Assuming that you just want to talk, and considering you just saved me before, I guess I'll humour you. My name is Hyoudou Saitama, the pleasure is mine" said Saitama calmly as he fixed his posture. "But… Is it alright with you showing your true colours here?" asked Saitama as he tilted his head to take a look at the restaurant owner and the other staffs as well, who were surprisingly did not show any sign of panic and only smiled, as if telling that they are used to it.

"It's fine. In fact, this place is actually one of my turfs in the human world." Said Azazel as he waved his hand in dismissal. Saitama only nodded as he relaxed himself again. Then Azazel returned to his previous posture. "Hyoudou Saitama… What are you?" Azazel did not beat around the bush.

"What am I, you ask…. Well, as you can see, I'm a human" said Saitama spreading his arms to convey his point. Azazel's eyebrows raised up as if expecting a more real answer. "And… I'm also your average hero who got lost. That's all I can say about me" said Saitama as he rested his arms on the table.

"A hero, eh?" asked Azazel with slight sceptical tone. "Well, I guess from what I have observed from you in these past few days, your exploits were indeed kind of heroic, I suppose. And I must say, what you did back there seemed… way too remarkable for a human. Are you sure you are one?" asked Azazel as he still maintained his posture.

"Well… Pretty sure I'm a human even now… But…" Saitama said as he rubbed his head, contemplating his choice. Should he tell him? He doubts that this man before him can help much, but for as long as he had lived in this world, he had nobody he can share his predicament, even his wife. "Will you believe if I said that I came from a different world?"

"Elaborate"

"It's a long story"

"I have time and all ears. Pops, can we have another refill?" said Azazel as he asked the restaurant owner to refill their drinks.

"Alright, then. It's all started when…"

_(End of Flashback)_

X

_(Present time, with Issei)_

Hyoudou Issei was walking back after he finished his 5 km run. As he walked down and greeting few neighbours on his way, he mentally had a conversation with the dragon within him.

"_Huff… It's been 7 years since I've started this training… And 5 years since meeting you, hasn't it, Ddraig_?" said Issei as he let out a breath after all those runnings.

**[Indeed it has, partner… You managed to manifest my initial form in a year after you had started your training and you managed to awakened my true form one year after, and we managed to contact each other few weeks after that. I must say that I am impressed at your diligence] **

"_Thanks._ _But still… It still sucks that I still haven't reached your balance breaker, even after all those training you have advised me to do_…" said Issei with downright expression.

**[Don't be like that, partner. You pretty much have covered all the basics in using the boosted gear. Your physical strength is quite exceptional for a human if I said so myself. Not to mention, from all of my previous hosts, you are the first one who talks to me like this. I must say this is a very refreshing experience. I used to just stay silent as my past hosts abused my power however they wished]**

"_Well, thank you... Anyway, let's keep doing our best, and as soon as I mastered your power, I'm going to bring him back!_", replied Issei with determination.

**[Your father, eh? I sometimes wonder what he was thinking, making you do all these stuffs]**

"_Beats me. He mentioned in his letter that he once did these stuffs as well. All I can do is to believe him for now. Besides, thanks to this training, I got to meet you. Although_…" Issei rummaged through his hair again.

**[You're worrying about your hair again, geez. I've already told you to stop thinking about it. Keeping that kind of thought only making the possibility of it became a reality even higher…]**

"_I know, Ddraig. I know… It's just… Can you imagine me having a bald head even shinier than Matsuda_?" Issei replied as he thought about his bald friend.

**[Well, not really… But still, partner. Even if your hair is going to fall out, leaving your head as a shining cue ball, you are still always be my partner, the current Sekiryuutei (Red Dragon Emperor). Besides, it's not like you're the first bald-headed host I've ever been with.]** Ddraig replied, trying to comfort his host somehow.

"_Gee, thanks again, Ddraig_", replied Issei with a slight hint of sarcasm. Ddraig did not bother to retort this one.

**[Then again, you've been training for a whole 7 years and look at your hair! Still looking good as always!]** Ddraig tried to cheer Issei up.

"_Well… Another question is, how long did it took for that cue ball to loose his hair while he's doing his own training? Or what if his hair had already gone even after he had completed his training? Like, you know, his baldness is hereditary? That's the part that worries me the most…_" replied Issei looking a bit dejected.

**[…(sigh), you know what? Just… Stop thinking about it. It won't do you any good, anyway]** said Ddraig ending the topic.

"_Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh, by the way, we're already here_", said Issei mentally as he went through his door of his house. "I'm home!"

X

Kuoh Academy, a former all-girls private school that was recently turned into a co-ed school. Issei was at first reluctant to attend such a prestigious academy, since the tuition fee was quite high and he was worried if his mother could shoulder the burden to pay his study. However, the tuition fee was no longer a problem since his house always received a package with quite amount of cash, which his mother assume those money are from his travelling father, so Issei decided to go along with it. After spending more than a year in Kuoh, Issei has to admit that it was pretty much a good place.

Currently, our Red Dragon Emperor was having a quick nap during the break time. It was just another day, where Issei would go to school, chatting with his friends, and go home. His napping session after lunch used to due to his exhaustion after his morning training, but after a couple of years, although he has already gotten used to his morning exercise, napping has already become a habit for him. After a few moments of peace, Issei woke up lazily as he looked up at the clock with sleepy eyes.

_"I guess it's about time, now…_" thought Issei as he yawned. He got up from his seat and walked out of the classroom. Few of his classmates saw him leaving and started murmuring.

"Say, what's Hyoudou doing? It's always at near the end of the break when he goes out…", said one of the female classmate. One of other females replied, "Ah, this is your first time in the same class with him and his two friends, isn't it? Relax, he was just going to pick up those two".

"Those two?"

"Yeah, Matsuda and Motohama. I always wonder how can that poor guy keep up with them for more than a year", this time, one of the guys replied.

Hyoudou Issei, now in second year at Kuoh Academy high school, while he is almost known as one of 'perverted trio', which is now only known as 'perverted duo', is more known as the 'caretaker' of the academy's two biggest perverts. While he is seen as a 'normal', Issei has been seen hanging out with Matsuda and Motohama ever since his first year. At first everyone thought Issei was a pervert like the other two, but never once they heard or saw Issei doing lecherous things such as peeping, grinning while talking about women and other things. Everybody only saw Issei simply talking casually with the other perverts, while the latter two seemed always tried to teach Issei about what they called about the greatness of eroticism or whatever, trying to make the title 'duo' into 'trio', much to the girls' fear, but Issei was never seen to respond like the others expected. Occasionally, Matsuda and Motohama always invite Issei to peep at girl's changing room, but Issei only refused and simply letting them to do as they please, only to see them being chased by bunch of angry girls. But nevertheless, the perverted duo still have not given up on attempting to corrupt Issei's mind further and the latter, strangely enough, still wants to hang out with them. Interestingly, despite refusing to peep on women, Issei was sometimes seen to be quite interested in eroge and some adult movies. But Issei himself claims that he was more interested in the plot-twist and gameplay itself rather than enjoying the sexy scenes, saying that he only takes it as a bonus. The same goes if it comes to AV or other porn movies, the boy in question only willing to watch if the movie offers a certain plot twist or other genres, not simply videos about people fucking each other. This makes others thought that Issei's respond on erotic and perverted topic is like a closet pervert but at the same time not, which is actually very weird itself. It has been a topic amongst the second years whether Hyoudou Issei is actually a pervert or not. Currently, the man in question was walking outside the new school building until he arrived at the backyard where he had guessed his two buddies usually hang out. By the time he arrived, Issei was met with a sight where his two friends were laying on the ground, bruises adorning their bodies, with group of girls in gym suits and holding wooden and bamboo swords surrounding them.

_"…(sigh)… I guess I'm a bit too late"_, thought Issei as he walked up towards the crowd. "Good work for today, everyone…" said Issei greeting the girls. "These two were at it again, I assume?" asked Issei pointing at his knocked-out friends as he received few glares from the girls.

"Indeed, they were. And we assume that you're here to retrieve these two as usual, Hyoudou-kun?" asked the girl with pink hair in hair-band, only to receive a nod from the brown-haired boy.

"I guess we can still let you go since you're not involved. But seriously, why did you hang out with these two in the first place?" This time it was a girl with dark brown hair in twin-tails with red ribbon.

Issei remained silent for a moment as he held a thinking posture, staring at the sky. "Uh… I actually don't know", Issei replied innocently. His answer was replied by deadpanned stares from the girls. "I mean, when I got here as a first-year, these two just came up to me out of the blue", said Issei with a sheepish smile. "I'm not sure what's happening, but when I realised, I was having fun with these guys…" said Issei as he picked up his two unconscious friends, Motohama was carried on his shoulder while Matsuda was hung downwards by Issei's other arm. The girls only widened their eyes slightly as they were intrigued from Issei's reasoning.

"Consider this an advice from us, Hyoudou-kun. You should choose your friends wisely", said the girl with dark brown hair.

"Yeah, having these two is already enough for us. I... We don't want to imagine you making perverted duo into trio", said the girl with hair-band nodding in agreement.

"Hahaha, I know your worries regarding them, but I myself can't help but understand why these two are so hung-up seeing you girls. All of you are good looking in general, after all…" said Issei laughing. The girls who heard his reply had their cheeks covered in red. "Well, class is about to start. I'll see you later, Katase-san, Murayama-san, everyone!" said Issei quickly going back into the school building.

The girls only stared in silence watching the 'nice caretaker' left for the new school building. "Hm, what a weirdo", said the girl who was addressed as Katase. "Well, he may be kind of weird, but at least we should be glad that he is not as bad as those other two…" replied the girl who is known as Murayama. "And I sure hope as hell that he better stay that way, for the sake of all girls…" on this comment, every girls nodded in agreement.

As Issei getting closer to the entrance, he looked up and caught someone was eyeing him from the upper floor of the building. What Issei saw when he fixed his eyes on his spectator was a long, crimson-red hair. The owner of the hair is a woman in in her late teens with light skin, teal-coloured eyes and a buxom figure, as her upper body was shown from window frame. "_Beautiful…_" was what Issei thought when Issei got a good look on the woman's whole appearance. Issei finally snapped out of his peripheral as he realised that he was mesmerizing Rias Gremory, a third year student, the most popular girl on the school and also one of 'Kuoh's Two Great Ladies'. She is also known as the heiress of Gremory clan, a family of devils that serves within 72 pillars of devil's society. When their eyes locked on each other, Issei quickly bowed while put on a sheepish smile, and quickly continuing his way to his class. The red haired woman only blinked at her junior's action, then she giggled on how awkward the latter's response was.

"Is there something you found amusing, buchou (president)?" a voice asked her from behind. Rias turned around to see her close friend, another young woman with a buxom figure around the same age as Rias with very long black hair and violet eyes. Her hair is tied in a long ponytail, reaching all the way down to her legs with two strands sticking out from the top and sloping backwards, with an orange ribbon keeping it in place. "Akeno", replied Rias addressing the woman as Himejima Akeno, another third year, the second most popular girl after Rias and also one of Two Great Ladies. She also serves as Rias' 'queen'.

"Did you see that boy with brown hair just now? The one who is carrying two bodies?" asked Rias as she pointed at Issei who finally arrived at the entrance. Akeno who barely managed to see Issei's face from the window while the latter's body disappeared through the entrance, paused as she ran through her head for a while.

"If I'm not mistaken he is a second year, Hyoudou Issei. He's usually seen hanging out with two known perverts of the school, but everyone still wondering if the boy is actually a pervert or not. Fu fu fu, how strange… Isn't he also the one you've been setting your eyes on for this past year?" asked Akeno after she remembered about her junior. Apparently, Rias has been keeping an eye on Issei ever since the latter entered his first year of high school.

"Indeed he is, Akeno… And from that brief exchange earlier, my instinct was confirm that the boy is very interesting. I'm definitely going to make him join my peerage this year", Rias replied with a resolute smile. "_And he might be the key to my freedom as well…_" thought Rias with a hint of regret. "By the way, this is your last chance, Sona. Are you sure not want to give him a shot?" asked Rias towards a person who was sitting on a desk nearby hers.

The said person is a young bespectacled woman in her late teens with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes, and the young woman was reading a book. "We've settled this a while back, Rias… I've already picked a candidate of my own. Besides, I doubt that Hyoudou-san will fit into student council, let alone my peerage", replied the woman known as Shitori Sona, a.k.a Sona Sitri, the third most popular girl and the current student council president. She is also a devil, the heiress of the Sitri clan who also serves within 72 pillars.

"Well, suit yourself. I guess I have to keep my eyes even closer to him…" said Rias as she returned to her seat, followed by her queen, since her own class was starting.

X

It was after school, when our resident heavenly dragon was still chatting with his two perverted friends while the other students were starting to go home or heading towards their club activities.

"Thanks again, Ise… You saved us again…" said one of the perverts, Matsuda as he bowed his head in gratitude.

"Yeah, I thought we're goners back there…" said the other, Motohama following Matsuda's bow.

"Don't sweat it. But still, you guys can REALLY at least reduce your peeping. I don't really mind dragging you guys out from trouble if I can, but you can't keep this up for the rest of our high school, y'know? I myself can't always saving you guys from those girls…" said Issei waving his hand and giving a small lecture to his friends.

"Come on, Ise… It's gonna be fun! You still haven't known the greatness known as boobs! You will understand once you just take a good look!" said Motohama in response, followed by Matsuda's nod.

"For your information, I pretty much understand how attractive women's breast can be, it's just… I found your way of enjoying them isn't effective. Not to mention also causing trouble for everyone…" replied Issei holding his hand up. "Besides, it's already our second year of high school! Sure there is other things to spend our spring time of youth than just ogling boobs! I'm not saying it's bad, but come on! At this rate we'll never have a girlfriend for the rest of our youth! The mood will be no more once we graduate! No sweet happy memories! You get it?"

"Screw you, Ise! You sure can focus on things other than boobs since you got to meet that hot mom of yours every day!" Matsuda retorted, followed by "Oi!" from Issei in annoyed tone.

"He's right, Ise… I must say again that your mother looks really young despite her age. I still remember I mistook your mom as your big sister when we first came to your house! You're already more fortunate than us to have someone so beautiful as your mom!" said Motohama following.

Another thing, which Issei still sometimes wonders about, is his mother looks very young for a woman in her age. She has already reached her 40s, but her appearance still looks like women in their late 20s, or at least early 30s. During the classroom visit in his first year, many people had mistaken his mother as his elder sister due to her youthful appearance.

"Besides, we are well aware that finding a girlfriend is still our objective… No, it's a part of our real goal…" replied Matsuda as he and Motohama cried in unison, "TO BUILD OUR OWN HAREM!"/"To build our own harem…", said Issei with less enthusiasm when he knew where the topic will go to. "Seriously, what's with the harem?" asked Issei.

Of course Issei has considered about him having a harem. According to Ddraig, people with great power within, power of a dragon for example, tend to attract many people toward them. Attract many people leads to attract many women as well, attract many women leads to a harem, which makes Issei can not help but feel rather curious about what if feels to have many women to take care of. He decided he will just has to cross that bridge if he ever ends up having one.

"Our parents, and I assume your parents too, expect many grandchildren from us when they gave birth to us. That's why we need to secure as much girl as possible so we can give them more grandchildren!" said Matsuda with prideful tone, then he gave Motohama a high-five.

"Okay… Then let me ask you this, do you guys even know what it truly means to have a harem?" asked Issei as he put a serious expression. Matsuda and Motohama only put a look that asking Issei to continue.

"I'll tell you this since we've been friends since our first year. Having a harem means that you have formed genuine romantic attachments with your women!" Issei's raised his voice a bit causing Matsuda and Motohama blanched in realization.

"Romantic…." "Attachments….?" Said Motohama followed by Matsuda in succession.

"Yes! Romantic bonds! Simply turning bunch of women into your harem only to fulfil your desires to have descendants is pathetic! You need to pour your heart and soul to form the bonds with each and every one of your romantic interests! Your feelings must be true and pure! You have to love all of them equally with all of your heart! You have to be prepared to sacrifice your limbs, even your life to secure your women's happiness when the situation calls for it! You also have to be able to indulge every single one of their desires, regardless of personal feelings and you must protect them with everything you have! Even if those girls ended up hurting you, you have to be able to love them still! Even if they hate you, you still have to love them! It's not just about size and how good they will make you feel, but it's about bonds between lovers you will create! That is the true origin of passion and eroticism in harem! If you want to become a harem king, you must forge romantic bonds with your girls, powerful enough that no force on earth can sever it! That is what it truly means to have a harem!" exclaimed Issei as he panted between his breaths after his speech. Then he took a deep breath, "Do you get what I'm saying?"

At this speech, everyone else who were still remained in the classroom only sweat-dropped, unable to voice any suitable comment.

_"Wow, what a man…"_

_"I don't know Hyoudou-kun could say something like that…"_

_"Is he actually a pervert or not? I don't get it anymore…"_

Those were the thoughts of all classmates, men and women, who happened to hear Issei's speech about harem.

If anyone knows better, there was definitely a thunder roaring behind Issei as he finished his speech about harem. The two perverts before him only stared at him with eyes full of amazement, their mouths gaped, as if the two were revealed about the true meaning of life. Soon after tears started to roll down their faces.

"You… You have opened our eyes, Ise…" said Matsuda sobbing as he covered his tearful eyes.

"Yeah… and we… We're here thought that we are all the same… How naïve of us…" said Motohama this time between his sobs. Issei only stared at their reactions carefully.

"You're truly a harem king, because you already experienced to have one!" both of Matsuda and Motohama said in unison.

"Eh?"

"We were truly ashamed of ourselves, claiming that we know more about girls better than you, while you know what it eroticism truly based of! It's all based from love you have showered to all of those girls in your harem!" said Motohama with tears still rolling down.

"Wa-wait a sec, you guys…" said Issei holding up a hand until he was interrupted again.

"Now we have understood! We'll definitely meet your expectation, master! Let's meet again with all our harems once we acquire one!" said Matsuda bowing in respect, and he left the classroom immediately followed by Motohama.

"But I never said I have one…." Issei's words only fell on deaf ears. Soon his classmates started murmuring and whispering to each other, while their eyes were looking at him in awe and disgust.

"Really? Hyoudou-kun already has a harem?"

"So Hyoudou-kun is already on a whole different level…"

"Already dating bunch of girls… What a playboy…"

Seeing all his classmates' eyes on him, Issei only got his face paled, sweating bullets, and could not make any comment whatsoever. He even could hear from inside himself that Ddraig was doing his best to hold his laughter. Today was not his day at all.

X

"_Jesus, Ise… What did you get yourself into, man…?_" thought Issei to himself as he remembered the whole school has finally labelled him as a kind of pervert, but in a different sense. Currently our 'harem king' was on his way home from school.

**[Ku ku ku… Don't worry about it, partner. With my presence inside you, it won't take long until women gathers around you. Trust me, I know…]** said Ddraig in half teasing and comforting tone.

"Thanks, Ddraig… That's very reassuring…" replied Issei as he released a sigh and settled on the bridge for a quick stop. He stared at the sunset as he rested his hands on the bridge's railing. "_At this rate, having even one decent girlfriend would be like pulling a teeth…_" thought Issei as he released another breath.

"Um…"

A voice broke him out from his own thoughts as Issei turned his head towards the source of the voice. He was met with young, attractive woman around the same age as him with long black hair down to her hips and violet eyes. Her attire consists of a short black dress with a small, light purple jacket on top. Issei looked at the girl for a while then he decided to break the silence, "Yes?"

"Are you… Are you Hyoudou Issei-san?" the girl asked nervously.

"Yes, yes I am…" replied Issei as his eyes darting left and right in awkwardness. "How can I help you?" said Issei putting on a smile.

"Uh… My name is Amano Yuuma. Are you… Are you seeing someone now?" the girl named Amano Yuuma asked Issei again with a nervous tone.

"Mmm…. No, I don't. What is it?" asked Issei as he was expecting what this situation will come out.

"Well… I always see you passing the bridge every evening… And I… fell in love with you not long after that. So… Will you go out with me?" asked Yuuma as she bowed her head with a blush adorning her face.

"_And apparently, pulling a teeth is easier than I thought_", "Ok. I don't mind. Let's get along, Yuuma-chan!" said Issei with a wider smile.

"I'm glad to hear it from you. Then, can we meet up this Sunday? I'd like to know you more…" said Yuuma cheerfully.

"No problem. So it's a date on Sunday?"

"Yes, it's a date", said Yuuma nodding. "Well, see you later, Issei-kun!" said Yuuma waving her hand as she ran off.

After make sure that Yuuma has gone, Issei's face slightly frowned as he snorted and changed his posture into leaning back on the bridge's railing. **[As much as easy as it is to pull a teeth, partner…]** Ddraig commented mentally with a passive voice.

"_Yeah, she's hiding something_", replied Issei mentally as he looked up at the evening sky.

**[Oh, so you're aware what she is?]** asked Ddraig with a hint of surprise. He did mention about the three factions that had turned him into his current state, but he never really taught his host much about how to recognise one.

"_What?_"

**[What?]**

"_What do you mean by that?_"

**[So you don't know?]**

"_I only know that she is hiding something, how should I know that she's… Whatever you thought she is!?_"

[**I didn't think, partner. I ****_know _****that she is a fallen angel. Well anyway, she's nothing you should worry about, she' not that strong. So if something goes wrong, just remember your training and you'll be fine**]

"_IF something goes wrong. Still though, a fallen angel, eh? She's cuter than I thought fallen angel would be…_" replied Issei as he memorizing Yuuma's expression.

**[Don't be fooled, partner. Fallen angels are experts in seducing humans. You may be the sekiryuutei, but you are still a human who is going through his puberty. Seducing you is a simple task for a female fallen angel. No offense. Oh, and remind me to teach you something about sensing supernatural later]**

"_Thanks for the advice, Ddraig. None taken. And yeah, I guess I can study a bit about sensing a non-human…_" replied Issei with a small smile.

**[One more thing, speaking of supernatural…. Don't turn your head, partner. But there's actually someone else's been watching you]**

"_Another fallen angel? Since when?_" asked Issei as his body tensed ever so slightly.

**[A bit earlier before the fallen angel girl approached you and… No, it's not a fallen angel. A devil, from your school, white hair, around 4 feet tall. But no need to worry either, there's no hostility coming from her]**

"_The hell? There's a devil in my school? Good grief… Well, at least I also know this one didn't come here to pick a fight_" replied Issei with another snort.

**[Actually, there are quite a number of devils in your school other than this one, partner]**

"_What?_"

**[Sorry for not telling. Since none of them are hostile so I decided that it's not time to tell you yet]**

_"(sigh)… Never mind that… I'm going home. Mom's probably been waiting by now…"_ said Issei mentally as he took his leave towards his house. It seems that whoever was stalking him also had left as well. "White hair… 4 feet tall… Which means kind of short…" thought Issei to himself as he remembering Ddraig's description about his devil stalker. Somehow those descriptions fit the criteria of someone he heard on school, but he could not help himself to remember entirely. He quickly dismissed his thoughts as he will think about it next time, until Ddraig spoke in his mind again.

**[Speaking of your mother, your two friends earlier are true. It's quite unusual, even for me to see an old lady to look so young… Is she what people called as MILF? Just kidding…]** said the dragon to liven up the atmosphere.

"Oh, for the love of…! Don't start this now, Ddraig…." Said Issei retorting the dragon's joke.

X

_(Back to several years ago with Saitama and Azazel)_

"Are you sure about it?" asked Saitama after hearing what Azazel's said.

Apparently, the governor general of Grigori believed Saitama's story without any hesitation. And when the former put the latter's information piece by piece, the former came up with a theory about the latter's power, which Azazel almost could not believe, came from. Azazel also came up with another theory about Saitama's relation with the giant figure who resides within, of which Saitama had learned, the dimensional gap.

"Well, if my theory were proven to be true, I'm afraid it won't be as easy as you hope", Azazel said with a shrug. "And this leads to the only way that you need to speak to _him_ personally if you want those answers you're looking for, which I'm not sure how _he_ will react when _he_ meets you again, considering that _he_ is unpredictable", he continued as he sipped his drink. "Besides, it's not an easy task to enter the dimensional gap. For one, your body won't be able to stand the nothingness, and two, even if you managed to survive within dimensional gap, who knows how long you will need to find _him_, since dimensional gap is vast space. The worst-case scenario, before you able to find _him_, you'll probably be sent out to a different dimension already. Well, I can make an arrangement to summon _him_ if you don't mind waiting, but I won't guarantee if _he_ would even bother to answer the summoning".

Saitama only closed his eyes as he let out a small sigh. "It's fine. I appreciate your help, but I guess this is something I need to do by my own. Besides, I can use some sight-seeing on my way there", said Saitama as a small smile plastered on his face. "Anyway, you said that you are fallen angel. Can I assume that you're the same league as demons, devils or those things people usually afraid of?" asked Saitama in curiosity. Since he had said that he could use his free time to know more about this world, he sure can just ask one of the occupants right of the bat.

Azazel only blinked twice and a amused smirk adorned his face. "Hehe, no, not really. Well, if you wish to find out I guess I can explain it to you about the three factioins. Although, it's gonna take some time. You okay with it?"

Saitama is not the type who listens to people who talk too much, but considering that the man before him was kind enough to hear his story, not to mention believe him as well, he decided that he could try to listen to him in return. "I have time and I'm all ears. Though can I have a refill, please?" asked Saitama politely after he mimicking Azazel's words from earlier.

"Hahaha, I've already said that it's my treat! Well, let's start anyway. In the this world there are three factions…"

_(scene break)_

"And that's all about it. Hey, are you listening?" asked Azazel after he explained about three factions, only to see Saitama who is seemed more focus on the another snack and drink in front of him.

"Huh? Uh… Yeah, I get the big picture", said Saitama as he sipped his drink. "There are guys like you, angels that were your former-selves, and devils who you fought in three-way war long time ago. And there's also these cool gear thing you're looking into now."

"Well… Yeah, you're pretty much right about it. And we're at cease-fire at the moment and it's sacred gear, s.a.c. g.e.a.r. Remember it properly, since you probably gonna bump into some of its wielders if you're about to travel around the world playing hero", said Azazel slightly annoyed.

"Azazel?" said a voice suddenly came from the entrance.

Azazel tilted his head to look at the entrance and smirked. "Well, speak of the devil and he shall come. Sirzechs! Come here, let me introduce you to this fellow!" said Azazel inviting the newest guest. Saitama turned his head around to see a figure who has an appearance of a man in his early 20's with shoulder length crimson red hair and blue-green eyes. After exchanging looks, Saitama gave a brief nodded as the man known as Sirzechs took a seat between Saitama and Azazel.

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me that you're skipping work again", asked Azazel with teasing tone.

"You know as a fellow leader our jobs could be really taxing. I'm just taking a quick break, that's all", said Sirzechs with a sigh.

"In middle of China?"

"Well, I think this will be the last place Grayfia will look into. By the way Azazel, who is this person?" asked Sirzechs pointing his thumb at the bald man beside him.

"You remember the little girl who just recently assigned under your little sister?" asked Azazel as Sirzechs nodded in response. "Well, he's the one who rescued her before your men and little sister found her". At this sentence Sirzechs' eyes widened in realization. "Oh, and he's most probably also the one who appeared on your family's territory around 20 years ago" added Azazel.

Saitama raised an eyebrow at Azazel's introduction, while Azazel only send him the look that said 'I'll explain later' then he looked at the crimson-red haired man beside him. Feeling the urge to be polite in front of another stranger, Saitama introduced himself, "Uh… My name is Hyoudou Saitama. Nice to meet you".

Sirzechs smiled and he answered in kind. "Nice to meet you, Hyoudou Saitama-kun. My name is Sirzechs Lucifer. You can just call me Sirzechs".

The next day, there was also a sighting of a strange natural disaster occurred at the direction of Gobi desert, and Sirzechs was found returning home with Grayfia supporting him. Sirzechs was seen quite beaten up, but not badly injured and strangely enough, the maou was having a satisfied smile unlike his queen who put quite distasteful expression. Neither two of them wanted to tell what could possibly happened to the maou since both of them have promised secrecy, and the story ended up only passed around as a mere rumour. What really happened is a story for another time.

_(End of Flashback)_

**And that's all for chapter 1! This chapter only speaks mostly about Issei characteristic, which I plan to make him kind of more eccentric compared to canon, and I hope did not make the characters too OOC. Many readers expect that this Issei will be an OP character, but my answer is no. I don't intend to make Issei to be invincible like Saitama right off the bat, at least not anytime soon. And if you're asking me why, it's because these two are two different people, no matter how related they are. Issei is Issei, and Saitama is Saitama, nothing can change that fact. Sure the title said 'legacy' which of course I plan to make Issei inherit something from Saitama, but whatever Issei is going to inherit will not be easy to achieve. And if you are asking about Saitama's power level in DxD universe, I'd say that Saitama and Great Red can give each other a good run for their money in a head-on battle. And Saitama and Great Red are somehow related in my plan. But I won't scratch a possibility that there is at least one person in DxD verse who can 'defeat' Saitama by outsmarting him in one way or another. So if you're not satisfied about my story and character concept, just deal with it. Oh, and special thanks to Bamafelix who is kind enough to help me in making some lines in the chapter. Check out his DxD fics such as 'Devil Reborn', 'Vanishing Dragon of Leviathan' and his latest work, 'This Cruel yet Beautiful World'! Please R&amp;R, no flame. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	3. Change

**Chapter 2: Change**

**Okay, this is chapter 2. I don't have much to say here, but there are one or two readers who said that I made Issei and Saitama like in Negi Magi series. I honestly never read that series so I don't know if I really do make it like that. For that, I'm sorry. Rather if you asked me, I more thought that I make another HxH. Oh, and if you ever wondered about Saitama's appearance after 20 years, as Azazel mentioned how many years had past during the last chapter, just imagine Saitama in his 30s (but he's actually already 40s in this story). Anyway, here's another chapter of DxD and OPM crossover! Enjoy…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own neither Highschool DxD nor One Punch-Man.**

_(Flashback, several years ago, unknown location)_

We found our bald hero was standing in front of a corpse of a giant reptilian-like monster. Apparently, Saitama found out from rumours that this monster had been terrorizing the local populace, so as a hero, he decided to exterminate it along the way of his journey. Of course having such over-whelming power, Saitama defeated the monster with a single punch.

"_Just like old times…._" Thought Saitama as he stared at the dead monster in front of him. A large fist mark adorning the monster's face, making its head's size like being reduced by half, presumably from Saitama's hit. "_Speaking of old times, I wonder how the others are doing back there? Genos… Master Bang… King…. Everyone…_" Saitama thought then he looked up at the blue sky, reminiscing his comrades he left behind back in his original world.

However, such matters are trivial now. Now, with him having something truly worth protecting, as the picture of his family appeared in his mind, Saitama decided that his only choice is only to move forward, besides, he believed in his comrades, it's not like they are being push-overs. Thinking that there was nothing he needs to do anymore, Saitama prepared himself to leave the area.

"Wait", a voice stopped him on his track. Turning his head towards the voice's source, Saitama saw a young man with short black hair. He wears a combination of Japanese school uniform and ancient Chinese attire. The said man also holding a spear on his shoulder and was also accompanied by two other males behind him, one was a young man with black hair and spectacles and wearing a combination of Japanese school uniform and mage-style robe over the uniform. The other male is a short, young boy with an expressionless face.

"How can I help you?" asked Saitama with impassive face. He clenched his fist slightly as he asked the stranger before him. While Saitama sensed that the men before him are genuine human, the former could not shake the bad, or rather, the weird feeling that came from the spear the man held. Saitama does not believe that the spear can do any fatality to him, but his intuition told him to be careful around it.

"How did you do that?" asked the man with an incredulous expression. "I heard that the monster before you was at least on par with a high-class dragon! And you just killed it with a single punch! What kind of sacred gear or power do you have? Or are you perhaps a Longinus user?" asked the man pointing at the carcass that had just disintegrated completely. "Or rather, are you even human?"

"Wow, wow… Ask questions one by one, kid…. And…. I assume that you're here to take care of this thing too?" asked Saitama pointing his thumb at the spot where the carcass used to be. "_Are these guys heroes or something? Are there still some humans who want to be a hero, just like my old world?_" thought Saitama to himself.

"You could say that. We also want to learn that creature a bit. It could be a good resource for this little guy here", said the spearman gesturing the quiet boy behind him.

"Well, sorry for making you go all the way here for nothing… I guess I'll take my leave now…" said Saitama quickly turning on his heels and walking away with a hand waving above his head.

"I'm done yet", at this word Saitama stopped on his track and turned his head towards the strangers once again.

"I don't care you stole our kills or whatever. What you showed me earlier has picked my interest. What do you say about joining us?" asked the spearman with a smirk.

"_Quite charisma he has there…_" "Well… I don't even know you folks…" asked Saitama rubbing his head.

"Oh my, where are my manners?" said the spearman snorting while he held his head. Then he gestured his hand at his companions behind him, "Let me introduce you my men first. The boy is Leonardo, and the guy with glasses is Georg, the descendant of Johann Georg Faust. And as for me…" said the spearman as he put his hand on his waist and his spear on his shoulder, "I'm Cao Cao, the descendant of the original Cao Cao from Romance of Three Kingdoms, and I'd like you to join our group, The Hero Faction, that is…"

_(End of Flashback, what happened afterwards were a story for another time)_

X

It was the day of Hyoudou Issei's first date ever and the man was all suited up for the sake of creating memories. As he waited for Amano Yuuma at the promised spot, he sighed as he remembered the chaos that happened when he ended up introducing his first girlfriend to Matsuda and Motohama. The two were all going the mixtures awe and jealousy as they thought that Yuuma was either part of Issei's non-existent 'harem' or another addition of the 'harem'. Fortunately, it did not take Issei long to convince Yuuma that all the harem fiasco was a total misunderstanding. He took a look at his watch, seeing that he still had some time before the date, he let out a breath as he stared at the sky. Truth to be told, Issei was pretty nervous on this whole dating thing, especially with him knowing that his first date is a non-human, a fallen angel to boot. He had considered to ditch the date first, but considering all spring-time of youth that he, and in addition, his mother always brought up, he decided to test his fate about involving supernatural in his so-called spring-time of youth.

"Please take one!" a voice snapped him out of his reverie. Issei looked at the voice's direction and his eyes were met with a girl dressed in a bat-like costume. The said girl was handing him a small pamphlet with a picture of complex magic circle.

As Issei looked at the pamphlet, his brain recognised something. "_Isn't this…_", thought Issei as he looked again at the spot where the supposed bat-girl was no longer there. But before he could have decided what to do with the pamphlet, a familiar voice called out to him, "Issei-kun!"

Issei immediately put the pamphlet into his pants pocket out of reflex, and he turned his head to see his girlfriend ran to him. "Sorry I'm late, did you wait long?" asked Yuuma as she panted lightly from running.

"It's fine, I just got here", said Issei with a smile. "_Wow, as much as cliché as it seems, I'm very happy for some reasons_", a first date truly is memorable. "Shall we go, then?" asked Issei as he offered his hand, which Yuuma took gladly.

The date itself went really normal if Issei had to say so himself. He had zero experience in dating someone, so he decided to just go with a classic one; lunch at nearby café (probably with a cake or pastry), hitting arcades for some fun, and visits on various shops for gifts and souvenirs. Overall, a perfectly normal date, Issei himself also ended up buying a bracelet as souvenir for Yuuma. Later at the sunset, the two of them were arriving at the fountain of the local park. Yuuma turned around as she faced Issei.

"Say, Issei-kun… To commemorate our date today, I'd like to ask you something. Do you mind hearing my selfishness?" asked Yuuma as she stared right at Issei's eyes, her face slightly blushed.

"_Alright, here goes nothing…_" "Sure thing, Yuuma-chan. What is it?" asked Issei as he smiled in anticipation.

"Will you die for me?"

"_Shit_" "Uh… Come again?"

"Will you DIE for me?" asked Yuuma again as she emphasized the 'die' part, then her appearance changed as she suddenly grew a pair of black wings behind her back and her casual outfit transformed into a black leather suit with a chain that usually seen in BDSM porn flick.

Issei was ready to attack at the moment's notice, but his eyes ended up gluing at the new appearance of his girlfriend. "_Okay… Now I understand why fallen angels are experts in seducing humans…_.", thought Issei as he swallowed a lump, his face felt a bit hot from the sexy display in front of him.

**[Focus, partner…]** warned Ddraig in his mind.

"_Oh, right, right_", thought Issei as he shook his head to regain his focus. He then focused more on the fallen angel's gaze rather than her revealing outfit.

"Fufufu… You don't seem so surprised…" asked Yuuma sneering at Issei, her expression became colder and more mature than her previous appearance.

"Well… Actually I am surprised…", replied Issei as his gaze slowly reverted to Yuuma's breast, but he quickly averted his gaze back to her face. "Anyway, back to your wish earlier. Why do you want me to die?"

"It's not like I have a grudge toward you, but you have a potential that could doom us all. So we have decided to dispose of you before you could become a real threat…", said Yuuma as a spear of light in purplish pink appeared on her hand.

"Hmm… Is this what people call an irony? If you stayed cute and harmless for the rest of the time, I may never, ever be a threat for y'all in the first place… I was honestly starting to like you for real during our date..." replied Issei with a hint of disappointment, "I even bothered to buy you a souvenir!"

"Hmph, yes, that date was fun. It really bored me to death…" replied Yuuma back in sarcasm. "Well anyway, I still have to kill you…" Raynare said lifting up her spear.

**[Get ready, partner] **Ddraig warned again in his mind.

"_Yeah, but I want to measure something first… Besides, I don't want to show up all of my cards so soon yet_", replied Issei mentally as he hardened his stance.

As Yuuma threw her spear, Issei managed to dodge as he quickly moved forward and lower his body to avoid the spear to hit him. Yuuma's eyes widened as she found Issei already near her between seconds. Her trained reflex thanks to her experience in past battles helped her to barely avoid Issei's punch in a nick of time. However, as Issei's left punch met the air, Yuuma could sense that there was a small shockwave went pass her head. Issei's fist also managed to graze the fallen angel's cheek, drawing a little blood.

"_Wow! Now I understand why dad made me do all those training!_" thought Issei in surprise when he saw what his punch could do. Sure he missed his target, but he sure could feel the power of his own punch had produced.

"_Wha…! Is this a punch of a mere human!?_" thought Yuuma in panic as her instinct shouting her to gain distance. She quickly flapped her wings and she flew high enough to gain a safe distance from Issei's arm-length. She touched her stinging cheek and she found there was a little blood. "You dare scarring me, a fallen angel….! You, a mere human!" As she growled in rage, Yuuma quickly summoned two more spears in her hands and throwing the spears again toward the boy. Issei only ran sideways to avoid the spears' trajectory.

"_It's gonna be a bit tough if she's high up there… I guess we have to do this, Ddraig…_" thought Issei formulating a plan.

**[I'm always ready whenever you are, partner]**

"_Alright! Then let's…_"

"KYAAAAAAH!"

Right before Issei could have summoned the boosted gear, a scream echoed, stopping him from his action. When Issei turned his head towards the source of the scream, he saw a girl with blonde hair styled in twin short side ponytails, her attire, strangely enough, consisted Gothic Lolita attires. "What is that!? A fight? I gotta call for help!" screamed the girl in panicked tone.

Issei's eyes widened at the appearance of the pass-byer. "_What the…!? At a time like this!?_" Issei quickly turned his gaze towards his fallen angel opponent who had a smirk on her face. "Crap!" Without thinking any further, Issei quickly lounge into the front of the blonde girl and he quickly turned with his back facing the said girl.

**[Wait! Partner, she's…!]**

"Huh?" Right when Issei heard Ddraig's voice that sounds like a warning, suddenly his body was struck with a great deal of pain at his back and stomach. When Issei turned his head downward, he saw a spear, shining in pink colour, burst out from his abdomen. Issei's eyes widened at he eyed the spear, and he cocked his head to look at his behind. His eyes saw the goth-loli girl who put a posture of a person who just threw something, with a smirk and cold eyes adorning her face. "_Fuck…!_" cursed Issei in his mind as he gritted his teeth and coughed up blood. But soon afterwards, he felt two other spears, which he indicated as Yuuma's, lounge right into his chest areas, resulting him coughing up more of his blood. The spears that pierced through his body dissipate few seconds later, and as soon as they disappeared, blood gushing out from his wounds, dying the ground in red. Feeling pain on his body and loosing blood in fast-rate, Issei fell with his face down on the road.

"Ahahaha….! You sure are naïve, Issei-kun… Leaving your back open for a stranger, hence you lost your guard up…" sneered Yuuma in a mocking tone. The blonde girl who back-stabbed Issei quickly approaching her side. Yuuma looked at her ally with grateful eyes. "Never thought your back-up plan will come in handy, Mittelt…"

The girl who was identified as Mittelt simply shrugged with a smug smile. "You're welcome. Now let's…" her sentence was cut off with coughing sounds. The two fallen angels looked at Issei who was in coughing fit as he laid on his own blood. "Looks like you missed his heart", commented Mittelt.

"I guess he was just lucky. No matter, with that kind of wound and blood-loss, it will only take minutes until he wasted away. Come on, let's get outta here", said Yuuma as she prepared to take off.

"Wait! (cough) (cough)…" a low voice stopping Yuuma on her tracks. Both fallen look at Issei who turned his face enough to lock eyes with the former. "Yuuma, can you answer my one question?" asked Issei with a ragged tone.

Yuuma remained silent for a few seconds and she replied, "Fine, make it quick. We don't have all night here…" (cough!) (cough!) "… And your lungs have been filled with blood for sometime now…" continued Yuuma as she heard Issei's coughing again.

"(pant) (pant) Are you… breaking up with me, now….?" Asked Issei, receiving a strange look from the two fallen angels who were as if hearing a really stupid question.

"Wha…! That's what you want to know? Not who I really am, or something more about my reason, or at least what's with this girl doing here?" asked Yuuma with incredulous tone as she pointed her thumb at Mittelt beside her, who only nodded in agreement.

"Just answer the question!" retorted Issei with a more desperate tone.

Yuuma only let out a small sigh, "Yes… It's over between us, now…. Thanks for everything, dumbass!" said Yuuma as she quickly take off to the sky, followed by Mittelt. "Sheesh, what a weirdo…" was all the comment from the blonde haired girl at Issei's last words.

After the fallen angels had flew far enough, Issei's body started to move and the man tried to get on his feet once again. However, as soon as blood gushing out from his wounds, his body fell on fours again as Issei puked another lump of blood. "Goddammit! It fucking hurts!" cursed Issei as he struggled. The man aware that he had to do something soon or he will die from blood-loss. Issei steadied his body as he took a sitting position and leaned his body on the edge of the fountain. He reached to his cell-phone inside one of his pockets and he flipped it open. Issei hoped that he could survive the bleeding long enough until the help can come. However, much to his dismay, his cell-phone's screen showing that its battery had just ran out, then the screen died out. Issei closed his cell-phone as he let it drop on the floor, he let out a sigh as he jerked his head upward in frustration. "_Why the fuck did I forget to re-charge my damn phone…!?_" cursed Issei again in his mind. "I'm so sorry about this, Ddraig…. It's not even been 10 years ever since you're awakened…." Issei apologized to the dragon inside him.

**[Don't worry about it, partner… Some of my past hosts had lived even shorter life than you did…. Besides, it was really fun spending time with you, compared with the other hosts….] **replied Ddraig accepting Issei's apology.

Issei looked at the evening sky as he contemplating about his current situation. "_Man… Am I gonna just die in a place like this? There are still so many things I want to do…_" thought Issei as a flash of his life appeared in his mind. "_Matsuda… Motohama… I guess I'll never see your harem… If you guys ever managed to make one…_" thought Issei as the face of his two perverted friends appeared. "_I haven't even started on looking for you, you damn old man_…" the picture of his father flashed before him. "_And mom_…." The face of his mother appeared. "_What would happen to her if I died here? She already had it hard enough when dad left_…" thought Issei as he imagining her mother's crying face. "_Like hell I will die like this!_" screamed Issei in his mind as he clenched his fist. "At least I need to drag his sorry ass back home to take care after her when I ever died! I gotta survive, I gotta live!" screamed Issei with determination as he tried to move his body again.

As soon as he voiced his mind, a faint glow appeared from his pocket where Issei put the pamphlet from the bat-girl earlier. Then suddenly a red magic circle shone in front of him. "What the…!" said Issei as he covered his eyes from the flash. After closing his blinded eyes, Issei opened his eyes again to see a figure of a woman standing before him.

Blinking his eyes for a moment, Issei let out a sigh after he learned about the woman before him. "_Damn… I'm starting to hallucinate from blood-loss…_" thought Issei as he looked again at Kuoh's most popular girl, Rias Gremory. Thinking that this might be his final moments, Issei decided that he might as well to play along with the 'hallucination' before him. "Good evening, Gremory-senpai… What are you doing here at this hour?" asked Issei as he put a strained smile.

Hearing the dying man's greeting despite the situation, Rias raised her eyebrows. "Still able to talk casually like that after suffering such terrible wounds… I don't know if you are tough or foolish…" commented the girl with an amused smile. "Nevertheless, your reaction amused me. Anyway, I have come here in responding to your summoning. I ask of you, what do you wish for?"

Hearing such words, Issei chuckled lightly. "_Wow, I really have lost too much blood… In that case…_" Issei looked up at Rias again. "I wish you to embrace me and heal me with lots of your love, please…" said Issei still with his strained smile.

At Issei's request, Rias only giggled in respond. "Very well, if that is what you wished for…" said Rias taking a step forward towards Issei. "However, it won't be for free. As in exchange, you will live your life for me, Hyoudou Issei…" those were last words Issei heard before everything went dark around him.

X

"_Where am I…?_" thought Issei as he found himself in a dark space. His eyelids still felt heavy.

A blurry image of a man appeared in Issei's mind as the boy barely holding on his consciousness. "_Who's that…?_"

There are also flashes of blurry images of wasteland, trees, sky that strangely enough looks purple, "_What are those…?_"

Then suddenly a blinding light shone into him. Issei snapped open his eyes and the first thing he met was a familiar ceiling which was the ceiling of his own bedroom. Feeling the ray of the sun hitting his face Issei rubbed his sleepy eyes as he got up and moved his neck around to relieve himself. Never in his life Issei felt this sloppy in the morning. Hell, he felt his head like he was just hit by a truck!

**[Partner…? Partner! You're awake!]** a familiar voice was heard in his head.

"_Ah… Good morning, Ddraig_….", replied Issei mentally as he rubbed his aching forehead. "_Damn… what the hell happened last night? I remembered I was dying in the park, then Rias Gremory appeared before me saying that she will grant my wish, and…_" asked Issei mentally as he trailed on his body. "Why the hell am I nude?" asked Issei after realizing that he was clad in his birthday suit. Not only that, Issei also realised that the wounds he received from the fallen angels had all disappeared without leaving any marks.

**[Uhm… About that… First of all, please don't get freaked out when you turned your head to your left]** replied Ddraig in awkward tone.

"_What do you mean? What's on my leeeeeeeft_…" Issei's thought was cut off as his eyes widened when they were laid upon a red-crimson hair. The boy swallowed a lump as he recognised that Rias Gremory was sleeping right next to him with her naked glory presented for the world to see. Issei had a clear sight on her thigh, her waist and most noticeable are… her breasts.

A moment of silence as Issei's eyes remained glue on the naked, sleeping Rias Gremory until Ddraig broke the silence. **[Umm… Partner?]**

"_Thank you very much!_" exclaimed Issei as he clenched his fist in victory.

**[?]**

"_No, no. That came out wrong. Hey, Ddraig! What the fuck is going on!?_" asked Issei after he shook his head.

**[Ah, yes. You see, about that…]**

"Mmm…." A mumbling voice came out from the sleeping girl as she stirred in her sleep.

**[On the second thought, maybe it would be the best if she's the one to explain]** replied Ddraig changing his mind.

The red haired girl finally woke up soon after, as she rubbed her eyes, she yawned slightly as she stretched her body, showing all her assets for Issei to see. As Rias took a look on Issei, the former noticed that the latter's face was literally fuming in red shade. The latter also showed sweating bullets.

Seeing that he must said something, Issei gathered his courage as he looked the other way. "Uh… Good morning, Gremory-senpai…" greeted Issei with nervous tone.

"Fu fu fu, good morning, Hyoudou Issei-kun. Oh, may I call you Ise?" replied Rias with a smile.

Issei looked at Rias again when he heard Rias' approach regarding his name, then he quickly looked away again as soon he got a good look on Rias' nipples. "Uh… Ah… yeah, sure, go ahead", replied Issei as he desperately tried to push down his excited little Issei. "Um… Senpai? Can you at least put something on to cover yourself?" asked Issei as he repeatedly almost stole a glance on Rias' body.

"Hm? You're free to look if you want to…" replied Rias without any hint of embarrassment.

"_What!_" said Issei mentally as he snapped his head back at Rias' face, which did not show any sign of embarrassment. "_What the hell is wrong with this woman!? Is she a nudist or something!?_" Issei then tried to re-compose himself. "Well… Even if you said so…" replied Issei retorting…

"Ise?" a new voice came out from the door. Issei quickly recognise that it was his mother's voice calling from outside the room. In reflex, Issei's left hand quickly covered Rias' mouth, resulting the girl to raised her eyebrows in surprise, but the girl relaxed a bit when she saw Issei's right finger on his lips, suggesting her not to say anything. "Ise? Is that you? I thought you were training outside?" asked the voice.

"Yes, mom!" replied Issei shouting as he glanced over at Rias and he slowly let go his left hand from the girl's mouth, believing that the girl will keep quiet. "I guessed I overslept. Sorry, but can you wait downstairs? I'm coming in a minute", said Issei trying to convince his mother to go away.

It was silent at first. "Okay, then", replied to voice. "Don't take it too long otherwise you're going to be late for school!"

"Got it!" replied Issei as he listened the retreating footsteps of his mother. He let out a sigh as he returned his attention back to Rias. "Sorry", said Issei bowing in apology for suddenly covering Rias' mouth. "I don't want mom to see us. Not like this…" said Issei gesturing their situation. A man and a woman naked on the same bed could lead to disastrous assumptions.

"It's alright, Ise. I understand" replied Rias. "Now, let's not make your mother waiting, shall we?" said Rias as she got out of the bed and walked to reach her uniform that was folded neatly on the table. Issei only nodded as he quickly got out from the bed as well to dress up.

_(scene break)_

Hyoudou Haruka truly wondered what was going on in the morning. Firstly, she found her son, Hyoudou Issei skipped his morning exercise, which was very new to her. Secondly, she found her son came into the dining room accompanied by a beautiful foreigner with red-crimson hair. And thirdly, strangely, Haruka could not remember several events from yesterday. As the breakfast went on with awkward silence, Haruka took a glance on the red haired beauty, who was eating elegantly, then she stared at her son, who also had a confused look. Her eyes were saying, 'what the hell is going on'. Understanding the look from her mother, Issei only shrugged a little and sending a look that said, 'beats me'.

"Thank you for the meal", two Hyoudous looked at Rias who had finished her breakfast. "That was delicious, Mrs. Hyoudou", said Rias with a smile.

Haruka flinched slightly at the beauty before her, "Oh, um… I'm glad you like it, um…"

"Rias, Rias Gremory, ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you", said Rias giving a court nod.

Deciding to get to the point, Haruka put on a strained smile and asked, "Um… Rias-san, what is your relationship with my son?"

"We are just a senior and junior in our school, that's all", replied Rias without hesitation.

"I see…" Haruka then glared at her son with a suspicious look, only to be replied by her son frantically shook his head. Issei was also as confused as his mother.

After sending their goodbyes, Issei and Rias walked side by side towards school. After a moment of silent, Rias was the one who took the initiative to start a conversation. "I would have mistaken your mother for your elder sister if it's not for her mentioning you as her son", said Rias smiling.

"Ah… Yeah, I got that a lot from everyone…" replied Issei with a sweat-drop. Then another silence fell between them.

Feeling that he deserves some answers now, Issei straightened up a bit and he took a glance at the girl beside him. "Um… Senpai, about last night…. Did we…?" asked Issei with another sweat dropped on his temple.

Rias looked at Issei who had a blushing face, then giggled, knowing what he meant. "We only slept next to each other for entire night, Ise… Nothing more"

Hearing the answer, Issei slumped his shoulder both in relief and disappointment. "And as for the naked part…?" Issei trailed as he glanced again at Rias.

"Let's say that it's a procedure to heal you from yesterday. And speaking of, does your body still hurt anywhere?" replied Rias as she asked the man.

Issei's eyes widened then he rubbed his previously wounded area with his hand. He forgot to give it more thought in the morning since he was more panicked at the fact that he was sleeping naked together with Rias.

"_Assuming that was a work of….magic_" thought Issei then he replied, "I feel fine, now. Thanks to you, I guess?"

Rias only smiled in content as she replied, "You're welcome. I'm glad that it worked properly…"

Before Issei could have asked for anything more suddenly he heard few outbursts.

"Wha-WHY!? Why is Rias onee-sama walking with him!"

"Wait, isn't that Hyouduo? Don't tell me…!"

"NOOO! Onee-sama is already part of his harem!"

Issei immediately looked around as he found himself and Rias already went pass the school gate. And all students, boys and girls, have screamed in outburst when they saw him walking side by side with school's number one beauty.

"_Oh, shit…_."

"Well, I'll see you after school, Ise. And I also will send someone to pick you up", said Rias as she ignored everyone's outburst and took her leave.

"Ah… Yeah, sure" was all Issei said as he was more concerned about how he will face his classmates after everything that happened.

X

"Ise! What's the meaning of this!?" were the first words that came to Issei once the school had ended. Right after the teacher left the classroom, Issei was stormed by his two perverted friends, Matsuda and Motohama.

"Wow, wow… Stop putting your boxers in a bunch, you guys…. I just met her on my way here, that's all!" said Issei as he let out a sigh as he looked up again to see his two friends who, thankfully for Issei, managed to calm a bit. "Besides, aren't those the exactly same words you said to me the other day?" asked Issei with a tired gaze.

"Other day? What are you talking about?" asked Motohama.

"_They don't remember? Or is it…..?_" thought Issei as he wondered that his two friends did not bring up Yuuma at all. "Uh… You guys don't remember? Cute face? Long, black hair?" asked Issei again.

After a few moments, Matsuda and Motohama let out another outburst. "Wha-! Don't tell us…!"

"So you remember?" asked Issei with a hopeful tone.

"Instead of Rias Gremory… Y-you sank your claws on H-Hi-Himejima Akeno, the 'Yamato Nadeshiko' of the school!? What the shit, Ise!?" shouted Matsuda. The rest of the class got themselves perked up as well hearing Issei with Himejima Akeno.

Issei gob-smacked at the accusation. How come these idiots mistook Yuuma for another girl? Oh right, the long black hair part. "Wha-! Not her, you idiot! The other girl! Amano Yuuma-chan! For god's sake, what the hell is wrong with you people!?" asked Issei as he suddenly felt a head-ache, but he ignored it.

"Yuuma-chan? Who is she?" asked Motohama tilting his head. "I-Is she another part of your harem?" asked the glasses guy with worried face.

"Well, that's…." Issei trailed off as he let out another sigh. "You know what? Forget what I said earlier", said Issei as he dropped his head on his desk. "Sorry, guys… Lots of crap happened to me lately. Can you… leave me alone for a while? Please?" asked Issei in begging tone.

Matsuda and Motohama shared glance at each other for a second, then they shrugged and decided to comply. "Fine… We'll talk about this later… But, Ise…" asked Matsuda as he took his leave with Motohama. Issei peeked over from his desk. "There's nothing going on with you and Gremory-senpai, right?"

Issei let out yet another sigh once again as he buried his face on the desk. "No, there's nothing going on…" Issei trailed and he lifted up his head as he remembered to say one last thing. "And for your note, I don't have…!" only to see that his two friends already gone. Issei snorted as he slumped into his desk again. He could clearly hear that his classmates that were still gossiping about him with Rias and Akeno had finally calmed down as well. Issei could feel that the sun shone through the window beside him, and he suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"_Ddraig… What's happening to me?_" asked Issei in his mind as he looked at his hand under the desk.

**[Before I answer that, partner… Are you asking about the events this morning or yourself?]**

"_The latter. I don't know the details, but… I somehow can tell that there's something different about my body…_" replied Issei as he clenched his hand into a fist.

**[About that… Simply put, your body is no longer that of a human]**

_"What?"_

"KYAAAH!"

"KIBA-SAMAAA!" a scream, rather like girl's squeals woke Issei up from his desk as their voices echoed through the hallway. Issei stared at the door until a boy appeared. The said boy was around his age, with blonde hair and handsome face. The boy is known as Kiba Yuuto, the most popular guy in the school and also titled as 'The Prince of Kuoh' by the girls. Yuuto peered around the class for a moment, when his eyes met with Issei's, he walked inside the class and stopped by the time he arrived at Issei's desk.

"Are you Hyoudou Issei-san?" asked Yuuto with a smile.

"Er… Yeah. That would be me. Do you need something?" replied Issei as he tried to ignore the strange looks from the rest of the students.

"I came on behalf of Rias Gremory to pick you up. Would you please follow me?"

"Ah…. Sure. Lead the way", replied Issei as he stood up. Then the two boys walked out from the class. While they were on the way to leave the classroom, Issei could hear some of female students gossiping.

"Kiba and Hyoudou? Don't tell me…!"

"Hyoudou's harem also include pretty boys? What a worm!"

"Hyoudou! I won't forgive you if you ever corrupted our prince!"

"But don't you think Kiba and Hyoudou pairing is not that bad? Kyah!"

Issei only let out a huge sigh hearing all the gossips. Oh, he and his big mouth. If only he never spewing off about that harem crap, at least he would not have gotten into so much trouble. "Sorry about them…" said Issei apologizing to Yuuto about the gossips.

"Hahaha… It's fine, I'm already used to it. You'll learn soon enough to just ignore them", said Yuuto chuckling. Issei only replied back with a dry laugh.

They walked quite a distance after they left the school building, after passing mass of trees, they finally arrived at another part of the academy, which Issei knows as the old school building. It was not Issei's first time to the school building, though. Because whenever Matsuda and Motohama managed to escape the women's wrath after their peeping session, Issei usually finds them hanging around, or to be more precise, taking refugee around the old school building. The walk continued on as Yuuto and Issei went inside the building, and few minutes later, they arrived at the two-doors at the end of the hallway on the upper floor of the building.

"Buchou, I've brought him", said Yuuto as he knocked the door and opened it.

When Issei went pass the door, Issei was met with a Victorian-style room, mostly made of wood and there were many pictures and drawings that intricate magic circles. And Issei recalled that the magic circles were similar with the one that appeared before him when he was dying. He looked around the room and on the table at the middle of the room, Issei spotted a little girl was sitting on one of the couches, the said girl was having a yokan as snack and judging from her appearance, Issei found that her looks were fit the description of the devil stalker that Ddraig gave him when he first encountered Yuuma. Issei then recognise the girl as Toujou Koneko, a first year, and rumours said that she has a reputation among group of guys as 'Kuoh's mascot' due to her petite appearance. When their faces met, Koneko only gave him a brief nod and she returned to eat the snack in front of her. As Issei took another look around the room, he noticed there was a door at the end of the room. The door was heavily sealed with yellow tapes that were written 'keep off'. When Issei wondered what lies beyond the sealed door, Issei noticed a sound of running water came from a door at another corner of the room.

"_Water? And that noise… A shower? A shower!? And someone's taking one in school?_" thought Issei in wonder. A squeaky sound came out as the sound of the water stopped, signing that the person had finished using the bathroom. Issei finally had just noticed a figure came out from a dark spot of the room as she approached the door with a towel at hand. Issei recognised the figure as Himejima Akeno, one of Kuoh's Two Great Ladies. The door opened, revealing Rias in her uniform with a wet hair. Akeno immediately handed over the towel to Rias.

"Thank you, Akeno", said Rias as she dried her hair. As she finished drying her hair, she took a seat on the chair and the large desk. She clasped her hand together and set her eyes on the newcomer.

"I'm sorry for making you waiting, I didn't get a chance to take shower at your house so I decided to take one here instead. Please take a seat", said Rias as she gestured her hands. Issei only nodded and took a seat in the centre, with everyone else surrounding him.

"I will go straight to the point, Hyoudou Issei. We, Occult Research Club, welcome you…" said Rias looking straight into Issei's eyes, "As devils"

"Huh?" was all Issei said when he heard the devil part. Suddenly, from each person, a pair of bat-like wings came out from their backs, making him tensed.

"I haven't introduced myself properly earlier, have I? My name is Rias Gremory. A high-class devil and also the president of Occult Research Club, it's a pleasure to meet you, Hyoudou Issei-kun", said Rias introducing, followed by everyone.

"My name is Himejima Akeno, a devil. I serve as the vice-president. Let's get along, Ise-kun", said the black haired girl with a pleasant smile.

"My name is Kiba Yuuto, a devil as well. It's nice to meet you, Issei-kun."

"Toujou Koneko, a devil… Nice to meet you"

As he stared at the winged people in front of him, Issei only blinked twice with impassive face.

A moment of silence later until Rias decided to break it, "Um…. Ise?"

Issei snapped from his silence and he shook his head a bit. "Sorry. It's just kind of hard to keep up with all of this", said Issei as he massaged the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath and focused himself again at the devils before him. "My name is Hyoudou Issei, please take care of me… And…" Issei trailed off, "You said that you guys are devils… and this whole club thingy is just a front, I assume?"

"Indeed. And judging from your respond, I take that you had encountered the supernatural before? I mean even before your encounter with Amano Yuuma", replied Rias.

Issei flinched slightly at the mention of his ex, but he later put on a half-challenging smile as he stared back at the devils. "About that… Let's say that I have one or two surprises under my sleeve…"

At Issei's words, Yuuto and Koneko raised their eyebrows in wonder while Akeno only giggling with a hand covering her mouth. Rias herself only smirked slightly in respond. "I see... Care to share with us?" asked Rias with a hint of challenging look.

"I'd like to let you have it in your imagination. Do you mind with it?"

"I see. That's fine if you don't want to share. But know this, Ise… You're always free to share with us whenever you wish", replied Rias as she leaned back to her chair.

"Thank you. And about you people being devils… How does it have anything to do with me again?" asked Issei as he relaxed his body a bit.

"Because you're also one of us. Take a look at your back", replied Akeno.

Issei jerked his head over his shoulder to see a large, pair of bat wings also protruded on his back. Issei's eyes widened as he took a better look at his right and left wings, then he moved them a bit for a second. "_So this is what Ddraig meant earlier…_" After a moment of processing the events in his head, Issei sighed then he focused himself again on the current matter.

"Gremory-senpai… I have some questions…" said Issei as he saw Rias raised her eyebrows, hinting him to continue. "First of all, about this morning. You said that what you did back there was a procedure to heal me. Can you elaborate more? Because that situation we were caught in was way too suggestive…", said Issei as he scratched his left cheek.

Rias let out yet another giggle. "Your wound did not close after your transformation had been completed, since you were still alive back when I turned you. So I had to bath you with my magical power and it works better with more skin contact. Do you understand?"

"Okay… So that answered the naked part. And wow, you really also answered my wish that time!" said Issei as his expression brightened, receiving another giggles from Rias, Akeno and Yuuto while Koneko remained stoic.

"And what's about this transformation and you turning me?" asked Issei getting back to the topic.

"Hmm…. First thing first, I guess I need to teach you a bit about our history… In another realm aside from human, there are three factions….." Rias starting her lecture to Issei as Akeno put a cup of tea in front of the boy.

_(scene break)_

"And that's how I revived you with evil pieces and… Um, Ise? Are you still there?" asked Rias when her lecture got cut off as the woman looked at Issei whose head was smoking and the boy was rubbing his temples.

"Sorry, time out", asked Issei as he lifted up his hand. He took a deep breath as he finished the tea in front of him in one gulp. "You talked too long, senpai… Can you make it simpler, please? Like making it around 10 words or so? And can I have more tea too, please?"

At Issei's response, everyone in the room only sweat-dropped as Akeno reluctantly refilled Issei's empty cup, not before she sent Issei an amused smile. Rias sighed a bit then she said, "You're dying and I turned you into a devil to save you, and we are now master and servant".

Issei only nodded as he sipped into his tea again. "Okay… I understand that part. And about Yuuma-chan?"

"Yes. Amano Yuuma. You probably have aware that she is a fallen angel and she definitely exists", replied Rias as she showed a picture of Yuuma in front of Issei.

"And about her accomplice? I remembered clearly that there was another fallen angel with her when she attacked me", replied Issei back with serious expression.

"Unfortunately, we don't know anything more about Yuuma and her motives for targeting you, but you don't need to worry anymore. Now that you are part of my peerage, you are also put under my protection. That fallen angel will not hurt you easily this time, since this area is also my family territory."

"I see… Thank you, Gremory-senpai", said Issei as he smiled in content.

"Buchou"

"Eh?"

"As you are now a part of Occult Research Club as well, I'd like you to address me as 'buchou' (president). Is that clear, Ise?"

Issei looked like he was thinking for a while, then he said as he faced Rias, "Then buchou… can I address you as 'ojou-sama' (milady) when we are outside the school grounds?" Issei asked with a straight face.

Everyone raised their eyebrows upon hearing such request from their newest recruit, but Rias only chuckled slightly as she smiled contently. "I guess it's fine. Just remember to address me as 'buchou' when we are within the school ground. Understood?"

"Understood, buchou", replied Issei as he bowed, a content smile also appeared on his face.

"Now, with explanation being done and all…" said Rias as she clapped her hands, the atmosphere suddenly got a lot lighter. "I will assign you to your first task, if you don't mind. I expect many things coming from you, Ise…"

"Sure thing, buchou. So…", Issei stood up as he rubbed his hands together. "Whose poor soul I'm going to feast on tonight?"

X

Several hours had past since Rias had explained to Issei about devil's jobs not involved taking souls anymore, thus the former sent out the latter to hand out pamphlets that serve as the tool to summon a devil. As the night fell, the rest, save for Akeno had left home already, leaving the two great ladies the only ones in the clubroom. Rias was thinking about her newest recruit as she sat on her desk. From the way he handled himself, Rias can tell that Issei may knows more than he showed. The man also showed an impression for being cool-headed person, from the fact that he could still talk casually despite his fatal wounds when he was dying when Rias found him at the park. However, Rias was a bit worried as well on Issei's ability to process information. Of course Issei is not a fool, but the way he asked her to simplify her explanation hinting that Issei might be a type who doesn't listen to people, especially those who talk much. But the most interesting part was how much it took for her to turn him into a devil. Considering the amount of evil pieces Rias had used, she can tell that Issei is very powerful, or at least the boy has a very deep potential and it would definitely help her if she can make him bloom to the fullest.

"Say, Akeno…" said Rias towards her queen who was preparing a tea next to the former.

"Yes, buchou?" replied Akeno as she put a cup of tea in front of Rias.

"What do you think of him? About Ise"

Akeno put on a thinking expression for a while. "Other than how interesting he carried himself earlier, I don't see anything out of ordinary from him. At least not yet…"

"I see… Well anyway, he should be on his way back by now. Akeno, would you mind?"

Akeno did not say anything in respond as she moved her hand and a red magic circle appeared in front of them, turning into a radar that serves for them to locate Issei and other members. After looking at Issei's signature on the radar carefully, Akeno noticed something as she turned immediately towards Rias.

"Buchou, there is a foreign signature closing towards him! Ise-kun might be in danger!"

At Akeno's notice, Rias immediately stood up from her seat, "Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, it's not far from here if we're flying"

"I see. Akeno, I need you to stay here on guard. I'll go alone. Do you understand?" Rias commanded as she walked to the window and opened it.

Akeno would wanted to go with her, but seeing that she could not defy her, Akeno reluctantly complied. "Yes, I understand. Please be careful out there, Rias"

Rias nodded in acknowledgement and she took off into the night sky towards Issei's location.

**And that's for chapter 2! Yes, I finally came up with a name for Issei's mother! It might sounds cliché or sucks, so please bear with it. And before you people complained why Issei lost against Raynare, I will only say this: had Mittelt not interfered the battle in such manner, Issei would have won. The details will be explained as the story goes on. And some readers keep wanting to see an OP Issei. I'll say this again, Issei is not Saitama, no matter how related they are. What happens to Saitama's body after those muscle training is not necessarily can be applied to Issei, even though Issei had trained longer than Saitama. But I will assure you, there will be moments in the story where Issei will grasp at least a fraction of Saitama's power, and how Issei learn how to utilize them. Issei will be as badass as Saitama (not stronger of course, Saitama would never loose against Issei in a death-match), but the path will not be that easy for him, even only to scratch his father. I honestly do not understand on how it works when Rias turning someone into a devil, so I used my own concept where in Issei's case, he was still alive, albeit barely, when Rias used the evil pieces on him, so the wound remained as Issei's body turned into that of a devil. If Issei had been died, which one of the reviewers wished otherwise, his wound would have closed up as he was being 'reborn', so I hope you people can accept this concept of mine. Another thing, yes, the order of events were different than the original canon. And you can expect some more alteration from the canon as the story goes on, because sometimes my idea of events changes here and there. R&amp;R, no flame. Ahsoei, over and out until the next chapter. m(_ _)m**


	4. Twilight (I)

**Chapter 3: Twilight (I): Encounter**

**Hello again, folks! Seriously, as much as I appreciate your reviews, I also feel overwhelmed by those comments who were expecting Issei to be more powerful than I had originally planned. I'm sincerely sorry for those who expect a totally different plot line. And let me remind you again, Issei could have beaten Raynare if Mittelt did not use such sneaky approach. And I'll tell you while Issei had indeed done lots of training, he never got himself in a real battle situation, so it shouldn't be surprising if Issei will got caught by a surprise attack. Besides, if I have to say myself, it's actually remarkable already for Issei to still able to crack a joke while he suffered three large holes in his body. And please understand, while I have been in this site for quite some time now, I'm still considering myself a newbie. I don't have enough experience or knowledge to make a whole new plot. But I will try my best to create new developments as the story goes on and make Issei as badass as possible. I know some of you thought that Issei's character in this story is kind of ridiculous, but like I have said, I plan to make Issei to be 'weirder' as he became more powerful than canon. And those who thought that it only took 8 pawns to turn him, I'd say there's more to that. I have prepared Issei's own evil pieces value, and I hope it won't disappoint you. And I assure you again, there will be time when Issei able to use at least some of Saitama's power, although I'm still not sure about the 'serious moves'. So, without further ado, here's chapter 3!**

Rias was flying with full speed towards the Issei's location in the radar. She believes that Issei is strong, but she could not helped not to feel worried for her servant to be left alone. Who knows what might happen to him? Soon enough, Rias caught the sight of Issei standing on the street. As Rias quickly descended, she quickly approached her newest servant, whom looks like was not hurt.

"Ise! Are you alright?" asked Rias as she finally noticed there was a male figure lying unconscious, his body was found leaning on a vending machine that got trashed from an impact. A pair of black crow wings could be seen behind the man. Issei who had noticed Rias' arrival immediately straightened himself.

"Ah, ojou-sama!" said Issei addressing Rias with the title they had agreed upon previously.

"Ise? Do you mind explaining what happened? Why is there a fallen angel lying over there?" asked Rias pointing at the knocked-out man.

Issei rubbed the back of his head. "Well…"

_(Flashback)_

Issei was on his way back to the school after he somewhat managed to hand out the flyers to people on the streets. By the time he handed the last flyer, it was already night-time.

"Whew, it sure took long to give all of those flyers…." Said Issei to particularly nobody as he walked down the road. "_But still, there were really lots of people who are willing to sell their souls to a devil_…" thought Issei sarcastically as Issei remembered one of Rias' lectures, that people who receive devil's summoning flyer are those who have wishes to be fulfilled.

**[Actually, not only devils, other factions also rely on humans, although they express it in different ways…]**

"_Kind of ironic, don't you think?_" replied Issei with slight chuckle. Suddenly, his instinct kicked in as Issei leapt backwards. Right at that moment, a spear, shining in blue, was planted on the ground few inches in front of him. "_What the…? That spear…_" thought Issei slightly surprised as he look at the source where the spear had come from. His eyes was met with a figure of a middle-aged looking man, clad in a pale violet trench-coat over a white dress shirt with a matching ascot, black pants and shoes, and a black fedora. The said man was floating on the sky, with pair of black wings protruded from his back. The man landed softly on the ground as he held his fedora and gave Issei a curt bow.

"Consider that a greeting, devil. I'm Dohnaseek, and I ask of you, who is your master? Or are you perhaps a stray?" asked the man known as Dohnaseek. However, when Dohnaseek lifted his head to look at Issei again, his eyes were met with a 'greeting' literally returned to him in a form of a left fist of Issei.

SMASH!

Dohnaseek did not have a chance to speak nor retaliate as his body was launched to a nearby vending machine. With a loud trashing noise, Dohnaseek was found lying inside the wrecked machine.

"Nice to meet you too, asshole. I'm Hyoudou Issei, and I ask of you, what the fuck is your problem?" asked Issei as he pulled back his smoking fist. "Geez, foreigners these days really lack manners…." While Issei was waiting for a reply, he stared at his left hand. "_Wow, I didn't mean to hit him that hard, though_…" thought Issei as he moved his fingers.

**[Of course you are, partner. With your newly acquired devil body, your strength also enhanced further several times than a human. That was a good punch, by the way]** commented Ddraig.

"_Sweet_", thought Issei as he returned his gaze at the fallen angel before him. It has been quite a while since Issei had punched him, but there were still no reaction whatsoever. "Uh… Did I kill him?"

**[Beats me. I only could say that you hit him pretty good]**

"_Oh, man…. I know it's a self-defence, but I still hope I won't be charged for murder…_"

"Ise! Are you alright?" a female voice came from the sky.

_(End of Flashback)_

"That's pretty much what happened…" said Issei explaining.

Rias's eyes widened slightly and she took another look at the body of the fallen angel. "_It is only his first day being a devil, yet he defeated a fallen angel in one hit? Interesting_…" thought Rias as a smile grew on her face. "Well? How is he now?" asked Rias returning her gaze to Issei.

"Err… Let me take a look", replied Issei as he approached the fallen angel's body. "Um... Hello?" said Issei as he noticed the blood trickling from the face that was covered by the fedora. As he removed the fedora carefully, Issei's eyes widened to see that the fallen angel's face was completely bashed in. Not to mention, the fallen angel did not seem to be breathing, anymore. Not while his face from nose-upwards were completely mushed. "_Oh, shit…_" thought Issei as he swallowed a lump, then he put the fedora back to cover the destroyed face.

"Um… Ojou-sama…? I… think he's dead…", said Issei with a slight remorse. Sure all he did was defending himself, but he could not help but felt guilty when he ended up killing someone when he did not mean it.

"What!?" At Issei's answer, Rias quickly ran to his side to check on the fallen angel by herself. After she examined the fallen angel's condition, she let out a deep sigh as she rubbed her forehead. "Ise…" said Rias with displeased tone.

"Yes, ojou-sama?" replied Issei with worried tone.

"I'm going to report this to the higher-ups. But considering that you are newly reincarnated and the fact that all you did was an act of self-defence, I suppose you can be pardoned just this once", said Rias with a stern tone. Issei let out a sigh of relief when he heard that he has a chance to slip away.

"But remember, Ise", Issei tensed again at Rias' voice. "You can't just killing off fallen angels or members from other faction from trivial matters. All of three factions are still doing their best to keep the cease-fire going and we can't afford to have another war. If you ever encountered angels or fallen ones, be sure to retreat first to me before taking further action, do you understand me?" asked Rias staring right into Issei's eyes.

"_A war? Oh, she did mention me earlier about three-way war from thousand years ago_…." Thought Issei as he closed his eyes. "Yes, I understand. I'm sorry for the trouble, ojou-sama", said Issei apologizing as he bowed his head.

"It's fine, as long as you understand. Now let's go back. Akeno is probably worrying in the clubroom", said Rias as her expression softened, then she prepared a teleportation circle. Issei only nodded as he stepped into the circle together with Rias, then the two disappear in the red crimson light.

X

_(Time-skip, few days later, Occult Research Club room, evening)_

"I've received the reply from the higher-ups regarding what you've done on the other day…" said Rias as she sat on her desk, Issei was sitting in front of her at the middle of the room, surrounded again by the rest of the peerage. Issei only swallow a lump as he sweating, waiting for the result.

Rias closed her eyes, let out a breath and she opened her eyes again. "Consider yourself fortunate, Ise. The higher-ups of underworld and Grigori have acknowledged your act of self-defence, but they will have to take a drastic measure if something like this ever happened again. Do you understand what I'm saying?" ended Rias with a stern tone.

"Yes, buchou. It won't happen again", replied Issei as he let out a relief breath. The atmosphere also lightened up immediately after. Issei truly relieved after spending days with fear of being put on trial. When he heard that he was pardoned, he was way beyond relieved. Like hell he is going to spend his life in jail!

"It's good to hear, isn't it, Ise-kun? You don't have to go to the court… Although I'd like to see your display of strength the other night…" commented Akeno as she smiled pleasantly with a hand on her cheek.

"Well… I won't say that I'm proud with what I did back there, Himejima-senpai…" replied Issei as he rubbed the back of his head with a bitter smile.

"Fufufu… Forget the formalities and you can just call me Akeno, or onee-sama, Ise-kun…"

"Well… Akeno-san, then"

Akeno only smiled in content with Issei's current nickname for her.

"Well, you only protected yourself for all I know, Issei-kun. There's nothing to be ashamed of for trying to survive", said Yuuto tapping Issei's shoulder.

"Thanks, Kiba"

"I heard you killed him with one punch. Your strength is impressive, Issei-senpai", said Koneko with a monotone.

"Like I said, Koneko-chan. I'm not really proud for what I did…"

"Sorry", Koneko apologised as Issei only smiled and waved his hand slightly in respond.

Rias only leaned back as she relieved that her servant was let go of the hook. However, she was suspicious on the part of the reply from the higher-ups. The leader from Grigori, while he understood Issei's action, he also mentioned that he never recall having assigned fallen angels into Gremory territory. And in addition, although it is not that uncommon for one or two fallen angels to be sighted within devil territory, but according to Issei's testimony, the way fallen angel Dohnaseek approached him, was more like he was patrolling the nearby area, otherwise the fallen angel would have likely to leave Issei alone. Rias put a note in her mind to look more into the matter when she had time. But as for now…

"Alright, now with all said and done…" said Rias clapping her hands. "Ise, I think you are ready for your real job as a devil. What do you say?" her question resulted Issei to look at Rias attentively.

_(Scene break)_

"But I'd like to ask you something, buchou…" asked Issei as Rias had explained Issei's devil job for tonight. Apparently Koneko was double-booked so Issei had to take care her client for tonight. Rias raised her eyebrows at the question, hinting Issei to continue. "What's in it for me in the end if I fulfilled their wishes, but I simply gain 'contracts'?"

Rias placed her fist vertically on her palm as she remembered something. "Right, I haven't explained the details to you before. By gaining contracts with humans and other clients, you can raise your ranks from low-class into ultimate-class devils, and once your rank is high enough, you will be given a title and your own set of evil pieces, allowing you to make your own peerage and pick your own servants", Rias explained to Issei.

"I see… I guess since I'm a devil now, I might as well going to raise my rank… Wait, is everyone here still a low-class devil?" asked Issei as he scanned everyone else in the clubroom.

"Yes, everyone here, except for buchou are still low-class devils, Ise-kun. But with certain achievements, we can raise our ranks sooner or later", replied Akeno as she looked like she was doing some sort of magic ritual.

"There are three ways to raise your ranks, Ise…" said Rias as she pointed at a white board that came out of nowhere, a pyramid graphic with devil hierarchy was shown on the board. "Right now, you are a low-class devil. In order to raise your rank into at least a middle-class devil, you can do either a military accomplishments, which is the fastest way, but also the most difficult one because not only the danger it represents, we are currently on the cease-fire with our potential enemies so a war situation will be unlikely. The second one is through contracting, which is the easiest, but with the longest route, since rank promotion through contract points are more like a tradition. The third and the latest method is through rating games, but I'll explain rating games to you later. Do you understand so far, Ise?"

Issei only silent while holding thinking posture, but then he looked up. "Yeah, I guess what I can do for now is making contracts as much as possible, isn't it?" Rias only nodded in content. "_But…. Rating games and… military accomplishments, huh…_." Thought Issei considering the other two methods, but he dismissed them. He can worry about those methods later.

"Alright, Ise-kun. Everything is set", said Akeno as she had finished preparing the teleportation portal.

"Remember Ise, you need to grant the client's wish to have the contract. And those contracts you have acquired can help you to raise your ranks among devils. Understood?" said Rias sending Issei off.

"Got it!" replied Issei as he stepped into the magic circle. "Well, then. I'm off!". However, when the magic circle's light starting to envelope Issei's figure…

BOOM!

The spot where Issei stood suddenly exploded, sending dust around. After the view had been cleared, Issei was found with his clothes slightly burnt, but the boy himself was still fine overall. "Err… What's happening?" asked Issei looking around.

At this sight, Rias only sighed and Akeno giggled to herself. "Ara, ara… It seems that Ise-kun's magical reserves were… inadequate, causing malfunction during teleportation…" said Akeno with her smile still plastered on her face.

"Teleportation is one of the most basic magic for devils, Ise… Even a 5 year-old devil can do that. This means that your magical reserves are very low…" said Rias in disappointed tone.

"I'm sorry, buchou…." Replied Issei disappointed to himself. Kiba only smiled sheepishly while Koneko only shook her head with closed eyes.

"Well, in that case. You have to reach your client without teleportation. Now go! Don't you dare make your client waiting!" commanded Rias.

Issei sighed a bit bit he complied nonetheless. "As you command, buchou!" Issei walked to the window and he leapt into the night sky right after he opened it. Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko quickly looked outside the window to see Issei who was already running and jumping from roof to roof.

"Wow, that's quite agility skills he has there… Don't you think so, everyone?" asked Yuuto as he commenting Issei's display of parkour skills.

"Fufufu… I agree, Yuuto-kun. We have ourselves one interesting devil junior, don't we?" replied Akeno addressing the rest of the members. Koneko only nodding in agreement as she stared at Issei's direction, while Rias only smiled in content as she sipped her tea.

Meanwhile, Issei was jumping towards another building as a realization dawned on him. "_Dammit, this sucks! Not being able to do what a 5 year-old devil can do..._" thought Issei grimacing.

**[No need to feel bad about it, partner. There are many of my previous hosts who also suck at magic. Besides, you've made up your lack in magic with you physical abilities. Just be glad for now]** said Ddraig trying to cheer Issei up.

"_Well, if you say so..._" thought Issei before he recalled something.

"Wait a minute, don't I have wings since I'm a devil now?" Issei let out his bat-wings as he landed on the building's roof and he starting to run towards the edge. "What for do I have wings if it's not for this situation!?" exclaimed Issei as he jumped towards the sky and started moving his wings. At first, he managed to stay afloat in mid-air. "Yes! Now, how do I make myself to move forward?" Issei tried to jerked his body forward and moved his wings more. However, instead of moving forward, Issei ended up diving straight into the ground. "Wh-wh-wh-wh-! WHOOAAA!"

CRASH! BRUAGH!

Issei crash-landed into a local dumpster. "Ouch….." grunted Issei as he rubbed his sore spots. "_Okay, flying is not as easy as I thought_".

**[Of course not, partner. Devils, even birds still need to learn how to fly. Just because you have wings now doesn't mean you can freely move in the air right off the bat]**

_"Is that also applied to you dragons as well?"_

**[Well…. I don't really remember myself, but… I guess yeah, pretty much]**

X

Issei straightened himself up and he resumed his high-speed free-running. Few minutes later, Issei found himself standing in front of an apartment room. "_Morisawa….. Alright, here's my first client_" thought Issei then he knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" asked a voice from beyond the door.

"Um… I'm the devil you've summoned from Gremory clan"

The door opened slightly revealing a man with a long hair and glasses. The man identified as Morisawa eyed over Issei for a while, then he slam the door shut on the latter's face. Such actions resulting a vein-mark popped up on Issei's forehead. Issei knocked the door again, this time louder.

"Hey! What the hell was that for!?" asked Issei banging the door again while trying to remain reasonable.

"Go away! I'm asking for Koneko-chan! Besides, what kind of devil would come from the door!?" replied Morisawa from beyond the door.

"Well too bad, pal! Koneko-chan is currently busy, so I have to take her place and you just have to suck it up and deal with me for now! And besides, I just became a devil a couple of days ago, I still don't know any jack-shits about devilhood!" replied Issei as he kept banging the door.

The door opened slightly once again, revealing Morisawa with his calculating eyes once again, then he opened it wide enough for a person to come in.

"Hmm…. Show me that you are indeed a real deal first", asked Morisawa with sceptical tone.

Issei simply snorted and unravelled his wings. After a moment of stare-down, Morisawa let out a sigh as he made a way.

"Fine, I guess you'll do. Come in", said Morisawa motioning Issei to follow. Issei did not say anything in return and simply walked in.

Once they were inside, Issei scanned around the room. For all he could see, everything in Morisawa's room were all anime and manga goods, from comic books, DVD, games, cosplay etc. "_Wow, this guy is a hard-core otaku…_" mused Issei in his mind as he recognised several collections. Then Issei decided to start a topic, "Okay…. I might be inexperienced and all, but first, may I know what is your wish that you considered only fit for Koneko-chan?"

On Issei's question, Morisawa only ran through his wardrobe and pulled out a set of girl's school-uniform. After eyeing the uniform for a moment, Issei's eyes widened in realization. "Is that…?" asked Issei trailing off as he pointed at the said uniform. "Okay, now I get why you asked for Koneko-chan to come…" said Issei as he crossed his arms and nodded in understanding.

"Do you know what this is?" asked Morisawa grinning.

"Of course I do! I've watched the entire season! Although…. The twists are kind of mind-fucking for me…" replied Issei as he kept staring at the school-uniform which belongs to Nagato Yuuki from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. "Well, I assume that you want to have pictures of Koneko-chan in that uniform?"

"Not only that, actually. I want her to carry me in her arms while she's wearing this outfit!" replied Morisawa with dreamy expression as he imagined himself being carried princess-style by Koneko cosplaying as Nagato Yuuki.

Issei only sweat-dropped while picturing such an image. "I see… You really like Yuuki-chan, don't you?"

"Yep, sure I do, err…. Sorry, I haven't gotten your name", asked Morisawa right after he answering Issei's question.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Morisawa-san. I'm Hyoudou Issei, at your service", said Issei giving a brief nod.

"Yeah, nice to meet 'cha too. By the way, Issei… Which character do you like from Haruhi series?" asked Morisawa.

Issei hold his chin and closed his eyes thinking for a moment. "Hmm… Either Asakura or Haruhi herself… They both are kind of interesting bunch…"

"Hoo… I thought you're more into Asahina Mikuru…" replied Morisawa nodding in understanding.

"Well, I won't say I dislike Mikuru-chan, but…"

The rest of the session went by with Issei and Morisawa talking about various topics regarding anime and manga. Issei also had helped Morisawa completing some of his games as well. The former did not manage to make a contract with the latter, but the latter still saying thanks as the session had finished. When Issei was about to make his way back to the clubroom, his cell-phone rang. Issei did not recognise the number that called him, but he still answered the call to hear a familiar voice from the other side.

"Hello, Ise-kun?"

"Akeno-san?" asked Issei recognizing the voice.

"Ara, it's good I can call you like this. I was trying to contact you via magic link, but since you still can't handle your magical power so I resorted to call you like this", said Akeno in slightly relieved tone.

"Sorry again about my lack of magic, Akeno-san… By the way, how did you get my number?"

"Fufufu, we have our ways, Ise-kun… Anyway, you probably tired from your job, but can you go to the address that I'll send to you now, Ise-kun? All of us are already on our way and we'll explain the rest once you meet us. Is it alright with you?"

"…. Yes, I'm fine with it. I'll see you and the others later, Akeno-san", said Issei as he cut the line. Then right after that, he received the text message with the appointed address Akeno asked him to go. "Okay… It's not that far from here…." Then Issei jumped off towards his destination.

X

Upon landing on the destination, which was an old, abandoned factory, Issei let out his wings to stop him mid-air right before touching the ground, softening his landing. Once he got on his feet, his eyes were met with the rest members of the Occult Research Club. Rias was the one who greeted him first. "Good work for tonight, Ise. And sorry for the sudden call…"

"It's alright, ojou-sama. I am after all your servant…" replied Issei with a playful bow. Rias, Akeno and Yuuto only giggled at Issei's reply while Koneko remained impassive as always. "So, what are we doing here?" Issei asked as he approached his comrades.

"We received an order from our superior in the underworld, Ise-kun… Apparently a stray-devil was reported settling in this area. We are sent here to hunt it down", replied Akeno.

"Stray-devil?" asked Issei on a new term for him.

"That's right, Ise. Stray-devils are basically devils who previously served an upper-class devils, but they betrayed them and decided to act independently. Our stray-devil here has taken residence in Gremory territory and has been feeding on humans for past few days. That stray must be stopped at once before more victims may fallen!" said Rias after she explained Issei about stray-devils.

"Alright, then. I guess I have to do my best on this one, eh?" said Issei smacking his right palm with his left fist. The boy was quite excited for being in this stray-devil hunt for the first time.

"Calm down, Ise. This time I only want you to observe our fight. I still need to explain to you about evil pieces system. So stand down for now, understand?" said Rias. The crimson-haired girl honestly would like to see Issei's ability up-close, but she changed her mind and thought that she can see them another time. For now, teaching Issei about evil pieces traits is more important for her.

Issei slumped his shoulder, slightly disappointed that he will not do anything for the upcoming battle, but he complied nonetheless. "Understood, ojou-sama…" but Issei still remained vigilant and clenched his fist, ready to summon his boosted gear if anything showed up.

When the group entered the building, the first sight they saw was a vast, old room with red traces and broken equipment and furniture, hinting as if someone or something had made quite a ruckus before. Koneko, who was in front of the group, stopped on her tracks and her eyes cringed slightly. "I smell blood".

At Koneko's statement, everyone else tensed. While Issei could not smell blood specifically, he also smelled something akin to a rotten flesh far within the dark parts of the area. The smell was very strong considering how wide the area affected by the odour, but Issei managed to supress his feeling of disgust. His instinct also alerted him of a presence of someone, or rather, something waiting in front of the group. Right on cue, a deranged voice echoed the area.

"I smell something gross, but I also smell something delicious too… I wonder if it will taste sweet, or bitter…?"

The owner of the voice was revealed as a young woman with long black hair and voluptuous figure emerging from the darkness. At this sight, Issei raised his eyebrows and could not help but whistled. "Is it just me, or all supernatural beings I've encountered were all beautiful women?" Issei remarked then he glanced over the only male member of the group. "Save for you, of course".

Yuuto only glanced a bit on Issei then he focused his attention again towards the stranger in front of him. The other women were also more focused on the newcomer than Issei's comment. "Stray devil Viser… For your crime against your master and your other atrocities, we will eliminate you in the name of Gremory!" exclaimed Rias challenging the woman who was identified as the stray-devil Viser.

Viser's expression turned demonic as she growled out, "YOU CUNNING LITTLE GIRL! I'LL RIP YOUR BODY APART AND COLOUR IT AS RED AS YOUR HAIR!" then she showed her true form as the rest of her body emerged from shadows. Her lower body was gigantic and beastly with four legs, each having sharp claws, and a snake as a tail. Her overall appearance was reminiscent to that of a centaur.

Seeing her true form, Issei only gulped as his eyes slightly widened, and if he really scared or disgusted by the sight before him, he did not show it at all. "_Okay… Scratch that. This one is just plain sick_…" thought Issei and he turned his head towards his master. "Um… Ojou-sama, are you sure you want me to stay out of this?"

Rias only nodded as she smiled in confidence. "Yes, no need to worry Ise. My intention from the start is to teach you about the other's traits."

"Traits?"

"Yes, Ise. Do you know game of chess?"

"Uh… Yeah, I never played it before, but I know the basic rules. It's a board game with king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks and pawns, isn't it?"

Rias nodded. "Exactly. And the evil pieces I used to turn you into a devil are based from that particular game"

"I see… Are the others also reincarnated by evil pieces as well, ojou-sama?" asked Issei pointing at the rest of the members who had taken their fighting positions.

"Yes, they are. First, Yuuto who is my 'knight'", said Rias looking at Yuuto who was holding a sword out of nowhere. When the stray-devil used one of her limbs to attack the said knight, Yuuto suddenly disappeared from sight, and when he appeared again, he already moved passed Viser's body that had her attacking limbs being cut cleaned by Yuuto's sword.

"He's fast!" said Issei commenting Yuuto's speed. Albeit barely due to surprise, Issei still managed to see Yuuto manuvered passed Viser's attacking limb and cut through it with his sword. "_Hmm… I need to work on my senses a bit more, later_…"

"Ara, so you can see him moved? Not bad… And yes, the knight piece inside Yuuto gives him an enhanced speed and agility. However, his defences are low, so Yuuto can't afford to receive a direct-hit to his body…" said Rias slightly impressed on Issei's keen eyes.

"AAARGGH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Viser's scream of pain echoed as she cursed Yuuto, but her eyes fell upon Koneko, who was standing closest to her. The stray-devil decided to strike her closest enemy. Viser swung her snake-tail towards the white-haired girl and the tail made a violent contact with Koneko's petite body, pushing her right to the wall. The impact made a dent on the wall very hard that it was sure can cause at least few fractures.

Before Issei decided to leap to action to assist Koneko, Rias stopped him. "That kind of attack won't work on Koneko". Right on cue, Koneko grabbed Viser's tail and Koneko moved to throw the stray-devil's body.

"Fly", said Koneko as she toss Viser's giant body into the air. Issei's eyes widened at the spectacle.

"Wow… I thought a super strong loli only exists in anime…" said Issei commenting.

Rias only chuckled at Issei's comment as she explained further, "Yes. Koneko is my 'rook'. And rook's traits are enhanced strength and defence". Then the two spectators saw Koneko leapt to the air and gave a drop-kick on Viser's head, forcing the giant monster to dive straight to the ground. The ground let out a loud booming noise as the Viser made contact with the ground. "Although… Koneko is much slower than Yuuto…" at Rias' comment, Issei only nodded in agreement. He will not call Koneko slow, but he can see Koneko's movement much clearer than when he saw Yuuto's movement. "So… Koneko is like a tank, ojou-sama?"

"Yes… Yes, Ise. Like a tank", replied Rias at Issei's analogy. As the stray-devil tried to regain her footing, Akeno soared above her with a sweet expression on her face, too sweet, in fact. "And lastly, Akeno, my 'queen'" said Rias gesturing Akeno who was still soaring in the air.

"Alright, then… What should I do with you~?" said Akeno smiling with a slight blush adorning her face. Issei suddenly felt chills when he caught on Akeno's smile. Then Issei noticed there was a lightning crackling around Akeno's fingers. All of sudden, a magic circle appeared above Viser and a thunder struck down on the stray-devil's body. The said stray-devil let out screeching painful scream as the shock burned her body from the inside.

"As a 'queen', Akeno received all traits of 'knight', 'rook' and 'bishop' into one. Making her the strongest piece in my peerage. However, Akeno's fighting style is more accustomed to the use of thunder magic", Rias explained as she stared at her queen's handiwork.

When the lightning dissipated, Viser's body had numerous burns on it, but she still tried to move despite all the trembling from the strike. Akeno brought her hand over her face as she licked her lips. "Ara, ara… So you still have some more in you? Then how about I give you more?" said Akeno in sensual tone as she sent another lightning to strike the already wounded Viser. As Viser's scream of pain echoed across the area once again, Akeno quickly sent another lightning strike as soon as the previous lightning dissipated. "Come on! Scream for me! Cry more! I know you can hold on longer than that!" Akeno said with expression full of extacy.

"Oh, I forgot to mention this about Akeno…. She's an ultimate sadist", said Rias adding the information. Issei only swallowed a lump once again as a cold-sweat rolled on his face. The boy made a mental note not to mess with the sadistic queen in future. "Oh, but don't worry Ise. Akeno is gentle towards her comrades". At Rias statement, Issei only nodded with a hum as he thought that the last fact did not really help his case. But while he was still watching the torture display, Issei remembered about one thing.

"Then ojou-sama, what about 'bishop'? What are the traits? And I guess you don't see your bishop around…" asked Issei as he looked again at his master.

"I do have another bishop, but he's currently pre-occupied with another task, so I didn't bring him with me. And as for bishop's trait, bishops have enhanced magical abilities, giving them more magical reserves and power to conjure up variety of spells".

Issei nodding as he wrote it down in his mental note. "_Speed, strength, magic, and all in one, eh? This evil piece system is quite neat, I guess_…" thought Issei. Suddenly, at the corner of his eyes, Issei saw one of Viser's giant limbs that Yuuto cut earlier crawled on its own closer to their location, more specifically to Rias. As the torn limb shot out from the ground to sink its claws towards his master, Issei quickly shoved Rias lightly, "Look out!" and spun around and back-handed with his right fist the attacking limb and the result was, the limb was completely splattered across the ground at the direction his hand moved. "Ojou-sama, are you hurt?" asked Issei to make sure that his master was unharmed.

Rias flinched for a moment as she blinked. While she was quite impressed at Issei's display of strength, she also cursed herself inwardly for not being able to see the surprise attack came at her. But Rias quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she addressed Issei, "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you, Ise".

Ise only nodded and he took a look at his hand that did the job earlier. "_Hmm…. Still need few more re-adjustments…_" Issei thought and he proceed himself to ask more questions to Rias. "Then, what about you, ojou-sama? May I know your special traits as the 'king'?"

Rias averted her attention back to Issei again, "Well, the 'king' pieces don't have any special traits, being a 'king' only gives me privilege and authority to command my peerage as well to allow a 'pawn' to promote in the battlefield".

Before Issei could have asked more, he realised that the screaming was no longer heard. As Issei and Rias focused on the battlefield again, they found Akeno had descended to the ground. The stray-devil, who was now surrounded by the rest of the peerage, only lay on the ground and could only twitched to move. It seemed that the stray could not even scream anymore after Akeno's electrical torture. "It's all yours, buchou", said Akeno as she made a path for Rias to come through.

Rias stared down at Viser who was powerless. "Any last words?" asked Rias as a mass of red-black substance swirled on her hand.

"Just… Kill me….." said Viser in resignation.

Rias did not say anymore as she shot a stream of the red-black mass towards Viser's body, annihilated the stray-devil without any trace. Issei could only awed by such display of power. "Rias Gremory is also known as 'The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess' in the underworld thanks to her power of destruction. You better be careful around her, Issei-kun…" said Yuuto whispering with slight teasing tone. Issei himself only nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Wait a second, ojou-sama…" said Issei as he remembered something else. "What piece did you use on me?" as Issei asked the question, he formulated a guess in his head, "_I bet on a rook_"

**[Then I'll bet on a pawn]** Ddraig replied mentally. Little did Issei know Ddraig was snickering a bit when he mentioned his thought.

"Oh, right… Your position in my peerage is…. A pawn", replied Rias smiling.

"Excuse me?" asked Issei afraid that he was not hearing things.

"You are my 'pawn', Ise. And I've used all my eight pawn pieces, not to mention all of them mutated when I reincarnated you into a devil"

Issei only remained silent on Rias' answer. "_Okay… So I'm simply the expendable one, hurray…_". When he noticed Ddraig was snickering inside him, Issei clicked his tongue inwardly. Of course the dragon had known from the start. "_But wait, 'mutated'? All eight? Ugh, whatever… Pawn is still pawn…_" thought Issei who was intrigued by the terms Rias mentioned, but he shrugged it off. "I see. Is there anything I got from pawn piece other than being expendable?" asked Issei slightly sarcastic.

Rias seemed apologetic for a moment, "Don't be like that, Ise… By being a pawn, you have the most potential of all. I'll ask this since you said that you know basic rules of chess. What do you do with your pawns that managed to reach the enemy's base in the game?"

Issei remained silent again for few seconds. Then his eyes widened and he place his fist on his palm with 'ooo' sound from his lips.

"Exactly", said Rias nodding before continuing, "During the battle takes place, you can promote yourself into any piece beside the 'king' when you reached the enemy territory. You can also promote yourself when I give you the permission to do so. And also, Ise… Remember, the amount of pawn pieces I used on you also determined your worth. In evil pieces system, queen piece worth nine pawns, a rook worth five pawns, both a bishop and a knight worth three pawns each. And you took all eight of them. You yourself worth all eight pawn pieces, which means you at least have a very big potential".

Hearing that far of explanation, Issei decided to bite a bit more. "Then you mentioned about 'mutated' earlier. What does that mean?"

"There are cases when some individuals require more than one evil piece to be reincarnated, thus mutation piece was invented. One mutation piece can worth several pieces, and the mutation can either be queen, bishop, knight, rook or even pawn. And in your case again, Ise… You didn't only take all eight pawn pieces, but you turned all of them into mutation pawns. It only means that you're that powerful. Do you understand this far?" Rias asked after explaining about mutation pieces.

"_Well, since I'm the host of a heavenly dragon, I guess that explains my worth_…" thought Issei considering his circumstances.

**[No need to feel bad, partner. I dare to say that you yourself are the one that causing them to be mutations, or it could be the other way around]** Ddraig commented in Issei's mind.

Issei did not comment back at Ddraig as he simply closed his eyes. "Yes, ojou-sama", then Issei replied in content smile. "One last thing, though…" said Issei as he raised a finger. "You said that the evil pieces reincarnated a person into a devil. Ojou-sama, are you reincarnated too?"

At this question, everyone sighed and Rias rubbed her forehead. They remembered that Issei did not manage to receive all information that Rias gave him during his introduction. "Ise", said Rias with displeased tone. "Stay in the clubroom for a while later. This time, I'll make sure that I hammered everything into your brain once I explained everything that I told you the other day".

At Rias' command, Issei only paled and he bow his head in resignation, receiving his friend's giggles. "Yes, ojou-sama…" the night will be a long one for Issei.

X

Issei woke up in the early morning in his room after only sleeping for a few hours. That night after the stray-devil hunting, Rias really made Issei stayed in the clubroom and they reviewed again about three factions, their current relationships, devil's hierarchy etc. The boy yawned and he put his hand to turn off his ringing alarm clock. He honestly prefer to go back to sleep, but the hunting last night made him decided to suck it up and carry on with his usual morning regiment. After Issei prepared himself for training and stepped out from his house, he was greeted by Rias who was standing in front of the gate.

"Good morning, Ise", Rias greeted her newest pawn.

"Ah, good morning, ojou-sama. What brings you here?" asked Issei bowing.

"I just want to check on my newest recruit. I know that you're strong from last night, but I still need to make sure that my pawn is keeping himself in shape. Are you alright with it, Ise?" asked Rias in slight begging. After the last night hunt, the heiress wishes to know more about her newest pawn.

Issei thought for a moment, then he replied, "Of course it's alright, ojou-sama… Actually, I have a favour to ask". Such sentence made Rias to raise her eyebrows in curiosity.

_(Scene break)_

"So you've been doing this since you're ten?" asked Rias with slight suprise, the girl was sitting on the boulder that was tied on Issei's back.

"Yeah, and I plan to step it up when I became a devil", replied Issei between his huffs. Currently Issei was running on the streets with a steady pace and a giant boulder attached on his back and Rias was sitting on the said boulder. During the days when Issei stayed 'low' after his fiasco with fallen angel Dohnaseek, Issei realised that his old training had been to easy for his now enhanced devil body. So for the past few days, the boy had doubled up his training regimen into 100 times push-ups, sit-ups and squats, and also he increased his running distance into 10 km. However, although it did work a good sweat a bit, Issei still felt that he need to do more, but if he increased his training, he might ended up not having enough time to go to school. Thus when Rias came to check up on him, Issei came with an idea asking her to use magic to summon a large boulder, so Issei can still balancing his training and time.

"I see… So you really planned to look for your father once you finished high-school?" asked Rias after she had listened to Issei's story and the reason behind his muscle training.

"Well, that's what I intended to do when I was still a human. But with my current state, I guess I need your permission to do so, don't I?" said Issei looking up at where Rias sat on.

Rias putting her hand under her chin. "Well…. Depends on your performance and accomplishments, I'll consider it." replied Rias playfully. "Besides, I still need to speak to you about your contract last night…" said Rias as her tone shifted slightly.

Issei only sighed a bit on his master's reply and he sped-up his running. However, Issei looked up at Rias again and he asked, "Um... Ojou-sama, can I ask you a question?"

Rias raised another eyebrow at Issei's words, hinting him to continue. "Do devils have a method to prevent hair-falls?"

At this question, Rias only tilted her head slightly and Ddraig groaned within Issei's mind. **[Really? Now?]**

"_Hush"_

"Well... I won't say there's none, but it's not like devils can loose their hair easily... Why is it?" answered Rias with questioning tone at the same time.

"No, nothing, ojou-sama. Just asking", replied Issei as he continued to finish his running. It will not be too good if his neighbours woke up and see his current situation. It will be too much pain to explain. Once they reached Issei's house, Rias stepped down, dismissing the boulder she summoned earlier, and right on time when Issei's mother came out from the house to welcome them.

"Welcome back, Ise…" Haruka welcomed her son and her eyes laid upon Rias. "Oh my, good morning Rias-san… Are you here to pick-up my son?" said Haruka smiling towards Rias.

"Good morning, Mrs. Hyoudou… I just passed-by around here and I decided to make a quick visit, that's all", replied Rias smiling back.

"I see… Then would you care to join us for breakfast? We always appreciate more company" asked Haruka gesturing Rias to come in.

"Much appreciated, ma'am. But I need to head to school now to take care of few things. Is it alright if I join you for some other time?" replied Rias refusing politely.

"Too bad, then… Well, you're always welcome to join us for food! Take care, Rias-san!" said Haruka joyfully.

Rias bowed a bit, "Thank you very much, ma'am. I'll take my leave now. I'll see you after school, Ise", said Rias parting with the Hyoudous.

"Yes, I'll see you later. Have a safe trip, ojou-sama", replied Issei nodding. The mother and son stared at Rias' retreating figure for a while.

As soon as Rias had disappeared from sight, Haruka grinned as she turned her gaze to her son with teasing eyes. "Ojou-sama, eh?" asked Haruka playfully.

_Urk._

Issei groaned inwardly on his mother's remark. For him, all these 'ojou-sama' thingy were actually due to him being carried away when he learned about his master-servant relationship with Rias. Although he had prepared himself to act properly if he and his other devil comrades were to deal with other devils in devil society, having someone teasing about his way addressing his master still irks him. "Mom… It's just an… agreement between us. I ended up joining her group, after all…" said Issei exasperatedly.

"Whatever you say, sweetie… Ah, it's so good to be young…." replied Haruka as she decided not to indulge too deep. She went inside the house and her son followed-suit.

_(Scene break)_

Issei was heading towards his school and knowing that he was still a bit early, Issei decided to take a detour on the nearby park. The boy walked across the park as he enjoyed the morning breeze. Suddenly he heard a girl's cry nearby.

"HAWAAH!" BRUGH!

When Issei turned his head towards the source of the noise, he saw a girl, dress in dark-teal nun outfit with light blue accents, with white veil and blue accents covering her head, was lying face-down with her buttocks sticking up, making her posture kind of funny. Seeing there was nobody around to help, Issei took the initiative to approach the girl and bend his body a bit.

"Err… Are you okay, there?" asked Issei awkwardly.

The girl lifted her face up and she rubbed her sore spot. "Uuh… Yes, I'm fine. Auu… Why do I always trip over nothing?" said the girl with slight whining.

"Can you stand?" asked Issei offering his hand.

The girl was hesitant at first but she took his hand. "Yes, I can. Thank you very much…" replied the girl with gratitude. When the girl was standing up, a strong breeze suddenly blew on their direction, causing the white veil on her head to fly away by the wind-current.

At that moment, for few seconds, Issei got a clear view on the nun's appearance. The said nun is a girl around 15-16 years of age with long blonde hair and green eyes. Her hair flows all the way down to her back, with split bangs over her forehead and a single strand sticking out from the top, sloping backwards. At this spectacle, Issei can only describe one thing. "_How pretty…_" Snapping out from his reverie, Issei quickly caught the veil before it flew too far, and he handed it towards the nun. "Here you go" he said with a smile.

"Ah! Um, thank you again, very much", the girl said as she quickly turned her head to see her suitcase was opened from her fall before, sprawling all the contents on the ground. The nun whimpered a bit before she quickly gathered her belongings.

Issei initiatively kneeled down to help gathering the nun's belongings and his hand grabbed a particular object, which was a pair of white panties. Issei could not help but to dumb-founded at such a sight, but before long, the nun squealed panicly and she quickly snatched her panties back from Issei. The latter snapped out of his thought again and he quickly apologised, "Ah! Sor-sorry! I didn't mean anything about it!" Issei said rubbing his head looking at the ground.

"No, I'm sorry. I just showed you the shameful side of me…" replied the girl clutching her panties, apologizing back.

Issei could only smile sheepishly at the girl's innocence. Then he decided to change the topic. "Well, err… Are you travelling? A vacation, perhaps?"

The girl shook her head a bit as she straightened up. "No, I'm a nun who was transferred to the church in this town… But I'm currently lost. I've tried to ask few people around but my Japanese is not that good…" replied the girl looking down shamefully.

Issei sweat-dropped a bit. "_Well, her Japanese sounds fluent enough for me_…" thought Issei to himself as he listened to the girl.

**[It's because the language ability of devils, partner. While you're being a devil, you will hear all kinds of people speaking your language while your words will sounds like their language to the others. It's another thing of devil's quirks]** said Ddraig explaining inside Issei's mind.

"_Awesome_", commented Issei grinning inwardly from Ddraig's explanation. With this ability, Issei was sure that he will not face any language barriers once he set a journey around the world for his father. Issei looked at the clock on his cell-phone, "_Hmm… I still have some time left before the class starts… Then_…" Issei thought then he looked at the nun before him again. "The church, huh… There's indeed one in this town. And it's not actually far from here. Do you want me to show you the way there?" said Issei getting back on the topic.

At Issei's offer, the nun's eyes brightened-up at the boy. "I-if you don't mind, then please do! Oh, thank God I'm blessed with such a kind person when I'm facing trouble!" replied the girl beaming as she clasped her hands together in prayer. Then she turned her attention back to Issei. "Oh, um… My name is Asia Argento. Pleased to meet you!" said the girl known as Asia bowing politely.

Issei who was slightly amused by the girl's attitude quickly replied back, "Oh, my name is Hyoudou Issei at your service", said Issei bowing as well while at the same time, he thought it was kind of ironic for him, a devil to 'offer his service' towards a nun. "Well then, Asia-san. Shall we go now?" asked Issei as he turned his back. Asia only nodded as she walked following the boy.

Before they could have walked far enough, another cry was heard. This time, the cry was coming from a grade-schooler boy who had an injury on his knee. Before Issei knew it, he saw Asia suddenly ran approaching the crying kid and kneeled in front of him, bringing her eyes on the kid's level. Asia put on a sincere smile as she patted the kid's head gently, "Shh… Shh…. It's okay. A boy like you shouldn't cry on a little scratch like this…" said Asia comforting the kid. The kid did not understand what Asia was saying, but the kid reluctantly stopped crying as he let Asia put her hand on his injury. When Issei approached them, he saw Asia put her hand on the kid's injured spot and the devil saw a silver ring with blue-green gem manifested on the nun's middle-finger and a green light shone from it.

Issei's eyes widened at the sight where the injury started to disappear as the green light shone upon it. "_Magic? Healing magic?_"

**[No, partner. It's a sacred gear. And a rare one, that is]** said Ddraig commenting.

Issei did not comment back as he kept starring at the green light emitted from Asia's ring. "_Beautiful…_" was what Issei thought as he starred at the green light. When Issei starred at the green light, he felt the warmth emitting from the light, making him feel peaceful for some reasons.

When the light disappeared, Issei was back to reality as he found that the kid's injury was completely healed. The kid's expression brightened up as he did not feel pain anymore, he smiled cheerfully and he thanked Asia before he ran towards his mother who was calling him. When the mother was told of what happened, the mother only looked back with slight fearful stares and she put on a strained smile before she quickly took her son elsewhere. The kid kept waving his hand while he cheerfully saying his thanks again. Issei only snorted at the mother's attitude then he noticed the hint of sadness behind Asia's smile as she waved back at the child. Issei put on another smile as he put his hand on Asia's shoulder. "You did well there. The kid's really grateful to you", said Issei trying to cheer Asia up. "It's a nice power you have there, by the way".

Asia only closed her eyes in content. "Yes, it's a wonderful gift from The Lord for me…" then she opened her eyes to look back at Issei. "Well, should we go now, Issei-san?"

Issei realised that his time was ticking away, then he nodded as he lead Asia the way toward the church. He sure hoped that he would still able to make it to the homeroom. After few walking distance, the two youngsters arrived at the church that seemed run-down. By the time Issei set his foot around the area, his instinct perked up and telling him to go away. Issei immediately knew that he literally just walked into an enemy territory. He remembered that he barely made it out of trouble after his last encounter with the male fallen angel, he sure as hell do not want to run into another one. If his master found out what he was doing now, she sure will not be happy about this. "Well, here you go, Asia-san. I take you can make it on your own from here?" asked Issei as he tried to get away as soon as possible.

"Yes, I can make it on my own from here. Please come in first, Issei-san. I'll pour some tea as my thanks", replied Asia smiling.

"No thanks, Asia-san… As much as I'd love to, I have to go to school on the double. I'll take up your offer some other time, okay?" replied Issei refusing politely.

"Oh… I see…. Then have a safe trip, Issei-san!" replied Asia in understanding.

"Yeah, you too take care", replied Issei waving his hand as he dashed off towards the direction of school. The first thing he hoped that neither Rias nor any of his friends from the peerage would find out about him hang out with a nun into enemy territory.

**And that's part 1! I actually planned to wrap-up Asia arc in this chapter but I decided to split it into two parts. Considering that I might be able to come up with a new twist. So please review what you think of this chapter. Is the chapter satisfying enough? Did I mess up anywhere? Did I go too fast with the pace? Is the order of events no good for you people? Please don't be too harsh on me. m(_ _)m**


	5. Twilight (II)

Dragons and Heroes: Legacy

**It's been a long time, gentlemen! Now I finally back with the finale of Asia/Twilight Healing arc. This time will be very long so I hope you can bear with it. As for guests who asked about Saitama's whereabouts, the guy will still have to serve as fore-shadowing for a couple more chapters before his official debut in the main story line, which is soon enough. So without further ado, enjoy the crossovers!**

**Chapter 4: Twilight (II): Friends and License to Kill**

The school that time went fairly uneventful at all for Issei, besides that he barely on time during attendance check. During the whole class, Issei's mind wandered at the nun he encountered in the morning. His mind could not shake off the sadness that he noticed behind Asia's smile when she had healed the kid's injury. He considered that healing powers are something someone should be proud of, but he thought that might be too naïve. During his past conversations with Ddraig, the boy learned that humans tend to fear and even despise anything that is foreign for them, especially something otherworldly. He could not make out what really happened, but he had a hunch that Asia had experience something bitter thanks to her power. The rest of the school after the class was going as usual. Issei declined Matsuda's and Motohama's invitation to peeping at girl's changing room, napping in the class after having lunch, then wake up to check on his two perverted friends whether those two were caught or not. After his usual routine, the boy left his class towards the occult-research club. Once he passed the door of the clubroom, he was met with his master in sour mood, accompanied with her queen who was putting a neutral-smiling face, while the rest of the peerage seemed had not arrived yet. Rias was sitting on her desk with her hands clasped and her stern eyes were set on Issei, making the latter felt that he is in trouble.

"Ise", was all Rias said once she saw her pawn entered the room.

"Yes, buchou?" replied Issei nervously.

"My familiar saw you're walking to the church with a nun this morning. Have you already forgotten about what I said about having contact with an enemy?" asked Rias in displeased tone.

"Enemy? Buchou, with all due respect that nun, Asia is not…" but Issei's reply was cut-off.

"Quiet Ise, though, perhaps enemy is not a correct term for that nun. However, what were you thinking walking into an enemy territory? You barely made it out from your last feud with the male fallen angel the other night, but if you were to end up trespassing the church, which is angel's territory, the angels and exorcists stationed in there wouldn't hesitate to terminate you! And when you're terminated, not even I or any devil would be able to safe you! You'll be reduced to nothing once the light-spear killed you! Nothing! It would be truly end for you! Do you understand!?" asked Rias as her tone raised up by seconds.

Issei only bowed his head, not being able to face his master. "Yes, buchou…. I'm sorry about earlier…" said Issei in remorseful tone.

Rias only sighed at Issei's apology. "It's fine, Ise… Since all you did was an act of kindness towards that nun, even the angels should not have enough reason to attack you. And I'm sorry too for yelling just now… I'm just so worried…" at Rias' comment, Issei only smiled in understanding. "Well then, let's go over your contract last night, shall we?" said Rias showing a form. Issei groaned inwardly about his unsuccessful contract from last night.

Akeno giggled at Issei's expression when Rias brought the topic about Issei's failure to get a contract. "Well, although you failed to fulfil your client's wish, we're quite surprised that you gained positive feedbacks from your client. The client said that he had a good time with you and won't mind to have you again".

"Since you have a good feedback, it means that your chance to obtain a real contract will also increase in the future, so I'll let this one slide. But I expect you'll get more contracts later, alright?" said Rias as she decided to forgive Issei's failure.

"Understood, buchou! I'll try even harder next time!" said Issei enthusiastically.

X

(Issei's POV)

As the time passed-by, Yuuto and Koneko arrived at the clubroom, few greeting exchanges, finally it was the time to do devil jobs. For some reasons, the teleportation circle still blow up when I was about to use it. Strange, according to Ddraig, my physical training should have increased my magical reserve in the first place, so there was at least another reason why I still could not use teleportation magic. In the end, I ended up using my free-running skills again to reach his client's location. This time, the client lives at a small, slightly old apartment, even smaller than the one Morisawa lives in. The building only has four rooms, including the landlord's room at the ground floor. Without putting much thought into it, I walked up to the residential level and reached the door that supposed to be belongs to my client. The plate-name were coloured pink with flower designs, and on the plate was written 'Mil-tan'.

_I've no idea what kind of name that is, but this time it's a girl, eh?_

Suddenly, my instinct screamed danger before I pushed the door-bell. I stood still for a moment sensing something from beyond the door before me. As I carefully pressed my ear on the door to eavesdrop on whatever happened from the other side, I also sensed that something was casted out around the building. A barrier? The barrier was weak, but enough to avoid pass-byer's suspicion. Then I heard something hurling towards the door I was leaning on, then I quickly moved away from the door. As soon as I had moved, the door busted up.

"What the fu-!" I didn't manage to finish my words as I was surprised on something, or rather, someone was thrown through the door.

That someone was a muscular man with his black hair dressed in twin-tail, I don't know if it's natural or a wig, but I was more shocked on his (?) outfit. The guy (?) was dressed in pink magical girl outfit that people usually see from magical girl anime. The man (?) also had quite number of bruises and cuts on his face and body. His costume was also tattered, but I still can recognise what kind of outfit it was.

Holly shit! What the hell!? Is this another stray-devil? But wait… This aura signature… A human? This… person is a human?! But then, what… Never mind, if this dude a human, then there's one thing I need to do.

"O-Oi, Ms… dude, or whatever, are you still there? Hang in there!" I asked to check on his condition as I tapped the side of his face. The cosplayer only let out a groan that sounds, 'Nyooo….' And he finally passed out again. Okay, at least he's breathing. Then, who's…

My thoughts were cut-off as I noticed another person from inside the apartment. The new person I saw was a young man with white hair and red eyes. He was also dressed in clerical clothing and for some reason, he had a slightly exhausted, but more notable one is, a distorted smile on his face.

"(pant*) (pant*) Huff… That creep managed to catch me off-guard for a moment and fuck, he was also tougher than I thought…. But whatever, the sinner will still be slain in the end by my hands! Hahahaha!" the 'priest' let out a satisfied, yet deranged laugh. Was he the one doing this? On his hands, I saw a gun and a sword with a shining blade, as if the blade was made out of pure light. Okay, adding his disturbing, crazy smile on his face and what he said, I strongly assume that he's the one who trashed the cosplayer. But when I take a better look on his face, I saw few bruises and not to mention his visible exhaustion, it seems that my cosplayer friend didn't go down without a fight. I guess his muscles are not just for shows.

"Are you the one doing this?" I asked with cautious tone as I clenched my fist, preparing myself to fight. The priest before me looked at me then he sneered.

"Oh? What's this? The shitty devil has finally shown up! I thought I will be bored only dealing with that fucking devil worshiper, but man, am I glad to have something else for me to pleasure with!" the priest's expression even crazier than before.

Wait a minute… devil worshiper? He means the guy behind me? Worshiper… Try to summon… Holly shit! This guy is my client?! He's Mil-tan!? I know it sounds horrible, but I can't help but slightly relieved that my client was now knocked out. I can't imagine what kind of things I'd have to do if I had to make a contract with this client…

"Okay… So I saw that you've taken care of my client…. But I thought guys like you have methods that… You know, much less violent?" I tried to sound cool when I asked that. I mean, if this priest were to perform exorcism, I thought he would have used something like prayer, or holly water, or anything other than using a sword and a gun! But I somehow can tell that the guy in front of me has no room for reasoning.

"Nope. Not for me. All I want is to kill as much as fucking devils and their shitty worshipers in the most painful ways as possible! After I'm butchering you, I'm gonna continue what I left from that fucker behind you! Seriously, what's with the outfit!? It's crepping the shit outta me!"

Okay, this guy is totally up to no good. Although I have to agree about the cosplay, it sooo doesn't suit him at all.

"Well, let the judgement begins, ame-" I quickly stepped in and punched his jaw before he could have finished his sentence, as much as sickening this priest to me, I still don't want to kill if possible, so I had used much less power in my fist than the one I used on the male fallen angel the other night. As the priest's body slammed on the wall and dropped to the floor, I approached him to take a look on his face, which has all day-lights knocked out of it. I poked his body and carefully placed my fingers on his pulse, then I sighed in relieve. The spot I punched earlier was sure swollen badly, but at least the priest still breathing. Now, back to my client…

"(gasp)!? Are- Are you alright? What happened?" a familiar female voice caused me to turned my head towards where my client was laid down unconscious.

_What in the hell…!?_

Beside him was a blonde girl in nun outfit, tending his injuries. As the girl noticed my presence and turned her eyes to meet mine, I finally confirmed that the nun who just came was Asia Argento, the nun who I was acquainted this morning.

"Asia?" I asked as I tried once again to confirm that it was Asia.

"Issei-san…? What are you- (gasp)! Father Freed!?" Asia was confused but she startled at the sight of the priest's body laying unconscious below me.

Father Freed? Father? Is she talking about this crazy priest here? Wait… "Wha- You… You know this guy?" I asked as I pointed at the priest's body.

"I… I…" Asia only stuttered on my question. When I took a step forward, I noticed Asia's body also moved step backward, her eyes were filled with confusion and fear. At first I don't know what's really going on, but after I put the two on two together, I realised the situation I caught myself in.

_Oh, shit._

Then I frantically waved my both hands in front of her.

"Wh- Whoa, whoa… Wait, Asia. It's not what it looks like!" Damn it! She thinks that I was the one doing all this! And judging by her still scared looking eyes, Asia was still too scared to take in my words properly! Damn! What do I do now?

As if the world trying to make things more difficult, I saw a magic circle shining in red light appeared behind me. I recognised the symbol as the Gremory crest. My friends are coming here! Damn it all! What will happen if they saw Asia, who was technically from enemy's side? Shaking my head off, I looked at Asia again, who seemed had snapped out of it when she saw the magic circle.

"Asia, listen to me. Get out of here now!" I felt a bit guilty for yelling at her.

"But… But…" Asia hesitated to move as her eyes darting around between I, still knocked-out Mil-tan and the still knocked-out priest near my feet in worry.

"Don't worry about these two! Just trust me and get the hell outta here!" I yelled with an even louder voice.

After glancing at each other's eyes for a second, Asia finally took a shaky step first, then she left the area and out of sight just in time when Kiba, who had a black sword ready in his hand, and Koneko appeared from the magic circle. I quickly straightened myself and tried to focus themselves on me instead of the entrance where Asia was. "Oh, Kiba, Koneko-chan! What brings you here?" I put a smile trying to look and sound normal.

"We sensed a barrier was created on this area here, so we're sent here by buchou to back you up…. Though it seems you've already had it under control…" replied Kiba as he glanced over the priest who still unconscious face-down on the floor.

"Good job", was all Koneko-chan said stoically as she held up a thumb, making me couldn't help but to rub my head and smiled sheepishly. Geez, having a cute girl praising me felt nice, actually. But now it's not the time to feel flattered.

"Yeah, as you can see, I had it under control", I said trying to sound as convincing as possible. I can't tell them about Asia, so I need to make them go back to the clubroom ASAP. But first… "What are we gonna do with him?" I asked about the priest I knocked-out earlier.

Kiba thought for a while as he scanned the surrounding. "He's practically an enemy, and he seems tried to kill one of our clients so we're supposed to kill him. But as much as I despise people from the church, I don't like killing unconscious opponent…."

I also kind of agreed with Kiba there. Killing an enemy that cannot fight back sounds wrong in more ways than one. However, before we could have mused any further, Koneko-chan who was checking Mil-tan and the entrance suddenly notified us.

"Incoming multiple fallen angels! Yuuto-senpai, Issei-senpai, we need to leave now." Koneko walked back to us.

"Hold on, what about him, then?" I couldn't believe myself, but I actually worried about leaving Mil-tan behind.

Kiba and Koneko glanced at each other, feeling unsure of what to do. Then another teleportation circle appeared with Ojou-sama and Akeno-san came out of it. "What's the situation?" asked ojou-sama with stern, yet worried tone.

I quickly took the initiative to do the explaining. "Ojou-sama! Well… Simply put, we need to leave with our client there before a group of fallen angels reach this place", I said as I pointed at Mil-tan who was still unconscious at front of the entrance.

I saw ojou-sama put a serious thinking expression. Then a second later, she took a breath and gave out her orders. "We can't just simply leave our potential contractor behind, but preparing the teleportation for the human to pass as well will take too much time. Ise, I entrust you to bring our client to the school to be treated. Koneko and Yuuto will back you up. Akeno and I will return back to school first and we will meet up with you later to provide support in case of emergency. Do not engage those fallen angels if possible while you're moving. Understood?"

"YES!" all of us chorused at the same time.

"Oh, and Ise. If you ended up engaging those fallen angels, you're allowed to use promotion. Understood?" ojou-sama said to me before she and Akeno-san teleported away to the school.

"Got it!"

As soon as everything had been set, us three quickly carried Mil-tan away from the apartment building and we went towards a nearby alley that was big enough for three of us plus Mil-tan to squeeze through. I took the point at front as Koneko volunteered herself to carry Mil-tan's huge body on her back, and Kiba following from behind as the rear-guard. Right when we got into the alley, we noticed that three fallen angels had just arrived at the apartment. I recognised two of them as fallen angels who cooperated to kill me back then, Amano Yuuma and the blonde goth-loli whose name I haven't known. The last fallen angel was a tall, unknown woman with navy-blue hair and voluptuous body in tight suit. Given our devil-enhanced body, we could have just leapt from roof to roof to fastened our travel, but doing so is the same as revealing our presence to those fallen angels, while ojou-sama has ordered us to avoid them. So we had to resort to hide our aura as little as possible while we're running on the road with an unconscious human as our package.

X

_(Back to third person POV)_

The trip back to school went smoothly without any disturbance for the favour of three devils as they successfully sending Mil-tan into the school's infirmary. Currently, Issei, Koneko and Yuuto were sitting in the clubroom while Rias and Akeno treated Mil-tan's injuries as well as rewriting his memories. After waiting for a while, the three looked up as the voice of the clubroom's door opened up was heard and they saw Rias and Akeno walked inside with mix of relief and exhaustion on their faces.

"It's alright now, everyone. Our client's condition had been stabilised. Although it took quite a toll on us to cast magic on him…" said Akeno as she let out a small sigh, while her usual smile was still present.

"I never met a human who could resist devil magic. We ended up using full power just to use a simple memory alteration magic. Honestly, I'd say that this particular one would make a fine devil if he ever got reincarnated…" Rias commented as she rubbed her temple in exhaustion.

Issei only nodded in agreement, finding it not surprising for Mil-tan to become a devil. Hell, Issei even thought that Mil-tan was not a human when the former first saw the latter.

"By the way, Ise", Rias' voice pulled Issei out of his musings. "Did you see anyone else beside that exorcist earlier?"

Issei's eyes widened inwardly as he remembered that Asia was involved. He may only know Asia hours back in the morning, but he can tell that the concept of violence and Asia will never match each other, so Issei decided to try covering her. "That exorcist was the only one I fought back there". Yes, it was the truth in a way. Issei did not need to mention anything about Asia, he only had to state a part of the entire situation that was still true. And Issei's testimony was enough for now.

Rias inwardly relieved and impressed at the same time. When she noticed about what Issei encountered in the radar earlier, Rias had prepared herself to find her newest pawn to be at least injured or having a hard time fighting a stray exorcist. However, Issei had exceeded another of her expectations to do well in real combat situation. The Gremory heiress was now sure that she did not pick a wrong person into her peerage. However, now that there's an exorcist, not to mention a stray exorcist working for fallen angels also showed up in her territory, not to mention again had attempted to murder her potential contractors, Rias' suspicion about fallen angels activities only increased even more. She was definitely going to investigate more about this matter. Collecting herself, Rias took a deep breath and her expression softened. She clapped her hands and said, "Alright then, everyone. I'm glad that you managed to pull through for tonight. You can go home now, but since the fallen angels might still around, you will use teleportation circle to get to your homes. Except for you, Ise. I'll personally walk home with you, since you're still can't use magic properly".

While everyone else complied with Rias' instructions, Issei found himself reluctant. "Wha- No, no, no! You don't have to, buchou! I can walk back home by myself! I'll be fine!" said Issei frantically waved his hands. Issei's pride will not allow him to be escorted by a woman, even if the woman is older than him. He would not mind to be the one escorting, but he was too prideful to have the opposite.

"I'll take no objection from you, Ise. I'm aware that you're strong, but I won't risk my servant to be outnumbered by me as the heiress of house of Gremory, the fallen angels will have to think twice if they want to ambush us. So you'll have me walk home with you whether you like it or not", replied Rias with stern eyes and voice of authority.

"But-" whatever was about to come out from Issei's retort was cut-off by Rias' glare. After staring at each other for a few seconds, Issei sighed as he accepted Rias' offer. "Very well then, buchou… I'll be in your care", said Issei as he bowed down in resignation. Rias only smiled in content after hearing Issei's acceptance. Koneko remained stoic at the spectacle while Akeno and Yuuto giggled to themselves.

After everyone had been teleported to their respective homes, Rias and Issei had arrived at Hyoudou residence after walking for some time. Issei offered Rias to come in for some dinner, but Rias politely declined, saying that she has some matters to look into. The said matters are actually the activities of fallen angels and stray exorcists that had taken place these days. After Rias' leave Issei had a quick late supper left by his mother, checking if his mother had fell asleep then he went inside his own bedroom, letting his own body fell into the comfort of his bed. Looking at the ceiling, Issei's mind went back into the events in the evening. He never thought that Asia was somewhat affiliated with the psycho priest he fought that time, does it mean that he just sent such a nice girl into a den of fallen angels? Issei thought that Asia was member of the church, means she should not be around beings such as fallen angels. What happened to her exactly? The thoughts remained in his mind, making him had difficulty to have some sleep.

Issei ended up only had few hours of sleep. By the time he had to wake up to do his morning exercise, the young man could not help but still felt sleepy. With his sleepiness in tow, Issei proceed to do his training with a heavy heart, he even felt that the boulder Rias left for him to use as handicap felt heavier than usual. Haruka was a bit worried as well as she noticed the bags under her son's eyes, but Issei shrugged as he said that he was completely fine. As Issei let out a huge yawn when he walked to the school, Issei decided to skip school and he turned his heels towards the direction of the local park, the same park where his usually takes detour to the school. As he arrived at the park's bench to take another quick nap and took a seat, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Issei-san?"

Issei blinked and turned his head towards where the voice came from and his brown eyes were met with a pair of emerald green eyes. "Asia?"

X

Currently, Asia and Issei were sitting together on the bench. Due to the event last night, both of them were caught in awkward silence, neither of them knew what they should say to start a topic. However, Asia gathered her courage as she was the one who started to speak.

"Issei-san… What were you doing last night? I saw you… with Father Freed…" Asia asked hesitantly.

Issei glanced over at Asia and he closed his eyes and let out a small sigh. "_I guess it's no use to hide things anymore_…" He began talking as his eyes were focused on the ground. "Asia… The truth is…. I'm a devil. I was there to fulfil a contract from one of my clients… Then your 'companion' showed up, claiming that he wanted to kill my client and then he wanted to kill me. The rest is as you have seen last night. I…. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare or hurt you that time… I didn't have any other choice…" Issei explained with somewhat remorseful tone.

Asia only smiled as she shook her head slowly. "Mm-mm… I believe you Issei-san…." Said Asia making Issei not believing what he heard for a moment.

"You do?" asked Issei in slight bewilderment.

"Yes, when I saw you last night you didn't have a face of someone who wished to cause harm to others. Besides, when Father Freed woke up, he bluntly told me and our superiors that he failed to kill you and the lady in a fit of frustration. I never believed that you are a bad person, Issei-san…" Issei turned his widened eyes towards the nun whose face was brimming with warmth and forgiveness.

Though, another reason why Issei widened his eyes was because he was shocked at Asia's naivety for thinking Mil-tan being a woman. At first, Issei wanted to correct Asia about Mil-tan's gender, but he shrugged it off and chose to ignore it for the time being.

The young man snorted and chuckled a bit, "Thanks for trusting me, it means a lot to me…" he said as he scratched his cheeks. "By the way, what were you doing last night? I honestly was surprised seeing you there…"

Asia's face turned sad as she recalled the event from last night. "I was… told to help Father Freed performing exorcism around the neighbourhood… If I were to know that he would have done those terrible things, I would have declined… Killing people is just not right….", said Asia as her closed eyes started to get teary.

"It's okay, it's okay… No need to blame yourself, Asia… You had no idea at all that time… Besides, nobody died that time, that… 'lady' is now safe, you don't have to worry about it." said Issei trying to comfort the girl.

"Really? I'm so glad to hear that… Thank God!" exclaimed Asia as she felt relieved.

"So, what are you doing here early in the morning?" asked Issei changing the topic.

"I… was given free time for the rest of today, since my task will take place later tonight…" replied Asia resulting Issei's eyebrows to rise up.

"Don't tell me that you're gonna…" asked Issei imagining the event from last night. Is Asia going to have to assist that murderer again?

"No, no! They said they don't want anything to do with… 'exorcism' anymore… It will be a different task". Asia's reply made Issei sighed in relief, but Issei still felt worried what kind of another task those fallen angels have for Asia.

"What about you, Issei-san? Are you not supposed to go to school?" asked Asia as she noticed Issei's bag.

"Well…" Issei said as he rolled his eyes. "I still feel kind of exhausted from last night. So I decided to take a break for once in a while, at least until the over of the lesson period…"

"Issei-san, I don't really go to school like yours, it's fine to have a rest if you're tired, but please don't neglect your duties as a student, please…" said Asia 'reprimanding' Issei. Issei only replied by laughing sheepishly.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry… I'll go there tomorrow…" said Issei apologising. As the topic ended, the awkward silence came over them again.

Issei finally decided to start a sensitive topic. "Still though, seeing you with that guy last night… I thought that you're… you know, with the real church", said Issei awkwardly.

Asia's eyes gazed downwards sadly, while her small smile still there. "I… am not a member of a church… Not anymore…" Issei only raised an eyebrow at her answer, but he didn't say anything back. "Issei-san… Do you mind listening to my story?" asked Asia finally tried to open-up more to the young man. Issei only nodded, suggesting her to continue.

X

Asia started to tell Issei the story of her background. In her past, Asia was an orphan raised in a church. One day, she was found possess a sacred gear with a healing property after she was seen healing an injured puppy. Soon after, the church announced Asia as 'The Holly Priestess' and put her in a sheltered life, away from society. Many people had come to have their injuries to be healed by her and the people adored Asia so much for her healing powers. However, one day, Asia found a wounded devil in front of her home and she healed him. When the church got a hold of the event, they started to scorn her.

_A power to heal devils as well!? Blasphemy!_

_Such power solely for believers of The Lord!_

_Powers that can heal devils as well only belong to a witch! Damn the witch for healing the devils!_

Asia was immediately banished for her actions and labelled as a witch, giving her no place to go. Not long after that during her travels, she was taken under the care of fallen angels.

Issei who heard the entire story could not help but to clenched his teeth. How could those people from church banished her, for a possibility that Asia might not even aware that she healed a devil? Besides, what happened with things like 'forgiveness' and 'love thy enemies' from the books they read everyday?

"It's all my fault… Since I didn't pray enough… I'm so stupid, I even always trip on nothing… I couldn't make any friends either…" said Asia as she wiped the tears that welled up in her eyes.

"Then do you want to be my… No, do you mind if I want to be your friend?"

Issei's question made Asia's eyes widened and she turned to meet her eyes with his eyes that filled with sincerity. "Issei-san… As my friend?" Asia asked with slight disbelief.

Issei smiled as he answered. "Yeah, I wanna be your friend. And don't say anything like we're from different species or factions or whatever, because I don't care. I myself was just became a devil recently, so I still haven't get much about politics and those stuffs, not that I care in the first place. So how about it? You mind me being your friend?" Issei finished with a goofy grin.

"Is… Is this a pact with a devil?" Asia asked innocently.

Issei blinked and he snorted in amusement. "No, no…. " said Issei waving his hand, "I'm doing this on my own free will. So if you ever get lonely, need someone to play with or talk with, just call or look for me, I'll definitely be there for you!"

"But… But I'm clumsy, I always give people so much trouble…" said Asia hesitant.

"I don't care. Rather, feel free to give me trouble as much as you want! That's what friends for!"

"But I don't know anything about Japanese culture, and I also not confident meeting with new people…"

"It'll be fine, I'll be there for you, remember? My friends might be bunch of odd-balls, but you guys will be get along really well! I assure you! I'll make sure you will get even more friends afterwards!"

At Issei's words and encouragement, Asia's tears finally rolled down on her face as she muffled her cry. "Wa- wait, what's wrong Asia?" asked Issei in panic.

"No, I'm fine, Issei-san… I'm just… I'm just so happy…. I finally made a friend…" said Asia beaming.

"I see… Then, let's get along, Asia!" said Issei grinning.

"Yes, please take care of me, Ise-san!" replied Asia happily as well.

GRRUUURR…

A weird grumbling noise was heard from Asia's belly, making the former holly priestess blush in embarrassment and Issei laughed a bit.

"Hahaha, looks like someone's hungry. Well, it might be a bit early but I guess we can have some lunch now. Come on, I know somewhere nearby! My treat!" Issei stood up from his seat and he extended his hand towards Asia, who was hesitant for a second, but she took his hand nonetheless.

Later, Issei and Asia were standing in front of a cashier of a fast-food restaurant. After Issei had placed his order, Asia was still having difficulty to order her own food since she does not really understand about Japanese language. In the end, Issei told the cashier that Asia would have the same thing he had ordered. While they were walking to their table, all eyes inside the restaurant were staring at Asia due to her foreign features and her outfit, not to mention Asia can be considered as a beautiful woman. As the two sat down on the table, before Issei could grab a bite on his meal, he saw Asia only stared at the wrapped hamburger in front of her.

"Asia? What's wrong?"

"Um… Don't we need any utensils to eat this? And it seems the surface is made out of… paper?" asked Asia as she poked the wrapper.

Issei could not help but amused. "Asia… First, you take off the wrapper like this", said Issei as he unwrapped Asia's hamburger a bit.

"Ooooh… So there's such a way to eat a hamburger! Amazing!" said Asia opening the rest of the wrapper and took a bite. "Delicious! Hamburger is very delicious!"

"You also eat the fries like this…" said Issei as he picked two pieces of his fries and ate them.

"Hoo… Shesh asho shush a way do eat shem!" exclaimed Asia as she kept munching her burger.

"You speak like you never ate one before…." Issei commented seeing Asia's blissful expression. "Wait… You really never ate one?" asked Issei as confirmation when he somewhat saw Asia's smile behind her bulging cheeks from stuffing so much food in her mouth.

Asia swallowed the food in her mouth and replied, "I never really go to the outside world… Most of my food were prepared by the church, so I'm so glad I had a chance to know such a cuisine!"

Issei only sweat-dropped as he had a rough image of how simple food prepared by a church, so he did not bother to ask about details. After having a lunch, Issei and Asia walked side by side through the shopping district and they took a visit at a nearby arcade. From what Issei could find, despite never stepped to the outside world, Asia was surprisingly good at playing games for a beginner, especially racing games. By the time they left the arcade, Issei caught the nun who was looking at the crane game with her eyes set on a particular doll. If the young man was not mistaken, the doll was popularly known as Rache-kun.

"Do you want that one?" asked Issei whispering as he leaned his face right beside Asia's ears, making the girl jumped a bit in surprise.

"Wha- err, no! I mean, it sure it's cute, but I just want to take a look at it…" replied Asia bashfully.

"Then wait here", said Issei as he walked to the crane game and he pulled several coins from his wallet. Asia who finally understood what Issei wanted to do quickly interjected.

"No, no, you don't have to go that far, Ise-san! I'm fine just having a look at it…"

Issei only raised a finger on her while he did not say anything back. He eyed the crane for a moment, then he shook the machine a bit. As he eyed the movement of the gripping hook, the young man nodded with a huff. "Okay, the hook is strong enough. Don't need to sweat it, Asia…. I'll get it for you in no time" said Isei as he put his money inside and he started playing.

After a few tries, Issei let out a sigh as he finally managed to get the doll. Asia was putting a baffled expression at first when Issei handed her the stuffed toy, then she quickly smiled like a child receiving her first Christmas present. "Thank you so much, Ise-san! I'll definitely treasure it!" said Asia gleefully as she hugged her new rache-kun.

Both Issei and Asia continued to walk a bit more in the shopping district as they looked into many other shops. Before they knew it, time had passed and Issei realised that the lesson period in his school had ended. Sure, he had skipped the lessons but he still felt obliged that he should at least show his face around the club. However, Issei was now torn if he could leave Asia for school or if he should stay longer with her, while he could also risking the situation between Devils and Fallen Angels.

Asia was the one who broke off the silence while Issei was thinking. "Um… Ise-san, I'm sorry but I have to go back…" said Asia with a heavy heart.

"Uh, okay. I also have to go to meet the others, but… Say, Asia…" said Issei receiving a look from the girl.

"Are you… Are you happy with the way things around you right now?" asked Issei with slight hesitation. He knew well that it was quite a sensitive question.

Asia gazed downwards for a little while, then she put on a smile, "Yes, I'm content with my life now. Some of people in the church may be cruel, but they did not do anything to me… Not yet…" Asia's expression became solemn as she finished.

"Then, do you… Do you want to come with me? I'm not saying you to make a pact or anything, but we can protect you. All of my friends are kind person. We might be from opposing sides but I'm sure we can work something out…" asked Issei again as he shuddered at the thought of Asia returning to people who had done all sorts of bad things, especially the fallen angels who had killed him. The young man could not stand seeing Asia to work under someone like Yuuma, if it was her real name.

Asia silent again as her eyes were covered by her bangs. When she lifted her face, Issei only saw a sad smile. "Thank you, Ise-san… But I can't… I can't go with you… But I'll never forget the time we spent today and I'll always keep the first gift you ever gave me as my first friend…" said Asia as she took a step away.

Issei who could only watch Asia taking her leave then said, "Then… Can we meet again?"

Asia only smiled a bit wider as a tear escaped her eyes, all she said was, "Goodbye, Ise-san…" as she finally walked away, leaving Issei alone.

Issei reached his hand towards Asia, but he somehow could not call her to make her stay. Deep in his mind, Issei was not sure if he was doing a right thing. If the situation between devils and fallen angels was at least as bad as his master had explained, then he might as well have sparked even a bigger conflict for just forcing his ideas into Asia. Rummaging his hair in frustration, Issei grumbled as he walked towards the school.

X

As Issei arrived at Kuoh's old school building, the young man hoped that no one from the club, especially Rias would ask or know anything about his hang-out with Asia. Fortunately, for some reason, upon entering the club room and having few greeting exchange with his club-mates, all Rias asked him was about his absence during school period and nothing more, aside from a bit reprimanding about skipping school. The rest of the day was nothing but completely uneventful. There were no contracts for him to fulfil, Issei was only told to clean up the room a bit and he skimmed some books in the club's bookshelves as the rest doing their own things, Rias and Akeno were going out of the club, saying that there are some matters they need to look into, Yuuto was simply reading his book while drinking his tea elegantly, while Koneko was sitting and eating the snacks prepared by Akeno as usual. The club activity was passed with just mundane silence and simple chit-chat.

As the night came, Issei who was lying on his bed could not help but to think about Asia. As he remembering the time they spent in their hang-out, Issei learned about how Asia awkwardly tried to interact with all new things presented to her, from playing games, picking clothes, trying out few snacks etc, and he found it very cute of her. And after spending so much time with Asia, Issei also found himself not being able to leave her alone. Strange, only from few meetings and spending time in such a short time, Issei saw Asia more like his younger sister, something that he never had. Remembering Asia's background and her expressions only reinforcing Issei's urge to look after her even more. However, what makes Issei worry the most was the fact that Asia was working under those fallen angels and that crazy killer he encountered the other night. And he still remembered Asia's sad expression when they parted ways after their hang-out.

**[Worried about her?]** Ddraig asked in concern.

"Yeah… You also noticed the look in her eyes, didn't you? I don't think she's happy with the way things are for her… Ddraig… What should I do?"

**[How should I know? You're the wielder of my power. Although I'm pleased that you converse to me like this, you shouldn't let your own power to dictate your decisions. But I'll tell you this, if you really care about her, what do you think you should do now?]**

"I'm not sure…" Issei answered as his mind trailed off. Is Asia going to be alright there with those kind of people? With people like Yuuma, and that crazy priest? And what was her task for tonight again? That particular thought was the one that worried him the most.

After Issei closed his eyes in contemplation, he opened his eyes, "_I guess I really have to check on her, after all_…" thought Issei as he steeled his mind. He did not bother to change his jersey pants and T-shirt that he usually wears when he asleep, as he only put on his hoodie, he took his cell-phone as well and Issei sneaked out from his house towards the church at the town's border.

_(At the old church, Issei's POV)_

_Okay, now what to do from here…._

I thought to myself as I hid in a nearby bush at the front of the church. Damn, the being a devil makes you cannot recklessly go into enemy territory, even only to see a friend! Strange enough, there are nobody guarding outside, are they going out? Or perhaps they are all gathering inside? Anyway, I need to look around first…. When suddenly I felt two presences approaching from behind. I quickly spun around when a hand touched my shoulder, I shake the foreign hand off my shoulder as I prepared to punch whoever tried to sneak up behind me. But before I can deliver any blow, my eyes quickly recognise one of the strangers. The stranger I was about to hit had a blonde hair with a mole under his left eye. The said person was holding both of his hands up in defence. I was surprised knowing the strangers before me.

"Kiba? And Koneko-chan too? What the hell are you doing?" I asked as I also noticed it was Kiba and I saw Koneko behind him. If the girl was surprised at my retaliation, she sure did not show it by much.

"That's supposed to be our line, Issei-kun", replied Kiba with his usual smile. Koneko only looked at me with a questioning look.

"Well… I, err, um… Just having a stroll… Yeah, just looking for fresh air", I replied trying to lie through my teeth. I don't want to imagine what ojou-sama will do if she found me sneaking into enemy territory alone. At my answer and awkward grin, Kiba and Koneko only raised their eyebrows, obviously that they won't buy what I said.

Knowing that they won't be convinced by any other excuses, I sighed. "Fine, I… I'm here to see my friend."

"A friend? In this church?" asked Kiba in slight incredulous tone.

"Yeah, she's a nun who was exiled from her previous church and taken in here by fallen angels. I'm here to see her again", I replied as I focused again at the church's front entrance.

"I see…" hearing Kiba's reply, I couldn't help but felt a bit suspicious. He and Koneko knows well that Asia was technically our enemy, but they didn't make any remark about what I'm about to do here. Well, I can ask them about that later.

"Now it's my turn, what are _you_ guys doing here?"

Koneko was the first to answer this time. "Orders from buchou…" I raised my eyebrows asking for more explanation. The explanation was done by Kiba.

"Buchou had finally received words that fallen angels are using this church as their base without any orders from their higher-ups, so we were given the authority to deal with them accordingly. Simply put, we're just going to kick-out intruders from the Gremory territory."

"Really? She didn't tell me anything", I said as I flipped my cell-phone to see my message logs. As I thought, there were no messages at all from either ojou-sama or Akeno-san. "By the way, where are ojou-sama and Akeno-san?"

"They're scanning the area and erecting a barrier, they'll catch up with us soon", replied Koneko. "We'll go through the front door".

Good, this will make things less complicated. If I do well here, I have a chance to at least spare Asia's life. "Alright, then. Let's go!" I said as I walked out from my hiding spot and walked to the door. Without any further ado, I kicked the double doors hard enough to break them out of their hinges.

When I stepped into the hall, I found that inside the church was far worse than the outside. The dusts were all piling up, the statues and some ornaments were all broken, and the lights were all off. The benches and the painted-glass were still intact, though. As I scanned around the hall, I saw a familiar white hair in clerical clothing. If I'm not mistaken, he's the Freed guy who I beat that time. The said guy was sitting side ways on the benches far at front.

"Well, well…. What do we have here…" said Freed as he set his eyes on me. "Wait, I remember you! You're the son of a bitch who knocked me out last time!" his expression turned angry as he stood up from his seat and pointed at me.

"Uh… yeah, good to see you again", I actually didn't really know what to say. "I'll go to the point. Where's Asia?"

"Huh? Asia-tan? What's this? A shitty devil wants to see the nun? So you're looking for that witch? Well, I guess I'll tell you. Go through that stairs and you'll find her…"

I saw Freed's thumb pointing at the staircase leading to underground behind him, but I clenched my teeth in anger for this guy dared to call Asia a witch! I bet that this real son of a bitch doesn't even know what kind hardships Asia had been through!

"However… If you want to see her, you have to play with me first…. Kukukuku…" Freed chuckled as he brandished his sword of light and his gun with his maniacal expression plastered on his face.

Oh, so this guy wants a fight? Fine, I'll give him one better than before. I held up my right hand and I flexed my thumb over the base of my point finger, pressing it and let out a 'crack' sound as I prepared myself to fight. However, when I was about to summon my Boosted Gear, a hand tapped on my left shoulder. I turned my head to see Kiba came out from my left side and Koneko from my right.

"Leave him to us, Issei-kun…" Kiba told me as I found that he was already holding his black sword. Koneko also smacked her fist on her palm as she prepared herself to fight.

"Oh, what's this again? You want to gang up on me? It's fine! It will be more pleasuring for me to have more devil fuckers to chop up! Gyahahahaha! But if you're really coming for that witch, it's probably too late now…" said Freed as he twirled around his sword and gun in his hands.

My eyes widened at his words. What does he mean by 'too late'? "What are you trying to do to her?" I asked as I clenched my fist even harder.

"Well…. Something about extracting her sacred gears so those fallen angels can use her healing powers as much as they want… You better hurry, because once they're done with her, that witch is as good as dead! Hahahaha!" Freed laughed even harder.

I gasped inwardly at the revelation. These guys want to sacrifice Asia as the price for her sacred gear! I don't have time for this guy! I need to save Asia!

"Well, you heard him. Now go, Issei-kun!" yelled Kiba as he put on his battle stance together with Koneko.

"What about you guys!? You sure about this?" I appreciate their help, but I don't like the idea of leaving my comrades behind.

"This guy is the type I hate the most, Issei-kun. Besides, you had your fillings of him yesterday, no? So let us take care of him this time and go! We'll catch up with you soon!" Kiba said again and I took a glance at Koneko.

"Go", said the white-haired girl nodding at me.

"Good luck!" I said dashed towards the underground entrance and at the same time, my two comrades dashed forward to engage the crazy exorcist. I did not bother to look back as I heard sounds of metal clashing and sounds of furniture and material being crushed, together with the sounds of battle-cry from Kiba and Freed.

The trip to underground did not take too long as I finally arrived at another hall that looks to be used for ceremonial purpose. I saw a stage with dozens of men with clerical outfit like Freed gathering below the stage. Come on, there are more of these guys? Then my eyes widened when I saw on top of the stage.

"Asia!" I shouted as I saw the said girl, only in her under-garments, was chained on a large metal cross with three female fallen angels on her side, one on her left side and other two on her right side.

I recognised the female fallen angel on Asia's left, she is my first girlfriend, or rather, now ex-girlfriend in her BDSM fallen angel outfit Amano Yuuma. I also recognised one of the two other female fallen angels on Asia's right side, the little girl with blonde hair was the one who back-stabbed me. However, I don't recognise the last female fallen angel who was the tallest of the three. She was a tall and buxom woman with long, navy blue hair that obscured her right eye and brown eyes. Her attire consisted of a violet, trenchcoat-like top with a wide collar, a matching miniskirt, and black heeled shoes. The trenchcoat top was open at her chest, giving view to her breasts and cleavage. She also wore a gold necklace around her neck. Everyone in the room turned their heads towards me as they heard my voice.

_(Third person's POV)_

Asia, who previously had her eyes closed, weakly opened her eyes as she recognised the voice that called her name. She blinked twice when she saw the owner of the voice. "Ise-san…?"

"Just wait there, Asia! I'm gonna save you!" said Issei as he summoned his Boosted Gear. Asia only smiled a little as she struggling to stay awake.

Yuuma who noticed the exchanges between the two let out a smirk on her face. "Issei-kun? You're still alive?" asked Yuuma mockingly.

"Yeah, long time no see, Yuuma-chan…" said Issei glaring at the fallen.

"And you're now a devil too, that's surprising. What business do you have here?"

"I'm here to stop what you're about to do to Asia there", replied Issei with conviction.

"You're here to stop us? What can you possibly do on your own against all of us?" asked Raynare gesturing her companions, fallen angels and exorcists.

"Wait, Raynare", said the fallen angel with blue hair to the fallen angel Yuuma, or more known as Raynare.

"What is it, Kalawarner?" asked Raynare in slight annoyance being interrupted.

The blue-haired fallen angel known as Kalawarner only pointed at Issei. "Look at his left arm", Kalawarner said as she narrowed her eyes in caution as she recognised Issei's red gauntlet.

Raynare narrowed her eyes to get a better look at Issei's gauntlet, then her eyes widened upon realisation. "That gauntlet… I see… You're indeed a threat to our kind, after all…" said Raynare as she narrowed her eyes in irritation.

"Yeah, now that you know who I am, can you just let her go and let us walk away? I honestly not in a mood to fight", said Issei trying to 'bluff' his way out.

"Geez! We should've finished him that time!" yelled fallen angel Mittelt stomping her feet in her tantrum.

"Relax, Mittelt… There's no way a brat like him knows how to use a longinus on that calibre. Besides…" Raynare said as she gazed on Asia, then she smirked at Issei. "It's done".

Issei widened his eyes in horror as he understood the meaning behind Raynare's words. He tried to make a move, but it was all too late.

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" as soon as Raynare finished her words, Asia let out a scream of pain as a green light glowed on her chest. When the screaming died down, the light in Asia's eyes disappeared and a pair of silver rings with blue-green gem on each of them floating from Asia's body to Raynare's palm.

Issei could only gaped in horror as he saw Asia's lifeless expression. His body was trembling in a mix of emotions. He cursed himself that he let such a kind girl like Asia to die in front of him. After what Ddraig had told him in the past regarding a sacred gear and its host, Issei well aware of a fact of what will happen if someone had his or her sacred gear removed from his or her body.

"Fufufu… Ahahahaha! Now the Twilight Healing belongs to me! I will show those who looked down on me that now I have power! I'll be loved at long last!" Raynare laughed as she held up her hand with Twilight Healing on it.

Kalawarner walked towards the cross where Asia was chained up, she release Asia's restrains and she held Asia's body as she gazed upon Issei who was still stunned. "I don't know what's going on between you and this girl, but since you want to save this girl so bad, you can have her now. She still should have a little bit of her left", said Kalawarner as she roughly tossed Asia strong enough across the hall towards Issei.

The brown-haired man who snapped out of his shock when he saw Asia's body being thrown to him quickly firmed his stance and he caught Asia as he made sure that he had reduced the impact on Asia's body. Then he kneeled as he held Asia in his arms.

"Asia! Oi, Asia! Say something!" yelled Issei as he shook Asia's body looking for any response.

Asia opened her eyes, her eyes still lifeless without any light in it, yet she tried to raise her arms so she could touch Issei's face. "Ise-san….?"

"Yeah… Yeah, it's me, Ise! Come on, Asia…. Be strong! You can go through this! Just hang in there!" said Issei with his voice trembling. He knew very well that there was nothing he can do, but he still wanted to cling on hope as he said his futile words.

The army of exorcists prepared their guns and swords as one of them took a step forward to attack Issei who had his back opened, but Raynare raised her hand upwards, commanding them to stop. The fallen angels decided to wait Issei to finish his conversation with Asia, thinking that they were already having the upper-hand. All three fallen angels adorned mocking smirks on their faces as they watched Issei drowning in sadness.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Ise-san… It seems that… I won't be able to meet you again….", said Asia who finally managed to caress Issei's cheek with her hand.

Issei's eyes widened from Asia's words that the girl aware of what is going to happen to her. "It's been short…. But I'm glad that I met you… I'm very happy that I finally got myself a friend…" said Asia as her fingers moved on Issei's face. "A friend who wants to shed tears at my departure…"

Issei realised that he has been crying all the time when Asia's finger wiped the tears that drenched his cheeks. "No… It's me who is sorry to let this happen to you….", said Issei choked in his tears as he embraced Asia tighter. "If I had known sooner… I could've… I could've…"

"It's fine Ise-san… You came for me…. That's all that matters…" said Asia as her tears also poured down on her face. "Say, Ise-san… Do you think…. I can have more friends in the afterlife…?" she asked weakly.

Issei only smiled as his tears kept streaming down. "Yes…. You'll definitely make lots of friends in heaven… I know a sweet girl like you will be liked well among people… You will have lots and lots of friends before you know it!"

Asia smiled on Issei's answer, "Is that so…? I'm so happy… Ise-san, will you still be my friend until the end?"

Issei grabbed the hand that was holding his face gently, then he nodded. "Yes, I'll gladly stay as your friend. I will also gladly be your friend in your next life, and the life after… I'll always be your friend, Asia…"

"Thank… you…" was Asia's final words as she closed her eyes and her hand on Issei's face finally slipped away from Issei's grasp. Issei saw Asia died with peaceful expression on her face and he embraced Asia even tighter, letting out his silent cry with sobs.

_(Meanwhile, with Yuuto and Koneko, Yuuto's POV)_

The stray exorcist in front of me was very nimble and proficient in using his weapons. Honestly this proven to be quite troublesome for Koneko-chan and I to fight him. But with our numbers against him, we soon managed to overpower him. Koneko-chan who was cautious of the exorcist's sword of light used one of the church's benches as a club. Despite being distracted by Koneko-chan's giant swing, the exorcist still managed to notice my movements and block my sword. However…

"What the-!? My sword…! What the fuck is wrong with yours!?" the exorcists was shocked to see my sword absorbing all the light from his holy sword.

"I call my sword as Holly Eraser, the sword that devours all light", I calmly stated.

The exorcist jumped managed to kick me back and jumped backwards to gain distance. "I see! That's a pretty cool sword, I guess… But don't think that you and the midget can still beat me!" The exorcist yelled in irritation as he pointed the gun towards me.

"Midget…?" I felt a sweat dropped from my head as I heard Koneko-chan's reaction on the 'M' word. This won't be good….

As I feared, Koneko-chan began to relentlessly throwing benches at the exorcist in high speed, making the exorcist frantically tried to avoid the flying benches aimed for him. As Koneko-chan finally out of benches to throw, the exorcist also was seen to be exhausted as well after moving a lot to avoid Koneko-chan's barrage of benches.

"Tch, I hate to admit, but at this rate I'll be in a bad position! I'm not really needed anymore here so I'll retreat for now! Smell you later! Make sure to prepare your body properly for me to feast upon!" the exorcist then throw something to the ground and suddenly a flash of bright light blinded us and he already disappeared from the area when we regained our sight.

How despicable, but as much as I want to chase after him, helping Issei-kun is more important right now. "Let's go, Koneko-chan!" I said as I moved towards the staircase to the underground. Koneko-chan didn't say anything as she simply nodded and followed me behind.

As we ran through the stairs, we heard a loud scream of a girl when we reached mid-way. Whose scream was that? A girl? Are we too late? I know that Issei-kun is stronger than he looks, but assuming there will be at least multiple fallen angels waiting down there, I could only worry how Issei would stand against them. Please be alright, Issei-kun! When we finally arrived at the underground, the first sight we saw was the sight of Issei-kun who was embracing a girl with a blonde hair in his arms. Is she the nun who Issei-kun mentioned earlier? But when I heard Issei's sobs, I could not help but worry with Koneko-chan.

"Isse-kun…."

"Issei-senpai…."

"Alright, alright… That's all for the drama tonight, don't you think?" a mocking voice made me and Koneko-chan to turned our attention towards the owner of the voice with our weapons ready.

We saw a stage with three female fallen angels and dozens of stray exorcists with their weapons ready, as we prepared ourselves to intercept their attacks, I glanced towards Issei-kun for a while, who was still holding the girl in his arms with his back exposed. Please, Issei-kun… I know you're sad but you need to return to us for now!

"I finally got my hands on this power of healing… Don't you see, Issei-kun? The graze you gave me from the other day has already healed by now…" said a fallen angel with a long black hair. She had a silver ring on her hand glowing with green light as the cut on her cheek disappeared without a trace upon being touched by her glowing hand. That is a sacred gear? And a healing-type one?

"This kind of power will be wasted in the hands of that naïve girl. On the other hand, I can use this power for a greater purpose! I can be a valuable asset for Azazel-sama!" said the fallen angel with distasteful glee.

Azazel as the leader of Grigori and fallen angels? I had questions in my head but I must focus on the exorcists before me. I can tell that they are much weaker than the exorcist I fought earlier, but I need to stay careful. Suddenly I heard Issei-kun stopped sobbing as he stood up from his spot with the girl still in his arms. He walked towards us and he said as he handed over the girl.

"Kiba… Koneko-chan… Can you take Asia out of here? I'll catch up later." So this girl's name is Asia? And what does he man by catching up? Don't tell me…!

"Issei-kun, you're the one who should get out of here! Just leave this to me and Koneko-chan…" but my words were cut off as I saw the look in Issei-kun's eyes.

"Please…"

My guts telling me that I should comply Issei-kun's words for now. I nodded at Koneko-chan, who was still hesitate about what to do, but then she reluctantly complied and I took Asia from Issei-kun's arms. "We'll be back to help as soon as we can. Until then, please don't die, Issei-kun…" I said as I ran back through the stairs followed by Koneko-chan.

_(Back to third person's POV)_

As Raynare and her cronies saw Yuuto and Koneko ran back to the stairs leaving Issei behind, she snorted and chuckled. "How admirable to let your friends escape… However…" She snapped her fingers and the dozens of exorcists marched towards the stairs, with Issei stood in front of it and his back still facing his enemies.

However, when the closest exorcist was about to land his sword on Issei, suddenly the exorcist felt a painful sensation in his abdomen as he vomited a mouthful of blood. "Guhk…!" and without looking he knew that Issei's red gauntlet had pierced through his abdomen, the brown-haired devil's Boosted Gear had his fist sprout out from the exorcist's back.

"What!?"

In front of everyone else, it happened so fast. One second Issei's back was still fully exposed, a second later he had countered his attacker and had literally punched through the exorcist's body. The other exorcists halted their attacks as they saw their comrade's body hung limply on Issei's bloodied arm.

The fallen angels were also shocked at such a display. They never expected that a low-class devil could have easily killed an exorcist, with one punch. However, what shocked them the most was the terrifying atmosphere that emitted through the air as Issei yanked the corpse from his left hand. They sensed something emitting from Issei's body… A bloodlust?

Issei's eyes were covered by his bangs as the boy gazed at his bloodied hand. "You know, Raynare… I actually always fond of the twilight during sunset…." Issei's tone were emotionless, which in that prospect sent chills in every exorcist's and fallen angel's spine, making them unconsciously tightening their grip on their respective weapons. "And you said that Asia's sacred gear was… Twilight Healing, wasn't it? Indeed, the name really fits her… The light from the sacred gear was similar with the light from the twilight in horizon… Asia's light when she was using the power was brimming with love, kindness and warmth… The same like I felt when I gaze at the sunset…" said Issei as he spun his bloodied arm slowly, taking a good look at every single drop of blood that covered his Boosted Gear.

"However… When you used that power…. I couldn't sense any warmth at all… It's nothing like Asia's light… What you did was no different from average healing power that ordinary magician's can do… And the light came from you… It disgusts me…." Issei said it with a snarl as he gritted his teeth in anger. "So Raynare…. I'll have you to give it back to me… No, to Asia…." Said Issei as yanked the rest of the blood from his Boosted Gear and set his eyes on the enemy mobs.

"Kuh…! What do you, a mere low-class devil can do against all of us!? Just because you have a mid-tier Longinus and fight back doesn't mean that you have an upper-hand!" Raynare spat in annoyance and irritation. However, her words contained a hint of fear when she looked at Issei's expression and could not help but having a cold-sweat. Her two brethren also did not say anything as they were being overly cautious of Issei's bloodlust that filled the air.

"Hm? Sure that you have me outnumbered….", said Issei calmly as he put his battle stance, "But don't underestimate the Red Dragon Emperor….!"

The exorcists that were frozen in fear finally forced themselves to gather a bit last courage and roared as they marched toward Issei. The three fallen angels also soared to mid-air as they brandished their respective spear of light. The last thing they heard was the voice came from Issei's gear.

**[BOOST!]**

And everything became red.

X

_(Church Ground Level, Rias POV)_

I, Rias Gremory together with my queen, Himejima Akeno finally had finished scouting the area by flying and casted a barrier in order to avoid any un-wanted witnesses. We found nobody guarding the outside, nor any possible enemy reinforcements. As we stepped into the church, I quickly looked around the hall which already a mess, benches were sprawled across the floor hinting that a battle just took place, and my queen noticed a passage to the underground right under the altar. When I took a step forward to inspect the secret passage, I saw two familiar figures came out from the entrance of the passage.

"Buchou!" the figures recognised me as they ran towards us.

The figures are my knight, Yuuto Kiba and my rook, Toujou Koneko. I also saw an unconscious girl with blonde hair was being carried by my knight. If I'm not mistaken, she was the nun Issei hung-out with earlier. What is she doing here? But more importantly, I already know beforehand that my newest pawn will definitely be here as well, so I asked my knight. "Yuuto, did you see Ise?"

Yuuto looked hesitate about what to say at first, then he turned his gaze back at the passage. "I'm sorry… Issei-kun chose to stay behind while he asked us to get this girl out…" replied Yuuto as he looked at the life-less girl in his arms.

I honestly wanted to berate him for leaving his comrade behind, but knowing Ise, I kind of understand why Ise would have done such a reckless thing. I quickly told Yuuto to lay Asia on the bench for now, as we prepared to go down the passage to support Ise. However…

BOOM!

Suddenly, a loud noise, only enough to cause a slight tremor was heard from the passage Yuuto and Koneko came out from. All of us looked at the passage under the altar as we tried to use our enhanced hearing. With our hearing, we could hear screams and cries coming out from underground.

**[Boost!]**

"Guh… Aaaaagh!"

"Im- Impossible! How can a low-class…! Aaarrgh!"

"N- No! Stay away!"

**[Boost!]**

"Kyaaaaah!"

Whatever happened down there, I could only imagine that a massacre was occurring. I heard those cries belong to men and women, but I didn't think that none of the cries were belong to Ise. Ise, what happened to you?

WHOOSH! BYAARR!

"KYAAAAHH!"

As on cue, we caught a glimpse of a figure with a pair of black wings flew out from the passage, followed by a stream of powerful red beam was shot from the hole, trailing on the air and ended up destroying a large portion of the church's rooftop as the beam collided. We barely able to shield ourselves from the falling debris although most of the bigger debris had been evaporated into dust by the red beam earlier, we couldn't help but surprised at the display of power.

_That red light…. Ise?_

The red beam did not manage to get a direct hit, but enough to obliterate one of the wings, causing the figure to drop and skid on the ground. As we got a better look on the figure, we recognise her as Amano Yuuma, the fallen angel who previously killed Ise. Not only she had lost one of her wings, her body was also covered with numerous bruises and cuts, her face was distorted with fear and pain, as if she was being chased by a terrible monster behind her. She winced in pain for a while as she tried to muster her strength, if she still had any left, to move, and another figure came out walking from the passage with a steady pace towards the fallen angel. As I turned my gaze on the new comer, I saw the figure of my newest pawn, Hyoudou Issei walking towards the fallen angel who turned around to face him. Her fear became more apparent, as her hand shakily moved over one of her wounds, and I noticed a ring with blue-green gem shone a green light, and the wound started to heal. When I saw at Ise again, my eyes widened as I got a better view of his appearance. Both of his hands were covered in blood, I also saw a familiar draconic red gauntlet with large green gem on the back of his hand on his left arm as well. His face and body also covered in a dust and a bit of blood as well, and there are several cuts and burn marks on his clothing. He looks unharmed overall, but what worried me the most was the expression on his face.

"Ise?" I tried to call him, but he didn't seem to hear me.

Am I really looking at Ise?

_(Change, third person's POV)_

Ise walked towards Raynare with his expression devoid of all warmth, leaving his face stoic and his eyes glaring coldly at the fallen angel who nearly wet herself. His eyebrows twitched slightly as he saw the light of Twilight Healing was healing one of Raynare's wounds.

Ise only let out a small sigh. "Didn't I tell you? You're not worthy of that power… Or perhaps you still don't have enough? Though I don't really mind to give you more wounds to heal if you're not satisfied to use the power you'd been longing for…"

Rias and the others only chose to watch. They doubt that Issei would turn against them only in fit of rage, but they somehow had to think twice if they wanted to interrupt whatever Issei was about to do with the crippled fallen angel.

Raynare was now beyond terrified. Due to her own arrogance, she underestimated the devil, no the dragon in front of her and now she was now paying the dear price. She could not forget that Issei single-handedly slaughtered her comrades and army, while being outnumbered, the boy still managed to dodge all the projectile attacks directed to him by a hair's breadth, leaving only cut and ripped marks on his clothes. Her body could not stop trembling, she could not muster any strength into her legs to help her stand up, as her legs had given in to fear. However, She was still able to think properly enough to be aware that she was now surrounded with one of her wings taken from her. As she stared at Issei's cold gaze and contemplating about what the boy had told her, she shakily removed the Twilight Healing from her hand and simply dropped the sacred gear on the floor in front of Issei.

Issei only stared at the Twilight Healing in front of him then he dismissed his Boosted Gear and gazed back at Raynare. "Good, now get the fuck out of my sight."

Raynare did not think twice as she crawled with her body trembling towards the corner of the hall. With her wings reduced to only one, Raynare had to resort to the teleportation spell. With her hands still trembling while trying to draw a magic circle, her mind only focused to get her away somewhere, anywhere, anywhere but here, as long as she can get away from the enraged dragon before her.

Rias and the others inclined to stop Raynare to get away, but as they noticed that Raynare's spirit had already been utterly crushed, they decided to let the fallen angel go. It will be very unlikely for her to ever dare to return to Gremory territory.

Issei did not bother to pay attention at fleeing Raynare, as he picked up Asia's sacred gear and he walked over his friends who were surrounding Asia's body on the bench. Issei even did not bother to greet his master and the others as he simply kneeled in front of Asia and put the Twilight Healing on top of her chest. However, even after the Twilight Healing had been returned to its rightful owner, Asia's life-line had already been severed when her sacred gear was taken away. The other devils could only watched in silence as the Twilight Healing being absorbed into Asia's body, while the latter did not even move an inch.

"Ojou-sama", at that particular address, Rias saw her pawn was already facing her with his head lowered obscuring his eyes with his bangs. Suddenly, her pawn went down into one-knee gesture like a knight as he said, "I'm sorry for such a unsightly display. I'm also sorry for acting without your consent."

True, assuming that Rias was purposely not telling Issei about the assault tonight, Issei was practically moving independently without any orders or consent from his master, which means disobedience and Issei well aware that he still befriending Asia despite Rias had forbid him to do so. However, Rias noticed Issei's body that shook ever so slightly, trying to hold the grief over his loss tonight.

Issei who was expecting at least a lecture or simply just a dismissal suddenly felt a pair of arms circling around his head and pulling him into a hug. Soon he realised that his master was kneeling before him and embracing him by pulling his head into her chest, her arms gently rubbed his head. The boy did not bother to make any remark about his head being pulled into Rias' breasts, as he felt his master's warmth that enveloped him.

"Just let it out, Ise…" Issei was surprised at Rias' words. "It's been very painful for you, has it? It's okay, just let it out…"

At Ria's gentle voice, Issei's eyes softened as tears welling up in his eyes again. Soon his arms were raised as he gripped on Rias' uniform, his teeth gritted, he buried his head a bit deeper into his master's embrace and he let out muffled sobs as tears rolling down his face freely.

"I'm sorry…. I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry…. I'm so sorry for being so weak…" Issei apologised again and again between his sobs. "Even with this power… I still failed to save my friend…. I'm so sorry…"

Rias only smiled lovingly as she kept hugging the boy with her hands kept stroking his head to comfort him with her eyes closed. "It's fine, Ise… It's fine… Or rather, it's still too early for you to grief."

Issei stopped crying and opened his eyes as he broke off from Rias' embrace, only to see his master smiled in confidence, as if she still had everything under her control. Rias only stood up from her position and she picked out a chess piece from her pocket, a bishop piece to be precise. Issei who recognise the chess piece widened his eyes in realisation.

"Ojou-sama… Is that…?"

Rias nodded, "Yes, Ise. I'm about to do it. Can you tell me her full name? I will start the revival right away."

Not long after that, a red light was seen from inside the church as the sound of Issei's cry of joy and Asia's confused voice, then followed by a joyful voice were heard, signing a reunion between friends that had occurred that night.

X

On the following day, Issei was sitting in the clubroom alone with Rias, while everyone else had not arrived yet.

"Let me get this straight. You actually knew that I was hanging out with Asia all along, then when you received the authority to eliminate those rogue fallen angels you didn't bother to tell me just because you had a hunch that I was going to go to the church on my own accord?" Issei asked his master with slight incredulous look.

"Pretty much", was all Rias said. "Even if my hunch were to be wrong, I was going to recruit Asia as my bishop in the end. Her power to heal angels, fallen angels, devils and perhaps other beings will be very valuable to us. And speak of my hunch, it was actually based on your conversation you had with Asia yesterday, for some reasons I just had a feeling that you're coming for her sooner or later." Rias answered with satisfied smile.

"(sigh)… You're really are a devil, buchou…" Issei replied as he held his hands up in resignation.

"Thank you. And looking back into last night, now I understand why those fallen angels were targeting you in the first place, as well as why you took so much of my evil pieces to be reincarnated…" Rias said as she crossed her hands under her breasts, her gaze remained firm on Issei. "I never thought I would've recruited this generation's Red Dragon Emperor into my peerage", said Rias with a hint of pride in her voice.

Issei only smiled as he summoned his Boosted Gear, then he dismissed it soon after. His gaze was down-casted as he had a solemn smile on his face.

"Are you alright?" Rias asked as her posture remained the same, while her eyes were now showing concern.

Issei gazed on both of his hands as his mind was reminded by the event from last night. "I'm sorry, it's just… That feeling… I don't think I can ever forget about it…" Rias only remained silent, as she gestured Issei to continue. "Unlike that time when I ended up killing that male fallen angel by pure honest mistake on my part, I… really wanted to give them a lot of pain when I thought that I had lost Asia…"

The young boy remembered what happened last night. Right before he chased after the fleeing Raynare from the underground chamber, he took a last glance at the result of his handy-work. He remembered clearly that there were corpses of his enemies with their torso had a large hole on it, some of them had their limbs ripped off, some of them also had their face completely deformed from the force of his punch.

"Killing people when you mean it… It felt more horrible than I ever imagined… Ddraig had warned me that the path before me will be long and hard, but…" Issei closed his eyes as his lips tightened. "What should I say when my parents, especially my dad found out if I had dirtied my hands? I also might ended up hurting you guys too due to the dragon's nature within me, and I don't want that to happen…." Issei balled his hands into fists. "Buchou… If I ever ended up hurting the others, or when you think that I'm starting to loose sight of my path… Can you please put an end to me?" said Issei as he kept gazing downwards.

Rias did not say anything as she pulled Issei into another warm hug, her head rested on Issei's shoulder. Issei only widened his eyes again in surprise at such display of affection. "Silly Ise…" Rias paused for a moment. "By the time I recruited you into my peerage, I also had chosen to shoulder the burden that is, or will be put on you. I will shoulder those together with you. Everyone will as well. If you ever loose sight on your path, I'll be there for you… Everyone, Akeno, Yuuto, Koneko and even Asia will be there for you as well."

Issei's eyes softened after hearing Rias' answer. Soon his expression turned into a relieved one and he crept his hands to return the hug softly as well.

"Thank you… Thank you very much, buchou…"

After a few moments, Rias pulled away and she put a kiss on Issei's forehead, much to the boy's surprise.

"That's a good-luck charm for you. And I guess we should focus on our new member now, otherwise she will get jealous… Fufufu…" Rias giggled as she turned her gaze at the door. Issei following Rias's gaze widened his eyes as he saw a familiar blonde hair.

"Asia?" Issei saw Asia wearing a Kuoh academy girl's uniform, her face was flustered in shade of red as she played with her fingers nervously.

"U-um… I know that Rias-buchou is very beautiful, so of course Ise-san will like her… No, no, no… What am I thinking? Oh Lord, please forgive me for my… Ouch!" said Asia wincing in pain after she prayed.

"Uh... You okay there, Asia?" Issei asked in worry.

"Yes, I'm fine… Although now I can't pray to God anymore…" said Asia kept rubbing her sore head.

"Well, devils are technically enemies of heaven, so it will be natural for a devil not being able to pray to the enemy leader. Do you regret what you have become?" Rias asked after the short explanation.

"No, I don't regret being a devil. It's sad that I can't pray anymore, but I'm glad as long as I'm with Ise-san…" said Asia smiling brightly. Issei only smiled back contently in response.

"Well, since our guest of honour has come, let's bring the out the pleasantries, shall we?" right after Rias said those words, Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko came into the room pushing a small trolley with cakes and variations of snacks on it.

Rias held up a glass of soft-drink over her head and announced, "Let's have Asia's as well as Issei's official welcoming party to the Occult Research Club! Kanpai~!"

"Kanpai~!" everyone cheered as well with their drinks.

While Issei and Asia were enjoying the small party, the former felt that something was watching from outside. As he turned his head towards the window, his eyes were met with a bird that has a rather exotic appearance compared with other birds in general. The said bird and Issei stared at each other for a moment, until Rias snapped Issei out of his musings.

"Ise? What's wrong?"

"Ah, buchou… It's…" when Issei turned his eyes back at the place where the bird was, the bird was gone. "It's nothing, buchou", said Issei with reassuring smile as he joined the party once again.

**And that's all for Asia/Twilight Healing arc! I know this chapter was very long, and since I want to wrap this arc quickly, I'm sorry if you readers feel that the pace was too fast. The fast pace was also because I tried to combine several events into one as well, like the scene when Issei met Mil-tan and Freed at the same time. If you wondered about why Freed managed to defeat Mil-tan, the reason is when I read about Mil-tan, I learned that Mil-tan was able to fight magicians with his bare-hands. Then I tried to compared those magicians with Freed who has more arsenal in close-quarter combat. The conclusion I came up with that Freed can still defeat Mil-tan, albeit the former did not came back unscathed. I hope you can accept my logic about it. Please review of what you think of this chapter. Was it good? Did I mess up with the drama and the development? Did I described Issei too OOC? Please don't put any flame as well. Your constructive reviews will be appreciated. m(_ _)m**


	6. Familiars

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello again, my dear readers! First of all, I'm sorry for some of you who expected me to go into Phoenix arc in the beginning, but I chose to go with anime route this time since I have an idea that I'd like to express in familiar arc before I forgot about it again. So, without further ado, chapter 5! R&amp;R and please enjoy! (^_^)**

**Chapter 5: Familiars**

"…" – speaking 

"…" – _thoughts_

**[…] – Ddraig speaking out loud**

_**[…] – Ddraig speaking mentally**_

It's been couple of days since the last incidents with the rogue fallen angels, and Asia Argento had officially become a second-year student of Kuoh Academy, a member of Occult Research Club, as well as a devil and bishop in Rias Gremory's peerage. Asia's registration into the school was quite smooth thanks to Rias' influence, however, Issei in the other hand was overwhelmed by stares from his male classmates when he was walking together with Asia as the former met up with the latter to guide her around. Not to mention, during introduction… 

"Nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Asia Argento. I'll be in your care from now on …" said Asia meekly as she introduced herself as a new student in Issei's class. 

The entire class immediately roared and cheered as they have such a cute foreigner like Asia to be a transfer student. Her seat was next to Issei, and soon after the class was over, Asia was surrounded by all classmates and bombarded by tons of comments and questions. 

"Asia-chan, your hair is so pretty!" 

"Where did you come from?" 

"Where do you live, Asia-chan?" 

Asia was overwhelmed by the questions as she tried her best to answer them one by one until Issei decided to butt in, resulting another questioning regarding their relationship. The class, especially males were incredibly jealous when they found Asia holds Issei in very high regard. Matsuda and Motohama did not help in the slightest as they started to accuse Issei to have added another girl in his 'harem', much to Issei's displeasure and Asia's confusion. 

"How's the school so far, Asia?" asked Issei as the commotion finally died down. Asia was seemed a bit exhausted, but overall she was having fun. 

"I like this place, Ise-san. Everyone might a bit weird, sometimes, but they are good people. I'm glad that I moved into this school together with Ise-san…" replied Asia with her face beaming. 

"Glad you like it…." said Issei as he looked at the clock inside the classroom. "We need to go now. Everyone's probably waiting for us by now", said Issei as he raised from his seat, Asia followed-suit. 

X 

Currently we found our favourite Red Dragon Emperor and former Holy Priestess were lounging around in the Occult Research Club room with Rias and the rest of the members. Issei was told before hand regarding something about meeting with the Student Council, who apparently is another group of devils led by Rias' childhood friend. The meeting's purpose was more for formality to introduce each peerage's newest members, with both Occult Research Club and Student Council had just recruited new members recently. 

"So the student council are actually devils as well?" asked Issei sitting on the couch with Asia sitting beside him. Koneko was sitting on the couch across, munching snacks as usual and Yuuto was sitting on a chair next to Issei reading a book. 

Rias who was sitting on her desk with Akeno standing beside her nodding as she answered, "Yes, Ise… The student council president is another high-class devil representing the Sitri house-hold in the underworld, she is also an old-friend of mine." 

Issei took the information into his head as he recalled the name of the Student Council president. "_The student council president… Shitori Sona… Shitori Sona… Shitori… Sitri…? A pun?_" Issei sweat-dropped inwardly at the thought. 

Meeting with so many devils right away… My heart is not ready yet…. Hauu…" Asia whined from nervousness. 

Issei rubbed Asia's head gently to comfort the girl. "It's alright, Asia… There's nothing to worry about… Right, buchou?" said Issei smiling before he addressed to Rias. 

Rias nodded once again. "Yes, indeed. Sona might be a strict person towards her peerage, but everyone from student council are good people once you know them." 

As on cue, knocking sounds were heard from the door of the club-room and Yuuto opened it, revealing the student council president with her peerage, consisting seven people, one male and six females, followed behind her. The student council group entered the room and Sona looked at Rias as the two greeted each other. 

"It's been a while, Sona…" said Rias smiling at her child-hood friend. 

"Yes, it has, Rias… I see that you have gained not only one, but two more members in your peerage", replied Sona returning the greetings as she sent quick glances at Issei and Asia. "Nice to meet you, Hyoudou Issei-san and Asia Argento-san. My name is Sona Sitri, the heiress of Sitri household from 72 pillars. I'm also the president of student council, I hope you found yourself a good time in this academy." Issei and Asia only bowed back in acknowledgement. 

"It's pleasure to meet you, Sona-sama. I'm looking forward to your guidance", Issei replied respectfully. 

"I-I'll be in your care as well, Sona-sama!" Asia said shyly. Sona only nodded in acknowledgement. 

"Yes, and these two are very special in their own way. And I see that you have recruited the one you've set your eyes on?" said Rias as she caught the sight of a new comer, which was a young man with short blonde hair. 

"I have, and let's introduce our newest members, shall we? Saji", Sona called one of her peerage, and the man with blonde hair stepped in front of the group. Rias also gestured Issei and Asia to follow-suit as the two complied. 

"Nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Saji Genshirou, Sona-kaichou's 'pawn', as well as student council secretary…" said the boy as he bowed. 

"M-my name is Asia Argento. Rias Gremory-sama's 'bishop'… Please take care of me, Saji-san!" Asia introduced herself, bowing shyly. 

"Yes! Let's get along, Asia-chan!" Saji said with overly familiar tone as he grasped Asia's hand. Issei was slightly unnerved by Saji's attitude towards Asia, but he decided to let it go for now. 

"I'm Hyoudou Issei, Rias Gremory-sama's 'pawn'. Looking forward to work together with you as fellow pawns", said Issei smiling as he bowed back. 

However, Saji turned his face away from Issei as he huffed, "Hn, I don't want to be lumped together with someone from the perverted trio. Not to mention, I also heard that you already made a harem for yourself!" 

Issei raised his eyebrows as he took in Saji's remarks. "Um… I won't deny that I'm friends with those two, but those rumours about me having a harem is a huge misunderstanding!" said Issei in his defence and he noticed that his fellow club-mates were looking at him, intrigued. 

The male brunet looked around his club-mates and he raised his hand, "Honest, I have no harem whatsoever", then the others' expression seemed softened. 

Saji who looked with judging eyes for a while then shrugged, "Oh well, if you say so. But you better know your place, newbie. I took 4 pawn pieces to get reincarnated. So I will watch attitude if I were you", said Saji with slight arrogant tone. 

"Saji, be polite!" said Sona reprimanding Saji, whom did not really heed the former's voice. 

Issei only stared for a moment, then he simply put up a smile. "Hee…. 4 pawn pieces, eh? That's amazing of you, Saji-kun…" Saji raised his eyebrows as he was slightly suspicious about Issei's action. "Well, having that much to reincarnate you shows how strong you are, I hope you can show me around the ropes", said Issei as he extended his hand. 

Saji looked at Issei's hand for a moment then he smiled a bit as he sighed. "Well, as long as you know your place…" The moment they shook hands, Issei tightened his grip on Saji's hand, surprising the latter as he tried to either squeezed back or break free, but the former's grip only tightened a bit by bit. 

"Well, what I said actually isn't necessary applicable…" said Issei as he retained his smile and his vice-grip. "Just because you have multiple pieces to be reincarnated, doesn't mean that you can go all cocky. The amount of your evil pieces only sums your potential, not your initial fighting strength. The real worth of a reincarnated devil is whether they can utilize their power effectively and efficiently, regardless how strong and weak they are in the beginning, don't you think so, Saji-kun?" continued Issei as he tightened his vice-grip even more. 

Saji who still tried to retaliate had started to sweat, as he felt that his hand starting to feel numb as well. "Ye-yeah… I do… Can you let go of my hand now?" Saji honestly hate to admit, but Issei's grip was freakishly going to crush his own hand if this goes on. So he decided to swallow his pride and give in for now. 

Rias who was about to reprimand Issei, was stopped by the student council president herself. Sona only raised up her hand as she thought that this spectacle might be a good lesson for her newest pawn. 

"Glad you can agree. Oh and by the way, about my evil pieces, I took all eight pawn pieces, and all of them also became mutation. So I hope both of us can learn from each other, Saji-kun!" said Issei finally letting go of Saji's hand. 

Saji quickly retracted his hand back and he massaged it to get the feel of his hand back, as his eyes widened at Issei's evil pieces value. "E-eight of them!? And mutations?! What the hell are you!?" 

"Simply one hell of a pawn", said Issei as he smirked smugly. 

"Ise", Rias' voice did the trick in making Issei to quickly shrink himself and mumbled a quick apology. "He's the current Red Dragon Emperor, apparently", said Rias resulting the student council's members to widen their eyes in surprise and curiosity. 

"I see… I guess you got yourself fortunate, Rias… To be able to recruit someone with such potential", Sona commented as she shifted her glasses and turned her gaze on Issei. "Hyoudou-san, while I'm agree with some parts of your speech, I'm still the student council president, thus I won't allow any actions that will disturb the peace of the academy. Do I make myself clear?" 

"Yes, I'm sorry about my actions earlier, Sona-sama", said Issei apologizing. 

"Kaichou. (President)" 

"Eh?" 

This time, Sona also shifted her gaze on both Issei and Asia. "While you're on the school-ground, I'd like you to address me as 'kaichou', considering that I am the student council president. All members of my peerage are also the members of student council." 

Issei and Asia gave their respective nods. ""Understood, kaichou"" 

The rest of the introductions to the new recruits went smoothly after Sona's warning to Saji about his rude behaviour earlier, followed by the rest of occult research club and student council bodies introducing themselves to the new members. The student council members, aside from Sona Sitri (king) and Saji Genshirou (pawn x4), are Shinra Tsubaki (queen), Hanakai Momo (bishop), Reya Kusaka (bishop), Meguri Tomoe (knight), Yura Tsubasa (rook), and Nimura Ruruko (pawn). 

"Moving on, I want to confirm if you also plan to take your peerage to that place, Rias", said Sona changing the subject. 

"That place?" Issei asked as he turned towards his master. Rias glanced at Issei for a second as she turned back towards Sona. 

"Indeed, Sona. But it seems you also plan the same thing", said Rias as she stood up and crossed her arms under her bust. 

"Um… Excuse me, buchou. What do you mean with that place?" asked Issei interrupting. 

"I'll explain later, Ise", said Rias at her pawn and she turned to Sona again. "This might be troublesome. Since only one of us that can go there with our respective peerage. And the best time to go there is around now, while the moon is full." 

"Then we have to settle this with competition, don't you think? The winner will be the first one to go", replied Sona. 

"Agreed, but since we're not legitimate enough to play in a rating-game, I guess we have to resort to different kind of competition." 

Hearing Rias' proposal, the rest of the peerage only blinked in wonder. 

X 

"KYAAAH! RIAS ONEE-SAMAA!" 

"SONA NEE-SAMAA!" 

"KAICHOU! PLEASE WIN!" 

"BUCHOU! YOU CAN DO IT!" 

The girls and boys were cheering for their favourite player on the tennis court. Saji was seen cheering for Sona while waving a flag with words 'Student Council' written on it. Issei and Asia were cheering for Rias as well. Apparently, in order to be the first to go to wherever the place they were aiming today, Rias and Sona decided to settle the score with a tennis match. Both girls were dressed in tennis outfit and Hanakai Momo was appointed as the referee. The game went on well in the beginning, with Rias and Sona played flawlessly, yet still within human boundaries, until… 

"Let's take this game up a notch, shall we? This is Sitri's style spin-ball!" 

"Then I'll show you Gremory's counter as well!" 

However, Sona's ball suddenly changed trajectory in mid-air, making Rias' counter missed and lost points. Issei who realised about what had happened whispered to Akeno. 

"Um… Akeno-san? Is this really okay to use magic in front of so many students?" 

"Fufufu, nobody will notice it, Ise-kun… High-class devils such as themselves are proficient enough to limit themselves", replied Akeno with her signature giggles. 

"Yeah, I know that their magic for now are unnoticeable, but…" Issei trailed off as he saw Rias and Sona are now taunting up each other with their words. "They might gonna overdo it, and at least a guy or two will definitely notice… I know we can just tamper their memories later, and playing with people's minds doesn't sit well with me…" said Issei slightly nervous. 

"As I said, you don't need to worry too much about it. Besides, I'll tell you one thing… There's actually one student who is aware about our real identities…" replied Akeno as she leaned closer besides Issei's ear. 

Issei widened his eyes a bit, "Really? And you're fine with it? Who is this person?" 

"You'll find out sooner or later. Oh, and by the way, looks like the match is about to be over…" Akeno replied as she turned her attention back to the court. Issei also decided to let go of it for now and looked at the match again. 

The match ended up in a draw as Rias and Sona managed to broke both of their rackets. With the bet still on the line, Rias and Sona decided to do a team battle later at night. As the day went on and the night fell, all Rias' peerage were dressed in their track-suit and gathering inside the clubroom to do a quick briefing before they met with student council. 

"Familiars?" Issei asked when Rias mention about going into the familiar's forest. 

"Yes, Ise. Familiars are essential in the current world of devil society, not only can aid you in a battle, familiars can help you in various tasks as well. I know this might be too soon for both you and Asia, but I guess this time around is the perfect time to gain your own familiars while you still can", said Rias explaining as a bat-like creature appeared on Rias' shoulder. "This is my familiar. You have met her before." 

Issei's quirked his eyebrows in thought, as he tried to remember if he ever met anyone related to a bat before. After a moment, his eyes widened a bit as he remembered something. "Err… Is that…?" Then the bat familiar transformed into a girl with bat-like costume, confirming Issei's suspicion. "Figures… She's the girl that gave me that flier." 

"Yes, she was… doing some errands since we lacked hands back there", said Rias explaining, albeit her tone was slightly off, Issei did not notice it. 

"This is my familiar", said Akeno as a small _oni_ appeared on her palm. 

"This is Shiro…" said Koneko with a white cat in her arms. 

"Waa… So cute!" Asia squealed at the sheer adorableness from Koneko's familiar, as the latter let the former to pat the cat's head. 

After Asia was done, Issei instinctively also got closer and he rubbed the white cat's head and area behind the ears gently, resulting a pur from the feline familiar. Koneko then pulled her familiar away protectively from Issei, as the former narrowed her eyes on her latter, a faint blush on the former's face. "She's mine". 

Issei only laughed sheepishly as he rubbed and bowed his head in apology. "And this is mine", Issei looked at the source of the voice which belongs to Yuuto, a small bird on his fore-arm. 

"How do we get our familiars, buchou-san?" asked Asia tilting her head. 

"That's where this competition leads to. The Forest of Familiars, which only can be entered during the full-moon, can only take either us or Sona's peerage for the guide to help us to find your familiars. So we need to win this competition, or else we have to wait for the next full-moon to go to the forest. Do you understand, Ise, Asia?" 

""Yes!"" 

Rias only nodded in content. "Okay, now let's go to the gym, shall we? Sona and her peerage should have arrived there by now", the 'king' raised from her seat. 

Just when everyone started to move, Asia tugged on Issei's sleeve. "Um, Ise-san… We should give them those, now…" said Asia reminding Issei of something. The latter's face lighted up as he put his fist on his palm. 

"Right, right. Everyone!" the rest of the peerage turned their heads at Issei. "Here, take this", said Issei as he pulled out some head-bands with 'Occult Research Club' written on it, then he distributed them one for each person. 

"This is…" Rias said as she eyed her head-band. 

"Yes, Asia and I made these beforehand. Though Asia was better when it comes to sewing", Issei gestured his hand at Asia, who was blushing. 

"Um… I heard that this time will be a team-battle, so… I just want to make all of us like a real one… Ise-san suggested to make this", said Asia meekly. 

"Well… You gave me that idea, Asia. If you didn't bring it up earlier, we wouldn't making any of these", replied Issei grinning. 

"Thank you for the gift, Asia… I guess all of other clubs have something like this as well…" said Akeno complimenting the handiwork. 

"Well then, everyone… Let's win this for Ise and Asia's sake as well!" said Rias high-spiritedly. 

Everyone chorused in unison, "YES/YEAH!" 

X 

To sum it up, the dodgeball, which of the team-battle had been decided upon, went on with Occult Research Club leading the game. At the beginning, Issei was having a hard time as he never played a dodgeball before, as he barely avoided the ball that was thrown by Tsubasa, the rook of Sona Sitri. 

"Wow, the strength of a rook is a real deal!" Issei sweat-dropped as the ball somewhat managed to leave a crack on the wall. 

The game went on as Koneko got taken out due to the ball managed to rip off her clothes. "Koneko, out", announced the referee. 

"Koneko-chan, you okay?" said Issei looking at Koneko. The latter only pouted as she covered her exposed parts. 

"Don't look", said Koneko sending a dirty look on Issei. 

Issei quickly blushed and averted his eyes somewhere else. "R-right, sorry…" then Koneko walked out from the court. Issei sweat-dropped again as he contemplating, "_Hmm… Cute. I'm starting to understand what Matsuda means…_" then Issei quickly shook his head off the thought and focussing back on the game. 

Once Issei got a hold of the game and with the ball on his hands, he started to take out the opposing team's members one by one. As Sona who was the one taken out next, Saji, who was the only member left on the team, started to feel frustrated. "Kaichou!" cried Saji in worry as his 'king' got her hand hit by Issei's throw. "Damn you, Hyoudou… you really have no mercy, do ya?" said Saji as he glared at Issei who was playing the ball on his hand. 

Issei only smirked at his fellow pawn. "Come on, don't tell me that you lot expect me to go easy on you just because your members are mostly girls?" Then Issei cocked his hand with the ball backward as he prepared to throw. 

As Issei threw the ball towards Saji, the latter planted his feet on the ground and he met the former's throw head on. Saji felt the pressure on both of his hands as he tried to stop the ball's advance. His skidding feet finally stopped as the ball stopped moving on his hands as well, albeit smokes was fuming from the ball that just caught by Saji's hands. The Sitri's pawn let out a victor smirk as he prepared a counter-attack, he threw his hand wit the ball backwards and raised his one foot, taking the posture similar with a pitcher from a baseball game. "Pay back time, you damn harem king!" Saji yelled as he threw the ball at Issei with all of his strength. 

"Look out, Ise!" cried Rias in warning. However, Issei only remained on his spot as he let out a breath. Nobody around managed to notice Issei's eye twitching since it was covered by his bangs. 

Issei only jerked his right hand backwards and set his feet and body in position as he took a posture of someone ready to throw a punch, but with his right hand opened. As the ball came at him, he muttered, "I thought I told you…" Then he thrust his palm forward. 

"I don't have a freaking harem!"

BAM! 

When his palm made contact with the ball, Issei made a spin with his palm, resulting the ball launched over and spun with even higher speed than his previous throws. Saji who was startled by the speed of the ball coming at him could not moved as the ball ended up smashed into his crotch. As his body doubled over and him wincing and wheezing in pain, everyone, especially Issei and Yuuto averted their gazes as they could not bear to see such a painful spectacle. 

"S-Saji, out!" said the referee. 

"_Oh, crap. I was aiming for his face…" _thought Issei as he ran his hands through his hair. 

Ddraig who watched from inside Issei's body only rolled his eyes. 

_**[No shit]**_

"Uh… Saji…? You alive there?" Issei called out for any sign of Saji. The latter only wheezed even louder as he was still doubled over, holding around his nether region. 

"Um… I'm so sorry about that…" said Issei apologising as he bowed towards the rest of student council, particularly Sona. 

Sona only closed her eyes in resignation as she sighed and shifted the position of her glasses. "It's fine, he'll get over it". 

"Well, I guess it's our win then, Sona", Rias said as she approached Issei, patting his shoulder. "You've gone a bit overboard, but good work, Ise." The latter only nodded sheepishly, still feeling guilty from his last throw. 

"Yes, it's our loss this time. But we won't loose next time…" said Sona as she stepped out from the gym, the others, with some of them supporting Saji who was still hurting over his crotch, followed behind her. "Good luck with your search for familiars, Rias…" was Sona's last word before the door shut before her and her peerage. 

Rias stared at the door for a few seconds, then she clapped her hands. "Alright, everyone. Let's take a short break and prepare for familiar's forest!" her peerage chorused again in unison. 

"YES/YEAH!" 

X 

"Okay, everyone. Are you all ready?" asked Rias as she looked over her servants, standing inside a large magic circle. Everyone nodded at her question and the magic circle lighted up, enveloping everyone inside the circle before they disappeared in a bright flash of red. 

When Issei's view cleared up, Issei found himself with everyone standing on the area that came out from a classic horror-fantasy flick; dark-purple sky, deserted wasteland and few dead trees surrounding them. However, when he scanned his surroundings, a feel of nostalgia suddenly washed over him. He breathed the air, felt the surrounding nature, and he felt that everything was familiar to him. But he soon shook his head to dismiss the thought. There was no way Issei could have ever come to this place, the boy believed that this was the first time he ever came to such a place. After a moment of silence, Issei turned towards his master. "Um… ojou-sama? Is this the place where we will look for our familiars?" asked Issei as he pointed at the place they were currently at. 

"Yes, it is, Ise. Now we are waiting for someone to guide us. He should be around here…" Rias answered and she looked around as if she was expecting someone to show up. 

"Gotta catch 'em all!" 

Suddenly a voice came out, startling both Issei and Asia, as the former moved in and pulled the latter behind him in a protective manner. 

"What the-!" Issei's shock was answered as a figure landed from the sky. The figure was a man with an outfit, which Issei described as a rip-off from the protagonist of pokemon franchise. 

The stranger turned around towards Rias' peerage as he put a pose to introduce himself. "Hello, everyone! I'm Zatouji from Madara town! I'm a devil-in-learning to be a familiar master!" 

Hearing his introduction, Issei only eyed Zatouji with sceptical look. _"A hard-core fan?"_

_**[Totally a hard-core fan] **_Ddraig could only agreed. 

"So you are the one who got here instead of Sona Sitri-sama, Rias Gremory-sama…" said Zatouji as he bowed towards the said girl. 

"It's been a while, Zatouji-san", said Rias in greeting and she addressed her newest members, "Ise, Asia, come here." Then the two new devils came over obediently. Rias gestured her hands towards Zatouji, "This fellow will be our guide in this place. He will help you to find a familiar suitable for you." 

Issei and Asia quickly collected themselves for introduction. 

"Oh, hello there. I'm Hyoudou Issei. Nice to meet you." 

"Um… nice to meet you, Zatouji-san. My name is Asia Argento. Please take care of me!" 

Zatouji eyed both of them carefully and he scooted over Issei and Asia to get a closer look. "Hmm…. A dull-looking boy and a cute blondie. Okay! What do you folks want for your familiars? A strong one? A fast one? Or one that can use poison or magic?" said Zatouji enthusiastically. 

"_Geez, cut the pokemon already…"_ thought Issei as he snorted. "Well… For now, what do you recommend, Zatouji-san?" 

"Hmm… Let's see…" said Zatouji as he picked out and flipped around a catalogue book from his bag-pack. He turned his book as soon as he stopped at a page. "What about this one? Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon! This dragon is one of the Five Great Dragon Kings, and it is the only female out of the five! Her strength is on par with a _maou_!" 

While Asia flinched a bit from fear, Issei was looking closely at the page with a blue western dragon picture on it. "_Hmm… A dragon king… As your familiar?_" If someone took more attention, one could see that Issei's eyes were glittering in excitement. Ddraig who could tell what his host was thinking decided to butt in. 

_**[Psst, partner]**_

"_Yeah?"_

_**[Can you pass on this one?]**_

"_What? Why? It's not everyday someone can have something as powerful as_ dragon _king for familiar!"_

_**[I know, I know... Tiamat is strong, indeed. But to put it simply, she hates me]**_

"…_Okay, I'll bite. What have you done to her?"_

_**[Uh… I can't remember. It was like forever ago, but I can tell that she still hates me. Trust me, partner. If she ever saw you, not to mention found out that you are my host, the first thing she'll do is trying to kill you]**_

"_But… It's a dragon king…."_

_**[…(sigh)… I understand, but think about your comrades. Even I cannot tell what Tiamat will do if you encountered her. I'm not gonna say that you won't survive, but you might as well putting your friends' lives in danger if you still want to make a pact with Tiamat. Think this over, partner…]**_

After contemplating for few moments, Issei let out a sigh as he finally gave up on finding the dragon king. "That's… way too dangerous for us, Zatouji-san… Do you have something else?" 

Zatouji flipped over the pages again and he showed a page with a picture of a large nine-headed serpent. "Then what about this? The hydra! Not only has a powerful poison that even other devils fear, it also very powerful, not to mention it has enough guts to attack its own master!" 

Issei only let out another sweat-dropped and Asia was scared even more. This time, the former was contemplating either to knocked some senses into Zatouji or ask something else differently. Seriously, Issei could not fathom what was wrong with the 'familiar master', offering dangerous creatures one by one to him and especially Asia, who was very delicate in many ways. 

"Ara, Ise. I think it's a suitable familiar for you. Hydra can be considered as a rare species, after all. Not to mention they are very powerful and can come in handy when the situation calls. You should give it a go", said Rias voicing her opinion, much to Issei's surprise. 

"U-um… Ojou-sama, as much as intriguing this hydra is, the 'attack its own master' part REALLY bugs me", said Issei in slight sarcasm, pointing at the picture. 

Zatouji closed his book as he clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Tch, you're sure picky for a devil, kid… Fine, what do you want, then?" the man asked with his hands on his waist. 

"Well, let's say something that easy to control? You know, just like your everyday house-pet? Do you have any of those kinds?" replied Issei with a shrug. 

"…(sigh)… Listen here, kid… You need to choose your familiar wisely. If you pick a powerful familiar, you can become a familiar master by collecting the same type several times, then you can marry the male ones with the female ones to have more variety of off-springs. And also-", Zatouji's lectures were cut off by Issei. 

"Stop, stop!" yelled Issei as he put up his hand and he rubbed his eyebrow before he spoke again, "First of all, I think we have different perspectives about being familiar master. I just want to have one, not to start a farm. And second of all, can you cut the pokemon crap? It's starting to get on my nerves." 

Before Zatouji could have made any more retort, Asia raised her hand and spoke meekly, "I… I would like a cute familiar…." Then Zatouji's face brightened up as he turned towards the blonde girl with a thumb-up. 

"Okay, I got it. Follow me!" exclaimed Zatouji as he started walking away with Asia following behind. The rest of the peerage only sweat-dropped awkwardly and followed the two as well. Issei was staring dead-panned at first, but later he let out a sigh as he followed behind as well. 

"_This guy is no different than Saji…" _However, before Issei went further, he stopped on his track again as he looked back again. "_It can't be, right?_" 

"Ise! Hurry up or we'll leave you behind!" 

The voice of his master snapped him out of his mussing and he quickly ran after his friends. "Coming!" 

After a while of walking and encountering so many live forms, such as bulky undines fist-fighting each other (much to Issei's disgust, since they remind him of Mil-tan), slimes that melt women's clothes (much to Issei's shock as he learned another thing about eroticism until everyone had to go out their way to destroy the slimes, with the girls doing all the work while the boys were only told to look somewhere else), etc., the group was now walking on a rather small path, but still wide enough to walk on, with ravine with steep walls on the edge of the path. Issei, who was the most behind the group walked rather close to the edge of the path as he sneaked a peek to see how deep the ravine was, which was not too deep, as he made sure that he will not loose a sight of the group in front of him. 

Meanwhile, Zatouji and the rest of Rias' peerage were walking rather close to the inner walls. "Okay…" said Zatouji tried to lightened the mood. "So Asia-san here wants a cute familiar, correct?" 

"Yes, please… If you don't mind…" replied Asia from behind him. 

"Hahaha, it's fine, it's fine… Lots of devil girls tend to ask their familiars to be cute, so I'm already used to it", replied Zatouji with a hearty laugh. "And, what about you, err… Issei, was it? Have you decided on your familiar?" asked Zatouji again. However, no answer was heard. "Kid? You listening?" asked Zatouji again as he stopped on his tracks and turned his head at the group behind him. "Where is he?" 

Zatouji's question made the rest of the group looked behind to see that the pawn was no longer behind nor around them. Rias was the one who started to get slightly panic. As she walked over at the spot where Issei was supposed to be. "Wha- Ise was right behind us just a second ago! Ise!? ISE!?" 

Akeno quickly put up her palm and a small magic circle appeared on her palm, presenting the radar to locate other peerage member. As she managed to get a signal on Issei, she turned her head towards her 'king'. "Buchou, look at this." Rias and the rest of the group, including Zatouji, gathered to look at the magic radar. Upon seeing the radar, Zatouji's eyes widened and he took a few steps back to see there was a part of the ground that collapsed to the ravine. "Oh crap… It seems that kid fell all the way down there…" Then he turned towards Rias and her group. "Rias-sama! We need to find your servant quickly!" said the man as he rushed forward. 

Rias, with her group followed-suit, asked as she kept up. "Yes, I know. But Zatouji-san, do you know where Ise might have gone to?" 

"Yeah, pretty much. But the problem is, that area down there is where some of the most dangerous creatures are usually lurking in. So let's hope that we can find him before that kid goes into any trouble." 

"Then we need to move even faster!" Rias ordered as she quickened her pace. _"Please be safe, Ise!"_

The rest were quickened their paces as well, except for Asia who need to be carried by Yuuto. While she was being carried, she prayed while enduring the occurring headache. _"Oh Lord… (ouch!) Please protect Ise-san…"_

X 

(Issei's POV) 

"UAAAAAAAA…!" 

WHOSH! BRUGH! 

"Ouch…." 

Damn it, the ground beneath me when I took a peek at the cliff suddenly collapsed, and here I am, sliding through the ravine until I finally I was thrown and dropped to the bottom. I rubbed my sore spots and cleaned the dust off my clothes as I scanned my surroundings. It looks like I was in a deeper area of the forest, since there were more trees and they were high enough to obscure my sight to the top where ojou-sama and the others are. It was quite a deep fall I went through, I doubt that my voice can reach all the way up there if I shout, but I tried nonetheless. 

"OJOU-SAMA! ZATOUJI-SAN! EVERYONE!" 

But nobody answered. I weighed my options for what to do from here. I considered about flying or climbing my way back, but when I took a glance at the sky, I saw several large bird-like creatures soared around the cliff wall, and their faces did not say anything about friendly at all, so that option was out, since not only I'm still suck at flying, fighting on uneven ground while I'm climbing was not a good idea at all. So for now, I decided to walk around to find my friends, as well as perhaps to find a better ground to climb or to take off with my wings. Besides, I'm sure the others have realised that I've gone by now, and have started searching for me, so it's only a matter of time until we bumped into each other. I treaded my path carefully to avoid those bird creatures to spot me by avoiding open areas. I walk for a quite a while again until I found a small clearing. I took a look at the sky, and I found that I was far enough from those birds. Although I could not climb since I ended up walking away from the cliff, the flying options still go. If it's just ascending in straight line, I can still manage somehow. When I took a step into the clearing. I saw something moving from a nearby bush. Putting up a fighting stance in reflex, I eyed that bush carefully until something jumped out. I was taken aback at first, but I noticed the thing was a small blue dragon. 

"A dragon?" 

**[That dragon… Partner, it's a baby dragon, a baby sprite dragon, to be precise. Not as strong as a dragon king, but it's still a top-tier class dragon. Partner, why don't you try to make a pact with that one? This is the best chance if you still want a dragon as your familiar, because when it grows up, it will be impossible to make him give in to you]**

I heeded my inner dragon's words and I nodded resolutely. I took a step carefully and the baby dragon noticed my presence and sent a look at me.

"Hey there, buddy…" I tried to make myself sounded friendly. 

When I got a better look, I saw few small injuries on its body, its expression looks exhausted and ragged. The injuries did not seem that bad, but I could tell the dragon was having a rough time earlier. 

"Okay… What happened to you?" I asked as I stretched my hand to touch him. Are these injuries from an accident? A fight? 

Suddenly the baby dragon hissed and let out a small roar at me. I quickly took a step back and I raised both of my arms in sign of peace. 

"Wow, wow… Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you", the dragon only shivered as it sent a threatening look at my direction and finally flew away into the trees. I relaxed myself as I stared into the direction where the baby dragon flew off. 

"Gee, what's that all about?" I asked to no one in particular as I put my hands on my waist. 

**[Um… Partner]** I heard Ddraig called me with his voice somewhat… nervous? **[I don't think that sprite dragon was running away from you]**

Right after Ddraig said that, I heard another rustling behind me, this time louder, and I felt the hairs on my skin spiked up as I felt chill on my spine. Then I felt something VERY big was looming over me. 

I sighed. "There's a monster behind me, isn't it?" 

**[Just prepare for… Probably to fight for your life]**

Fuck. I snorted as I summoned my boosted gear 

**[DRAGON BOOSTER!]**

And I turned around and took a look on whatever the creature before me. My eyes widened when I saw nine pair of eyes glowing on me, followed by numerous hisses from its mouths. Of course… The injuries from that baby dragon earlier were from this thing. Rather, I must say that I'm impressed that baby dragon managed to get away from this without any life-threatening injuries. Then the jaws lounged on me. 

_(Meanwhile with everyone else, Rias POV)_

I, Rias Gremory and my peerage were on our way to search for my newest 'pawn'. We have tried to look from the sky at first, but the masses of trees were obscuring our vision, thus we had to search on foot. We also have scattered our familiars around to the area to fasten the search as well. As we kept trekking through the forest, my new 'bishop' caught something came out from the nearby tree. We turned our heads to see an injured, small blue dragon flew and landed on Asia's arms. When I got a better look, I couldn't help myself but mesmerized by the sight. Despite the wounds, I couldn't help but to find the dragon to have such… beautiful scales. 

"Oh, poor thing… What happened to you?" asked Asia as she immediately used her Twilight Healing on the dragon's wounds. 

Zatouji-san who managed to get a better look on the dragon finally recognised it. "That's a baby sprite dragon! It's quite rare to see one of those around here. And yeah, what happened to him?" 

A sprite dragon? If I'm not mistaken, sprite dragons are high-class dragons that have been labelled as rare types. Come to think of it, yes, where did its injuries come from? 

Soon after the baby dragon was healed, it quickly flew again in front of us and it let out a noise, its body moved around back and forth, as if the dragon was trying to say something. Of course, none of us could speak a dragon language, but I tried my best to comprehend what the baby dragon was trying to say. 

"What is it trying to say?" my 'knight' asked as he was eyeing the sprite dragon. 

"Um… I-I think he is asking us to follow him..." I heard it was Asia who was speaking. Asia can understand dragons? 

"Ara, you can tell?" asked my 'queen' with intrigued tone. 

"I… I'm not sure myself, but…" 

Zatouji-san interfered again, "It seems you have a good compatibility with him. Why don't you take him as a familiar? That dragon is a male, and male dragons tend to like beings of opposite sex." 

I decided to speak as we had more important matters in our hands. "We can do that later after we found Ise, Asia… For now, let's try to follow that little guy first, shall we?" I took a first step towards the sprite dragon's direction, the others followed suit. I'm not sure myself, but my feelings were telling me to follow the little dragon for now, perhaps he can lead me to Ise. 

As we ran following the baby dragon (of course with Asia had to be carried by Yuuto again), I heard Akeno called out to me with her eyes widened and her expression turned grim. 

"Buchou, my familiars found that Ise-kun is engaging a hydra!" 

My eyes widened as I took in what she said. Ise is fighting a what? 

I also noticed that Yuuto also glanced side-ways and his eyes widened as if he picked up something. "My familiar has seen Issei-kun as well!" 

"Mine as well", Koneko followed-suit. 

I also had gotten the message from my own familiar, the report that my newest pawn is now fighting a hydra, exactly like Akeno had said. Oh dear, what do I do? I did tell Ise to take hydra for his familiar, but not by endangering his own life! Did I just jinx my own servant? What do I have to do if Ise ended up getting hurt, or worse? then I turned my eyes towards Zatouji-san. 

"Zatouji-san!" 

"Right!" 

Asia's eyes widened and she raised her voice at the sprite dragon that was leading them. "Sprite dragon-san, please hurry!" The dragon understood the situation as it quickened its flying speed with everyone else on tow. 

As we moved on, from the distance, I heard familiar noises followed with sounds of roars, hiss, trashing, trees breaking and explosions echoed in the air. 

**[Boost!]**

"ORAAAAH!" 

BAM! BAM! BAM! CRASH! 

"SHHAAAAHH!" 

SPLASH! 

"Ow! Hot! Hot! Hot!" 

"GROOAAARRGH!" 

CRASH! CRASH! 

**[Boost!]**

"You want another piece of me!? UOOOOOGH!" 

BAM! BOOM! BAM! 

"GRAAAAARRGGHH!" 

BOOM! CRASH! 

**[Boost!]**

"HOAAAAAH!" 

**[EXPLOSION!]**

"DRAGON SHOT!" 

BLAAAARR! BOOM! CRASH! 

"GYAAAAARRGHH!" 

"Tch, still moving, huh!?" 

When we finally arrived at the scene, I almost couldn't believe what was in front of me. I saw the nine-headed serpent was standing on the ground, its body covered with heavy wounds, and smoke could be seen fuming from hydra's body. I also saw Issei jumped to the sky over the hydra, whom was now looked exhausted, as the boy cocked back his left arm clad in boosted gear, and he brought his left fist right into the hydra's centre of the body as he landed. 

"HAAAAA!" 

KA-BOOM! 

"GAAAAARRGGHH…!" 

As the fist connected, all of the nine heads roared in immense pain and spat out a mouthful of blood the impact forced the hydra's body to destroyed the ground's surface as dusts and debris were thrown and flying around. We had to cover our eyes from the dust and we slowly opened our eyes to see the view that started to clear up. 

**[Reset!]**

"Hiss…." The hydra was now lying on the crater as each of the heads' jaws gapped with blood flowing out from inside, each head also let out a weak hiss, its body was twitching and breathed slowly, but did not show any signs of getting up. 

Then I turned my gaze towards Ise who was standing nearby the hydra's body, he panted between his breaths, then he dropped his body to sit on the ground before he fell on his back. Ise never ceased to amaze me… My newest 'pawn' just defeated a hydra! 

_(Change, third person POV)_

"(Pant)… (Pant)… Huff…. Damn… That cut-ass serpent sure is tough… After all those attacks it was still breathing?" Issei said with exhausted tone as he let his body lying, relaxing on the ground beneath him. 

**[Of course, partner. Hydras are known for their immortal traits as well, after all. But you gave enough damage to break its will to fight anymore. You sure you still don't want it as your familiar?]**

"And letting it attacks me when it had another chance? No thanks." 

**[Suit yourself, then. Oh, by the way, your friends are here]**

"Huh?" Issei looked upwards and see his friends with expressions of awe and disbelief. "Oh… 'sup, guys…" 

"Ise/Ise-san/Issei-kun/Ise-kun/Issei-senpai!" 

Snapped from their thoughts, Rias and the others quickly ran over towards Issei to check on his condition. His clothes were tattered here and there, there are bruises, grazes and cuts covering his skin, but overall, Issei was not in danger. Zatouji only whistled when he took a look at the area where the fought took place. The area was devastated, trees were broken, some were still burning, craters could be seen on the ground here and there, either was made from sheer impact or melted from presumably hydra's venom. 

"Holy crap…" Zatouji muttered still in disbelief. "That son of a bitch managed to defeat hydra alone…" 

"Ise-san, are you okay? Does it hurt?" asked Asia worriedly as she started to heal Issei's wound. 

"…(sigh)… I'm fine, Asia… Though I thought I was gonna die back there…" said Issei as he sat up. 

Then Issei felt his head pulled into two bountiful mounds that belong to his master. Rias lovingly hugged Issei into her breasts as she rubbed the latter's hair gently. 

"Ise..." said Rias as she kept rubbing Issei's hair. 

"O-ojou-sama…?" Issei replied with his face fuming. _"Is… Is this why those two always boasting about breasts? It… It feels very good! … Wait, what am I thinking!? Bad thoughts, Ise, bad thoughts!"_

"I'm so worried when you're gone…" said Rias with care in her tone. 

Hearing Rias' caring voice, Issei found himself relaxing into the hug. "Yes… I'm sorry for making you worry…" said Issei as put his hands on Rias' waist to return the hug. 

"No, I'm sorry for letting you out of my sight when I was supposed to watch over you… I have failed as your master…" 

"Please don't blame yourself, ojou-sama… It was my own mistake that I ended up in this mess… Besides, you still looked for me, didn't you? So please, cheer up. I'm totally fine, now, see?" said Issei as he pulled away and he stretched out his arms, showing that he was fine. 

Rias only smiled as she pulled Issei into another hug. Upon the spectacle, Akeno let out a giggle while Yuuto and Koneko only smiled in content, albeit the latter's smile was smaller. Asia was getting teary-eyed as she started to get jealous. 

"Bu-buchou-san! I- I can't heal Ise-san if you keep hugging him like that…" Asia remarked as she tried to pull Issei away from Rias. 

Rias only smiled in amusement. "Fufufu… Alright, alright… You can have him back", Rias said as she let go of Issei, whom was confused of what was going on between them and relaxed himself again as Asia continued her treatment. 

"Still though, I wish I could have seen your fight with that hydra with my own eyes. I've never actually ever seen you fight before, Ise-kun… fufufu…" said Akeno with her signature giggles. Yuuto and Koneko only nodding in agreement as they also would like to see Issei's fight with the nine-headed serpent earlier. 

"Man, you're actually really strong, aren't you, Issei-kun?" said Yuuto shaking his head in amusement. 

"Good job", said Koneko with passive face while holding a thumb-up. 

Then Issei remembered one thing as he turned at the hydra that was still lying on the ground. "Speaking of hydra, I think we should leave first. While it might take a while for that thing to wake up but it's just a matter of time until that thing started to run amok again." 

Zatouji only nodded in agreement as he turned around to face the group. "The kid's right. We need to-" 

GRAAAOOOOONNGG 

Zatouji was cut-off by a sudden burst of foreign power and a roar echoed from the sky, followed by a feminine voice. 

"**I will take it from here**" 

Everyone else, with Issei immediately stood up, suddenly felt the enormous power, enough to send chill to everyone's spines and making them cold-sweated, emitted from above and cocked their heads toward the sky to see a large blue western dragon soaring above them. The dragon sent a gust of wind, as it flapped its wings once before finally landing down. Everyone had their faces paled as they remembered the appearance of the dragon was from the one they saw from Zatouji's catalogue. The familiar master's mouth was gaping around like a fish before he finally snapped. 

"A wild dragon king has appeared!" Zatouji cried as he quickly took few steps backward to get away from the blue dragon. 

"Ti- Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon? What is she doing here?" Rias said with a hint of panic in her tone. The rest of the peerage quickly readied themselves to fight, Issei himself quickly summoned his Boosted Gear again while shielding Asia behind him. 

However, the dragon simply glanced over them without showing any hostility. After few moments of tense silence, the dragon spoke. 

"**Greetings, devils… I'm Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon. There is no need to fret, for I've come with no intention to fight…**" 

Everyone relaxed a bit and put down their fighting stances, but Yuuto and Issei still had not dismissed their arms as they were still cautious. Rias, feeling that she needed to represent her group as the 'king', decided to take a step forward to give a reply. 

Rias gave Tiamat a polite bow. "It's an honour to meet you, Tiamat-sama. My name is Rias Gremory, the heiress of house of Gremory of 72 pillars. These are my servants", said Rias gesturing the others behind her. "My 'queen', Himejima Akeno, my 'knight', Kiba Yuuto, my 'rook', Toujou Koneko, my 'bishop', Asia Argento and my 'pawn', Hyoudou Issei." 

The others gave the dragon king a polite bow when their names were introduced. If anyone paid a close attention, Tiamat's golden eyes were widened ever so slightly and her edge of the lips twitched upwards ever so slightly as well in the mention of Issei's name. However, when she shifted her gaze at the Red Dragon Emperor, her faint smile dropped and her eyes narrowed in displeasure when they settled on the Boosted Gear for a moment, before she let out a breath. 

"**It's been a while, Ddraig… Though I'd be lying if I said that I'm happy to see you again…**" Tiamat tried to sound neutral, but everyone present could feel a tint of hatred in her tone, clearly that the dragon king was doing her best to hold her temper. 

**[Yeah, it's sure been a while, Tiamat… What are you doing here, anyway? I assume that you didn't go all of your way out here just to greet us]**

Hearing a voice came out from Issei's Boosted Gear, everyone turned their attention to the gauntlet for a second before their eyes returned at the dragon king. 

Tiamat only snorted. "**As much as I would love to tear you to pieces right now, I'm here to take a rampaging Hydra out of my territory. But it seems your host has already done the task…**" Tiamat said when she looked at the knocked-out Hydra and back at the group, particularly on Issei. 

Zatouji raised his hand nervously. "E- excuse me, did you just say that this is your territory? I- we have no idea at all…" the familiar master was quite shocked to find out that they just trespass into the territory of a dragon king. 

Tiamat only gave a quick glance at the familiar master. "**I won't blame you for it… I just marked this place recently, after all… However…**" she turned her eyes again at Issei. 

"**Having the Red Dragon Emperor to help me and one of my kin truly left an unpleasant taste in my mouth…**" said Tiamat snarling slightly, suggesting the baby sprite-dragon that Issei approached earlier as her kin. 

Issei only raised up one hand as he swallowed a lump. "Um… Don't need to worry about it, Tiamat-san… And sorry again that I trespass your territory without permission." Issei gave an apologetic bow. 

Tiamat eyed Issei for a moment before let out a sigh. "**No, as much as I hate the Welsh Dragon, I'm still aware of the fact that you just did a favour to me and my kin. And for that, you have my thanks…"**

Everyone relaxed even more hearing the blue dragon giving a gratitude to Issei, however, the latter had something else in mind when he received the said gratitude. 

Issei took a step forward, even closer to Tiamat than Rias' position this time. "Then, Tiamat-san... Would you-" 

"**No**" 

Issei was taken aback when his words were cut-off. "Err… But I haven't-" 

"**Don't push your luck, boy. Being the Red Dragon Emperor is more than enough reason for me to refuse a pact with you**", Tiamat said as she raised her head a bit. 

Issei only rubbed his head as he smiled sheepishly. "Well, then… I don't mean to be rude, but why do you hate Ddraig so much? What has he done to you in the past?" 

Tiamat only remained silent for a second before she replied, "**Why don't you ask your dragon yourself?**" 

Issei only stared at his red gauntlet and the dragon inside it did not say a single word. Then the dragon king snorted. "**I see… That, boy… Is another reason why I hate him. I'll consider your proposal once the Welsh Dragon remembers his mistakes and apologize to me. Until then, don't ever think of me being your familiar…**" said Tiamat in final tone. 

Issei looked at the ground for a moment, before his face lit up and a grin adorned his face. "Then what about a friend?" 

Everyone was gasped and surprised at Issei's next proposal, with Tiamat only narrowed her eyes more in curiosity rather than irritation. Issei quickly waved her hands as he clarified his words. "No, no. Not a familiar. I mean, just… You know, talk, chat, and maybe a cup of tea or coffee… No strings attached." 

Tiamat's expression softened slightly while everyone else still tensed. "**Do tell me why I should be your 'friend'. Didn't you just hear what I have said earlier?**" Tiamat's tone was filled with threats and slight amusement. 

Issei only scratched his cheek, thinking about his own reasoning. "Well… It's kind of sad to see you and Ddraig still in bad terms even after centuries. I know this sounds stupid, but I actually just want you guys to make up. Besides, by talking to each other, perhaps I can help you to make Ddraig remembers about what he's done to you. So…" Issei then saw right into Tiamat's eyes. "I'm not asking you as the Red Dragon Emperor, but as Hyoudou Issei. How about it?" Issei said with a goofy grin and he extended his right hand. 

Everyone did not move an inch as they waited for the tensing silence to break off, until they finally heard something from the dragon king. 

"**Fufufufufu….**" 

Everyone was taken aback to hear the chuckling came out from Tiamat's lips. The dragon clearly giggled from Issei's reasoning. 

"**A devil, the Red Dragon Emperor to add, wish to befriend me, the Chaos Karma Dragon…. How comical… Your predecessors would never even think about it…**" 

"So…?" Issei asked in hopeful tone. 

Tiamat started to move towards the Hydra and grabbed its body with her claws. As Tiamat prepared to take off to the sky, she turned her head at Issei. "**You just warrant me not to ever become your familiar, even if Ddraig ever to repent his mistakes to me, thanks to your ridiculousness**." 

Issei felt a stone just dropped on his head as he heard Tiamat's reply. The others only sweat-dropped to see Issei's shocked expression and the pawn slumped his head in defeat. 

"**However…**" everyone looked up at the sky again upon Tiamat's words, seeing the dragon began to soar. 

"**I won't mind to have a nice talk with you if we ever meet again, Hyoudou Issei. Farewell, devils of Gremory…**" said Tiamat as she flew away carrying the Hydra with her, presumably to 'dispose' it somewhere far away. 

Everybody only remained on their spots until Tiamat disappeared from sight. Once she did, all of them let out huge sighs of relief and Issei dropped his ass onto the ground. Soon, everybody gathered around Issei once again. 

**[Holy shit… Not only managed to survive after meeting Tiamat, you also have gained favours from her… Congratulations, partner]** Ddraig said with amusement and most importantly, relief. 

"Hahaha! You really are full of surprises, kid!" said Zatouji slapping Issei's back playfully, receiving a sheepish laugh from the latter. 

The others mostly shook their heads from events that had transpired. "Unbelievable… What should I ever do with you, Ise?" said Rias rubbing her temple. 

"That was… thrilling in more ways than one, Issei-kun", said Yuuto nodding. 

"Oh my, Ise-kun… You look so cool when you stood up against Tiamat-sama… Fufufufu…" commented Akeno smiling pleasantly with her hand on her cheek. A faint blush could be seen as well on her face. 

"Unbelievable", was all Koneko said with passive expression. 

"Ise-san, I'm so happy that you're alright!" Asia said with teary eyes. 

Issei only replied the best he could at each comment. "Yeah… Sorry about that, ojou-sama… I know right? I thought I was gonna die too… Uh, thanks Akeno-san… Yeah, I couldn't believe it either, Koneko-chan… I'm also glad that you're alright, Asia…" 

Then Issei noticed the baby dragon he encountered earlier. It seems that everyone else forgot about the sprite-dragon due to all the previous tensions with Tiamat. "Hey there again, little guy…" 

Asia and the others also remembered about the presence of the baby dragon, which was making himself comfortable all the time while everyone was conversing with the dragon king. 

"Ise-san, sprite dragon-san was the one that led us here to you", Asia said as she approached the dragon that leapt into her arms. 

"Hm? Is that so? Then-" suddenly the sprite-dragon shot a torrent of electric current to Issei before the latter could finish. 

Everyone else sweat-dropped once again at the spectacle, Issei's slightly charred body only twitched from the shock as the boy snorted, puffing off a smoke. "Thank you very much", said Issei sarcastically. Then everyone laughed. 

Rias clapped her hands, gaining everyone's attention. "Well, I guess we've spent times here long enough. But before we took our leave, Asia, would you like to make a pact with that sprite dragon?" said Rias to Asia. 

"Ye-yes! I'd love to!" replied Asia as she hugged the sprite dragon joyfully, which the latter responded in kind as well. 

"Very well, then. Now follow my lead to form the pact now", Rias instructed Asia to begin the ritual with the sprite dragon which soon will be known as 'Rassei', since Asia would want to name the baby dragon after her very first friend. 

X 

As Tiamat arrived at her nest, she looked at the far away sky of the underworld before she went into the cave where she resides in, reminiscing the past events in her life so far. 

"_**Fufufu… That boy…" **_Tiamat's thought paused when she remembered of Issei and the boy's display of power._** "Fate truly is strange in many ways… Don't you agree as well?**_" then the dragon king remembered one particular human she had encountered many years ago "_**Saitama**_…" and the dragon vanished into the cave. 

**And… done! I'm sorry for the lack of fighting scenes, since I'm still learning to make a proper one. But do not fear, for the proper fighting scenes will be written in the upcoming arc! Aside from that, what do you guys think about this chapter? Constructive criticism will be appreciated while flames will be ignored. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	7. Phoenix (I)

**Hello again, my dear readers! I kept on forgetting to say this on previous chapters, but I'll say this now rather than never. Thank you so much of your reviews and support thus far! I know over 100 subscriptions and likes was only a small step but I'm still grateful for your support to make this small step! So, without further ado, here's the beginning of Phoenix arc!**

**Disclaimer (just to be safe): I do not own Highschool DxD nor One-punch Man.**

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Chapter 6: Phoenix (I): Engagement**

Few days after the short adventure in Forest of Familiars, our Red Dragon Emperor was on his way back to his house to finish his 10 km run, with his usual giant boulder strapped on his back. When his house was within his sight, Issei spotted two familiar faces waiting for them. He stopped at the front gate as the two greeted him.

"Good morning, Ise. And welcome back", said Rias Gremory with her usual smile.

"Good morning, Ise-san!" said Asia cheerfully.

"Asia, ojou-sama. Good morning", said Issei with slight panting. It looks like Issei had to add his training regimen again soon enough, as his stamina had improved once again. "What brings you girls here?" then he noticed a pile of card-boxes and suitcases at the front door. "Whose luggage is that?" asked Issei pointing at the mentioned object.

"We'll explain inside, Ise. Right now, please take all of those in", said Rias as she proceeded into the house, followed by Asia after she gave a quick bow. Issei only stared with an imaginary question mark appeared above his head.

_(Scene change, dining room)_

"Alright."

"I know it may sounds outrageous, but… Wait, I beg your pardon?"

"Eh?"

Rias, Asia, and especially Issei were not expecting the words came out from Hyoudou Haruka, as the matriarch of Hyoudou household immediately agreed with Rias' request to take Asia into her house. Haruka who noticed everyone's incredulous looks raised her eyebrows in return.

"What's the matter? Is there something else?" asked Haruka looking around the teenagers before her.

"Um… Mom?" Issei was the one who asked first. "You sure about this?"

"Hm? What, do you not want Asia-chan to stay here?" asked Haruka with her eyebrows raised at her son.

Issei quickly waved his hands. "No, no! I'm totally fine, rather, I'm happy to have Asia here, but you know, it's kind of… inappropriate in a way…?" said Issei with a slight uncertainty.

His mother only snorted. "Hmph, ever since your dad left home, your mother has always been able to appreciate more company, you know? Especially from such a girl like Asia-chan here", she said as she smiled pleasantly at the blonde former nun, whom tried her best to smile back. "Besides…" Haruka trailed-off with her hands brought together and fingers together. "She can give me grandchildren some day, don't you think so, Ise?"

The three teenagers remained silent for a moment until the meaning of Haruka's words sunk into their heads. "EEEH!?" Haruka only giggled at the shrieks from her son and Asia.

Rias herself could only smiled in slight amusement as she inwardly sweat-dropped. She did not expect that Issei's mother would have accepted her request so quickly, and Hyoudou Haruka had used the argument Rias had prepared in case the mother had refused on the start.

"Come on now, mom… It's not funny to suggest such a thing…" said the blushing Issei retorting his mother.

"Oh, come on now, Ise… Look at her", said Haruka gesturing towards a still-blushing Asia. "A cute face that screams innocence… A regular sized, yet still well-developed breasts (at this comment, Asia yelped and covered her breasts)… waist and hips that ideal for child-bearing (Asia yelped again and covered her lowered half, Rias and Issei were blushing as well)… And her beautiful radiating hair! She's a perfect bride for you in the future! Not everyone can have a beautiful, foreigner wife like her!"

"Mom, stop putting stuffs into Asia's head!" said Issei wailing in embarrassment at his mother, his face went even redder.

"Hauu… being Ise-san's bride… It's still too much for me…" said Asia with her face fuming.

"Anyway, you are more than welcome to stay here, Asia-chan! My son may be difficult sometimes but please take care of him!" said Haruka with a gleeful tone.

"Um… I am inexperienced, but Ise-san has been taking care a lot of me, so I hope we can get along from now on…"

Rias only smiled as she watched Asia were bowing, giving back her own courtesy to Issei's mother, then her smiled dropped as she put a far-away look on her eyes, which was not unnoticed by Issei. "_A bride, huh_…."

X

On the next morning, Issei was finishing his training exercise as usual, only this time, Rias was sitting on the boulder that was strapped on Issei's back (again) as the boy ran back to his house after his 10 km running, saying that she wants to supervise Issei's training as much as possible. Upon arriving home, Asia was waiting at front of the house with a thermos bottle in hand.

"Oh my, Asia. Good morning", Rias was the one who greeted first.

"Good morning, buchou-san, and welcome back, Ise-san…" said Asia greeting with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I'm back. Is that…?" Issei greeted back then he noticed the thermos on Asia's hand.

"Yes, I thought you maybe thirsty after those running, so I made you some tea. I hope it suits your taste…" said Asia meekly, not very confident for her tea-brewing skills, as she handed Issei the bottle.

Issei reluctantly accepted and he took a sip after he poured some. "Wow, this is actually quite good. Come to think of it, the dinner you cooked last night tasted nice too. You're really gonna be a good wife, you know that, Asia?" said Issei with a goofy grin.

Asia only blushed again as she stuttered, not knowing what to say. "W-well… Thank you, Ise-san. Um… Why don't you settle that boulder down and get inside? Your mother had prepared breakfast", Asia said as she playing with her fingers.

"Oh, right. Um, ojou-sama, I'm going to put the boulder down, so would you please step down?" Issei looked over at Rias whose eyes were staring solemnly at Issei and Asia. "Ojou-sama?"

Rias seemed was snapped back to reality as she flinched slightly. "Ah… right, yes. Good work, Ise…" Rias said as she hopped down from the boulder.

Issei was a bit worried for a second, but decided to wave it off for now as he put down the boulder. "Well then, would you care to join us for breakfast, ojou-sama?"

Rias thought for a while, then a smile appeared on her face. "Sure, then. Why not?"

_(Scene break)_

At the end of the class at school, Issei's usual nap-time was disturbed as Matsuda and Motohama bowed before him.

"Master!" both of them said in unison, resulting Issei looking at them with droopy eyes with eyebrows raised.

"What is it again, you two?" said Issei rubbing his sleepy eyes. "And will you cut out the 'master'? Like I told you before again and again, I don't have a harem!"

"Bullshit!" said Motohama shifting his glasses. "Everybody has seen you talking with Gremory-senpai and Himejima-senpai more recently, not to mention, yesterday, our newest transfer student, Asia Argento-chan always been with you! Even if you won't admit it, you've already had yourself a harem, Ise!" Matsuda only nodded in agreement.

"…(sigh)… Whatever, what do you guys want now?" Issei decided to let them have it their way for now.

"We'll go to the point…" said Matsuda as he and Motohama clapped their hands together in begging. "We're desperate now! Please introduce us one of your girls! We beg of you!"

Issei's eyes twitched at their request. He never considers himself for having a harem. Sure, he has contact numbers of all Occult Research Club girls, including Asia, but the boy does not think giving his friends those contacts would be a good idea. Then he remembered that Mil-tan, one of the contractors have given him his contact number when they met by chance and the cosplayer expressed his gratitude for earlier incident with Freed.

"Fine", the two perverted friends looked up to see Issei handing out a piece of paper with a name and number written on it.

"Mil-tan…? Sounds kind of cute. What kind of girls is she, Ise?" asked Motohama.

Issei looked sideways with an awkward sweat. "Err… He… I mean, she, likes cosplaying…"

The perverted duo cheered gleefully without a doubt as they thanked him and stormed out of the classroom. Issei only sighed and hoped that those two will have a good time. He knows that he could not pray, but he still did so.

During the club activity, Issei just finished escorting Asia in one of her jobs as a devil. Yesterday it was Koneko to show the blonde former nun the ropes, since the client was one of Koneko's regular, while today was Issei's turn, since it was apparently Mil-tan who was doing the summoning. Issei was kind of glad that he brought Asia along, since the cosplayer, whom slightly creeped Issei out was more distracted on Asia rather than Issei himself. Upon their returning to the clubroom, the two new devils were greeted back by Akeno, while Yuuto and Koneko were doing their own things as usual. Issei approached Rias' desk with the latter sitting with her chin resting on her hand, her eyes were having the same far-away look that Issei noticed before.

"Buchou, we're back", Issei reported back, hoping his master will respond to him. However, Rias remained gazing blankly at the air.

"Buchou?" even Akeno was starting to get worried together with the others. "Rias?"

Still no answer.

"Buchou!" Issei clicked his finger this time and his voice was a bit louder, snapping Rias out of her own reverie.

Rias blinked a couple of times then she turned her heads towards her 'pawn'. "Ah, yes. Good work for today, Ise, Asia", said Rias as she simply smiled.

"Buchou, are you alright? You've been kind of out of it since this morning…" asked Issei in concern.

"I'm fine, Ise. I was just thinking about something, that's all. Nothing important to worry about", Rias replied with her hand waving.

Issei's eyes narrowed slightly and sceptically, he turned to Akeno with questioning look, hoping that the 'queen' would know something, However, Akeno simply let out a small smile as she shook her head a little, telling Issei not to ask anything more for now. The rest of the day in the club ended with Rias still spacing out sometimes.

(Scene break)

When the night fell, Issei was lying on his bed, resting as he waited for the time to pass until time for dinner. He thought over everything that had happened ever since _that_ day. Sure, he now had to take a bit detour in finding his father now, but considering the new friends he gained along the way made this detour worthwhile. As Issei just began to smile, suddenly a red magic circle with Gremory symbol appeared on Issei's room, alerting the boy to get up from his bed. As the magic circle glowed, a figure, which belongs to his master in her school uniform appeared and as soon as the magic circle had gone, Issei was suddenly being pinned on his bed by Rias. Issei who was surprised at sudden turn of events only blinked twice before he managed to say something.

"Err… Ojou-sama? What's wrong?" asked Issei looking up at Rias whose face looked desperate.

"Ise, I want you to take my virginity right here and now!" Rias suddenly said without any sheer of doubt in her voice.

Issei only blinked twice again as Rias' words sunk into his brain. "E-eh!?" Issei's eyes widened at such order. "Wait, wait, c- can you please repeat that again, ojou-sama?" Issei said nervously, his body somewhat could not move under Rias' body.

"I want you to make love to me", Rias said as she suddenly unbuttoning her uniform. "I know you might be inexperienced, but so do I. So let's do it gently, okay?" this time, the girl had put off her skirt and unhooked her bra, letting her entire body minus her private region for the world to see.

"_Holy_ _shit! This moment… This event… Is this what Matsuda and Motohama have always been waiting for!?_" Issei's face was now flushed in deep red as he looked at Rias almost naked body and he became even more nervous. However, Issei managed to notice the look in his master's eyes, and then Issei forced himself to get up and he held Rias' shoulders, pushing her back gently.

"Ise…?"asked Rias as she saw Issei's concerned face.

Issei took a deep breath and let it out. "Ojou-sama, I need you to calm down for now. You really out of it today", said Issei with firmed eyes.

"What is it, Ise? Am I not good enough for you? You can do whatever you want with my body, you know?" Rias said in desperation as she brought one of Issei's hands from her shoulder to her breast. Issei's eyes twitched ever so slightly as he blushed again, fighting his hardest to hold the urge to squeeze Rias' breast.

Issei finally managed to let go of Rias' breast as the former placed his hand on the latter's shoulder again. "No, no. Ojou-sama, it's not about whether your body is good enough or not, but you're REALLY kind of loose it at the moment. Just… Just take a deep breath and calm down, okay?"

"No, listen to me, Ise. There's no other way but me doing this, and I want to do it with you!" said Rias back with more desperate tone.

Issei's eyes widened again as he saw how desperate Rias was. His expression turned into a frown as he was still holding Rias firmly. However, before Issei could have made out anything in his mind, another magic circle with the same symbol appeared in the room, alerting both teenagers on the bed.

"Tch, I guess we're too late…" Issei turned his head towards his master, not really believing that his master just clicked her tongue, which was not very un-lady like in his view. When he turned back at the magic circle again, a beautiful woman appeared. The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, with silver hair and matching eyes. Her hair, which flows all the way down to her back, features a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest is let down, ending in twin braids. She was also wearing a blue and white French maid outfit with long sleeves and a white maid headband over her head, with red lipstick as a cosmetic accessory.

When the maid looked at Rias and Issei, her eyes narrowed. "Milady Rias, are you aware of what you're trying to do here?" the maid's question was ignored as Rias simply turned her face away. Issei himself could only remain silent to see how the event would fold up.

"Your family will be very upset if you tried to do something as drastic as this to break off your engagement, not to mention to do it with some random lowly person…" said the maid finishing with a sigh.

Rias' turned back immediately and she glared at the maid. "Grayfia, who will have my virginity is mine alone to decide. And even though you are my brother's as well as the maou-sama's 'queen', I would like you to watch you say! Ise is one of my precious servants, and I won't allow anyone, even you, to insult him", said Rias with a calm, yet un-wavered tone.

"Understood. But still, milady Rias… you should have more modesty. It is not good for you to show your skin easily to anyone", said the maid identified as Grayfia as she picked up Rias' clothes from the floor. As soon as she handed the clothes over to their owner, the maid turned her head towards Issei. "How do you do, I'm Grayfia, the maid of Gremory house-hold. Pleased to make your acquaintance", said Grayfia bowing politely at Issei.

Issei quickly straightened himself while he remained seated on the bed, then he gave a bow as well. "How do you do too, Grayfia-san… My name is Hyoudou Issei. The pleasure is mine."

Grayfia's eyes widened ever so slightly when she heard Issei's name, but she quickly regained her composure afterwards. "Very well then, milady Rias. We should go back to the house now. Everyone is waiting", said Grayfia at Rias who had finished clothing herself properly.

"Yes. Can I bring Akeno together with me?"

"The Priestess of Thunder? Of course, you are expected to be seen with your queen at all times, after all."

Rias turned towards Issei once again with apologetic look. "I'm sorry for tonight's inconvenience, Ise… We'll talk again tomorrow", said Rias as she land a quick peck on Issei's cheek, resulting Issei to blush slightly again.

As soon as the two devil women had teleported away in the light of the magic circle, Issei slumped on his back to the bed. He let out a huge sigh as he covered his eyes with his right hand. "Oh, boy… Tomorrow's gonna be sooo awkward…." said Issei before Asia called him out for dinner.

X

On the following day, Issei and Asia were heading at the Occult Research Club together as soon as they had finished their class. Apparently they received a notice in the morning to gather in the clubroom for an announcement. They met with Yuuto on the way and the three now were walking inside the old school building.

"I wonder what buchou-san wants to tell us…" Asia was the first one to start a topic.

"I don't know, I'm just as clueless as you are, Asia-san…" Yuuto replied with a shrug.

"Well, whatever it is, we just have to deal what buchou has to say with Grayfia-san, don't we?" Issei replied rather nonchalantly.

"Huh? Issei-kun, you know Grayfia-san?" asked Yuuto stopping on his track.

Issei raised his eyebrows slighlty at Yuuto's question. "Y-yeah, I do. I actually met her last night…" Issei replied as he remembered the awkward moment with his master before.

"Ise-san, did someone come to the house last night?" Asia asked innocently.

"Err… I'll explain later, Asia…", Issei replied with a small sweat-drop.

"Okay… And how do you know that she's waiting inside?" Yuuto asked again.

"Well… Let's say that after meeting with her once, I managed to somewhat pick up her presence… And I somewhat familiar this kind of chilling presence behind this door", said Issei as the three were actually had arrived not far from the clubroom entrance. The brown-haired boy could not forget, the presence that Grayfia gave last night were akin to a giant dried-ice that made the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "You feel her presence too, right?"

Yuuto only shook his head at Issei's question. The latter only stared at the former with deadpanned look. "Okay, never mind that. Let's go in and find out what'll happen, okay?" Issei dismissed the conversation and he opened the door.

When they entered the clubroom, Issei was greeted with the sight of his other club-mates, his master, who was unusually sitting on one of the couches instead of her usual desk, and right on his money, Grayfia who was standing besides Rias' couches together with Akeno. Grayfia maintained her usual stoic face, while Rias' expression was rather grim, and Akeno was smiling as usual, though Issei could tell something was off behind that smile. Issei, Asia and Yuuto simply nodded in greeting and took their own seats.

"Alright, now everyone is here…" Rias' was the one who started without any greeting.

"Milady Rias, should I be the one to explain?" Grayfia interrupted.

Rias took a glance at the maid. "No, I'm the 'king' here, so I'll do the explaining", then Rias set her eyes on everyone in her peerage. "So everyone, basically…"

Before Rias could have said anything more, a magic circle appeared on the empty space of the clubroom. The magic circle did not belong to the house of Gremory. The said circle had a bird-like picture encased in circular shape.

"Phenex…" Issei could have heard the word coming from Yuuto, whom looked in weary as the circle got brighter.

The circle itself, rather than glowing, it suddenly flared and a flame erupted from the circle, showing a figure of a man appearing from it.

"Ah… It has been a while since the last time I visited the human world…" the man came out from the circle said, the way he carried himself, in Issei's view like the one who was as if owning the whole place. Typical arrogant bastard that he usually saw in story-books. The man himself was a tall and handsome young man in his early 20's with short blonde hair and dark blue eyes. His outfit consists of a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery on the right with matching pants and black dress shoes. Underneath his open blazer is a white dress shirt that is not fully buttoned (just one button short), giving a slight view to his chest.

After scanning the room for a while, the man's eyes stopped on a particular red hair, then he approached the owner of the said hair. "My dear Rias, I've come here to see you…" the man nonchalantly walked towards Rias. As soon as the former sat down besides the latter, the man wrapped his left arm around Rias' shoulder, much to the latter's disgust, and before the man's right hand could have gone on Rias' laps, the latter slapped the man's hand harshly.

"Don't touch me so casually, Raiser", Rias said spitefully as she glared at the man identified as Raiser. "What do you want?"

"Hahaha, harsh as usual, my dear…" Raiser replied playfully, as if he did not take Rias' respond seriously. "Whatever, we should go take a look at the wedding hall, we also need to verify the reception date and greet our families as well."

Judging from Rias' attempt last night, her current expression, and the word 'wedding' as well as 'reception', Issei did not like where this conversation would lead to. The boy would like to at least apprehend the Raiser guy accordingly, like for example, at least a shove or perhaps one or two punches in the face, but Issei would like to try a different approach this time. After staring at Raiser all chummy with his master impassively, Issei raised his hand as he turned to Grayfia.

"Um… Excuse me, Grayfia-san…" the woman in question turned her head towards Issei, and the boy continued on, "I'm not sure what's going on, but…" Issei pointed at the blonde-haired man, whom was now looking at him. "Why is there a gigolo suddenly barged in to the clubroom?"

"You…! How dare you…!"

Various reactions occurred when Issei asked the question. Raiser stood up and furious at the boy, Rias tried to hold down a smirk came to her face, Akeno and Yuuto giggled silently, Koneko snorted, Asia yelped when Raiser yelled, and Grayfia simply remained impassive as ever as she addressed Raiser first.

"Please calm down first, Raiser-sama", then Grayfia turned to Issei, as well as everyone else. "Issei-sama, let me introduce you. This man is lord Raiser Phenex, the third son of Phenex household of 72 pillars. He is also Rias-sama's fiancée", said the maid gesturing at the man now identified fully as Raiser Phenex.

"_So it really went down to this way, huh…_" Issei thought grimly as he maintained his straight face.

Everyone who knew what Issei was doing starting to get worried for the boy just showed unsightly manner towards the third son of Phenex clan. However, since everyone else also did not fond of Raiser Phenex as well, they decided to see how things going to play out for now.

_(Scene break)_

"Hmm… Delicious. I expect nothing less from the tea prepared by Rias' queen", Raiser said complimenting the tea prepared by Akeno. The man himself was still sitting next to Rias, with his hand still wrapped around her shoulder, much to the latter's displeasure.

"I'm glad that it suits your taste…" Akeno simply said, but those who know Akeno well could tell that Akeno's smile was totally a fake one.

"Okay… So this gigolo-wannabe is buchou's fiancée?" Issei started a conversation with another insult.

"Why, you…! After knowing who I am, you still dare to call me names! Who do you think you are!?" Raiser got angry again, but this time he still remained on his seat, though he clenched his fist and the room's temperature felt higher than before.

"Ah, sorry about that. I'm Hyoudou Issei, Rias-sama's 'pawn'", Issei simply introduced himself without any respect in his tone.

"Hmph, I see. This is the first time I heard that you finally recruited a pawn, my dear Rias… So I guess I can understand why this pawn has not heard about me yet. But the question is, why have you not told them anything about me yet?" Raiser somehow looked calmer, but his anger towards Issei still present.

"It's because I believe that I don't ever need to. And let me tell you once again, Raiser. I won't ever marry you!" Rias answered and she declared her intentions with spiteful tone.

Before Raiser could have retorted back, Issei also followed. "My master is right, Raiser-san…" all occupants of the room turned their eyes at the brown-haired pawn who was remained calm on his seat. "I'm aware that you're engaged, I don't really understand about devil's politics, but I can say you don't deserve to have a woman such as my master", Issei said calmly, inviting Raiser to raise his eyebrows.

"Hoo? Then do tell me why, you 'pawn'…" Raiser asked in challenging tone.

"It's obvious, because…" Issei closed his eyes and he opened it, his expression getting serious. He stated as he gestured his hand towards his master, "Rias Gremory-sama, along with the glory of her sexy body and graciousness, already belong to us, the Occult Research Club!"

At Issei's blunt statement, everyone, minus Grayfia all sweat-dropped at the same time. Soon after, Issei's head was smacked by Koneko, as the white-haired girl simply looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Idiot…"

Issei himself did not complain anything about Koneko's hit as he rubbed the sore spot in his head and maintained his impassive face. He did expect to get not-so-good reactions from the others.

_**[I kind of agree with that rook girl, partner. Even as a joke it was kind of dumb]**_

"_Shut up…"_

Asia and Yuuto only sighed as they shook their heads in slight embarrassment, while Akeno simply giggled in amusement. Rias herself only rubbed her temple at her pawn's antics.

Raiser also only chuckled in amusement. "Kukuku… You sure have an excellent jester as your servant, Rias… And anyway, you are aware as good as I am, Rias… Ever since the last great war, our races, especially pure-blood devils had been greatly depleted. Our marriage is an important step for us to preserve the number of pure-blood devils, as well as to flourish the name of our house-holds", said Raiser to his reasoning.

"I do understand my duty as the heiress of my family, and I'm willing to take a husband", but before Raiser could have voiced his own agreement, Rias cut him off. "However, who my husband will be is my own choosing. My parents may have an authority over me to fulfil my duty as the heiress but they don't have the right to choose the man I'd want to spend my life with! And that man is not you, and it will never be you!" Rias finished her objection with determination.

Issei only smiled a bit at his master's determination. However, the room's temperature suddenly got even higher. Everyone in the room noticed torrents of flames were erupted around Raiser as he stood up.

"I have enough of your selfishness, Rias… I will take you as my wife, even if I have to burn all of your own servants to ashes!"

At Raiser's stunts, everyone's expressions hardened as they took their own positions and stances as they prepared for a fight to break out. Issei himself readily shielded Asia with his body at moment's notice, his thumb cracking his other fingers in anticipation. However…

"Enough", Grayfia's voice took everyone's attention away as the room's temperature suddenly dropped several degrees yet again.

"I will not tolerate anymore violence to occur. Even I won't hold back against you, Raiser-sama…" Grayfia said in a cold tone as her aura leaked out from her body, chilling out the air around the room.

Everyone, including Rias quickly composed themselves and relaxed. Raiser himself only snorted and he put off his flames. "Who am I to dare to talk back against the underworld's 'Strongest Queen'? Considering the peerage of Sirzech's Lucifer-sama was a bunch of monsters…"

Issei himself could not help but to sweat drop at Grayfia's display of power. From the aura alone, the boy could tell that the maid was one of the top dogs of the underworld and not someone to be underestimated. The 'Strongest Queen', huh? Issei almost could not believe that a woman as strong as her is working as a maid.

Grayfia put off her aura as she spoke again, "Lord Lucifer and each of respective households had foreseen this coming, so all of us had agreed to resort to an alternative."

Rias raised her eyebrows at Grayfia's statement. "Alternative? Could it be…"

What Rias anticipated was confirmed by Grayfia's next words. "Yes, an un-official Rating Game will be held between Rias Gremory-sama and Raiser Phenex-sama. If Rias-sama were to win, the engagement between the two will be nullified, however, if Raiser-sama were to win, the marriage will proceed as planned"

Rias' eyes narrowed in displeasure. "To even resort to such alternative… How long they want to interfere with my own life?"

"A Rating Game, huh? Very well, this is a good opportunity to show you that there is nothing you can do but comply to be my wife, Rias… So I'll take the pleasure to show you your place", said Raiser with full confidence.

"This is also my chance to gain my freedom. I as well will take the pleasure to blow you away, Raiser!" said Rias with determined tone.

Grayfia took a glance on both Rias and Raiser, then she announced, "I see, very well. I have confirmed that you both have agreed to this alternative, thus I shall informed lord Lucifer and both of your respective households."

Before Grayfia and Raiser took their leave, Raiser took another look at Rias' peerage and he asked, "Rias, all are these people your servants?"

Rias narrowed her eyes again, "Yes, what about it?"

Raiser exploded in laughter. "Hahahaha! Sure you don't think you can win with only these numbers, do you? So far, only your 'queen' can fight evenly with all of my cute servants!" then Raiser snapped his fingers.

At the sound from his fingers, another magic circle of Phenex clan, which was bigger this time, appeared and a burst of flames came out from it, revealing fifteen women with each of them wearing rather exotic clothing that match various kinds of fetishes.

"As you can see here, I have a complete set", Raiser brandished his arms to emphasize his peerage with all of his pawns, knights, bishops, rooks and the queen.

Issei took a look at Raiser's servants one by one. There were those who wear gym-suits, maid-outfit, cat-ears, kimono, etc. But the one that caught Issei's eyes was a beautiful young girl with dark blue eyes. She had long blonde hair that was tied into twin-tails with large, drill-like curls, and blue ribbons keeping them in place. The front of her hair has several bangs hanging over her forehead, with a V-shaped fringe hanging over the bridge of her nose. Her outfit consisted of a light purple dress with dark purple accents and a blue bow at the front. In Issei's eyes, the girl's bearing was way too esteemed to be a mere servant. Her bearing was more like a princess. Nevertheless, once he had done took in the appearance of each girl, the boy could not help but whistled at the spectacle.

Raiser who noticed Issei's reaction smirked in return. "Do you see now, you lowly pawn? The difference between you, a low-class and me, a high-class devil?"

Issei only blinked and he put a thinking posture. Then he put his fist on his palm as if in epiphany. "Hmm…. Let's see… Oh, right! You're simply a lecherous, womanizing asshole while I'm not?" Issei replied with wide smile, without any hint of remorse. The rest of Gremory peerage could not help but held their laughs and giggles in amusement.

The women of Raiser's peerage simply narrowed their eyes at the boy who insulted their master, while the said master simply fuming in rage yet again. "Why you…!" However, Raiser quickly composed himself yet again after he felt Grayfia's warning glare on him.

After straightening himself up, Raiser turned to Rias. "My dear Rias, how about I give you ten days to train your peerage?"

Rias's eyes widened and narrowed in anger. "You say that I and my peerage are too weak?"

"Kukukuku… You know well of my expertise in Rating Games, Rias dear… And let me tell you, Rating Game is not something that can be won with your feelings alone… So prepared yourself, might as well you prepared your wedding dress… Hahahahaha…!" Raiser laughed as he prepared to teleport away with his servants along with Grayfia. However, before he disappeared, he looked towards Issei whom was still staring at him. "I'll make sure that you'll pay after humiliating me today, pawn of Rias Gremory…" then Raiser finally disappeared in a burst of flames, with Grayfia disappeared into her own magic circle.

_(Scene break)_

Once after Raiser and Grayfia had took their leave, the rest let out relieved sigh and Rias turned her gaze towards Issei. "Ise, although I must say that some of your insults are quite… right on the spot, did you really have to make a fool out of yourself earlier?"

Issei laughed sheepishly as he rubbed his head. "Well… I have my own reasons, buchou. But for now, we have to focus on something, right?" Issei asked with serious tone.

Rias nodded her head as she decided to dismiss Issei's earlier antics for now. "Right. Everyone, Akeno and I will prepare the venue to train for the next ten days. So all of you please go back to your homes and prepare yourself for tomorrow, because we will go for a training camp. Understand?"

Everyone in the clubroom chorused at the same time. "YES!"

X

_(Unknown location)_

On a barren wasteland with brown, dust-cloud covering the sky, a figure of a man with bald head and clothed in an old outfit that consisted a black long-slack, dusty T-shirt, a pair of worn-out shoes, worn-out finger-less gloves on both hands, and a tattered cloak, was sitting on a carcass that seemed like a giant, deformed mutated, four-legged dinosaur. The said dinosaur had blood flowing like a river from its mouth, a crack that looked like a fist-mark adorned on the side of its skull, presumably the result of its death.

"…(sigh)…" Upon sitting on the carcass, Hyoudou Saitama was taking a quick breather after he took down the said dinosaur when his phone suddenly rang. Saitama turned his gaze on his pocket and picked out the cell-phone that never ceased to impress him. The man still remembered the first time he received the cell-phone from Azazel after the incidents when he ended up fighting with the devil… Sir… Sir… who was it again? Saitama could not remember the first name of the devil he fought that day, because he thought that his name was very hard to spell, but he remembered that he was also known as Lucifer. Saitama also still remembered that the Lucifer guy was actually nothing like a cunning, evil being that he used to hear in the past, in fact, Saitama admitted that he enjoyed talking to him. Another fact was, ever since that day, he, Azazel and that Lucifer guy had been e-mail buddies and they contacted each other from time to time.

Saitama did not expect that instead of e-mail as usual, his phone was receiving a call, a call from a number he recognised, nonetheless. Seriously, this cell-phone will be a hit in the market, since the gadget can literally reaches everywhere, even to the place he was currently at now. He flipped open the phone and he pressed it on his ear. "Hello?"

"… Yeah, I'm doing fine now, what about you?… Um, did I?... Yeeeaahh… I do actually… Erm,.. Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I did never tell you before… Okay… Uh-huh… Uh-huh… Wait, come again?" then Saitama heard lots of noises coming from behind him. "Erm, sorry. I kind of busy right now. Can we talk later?... Yeah, got it. Thanks, err… Right! Sirzechs! Sorry, your name was kind of hard to spell out… Yeah, you too. Tell Grayfia that I said hello", Saitama then ended up the call as he closed his cell-phone. He let out another sigh as he looked up at the dusty sky.

"_Now it had come to this, huh_…" Saitama thought as his mind ran to his family that he left behind. "_I guess I should go for a quick visit back home… Or should I not?_" Saitama contemplated again as he stood up from his seat. He turned his heels toward the source of the noise and he hopped down from the giant carcass he was previously on.

"I'll think about it later…" Saitama murmured to himself as he gazed at front of him. "After I deal with you lot…" Saitama finished as he took a step forward, walking towards a horde of monsters and beasts in various forms, some of them had their various weapons ready and some of them had their fangs and claws brandished, ready to attack Saitama at a moment's notice. As soon as the sound Saitama's collided fists was heard, the horde roared and lounged their bodies and respective weapons towards the man whom only had his impassive face on and his fist ready to retaliate.

**Done! So sorry if this chapter was much shorter than the previous ones, since I do not have much idea for a twist for this arc. For those who were rather wondering about Issei's stupid jokes and antics, the guy intentionally took a fool's approach simply to make Raiser let his guard down on him. I mean, you might want to see Raiser's dumbfounded expression when he see what Issei can do to him right? In the end, please voice your opinion about this chapter. Was it good or bad? Did I mess up somewhere? What do you think of what I did with Saitama? Please leave a constructive criticism instead of flames. Thank you. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	8. Phoenix (II)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello again, my dear readers! Without beating much around the bush, this chapter is basically just my rehearsal of writing fighting scenes since I never really wrote a proper one before. There will be a twist I put on Issei so please tell me what do you think of this chapter! Enjoy! m(_ _)m**

**Chapter 7: Phoenix (II) – Training Camp**

Issei and the rest of Occult Research Club were trekking on their feet on the steep hills towards the Gremory private villa on the mountain site to train themselves for the rating game against Raiser Phenex. They could have just teleported right away to the site, but Rias suggested to walk through conventional means, saying that it would serve as physical training as well. Rias, Akeno and Asia's luggage were not that heavy, as most of their belongings were assigned to Issei, Yuuto and Koneko.

"Ise, Yuuto, Koneko… Are you still up to go?" asked Rias behind her in concern, perhaps her servants could use some rests, considering it was a long hike to the training grounds.

"Don't worry, buchou. I'm still good to go!" Yuuto was the first to reply.

"Same here, ojou-sama! Right, Koneko-chan?" Issei followed and he turned towards the rook, who simply hummed and nodded in agreement.

Yuuto's bag-pack, while the size was two or three times more than human's standard, Yuuto's luggage size was pale in comparison against Issei's and Koneko's. The pawn and the rook were walking behind the knight and walking side by side, with each of them carrying a luggage as big as a car on their back. While Issei was already used to heavy lifting thanks to his daily exercise, Issei found it was more exhausting try to get a proper foothold on the uneven, mountainous grounds, as the pawn almost slipped several times thanks to the steep path. Koneko took a glance at her 'devil junior' on her side to see Issei was still trying to get used to walk on the rocky ground with his extra-large luggage on his back, his sweats were apparent as the boy seemed having a hard time.

"Issei-senpai, are you sure that you don't need to take a breather? You looked tired…" Koneko voiced her concerns. For the rook, who was already given by enhanced strength and defence on her muscles and bones, not to mention her past experiences to boot, Koneko just had to use her strength on her legs to simply sweep off any obstacles on the hiking. However, Issei's pawn trait, while it did enhance his physique, his basic strength was not as absolute as a rook.

But fortunately for Issei, he just managed to get used to the uneven ground as he started to feel easier and easier to take steps by steps. His lips twitched to a playful grin. "Of course, I am, Koneko-chan…" His eyes darted to the rook beside him. "Rather, are YOU sure that you can keep going? 'Cause it seems like you're slowing down", said Issei as he got ahead of Koneko.

Koneko's eyes twitched in slight annoyance, as she was aware of what was going on. It was not that the rook was slowing down, but it was just that Issei quickened his pace after the pawn managed to get himself accustomed to the terrain. Feeling her pride as the pawn's 'senpai' (considering how long she had become a devil compared to Issei), Koneko also quickened her step to keep up with the pawn.

Once Koneko had gotten ahead of Issei, Koneko looked over her shoulder and sent Issei a small, challenging smirk. Issei who noticed the expression grinned back as his eyes lit up in excitement. "So it's going this way, huh? Game on, little girl!" Issei muttered as he also picked up his speed again.

The hiking immediately turned into a foot-race to the top between Koneko and Issei, as the two tried to overcome each other as their walk escalated into a jog, and full-speed running as they ran passing Yuuto, who was slightly surprised at sudden burst of speed from the two runners, then Koneko and Issei ended up running passed Rias, Akeno and Asia, who also got surprised at the two antics.

"Wha- Wait there, Ise! Koneko! Don't overexert yourselves! This is not a race!" Rias yelled at her two running servants, but her words seemed fell on deaf ears, as the rook and the pawn kept running to get ahead of each other towards the top of the hill.

"Geez… What's wrong with those two?" Rias only sighed at the two, while she thought it was kind of dangerous to run like that on a steep path, she also knew that their destination only several hundred meters away, and her two 'racers' seemed had already reached the place before the rest.

"Ufufufu… Isn't it good for those two were already that excited in the first day of training, buchou? It could serve as a good warm-up, if I have to say myself", Akeno giggled at the spectacle, while Asia only smiled sheepishly.

"I hope so. Anyway, we need to catch up with those two since it's already come to this. Yuuto!" Rias commanded and turned towards the knight who was still behind, assuring that the knight would keep up with them. The said knight shook his head in amusement at Issei's and Koneko's antics, before he yelled back in affirmation as he started to speed-up as well.

When Rias and the others arrived at the villa, they found Issei and Koneko were resting after their 'race'. The pawn was found on his fours, his breaths were heavy, but his expression was nothing like exhausted. The rook was resting her hands on her bent knees, her face remain impassive but she was panting as well, both of them were sweating like a river from their heads.

"…(Pant)… (Pant)… How's that… (Pant)… Koneko-chan?" asked Issei staring at Koneko, who stared back.

"…(Pant)… I got… (Pant)… here first… (Pant)…"

"Good grief… What did I tell you about over-exerting yourselves? Now you're already tired even before the training even started…" Koneko and Issei turned their heads towards the voice that belongs to their 'king'. Rias' sighed again with the rest smiling sheepishly behind her. The pawn and the rook quickly regained themselves as they steadied their breathings.

""We're sorry…""

"Never mind that. Now everyone, let's get inside and packed yourselves to your rooms and get changed. We'll start our training once we're ready!" Rias commanded at her peerage.

"YES!"

X

After quick-cleaning the house from the pilling dusts, everyone was told to prepare themselves for training in their respective rooms. Issei and Yuuto got their rooms on the first floor, while the girls got the rooms on the second floor. When the boys were about to go inside their rooms to change their clothes, both of them said in unison.

""Don't peek""

""Eh?""

Both of them stared at each other in awkwardness. After looking at Yuuto impassively, Issei simply groaned as he smiled and he waved his hand in dismissal, as if to say 'forget about it' and went into his room. The knight himself only giggled as he went inside his own room as well.

_(Scene break)_

Currently, at the villa's backyard, Issei and Yuuto, now clad in jerseys/track suits, were facing each other with bokken on their hands, or to be precise, magic-reinforced wooden swords. The first training for Issei, who was still a rookie, was weaponry training against Yuuto, who was specialised in using swords. The purpose of this spar was actually to gauge Issei's overall fighting skill, since the group never really saw how Issei fare during a combat. Issei himself never held a weapon before. So he swung his bokken with his right arm for a few moments to get the feel of it, then he prepared his own stances, positioning his sword in front of him pointing at the knight, while his body simply stood in defensive manner, his legs stretched to hold his ground. His Boosted Gear was not present, for Issei decided to try not relying for his trusted Longinus for once in a while. Yuuto, who put a classic kendo-style, raised his eyes slightly at the sight of Issei's unorthodox stance, but he decided to see how it would play out for now.

Rias who acted as the referee with Koneko, Asia and Akeno, clad in their jersey suits as well, on the side line as spectators to gauge Issei's parameter with their own eyes. The 'king' raised her hands. "Ready?" the two fighters hardened their stances. Then Rias swung her hand down. "Begin!"

At Rias' words, Yuuto was the one who moved first, given his superiority in speed. Issei however, aware that he would not be able to keep up with Yuuto if he moved, so he decided to stand on his ground and relied on his senses and defence to deal with the knight.

Yuuto suddenly appeared in front of Issei, and with his right hand, the pawn quickly reacted by slamming his wooden sword to the ground to intercept, which Yuuto quickly dodged to Issei's side to strike back. However, Issei managed to react quick enough to swing his sword to clash with Yuuto's.

THWACK! THWACK! WHOSH! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! WHAM! WHAM!

The two clashed swords with Issei used minimal movements to hold his grounds while Yuuto used his agility to evade and retaliate. After few clashes, Issei managed to find an opening and swung his sword,

"Ha!"

TRAAKKH!

Forcing Yuuto to block and let himself to be thrown backwards to reduce the impact on his body.

Once he got on his feet again, Yuuto steeled himself once again and he once again lunged at Issei. This time, the knight tried to put more power in his strike instead of pure speed and agility alone. The result was not much different than the previous fight, after few times of clashing weapons, evading and counter-attacking, the knight was pushed back once again while Issei was still remained on his position. The pawn was panting as sweats were pouring down lightly, clearly that he was actually having a hard time to keep up with Yuuto's speed and his sudden increased strength to add. Yuuto himself was quite surprised that Issei's reaction and reflex were better than he thought.

The spectators' eyes were widened at the battle. All of them did not expect Issei to fare pretty well against the experienced knight of Gremory. While Issei's fighting style was more like a delinquent instead of proper swordsmanship, the new pawn had proven himself to be able to hold his ground against the Gremory knight.

"_Quite a_ _barbaric style he has there… But he's pretty good for a beginner… Interesting… How about this, then_?" Yuuto smirked as he thought to himself as he attempted on a different approach as he started to incorporate both eastern and western swordsmanship in his stance.

The knight ran circling Issei instead of running straight to him like before for few seconds, then he lounged again towards Issei and the magic-reinforced wooden swords were clashing once again. As Issei blocked, retaliate, and dodged slightly at Yuuto's quick attacks, he found himself had to hone his senses and body even higher due to Yuuto's attacks suddenly more varied. Then, the pawn found another opening and he brought his bokken down, slamming it towards Yuuto. However, that opening was a decoy. The knight easily side-stepped to dodge the pawn's sword and as soon as the sword made contact with the earth, Yuuto quickly stepped his foot on Issei's sword, then he put his weight on it to prevent the sword from moving.

Issei's eyes widened at his blunder. "Crap!" he cursed as he found that he could not move his weapon. He was also aware that trying to pull back his sword from the ground would give enough time and opening for Yuuto to attack. Right on cue, the knight smirked in victory and he swung his sword horizontally at Issei's exposed neck.

At first, Rias thought that she would have needed to end the session once Yuuto's strike connected, but she did not do so when she noticed Issei's eyes were not the eyes of those who were about to loose.

Issei's eyes focused on the incoming attack on his neck, then he let his instinct took over, surprising the spectators and the opponent before him. The pawn jerked his body backward, evading the sword's slash at the last second, then as soon as he regained his footing back again,

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Issei resorted to use bare-handed martial arts as he sprung towards his opponent with several punches, kicks and swings of his arms. Yuuto, while surprised at sudden retaliation, still managed to dodge at last seconds and jumped back to gain another distance. The knight did not expect to see his opponent to abandon his weapon and resort to unarmed strikes, but the pawn himself was breathing even heavier, as if he was startled as he picked up his sword from the ground.

Yuuto's smirk back to his face as he commented, "That's really surprising of you, Issei-kun…"

Issei tried to steady his heart-beat as he took a deep breath, before he smirked back at Yuuto. "Haha, thanks. I honestly thought I was a gonner back there…" Then the pawn swung his swords lightly several times with his right hand. "Now it's my turn, isn't it?" Issei said as he took and let out a deep breath to regain his focus, and his body suddenly leaking out a small amount of aura that glowed dimly in white. Yuuto and those who were watching from the side, safe for Asia, had their eyes widened slightly at the phenomenon that occurred on Issei's body. However, from the spectators who aware, one particular rook had a slight fear in her eyes.

Issei crouched down a bit, preparing to strike. Yuuto also put back his stance again in return. Issei started to run towards Yuuto and the pawn suddenly lunged at the knight with tremendous speed after few steps, leaving a small crater on the ground from the force of his legs. Yuuto did not manage to evade as he suddenly had to block the attack and was being pushed back when he just took a step forward to retaliate.

"Hup!"

THWACK!

"HAAA!"

Issei let out a cry as he used his strength to swing his sword that was still pressed against Yuuto's sword. As the pawn swung his sword diagonally, he managed to throw the knight to the air.

"_Kuh…! What a power…!_" Yuuto grimaced as he was thrown away. "_And he's not even using his Boosted Gear!"_

While the knight was still in mid-air, suddenly the pawn already leapt to the air above the knight and he flipped his body to gain momentum before he slammed his sword downwards.

CRASH!

Fortunately, Yuuto managed to brought his sword up in guard as Issei's strike sent him back to the ground. Immediately after Yuuto hit the ground, Issei suddenly already landed and he swung his sword once again.

THWACK!

The sound of reinforced wood clashing was heard even louder as Issei and Yuuto were now locked with their bokkens pressing against each other.

"That's enough!"

At Rias' command, the two immediately loosened up and they backed off each other. The two combatants were sweating bullets and breathing heavily from exhaustion, but they shook hands.

"You're surprisingly good for a first-timer, Issei-kun…" Yuuto complimented with a smile.

"Thanks. Your moves and techniques are hard to deal with, Kiba… I was having a hard time keeping up with your speed…" Issei replied with his goofy grin.

X

The girls were having various reactions. Asia and Koneko were stunned at the display before the former cheered up as she approached the pawn, while the latter simply silent with wide eyes. During the battle, the rook noticed something from the pawn's body earlier.

"Ise-san, Kiba-san, that was amazing!"

"Ufufufu, our new kouhai really is full of surprises, isn't he?" Akeno commented.

"Well done, you two", Rias claimed with proud smile. She was surprised by her newest pawn yet again.

"I'd like to test your ability in hand-to-hand combat as well, but…" Rias said darting her eyes to Koneko than back to Issei. "Seeing the way you retaliated when Yuuto took your weapon away was enough for me to gauge your aptitude in that field. What do you think, Koneko?" Rias turned towards Koneko, whom is also a specialist hand-to-hand combat.

The rook blinked at Rias's question. Her expression softened, yet resolved as she spoke, "I'd like to see it for myself", as she took a step forward.

Rias looked towards Issei in slight worry since the pawn still looked tired from his spar against Yuuto. However, the said pawn took a deep breath as he nodded with a smile, saying that he was still good to go. Issei himself wanted to see how he would fare against a rook opponent as well. As soon as the two combatants took their respective positions, Rias swung her hand down, signalling the beginning.

However, the fight between Koneko and Issei was rather anti-climactic. As soon as Koneko made the first move forward, Issei found that Koneko's movements were significantly slower than Yuuto. The pawn still did not use Boosted Gear, instead he simply clenched his fist and moved faster than Koneko and he quickly connected his left fist on the rook's gut.

BAM! CRASH!

"Kuhhk…!" Koneko grimaced as her body was launched straight away through a couple of trees, before finally stopped as her body stuck at the last tree in line. Issei, who still had not pulled back his smoking punch yet, only sweat-dropped at the result of his attack.

"Koneko!" Rias and the others shouted in worry after they saw Koneko being launched back in one hit.

"_Oh, shit… Did I go too far?_" Issei thought worriedly. He knew that rook's traits were enhanced strength and defence, thus he tried to put the amount of power in his punch more or less the same amount of the punch he used on the male fallen angel with fedora a while ago.

"U-Um! Koneko-chan! Are you okay? I- I'm so sorry!" Issei stuttered as he apologised. The boy had no idea that his punch would have dealt so much damage.

Few seconds later, the rook pulled her self out from the tree trunks. She coughed out for a couple of times before she walked over to the group as Asia quickly approached her and put her healing power on the rook's stomach. Thanks to her rook's strength, her body did not suffer any internal injuries. Rias, Issei and the others quickly followed as well to make sure that Koneko was fine, with the rook in question simply took a deep breath, massaging her sore stomach for a second, and she held up her hand, gesturing that she was fine.

"Koneko-chan, I swear I didn't intend to hit you that hard! Please forgive me!" Issei said as he bowed his head.

"I'm fine, Issei-senpai. In fact, that was not a bad hit", Koneko replied, trying to cheer-up the pawn. Issei raised his head back again and he smiled sheepishly, still feeling guilty.

On other hand, though painful, the rook had confirmed her suspicion thanks to the hit she received. Koneko turned towards her 'king'. "Buchou, Issei-senpai can use touki."

At Koneko's remark, Rias, Akeno and Yuuto had their expressions turned into those who had a confirmation. "It's faint… But I can tell that it was definitely touki that leaked out from Issei-senpai's body during the spar with Yuuto-senpai."

Everyone turned towards Issei who looked confused. "Um… Sorry, but what's touki?"

Rias put up a thinking position before she answered. "Well… I don't know much about that particular field, but basically, touki is an ability where a person can create aura to envelope the body, giving that person an enhanced attack power, defence, and speed tremendously", she thought again before she continued. "Because you've been training your physique quite hard since you're young, I guess it's given that you have a talent to use touki. You should learn to get a better control on your touki manipulation, Ise."

Rias was about to ask Koneko to at least give Issei an advice or two to utilise touki better, since that particular field supposed to be the speciality of Koneko's origin. However, she decided to go against the idea, considering the rook's past.

Issei looked at both of his hands after listening to the explanation. Then he tried to remember the feeling when he stroke back against Yuuto earlier. True to him, even without his Boosted Gear, Issei found his body was stronger and faster. He contemplated for a moment, that time, he remembered again when he fought with Koneko, he was using all his muscles to move, and he suddenly felt something like a power boost. The pawn tried to tense the muscles on his hands, then he could see a faint white glow coating his arms. So that what touki is, huh? Issei made a mental note to learn controlling this new-found ability later.

"Well, then… Let's see how you will fare in magical arts, shall we?" said Rias signalling Akeno to come up.

_(Scene break)_

BOOM!

Another explosion occurred at Issei's spot in the living room where Akeno was teaching Issei and Asia how to control their magical powers. In Asia's case, the new bishop was doing quite well as she managed to create a magic sphere as big as a softball. The bishop also managed to induce various elements into her magical sphere as well.

However, on Issei's case, the earlier explosion was from his attempt to make a magic sphere for a second time. Akeno and Asia ended up had to gain distance from Issei in order to avoid the explosion. Every time the pawn tried to create the sphere, at first there was only something invisible appeared on Issei's hand. Akeno could not really see it, but she could tell it was probably Issei's own magic since there was a visible space-distortion where Issei's magical energy should have appeared. When Issei was told to use his imagination to give his magic sphere a more concrete form, suddenly his magical energy glowed in green and suddenly the green energy flared out wildly like a raging fire, and when Issei tried to control the energy and make it into a sphere, the energy burst out in explosion just when the spherical shape started to take form.

"Hmm… I see now, I understand why you couldn't use the teleportation magic in the beginning, Ise-kun", said Akeno looking at Issei attentively.

"Yes?" Issei said after coughing few times from the dusts, his body was covered a bit with burn marks, turned his head towards the queen.

"Your magic was somewhat… too volatile. The reason you couldn't teleport back there was because your magic was too out of control, causing the magic circle to malfunction, thus making it exploded", Akeno explained.

Issei put a contemplating expression on his face. If his magic was so hard to control, why did he manage to fire his dragon shot in the first place?

_**[It's because I was there to help you controlling your magical reserves, I simply fused a fraction of my own power so I had a share of control as well]**_ Ddraig's voice was heard in Issei's mind as the dragon listened to his host's mind.

"_I see… I guess I should thank you for all those times. Well, it's time for me to be independent, don't you think?_" Issen looked up at Akeno. "Akeno-san, I'd like to try one more time", Issei asked his senpai.

Akeno blinked at Issei's request, but she then smiled. "Ufufufu, if you're still up for it, who am I to refuse?"

Asia who was watching as well also nodded faithfully. "Un! You can do it, Ise-san!" the bishop said with resolute eyes.

Issei took a deep breath and let it out as he tried to channel his magical reserves once again into his opened hand. As he closed his eyes to focus, a green flare, this time smaller than before, erupted on his palm and it immediately started to dance wildly again as it increased in size. Issei winced slightly in pain as the magical energy started to burn his magic circuits.

Seeing the magical energy on Issei's palm going wild again, Akeno's eyes hardened. "Ise-kun, stay calm and focus!"

Issei focused his mind even harder as a reaction was seen on Issei's magical energy. After few moments, Issei's eyes shot open and he grabbed his left arm that held the magic energy with his right.

"OOOOH…!"

Issei cried as he tried to control his magical energy with all his might. The energy slowly turned into a softball-sized sphere as the pawn glared at the sphere intently. Then suddenly the sphere started to fluctuate wildly again. Akeno braced herself for another explosion as Asia closed her eyes and covered her ears in anticipation.

"Hnngghh…!"

Issei grunted, sweats pouring down from his head as he tried to keep his magical orb from exploding again. He drew several deep breaths and the sphere stopped fluctuating. When Issei relaxed, the sphere simply remained glowing on his palm. The pawn's expression brightened up and he turned his head towards his friends. He just managed to create a magical sphere that was only slightly smaller than Asia's.

"I… I did it!"

"Ufufu… Well done, Ise-kun…" said Akeno as her expression turned pleasant and proud.

"Congratulations, Ise-san!" said Asia joyfully. However, just before Asia took a first step to approach the pawn, the door leading to the room where Issei was training suddenly flung open, revealing Rias, who just returned after supervising the quick spar between Yuuto and Koneko, who were following behind her into the room.

"Akeno, how's Ise and Asia's magic training?" the king asked as she entered the room.

"Ah, ojou-sama!" Issei's eyes shot at his master and he took a step with his magical sphere on his palm.

Akeno took a glance at Issei and suddenly her eyes widened in alarm. "Ise-kun! Don't let your guard down! Stay focus!"

"Eh?" Issei then realised his magical sphere started to act up again. "Oh shi-!" Issei grunted as he struggled again to stabilise his magical sphere, only to have the said sphere to fluctuate again and explode in his face again.

BOOM!

As the smoke from explosion cleared out, Rias and the others only sweat-dropped and finally laughed when they saw Issei's face was all marred in slight burn marks, his hair was curled slightly from explosion.

The pawn let out a sigh as he waved his hand and simply said, "I still have a long way to go".

X

As Rias had called it a day for now, Issei was found with Akeno and Asia cooking dinner in the kitchen.

"I don't know that you can cook, Ise-kun…" Akeno said with amused tone as she chopped up some meat.

"Yeah, I sometimes had to cook my own meals when my mom had to go for a while for some business. As long as it's nothing fancy, I could fix a meal or two", Ise replied as he slicing and dicing the vegetables.

"Come to think of it, what about your father, Ise-san? I've never seen him around ever since I moved into your house", asked Asia at Issei as she prepared the utensils, spices and other stuffs.

"He left".

Akeno and Asia stopped on what they were doing as they paid attention at Issei who was still cutting up the vegetables. "Eh?"

"My mom said that he just left when I was two years-old."

At Issei's answer, Asia covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes gleamed in tears, while Akeno had a kind of sorrowful expression. "I… I'm sorry, Ise-san…" said Asia apologising.

"Nah… Don't sweat it. It's not like he left us for good", Issei smiled and he waved his hand then he continued to pour the chopped-up vegetables into the pot. "I don't know what he's doing now, but every once a month, he will sends us enough money to sustain ourselves".

Both girls' expressions softened and Issei spoke again. "But it won't stop me to drag him back home, though", Issei looked over his shoulder to see the girls' eyes were back at him again, prompting him to continue. "Once I got the permission from ojou-sama later, I'm gonna set on a journey to find him", Issei said as he wiped down some vegetable pieces that stuck at the knife.

Akeno and Asia smiled at Issei's declaration. "Then, I hope you can find him and make up with your father, Ise-san!" said the bishop cheering, but before she returned to the task at hand, she asked shyly. "And when you set out on your journey… Can I come with you?" Asia asked with flushed face as she played with her fingers.

The pawn blinked once then he grinned, "Sure, I guess introducing you girls and Kiba to my dad is not a bad idea!" Issei replied with a thumb-up. Asia's eyes beamed for a second and she nodded with her joyful smile.

"Fufufu, make sure you'll give your dad a good beating if he resist, okay?" said Akeno teasingly as she turned back to her own task. Unknown for Issei and Asia, despite her smiling and giggling, her eyes were somewhat sad for a second.

"Hn, you bet, Akeno-san! The first thing to do when I found him is to punch him in the face on behalf of my mom!" said Issei exclaiming raising his fist. The girl only sweat-dropped before they giggled again.

Meanwhile, at the unknown side of the world, a certain bald-headed hero suddenly sneezed. Strange for him, since he never got sick ever since he obtained his current power.

_(Scene break)_

"Well… That was pretty good…" Rias said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. The rest of the peerage had just finished with their dinner as well.

"You have Ise-kun and Asia-chan to thank for", Akeno interjected, motioning her hands towards the pawn and bishop.

Asia only looked down in embarrassment while her expression was quite a happy one, while Issei only smiled sheepishly as he rubbed his head. "No, no… Akeno was the one doing all the work, Asia and I are just assistants", the pawn said waving his hand.

After dinner, everyone still remained at the dining table. "Okay, now let's do a quick review of today, shall we?" said Rias at her peerage around her. "While everyone still have not lost their touch, Ise was doing much better than I had expected", Rias said smiling, looking at her pawn. The said pawn only nodded in gratitude.

Then Rias' smile dropped as her expression turned serious again. "But you're still lacking in regulating your own magical reserves. Tell me, Ise… How good are you with your Sacred Gear?"

Issei rolled his eyes in contemplation for a few seconds. Then he replied, "Well… I pretty much have mastered all basic abilities of the Boosted Gear, but…" Then Issei turned sheepish. "For some reason I still can't achieve my Balance Breaker. So I've been relying on my daily exercise to strengthen my physique".

Rias nodded in acceptance. "Well, thanks to that you have a talent to use touki to enhance your strengths even further. So, aside from increasing all of our fighting capabilities, Ise, you need to either achieve your Balance Breaker or have a better control of your touki. Of course, both would be much preferable. Is that clear, Ise, everyone?"

All of the peerage shouted in unison. "YES!"

However, Issei widened his eyes as he remembered something. "Oh, actually, ojou-sama…" Issei said raising his hand. The rest of the group turned their attention to the pawn. "I have another proposal for our training camp. May I?"

At this request, Rias simply raised her eyebrows, prompting Issei to elaborate himself.

X

The second day of training camp was started by a 'warm-up' exercise, as Issei had explained during the dinner last night. The 'warm-up' consists Akeno teaching Asia some defensive spells, Rias supervising Issei's magic training (which Issei's attempts still ended up in explosion from time to time, with the pawn was only able to make a stabilised magic sphere about slightly bigger than a size of a golf-ball), and Koneko sparring with Yuuto. When Rias decided to train herself with Akeno, Issei and Asia would join Yuuto and Koneko as the pawn would also spar with the knight and/or the rook, with the bishop standing-by as a medical aid.

During the match with Yuuto again, while the knight would use his sword (real sword), Issei chose to achieve his Balance Breaker during the training rather than his touki control, thus instead of using a reinforced wooden sword, Issei used his Boosted Gear as his respective weapon, saying that using weapon other than his Boosted Gear was not really his thing. Koneko had given some basic explanations about touki, but when Issei asked the rook more about life energy and those stuffs, Koneko turned her gaze side-ways, as if she did not want to discuss about the matter. Yuuto himself only put a hand on Issei's shoulder and shook his head at the pawn, asking Issei to drop the topic for the time being. When the match began, thanks to Boosted Gear ability, Issei managed to keep up with Yuuto's speed, however, the knight's techniques and his other arsenals made Issei always got outsmarted by Yuuto's counter-attacks. The field were filled with noises of Yuuto's sword collided with Issei's gauntlet.

THWACK! CLANG! CLANG! WHOOSH! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHAM!

Overall, while Issei is stronger, had better reflexes and could be faster than Yuuto if given enough time, Yuuto still out-classed Issei in terms of techniques and agility.

While during the match between Koneko and Issei, the rook decided to play defensive. She simply stayed on her spot as she jerked her hand in taunting. Issei immediately knew that the rook before him was planning something, so instead of dashing forward, the pawn also tried to use a different approach. With steady pace, the pawn walked towards the rook cautiously and as soon as he was close enough, Issei threw a punch to Koneko's face, which this time, Koneko managed to block it. The rook quickly retaliate right after she slapped Issei's fist away with a punch of her own, with Issei easily blocked it off.

BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHAM! BAM! WHOOSH!

The cycle of punching, blocking, and retaliating kept repeating between the two and it soon became simple exchange of attacks in high-speed between Issei and Koneko. Soon kicks were also delivered from Koneko, since Issei's posture is bigger, the pawn could not really deliver any powerful kicks and stayed in using his hands and used his feet to hold his ground. Koneko used the advantage of her smaller build to sneak through Issei's defences and she quickly wrapped her arms around his body. Issei was quite surprised that Koneko was pretty nimble for a rook, and her position behind him made Issei difficult to make a counter-measure. The pawn's eyes widened as the rook used a German-supplex on him.

BRAAK!

"Ouch…" Issei simply let out a groan. Now he learned that the strength of a rook was quite a force to be reckoned with.

Issei quickly got up on his feet again and he walked around circling the rook, with his eyes glued on Koneko whom staring back as well. The rook learned that the pawn already had a knack in a hand-to-hand combat, and one of ways she could find so far to get around him is using grappling and throwing techniques, basically, pro-wrestling moves.

The spar went on with Koneko still stayed on her pro-wrestling techniques as she tried to find another opening to grab Issei while she dodged and blocked the pawn's strikes, while the pawn, being more cautious now, less attacking and he kept moving in circle to avoid Koneko to catch him. When Rias and Akeno came over to call the group for lunch break, the match ended in a tie, or rather, technically in Koneko's favour since the rook was the one who managed to make a hit on Issei. The rest of the match had gone with neither of them managed to go through each other's defence.

As the group had their lunch while discussing about their earlier training, Rias turned to her pawn. "Ise, prepare yourself when we had finished our lunch".

The others turned their gazes at the pawn as they put their respective smirks, safe for Asia, aware that the next session after lunch was the real training that Issei proposed from last night.

The pawn blinked twice at first then he let out a small sigh, then he let out a confident grin with eyes fired-up. "Of course. Do your worst, guys…"

_(Scene break)_

Issei was now hiding inside a large bush within the forest at behind of the villa. He sharpened all of his senses to detect any movements around him, his eyes could only see straight at front, since the pawn himself was surrounded by leaves and twigs. In fact, his sight in front of him was not that clear as well since all the leaves and the twigs were in his line of sight as well. He dismissed his Boosted Gear since the gauntlet's announcement would reveal his position, which irked him. It was ironic, in a way, his greatest ally in battle was now his greatest hindrance.

"Huff… Now what to do from here…" Issei whispered to himself after he took a few deep breaths. Then he recalled about his touki talent. Since Boosted Gear was out of option, at least for now, he could use other alternative to enhance himself while still being stealthy, as well as to train his touki manipulation at this opportunity.

Issei took another deep breath as he concentrated to feel the life energy inside him. He tensed his muscle a bit as he felt the aura enveloped him and he felt stronger. Issei sharpened his senses once again to make sure that his surroundings were clear of hostiles. Suddenly, his eyes widened in alert and he quickly bolted out from his hiding spot.

"Shit!"

BLAAR!

Right after few steps away from the bushes, Issei's previous hiding spot was struck by a lightning-bolt. Glancing back at the bush, which was now burning, Issei realised that his position had been compromised through some means and he manifested his Boosted Gear.

**[Boost]**

The gauntlet yelled as it starting to double-up Issei's parameter. He looked towards the tree-covered sky, and he could spot two shadows with a pair of bat wings on each backs were looming over him.

"Fufufu… I found Ise-kun~", a voice with playful and teasing tone came from one of the shadows.

Issei soon knew it was the sadist queen in his group, Himejima Akeno and his master, Rias Gremory. The pawn clicked his tongue and he quickly ran away as powerful bolts after bolts were struck down right at the spots he was at previously. When the queen saw the pawn was running for his dear life, her face flushed, she held her right cheek with her hand, and she licked her lips in bliss as she kept sending her thunder magic.

"Ohohohoho! What's the matter, Ise-kun? You need to run faster, or else you're going to get burned! Ahahahaha!" Akeno said with gleeful, yet sadistic laughter. The queen was clearly enjoying what she was doing to her devil junior.

Rias, who was flying beside Akeno, only sweat-dropped at her queen's antics. She thought it was only to be expected from her sadistic queen. Issei, who listened to Akeno's sadistic glee, only groaned as he kept running to avoid the thunder strike.

"_She's really into this… What was I thinking, proposing this idea?_" Issei thought as he started to regret his earlier proposal for the training camp. Finally, the continuous thunder strikes had stopped together with Akeno's laughter, as Issei ran longer, however, the pawn suddenly felt two presences. One was tailing him, the other one was already waiting in front of him.

**[Boost]**

A pincer-attack? Issei thought as he decided to change his course to avoid the opponent in front of him. But after he changed his course, the spot where his foot stepped on while running suddenly glowed in red. Issei's eyes widened as he realised that he just triggered a trap created by magic.

"Crap!"

Issei quickly leapt out of the way out of the explosion that occurred from the trap.

BOOM!

Issei's body was thrown away by the explosion's kinetic force. The boy covered his face with his arms from the blast, his body rolled over the ground as it landed, and Issei continued running.

**[Boost]**

The training Issei was doing now was the training method that Issei had proposed to his friends during the dinner last night. Since their opponent, Raiser Phenex has a complete set of peerage, which put Rias in disadvantage in terms of numbers, the pawn proposed that each member of the group, except Asia, to be trained to engage multiple opponents at once. The training went as one member would be placed at a certain place inside the forest behind the villa, and the member was to accomplish either one of two objectives: 1. Race back to the villa within one hour, while the rest of the group would have to attack and stop him (with intent to kill), or 2. Defeat the other four opponents within the said time limit. This training would also help the others to train their teamwork as well.

Asia, who did not have any combat experiences nor capabilities was assigned to stand-by at the goal and to act as a medic if the current member on the challenge were to suffer bad injuries. The bishop herself had already been taught several defensive spells during the morning / warm-up training. And right now, Issei was the one to be the first to fulfil his own training idea. As Issei was running for his life and avoiding traps after traps, the pawn was ambushed by Yuuto, with his sword readied. Using his Boosted Gear gauntlet to intercept Yuuto's sword, Issei tried to fend off his attacker while made sure that he was still running at right direction towards the villa.

**[Boost]**

Issei ended up cornering himself into a tree as he dodged and blocked Yuuto's strike, only to be ambushed by Koneko who fell from top of the tree.

"Ei!" was all that came out from the rook as she brought her fist down.

BAM!

Issei managed to roll out of the way to avoid Koneko's punch that left a crater on the ground. Yuuto was now on him again and the pawn back to fend off his attacker again and having even harder time as Koneko also joined in to attack him.

**[Boost]**

Issei decided to have enough and he raised his gauntlet-cladded fist and he brought it down.

"HAAA!"

BAAM!

Koneko and Yuuto were forced to leap away from Issei to avoid the flying debris of rocks caused by a shock-wave , as the pawn's fist created a crater on the ground, even bigger than the crater that was made of Koneko's attack. Seeing Issei ran-off again, Koneko and Yuuto was about to give another chase, but remembering the direction where Issei was heading to, the two decided to wait for another chance. Since Issei's direction was also a part of the plan.

Issei who was running blindly for a second finally realised that he was being led to a clearing. As soon as he arrived at the open area, he stopped, he looked up as he felt a powerful energy signature, and he saw Rias and Akeno were flying right above him, as if they had been expecting him, with their respective magic were prepared to be fired.

**[Boost]**

Issei's eyes widened at the smirks that adorned the king and the queen's faces, and the girls on the air shot their hands together toward the pawn, and a mass of Rias' power of destruction together with Akeno's thunder were fusing into one powerful attack. The pawn did not have to think again as he decided his course of action.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

Issei's green aura exploded from his body, he quickly held his Boosted Gear towards the mass of thunder and power of destruction above him and he used his now enhanced power to counter Rias and Akeno's fusion attack.

"Dragon Shot!"

The red beam was fired from Issei's gauntlet, and its force was enough to stop Rias and Akeno's combined power to hit him.

KA-BOOM!

"Kyaaah!" Rias and Akeno let out surprised shrieks as they were enveloped by the wave of smoke from the explosion.

As soon as two magic attacks were collided, an explosion occurred and Issei quickly used the explosion smoke as a cover and he quickly ran away back into trees. Due to all tensions that had occurred, Issei had lost his track of time. How long has it been now? 30 minutes? 40 minutes? The pawn only knew that he had to either reach his goal or knock all of his opponents out. The second option was rather hard, considering his two opponents were staying on air while his flying skills were still lacking, and dealing the rook and the knight, who were pretty good in co-op attack, was already quite difficult for him. So the most favourable option left for him was to head towards his goal as soon as he could.

When he could see the villa from the distance, Yuuto and Koneko had ambushed him again. However, this would be different. Since Issei still had his enhanced power from his 'explosion' before, the pawn was now able to keep up with the knight's speed and manage to take care of the rook with a surprise punch to the gut. As Koneko was thrown quite far across the forest trees this time, Issei only had to make sure that he would not go off-tracks as he dealt with Yuuto. The said knight was having a hard time this time due to Issei's increased power, so the knight had to use his trump card.

"Sword Birth!"

Yuuto slammed his hand to the ground, and numerous blades and swords in various forms and shapes sprout-out from the ground to impale Issei.

SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING!

"Whoa!" Issei's eyes widened in shock as some of the blades tore off a part of his suits around his torso.

"The hell was that!?" the pawn yelled in surprise after he barely managed to dodge the blades that came out from the ground.

Yuuto only smirked at Issei's surprise. "Fufufu, that's my 'Sword Birth'. A sacred gear that allows me to create demonic swords based from my mind. You've done well to force me to use my trump-card, Issei-kun…"

"Gee, thanks for the compliment", Issei said playfully. Then he stopped to think for a second. "_A sacred gear that can create swords? Then…_" Issei turned to Yuuto again.

"Oi, Kiba!" Yuuto stopped moving at Issei calling his name. "Can you do Unlimited Blade Works with your sacred gear?"

"What?" Yuuto asked with an expression as if Issei had grown a tail on his ass.

After few seconds of awkward silence, the pawn raised his both arms and he shook his head. "You know what, forget what I asked", then Issei used his still-enhanced strength to leap on trees above Yuuto, passing the knight and the pawn continued his trek towards the villa, but of course after he fired off a quick Dragon Shot as a distraction.

BOOM!

Yuuto coughed out some smokes caused from Dragon Shot's explosion, then he saw Issei's figure that was already far away. "Wa-wait!" But even with his knight speed, it was too late already to catch up with Issei.

By the time the rest caught up with Issei, the pawn was already on his fours, panting and sweating as he finally reached the villa's backyard. The pawn noticed that the others had arrived and he rose on his feet to turn towards them, and he hold up a victory sign as he snickered in satisfaction.

"42 minutes and 30 seconds, good work, Ise-san!" Asia said holding a stopwatch. Issei only smiled back at her with his usual goofy grin.

"Well done, Ise…" Rias said complimenting.

"Yes, good work for you too, ojou-sama, everyone", Issei replied towards the others, whom also nodded in acknowledgement.

Rias remained silent at the moment. She was aware that Issei was not so good at flying, so she understood why he was avoiding to fight her and Akeno mid-air. Considering his feat during stray exorcists and fallen angel feud a while ago, Issei should have been able to defeat Yuuto during the yesterday's match. Perhaps her pawn was not using his Boosted Gear that time, hence he was only able to keep up with her knight. But if so, then her pawn should have been able to at least defeat either Koneko or Yuuto earlier to have easier time to accomplish his training objective.

Rias watched her pawn who was chatting and discussing about the training with everyone else. Issei during the feud with Asia and rogue fallen angels was not thinking properly of his own well-being, that was why the pawn did not come out unscathed after he had taken on the enemy forces. But now, he had less enemy to fight with, and he also had touki for his additional arsenal beside his Boosted Gear, so why was Issei not able to defeat Yuuto and Koneko immediately earlier?

But Rias closed her eyes and shook her head slightly as she decided to put her thoughts on hold for now, since she needed to focus on her current objective. Since Issei had done quite well in the training so far, she guessed she could think about her predicament later.

Rias clapped her hands to gain attention from her peerage once again. "Alright, everyone. Since Issei had finished his turn, and we still have ourselves quite some time for today, who wants to go next after the break?"

At the king's question, Issei grinned as he stared at his comrades with vengeful, yet playful looks in his eyes. The others only glanced at each other, contemplating on who will be the next to be targeted by four other members.

X

_(Time-skip, 7th night)_

That night, while everyone else was sleeping, Issei was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he was reminiscing the past training days and how everyone, including himself, had developed the fighting skills during the training.

Asia, while she did not take part in Issei's intensive training regimen, she was now able to deploy barriers and other defensive spells that will enable her to defend herself and escape to regroup with the others in case if she were to encounter the enemy team.

Koneko, while she was taken out quite easily during her first time, the rook was quite tough and skilful enough to survive for almost half-an hour. After tries after tries, Koneko became more crafty, even better than Issei to conceal her presence to avoid detection, relying on her speed more, as well as training them, despite being a rook, her hand-to-hand combat skills also had improved significantly. During her last try, Koneko managed to defeat Yuuto with her superior strength and her speed had gotten better, though still pale in comparison to a knight, but still faster than rooks in general. Her defence also improved, as she managed to remain standing after being struck by Akeno's thunder magic, although the rook was still receiving quite a damage and was stunned for a few moments before she could move properly again from the electric shock. When she engaged Issei, the rook still resorted to pro-wrestling techniques, using her strength and her build to sneak and catch Issei in her grip, giving the pawn a hard time to retaliate. Issei felt that there was something more inside Koneko than it usually appeared on the outside, but he decided not to pry too much into it.

As for Yuuto, the knight was very versatile during his first try. While he was easily taken down after got a direct hit from either members, especially Koneko and Issei, the knight had his defence improved as it took much more than one direct-hit to take him down. During his couple of final tries, Yuuto managed to invent new swords from his sacred gear to intercept Akeno's thunder and Rias' power of destruction, the knight also managed to incapacitated both Koneko and Issei by pinning them down to the ground with his demonic swords. The swords were not exactly harming them, but the way they were implanted through their clothes was proven to give Issei and Koneko quite some time and effort to break free, until both of them decided to forget about their modesty and forcefully broke free from the swords that pinning them down by ripping their own outfits (of course, Koneko had to glare at Issei whom ended up staring at the rook's revealed parts). However, it was enough time for Yuuto to reach the goal quite easily, as he just had to outrun Rias and Akeno with his speed alone.

In case of Rias and Akeno, both of them were the ones with the biggest guns in the group thanks to their magic. Akeno, being a sadist she is, was having fun in attacking the running Issei, who could not reach her due to his inability to fly properly, with her thunderbolts. Issei was only able to attack her if he used his dragon shot, which took some time to charge up if the pawn wanted to deal actual damage. Not to mention, if Issei had opted to jumped off to attack Akeno mid-air, the pawn would be quite an easy target for Akeno's attack. While the others, who actually able to fly, managed to force Akeno to descend to the ground, the queen still managed to give the others a difficult time thanks to her arsenals in elemental magic. Overall, it took several days for everyone, except Rias, to manage to force Akeno to fail her session, either by knocking her out through teamwork, or by making her ran out of time. But they usually made it through the latter method. During that time, like with Koneko, Issei felt that Akeno was hiding something in her power, but he could not make out what it is.

Rias was a similar case with Akeno. However, being a king, Rias had known her servants very well thus made her easily outsmarted and outran them, except Issei, who managed to surprise her during aerial combat. The pawn, for the first time, managed to avoid Rias' attack by gliding side-ways after his many failed attempts in flying, only to loose control again immediately as he flew uncontrollably and crashed into Akeno's boobs, much to Issei's embarrassment and Akeno's amusement, making the queen misdirect her thunder towards Yuuto and Koneko instead of Rias, disrupting the teamwork thus giving Rias enough time to complete her session in her first try. However, by the end of the training, after numerous trial and error, her attackers' teamwork and others' improved skills, Rias was forced to tamper her tactical skills and use her power of destruction in more variety and efficiently.

As for his own case, Issei simply believed that he had done his best and had improved himself compared to previous days. However, Issei still lacking in magic department. While he managed to manifest a small magic sphere with enough ease now, Issei still had to struggle to maintain his soft-ball sized magic sphere from exploding (which was still ended up exploding in his face sometimes).

Then, Issei got up, cringed his neck and stretched out his body before he walked out of the room to grab some drinks to help him sleep. When he was on his back to his room from the kitchen, he noticed that there was someone, whose presence was familiar, still awake despite the late hour.

Curious, Issei strolled through the villa and he spotted his master was reading a book. She sat by the window in the study room, wearing only her pink night- gown, and a pair of red-trimmed glasses could be seen on her face. Once again, Issei was captivated by the sight of Rias Gremory under the moon-light that shone through the window. Snapped out of his reverie after a moment, the pawn decided to approach his king.

"Ojou-sama?" Rias turned her head towards her pawn. "What are you doing here at this hour? You should get some sleep", Issei said as he walked towards his master.

"Ah, Ise", Rias turned to her pawn. "I still have to look for more information about Phenex. Why don't you come here and sit with me? I can appreciate a company", Rias said patting an empty spot next to her.

Issei smiled lightly as he complied and sat next to his master. "So… Ars Goetia?" Issei asked as he noticed the book Rias was reading. The king simply nodded. "Ojou-sama, I don't know that you're wearing glasses", the pawn said again commenting at Rias' glasses.

Rias fixed her glasses' position. "Well, it's just for looks. It makes me able to think better and more calmly", Rias replied with a small smile, before she returned to her reading.

Issei remained silent to let his master finished her reading, then after a while, Rias let out a sigh as she closed the book. "Um… How did it go?" Issei asked.

"I could only confirm how formidable our opponent will be", Rias replied as she removed her glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose.

Issei gave a thoughtful look, and he asked, "Aside from using flames, is there anything else our opponents store under their sleeves?"

Rias turned to her pawn and let out a sigh. "Phenex clan is known for having a power of the immortal bird in their bloodline. They possess immortality and a control over fire and wind. Just like a Phoenix".

"I see… An enemy who doesn't die, huh?" Issei said, giving another thoughtful look as he put his finger on his chin. "However, ojou-sama…" Issei said at Rias. "In a battle, especially a specific type of battle like a rating-game, there was always a way around an immortal, am I correct?"

Rias simply blinked at Issei's question, then the pawn said again. "Besides, I've once defeated a hydra, that is also an immortal, remember?" Issei said with confident grin.

Rias smiled as she let out a breath. "Indeed, you are right. But know this, Ise. Hydra may be immortal, but in the end, it's just an animal. What we're going to fight with is a devil who has enough experiences in rating games."

"How good is that gigolo wannabe, anyway?" Issei asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

"8 victories out of 10 games. Not to mention, his 2 losses were 'gifts' for the opponent's households he's close to…" then Rias continued after letting out an exasperated sigh, "This entire rating game was planned as if to tell me that I have no choice but to comply with the marriage…" Rias finished with tone of resignation.

"Say, ojou-sama…" Rias turned her attention again to Issei's call. "Why do you oppose this marriage so much? Not about marrying that Phenex guy particularly, rather, you oppose the entire idea of arranged marriage. Why is it?"

Rias remained silent for a second, then, "It's because I'm a Gremory." Issei simply tilted his head slightly at Rias' answer. "Back at my home, people only see me as Rias of Gremory instead of myself. Many men like Raiser only see me as a trophy because I'm a heiress of my family name…"

"So… You don't really fond of your name?" Issei asked after taking in his master's words.

"No, that's not it…" Rias shook her head. "I'm proud being a Gremory. I'm more than happy to inherit my household. It's just…" Issei saw Rias' gazed at the night sky outside the window, as if she was longing something. "I wish to be seen as simply me, Rias, not as Rias Gremory. That's why I go to attend school in human world, because everyone sees me as Rias, not the heiress of Gremory household from 72 pillars. Raiser only sees me as a trophy to be obtained, and I don't want that… I want to be with someone that only sees me as who I am… That's all I want." Rias concluded as tears started to well up a bit in her eyes.

"You know, ojou-sama…" Rias wiped her welling-up tears and she looked at Issei again. "Do you remember when our eyes met that day? You looked at me from the window of your classroom."

Rias immediately remembered when she spotted Issei dragging his two friends from her classroom's window. Sure, Rias had been interested in Issei ever since the pawn entered the first year of the Kuou high-school, but she did not expect that Issei still remembered that day. He remembered such a mundane event?

Issei averted his eyes the other way and a tint of red shade appeared on his cheeks. "Well… When I saw you from your classroom that day… I thought, 'beautiful', when I took a good look on your appearance, your hair, everything. I'd already heard about you, but until that day, I'd never seen you myself in person…" Issei said as he awkwardly scratched his cheek.

Rias listened at Issei as she still managed to supress a blush that starting to creep out on her face. "Then, when you saved me from dying that day…" Issei continued as he closed his eyes and his smile grew slightly. "I was really grateful…"

Rias started to smile as well when she knew that Issei was glad about his resurrection. "And do you remember what you said to me in the clubroom after we rescued Asia?"

Rias blinked once before she nodded at her pawn's question. "Then, just like you and the others will be there for me, I , Akeno-san, Kiba, Koneko-chan, and even Asia will be there for you", Issei said with confidence in his eyes. "And in my… No, in our eyes, you're not simply Rias Gremory, you are Rias, our master, our dear friend, the third-year student of Kuoh Academy and also the president of Occult Research Club. And also…" Issei's tone turned slightly embarrassed. "You're also the senpai that I admire so much…" Issei finished with grin.

Rias could not hold down her blush anymore as her cheeks turned deep red, which was not noticed due to lack of light in the room. "So you don't need to worry much about our rating game, ojou-sama! Everyone's gotten stronger day by day, and I'm sure we'll find a way to get you out from this stupid marriage!"

Suddenly, Rias' eyes turned guilty for a second. She had not forgotten, the reason she wanted to recruit Issei was to find a servant that is powerful enough to be her aid in opposing her own engagement.

"Ojou-sama? Are you alright?" Rias' snapped back to the reality when Issei closed in to check up on her. "Ah, yes. I'm fine. I guess I'm just getting tired. Let's go to sleep, Issei. We still have couple more days to train ourselves, after all…" said Rias as she stepped up from her seating spot.

"Yeah, let's do our best, ojou-sama!" Issei replied as he went back to his room after saying his goodnight.

Rias who also had returned to her room sighed as the guilt came back to her. However, after a moment, she opened her eyes as she decided to think about it later. There was no turning back for her after this far. She had to move forward and she will cross that bridge when the situation calls for it.

X

_(Time-skip, 9__th__ day, evening)_

The group was now enjoying the villa's hot-spring bath after the long day of training. However, unlike the rest of previous days, the morning training that day was for Issei and Asia to study more about three factions under Rias' tutelage. Unlike Asia who already had a knack in theory lessons because she was taught by the church before, Issei on the other hand, was having a hard time to memorize all the names of leaders of three factions. However, the pawn could still understand about the devil's weakness against light element and holly artefacts, claiming that he just had to use his common sense and his knowledge gained from supernatural stories and movies.

However, at the moment, Issei was facing another predicament. Right after dinner, Rias suddenly invited her peerage to take a bath together in the hot-spring, saying that taking baths together in order to strengthen the bonds and camaraderie within the team. Of course, Isse refused at first, imagining himself taking a bath with a bunch of naked, beautiful girls was too much for his mind to take. When Issei tried to reason about whether the other girls have a saying in this, Akeno simply shrugged as she claimed that she would like to wash a man's back, Koneko did not have anything in particular to object Issei's presence (nor that she cared anyway). However, a stern order from Rias and a shy puppy-look from Asia, Issei ended up to hung his head down in defeat. Even when the pawn asked Yuuto to help him out in his reasoning, the knight simply said that it was rude to refuse a woman's invitation.

Currently, Issei was drowning himself until only the upper-half of his face showing on the water, trying his hardest to look anywhere other than the girl's bountiful sights. Inside the spring, there were him, Rias, Akeno and Asia also were relaxing themselves in the water, neither of them, except for Asia who was blushing from being nude near Issei rather than the heat, showed any sign of embarrassment.

"Hm… Thanks for doing this for me, Koneko." Issei took a glance at Yuuto whose back was being washed by Koneko. "It's fine, Yuuto-senpai. It's a reward for your good work today, after all", the rook simply replied with a small smile as she kept rubbing the knight's back with a cloth clad in soap. "Then would you like me to wash your back in return? You also have worked hard during the whole training", Yuuto said looking over his shoulder. Koneko simply nodded with her small smile present. "Yes, please do so, Yuuto-senpai".

Issei could not help but awed at Yuuto. The knight was having a cute loli washing his back, and there was no sign of any embarrassment nor perversion on his face while talking to the nude girl behind him. Not to mention, he was also nude as hell! As expected of a highly esteemed knight, Issei thought. Being a comrade with these girls for so long had made Yuuto got used being with them in various occasions, including being nude together in a bath. Unless if the reason Yuuto could handle this situation well was because him swinging the other way, Issei had no idea what to make out of the Gremory knight.

"How's the water, Ise-kun?" Issei's thoughts were halted by Akeno's question, whom was dipping in the water not far from him. Issei automatically looked at Akeno, before he quickly turned his gaze other way. "Err… Yeah… It's nice…" Issei replied nervously. Issei honestly wanted to just bolt out of the water and quickly ran back to his room to calm himself, but other part of his mind made his body wanting to stay in the bath. His mind was torn between leaving or enjoying the view.

"_Shit… I got to get out of here quick before I lost my mind… But I can't bring myself to do so! Damn! And those breasts and hips really don't help! Mustn't look! Must not look! Calm down, me… Calm down! You're unlike those two perverts!_" Issei thought trying to compose himself.

_**[An advice from me, partner… While you're caught in this kind of situation, you can only either ignore the girls, imagining that you're alone, or simply just enjoy the view while you still can, otherwise you're only hurting yourself]**_

"_Shut up, you! Easier said than done!"_

"Um… Ise-san? Are you alright? You looked frustrated…" Asia asked shyly, since being nude together with a guy was completely new to her.

Issei took a glance at Asia who was shyly drowning her body until her neck, then he turned his glance away again. "Uh… Yeah. Don't worry Asia… I'm fine, really".

"Ufufufu, are you sure you're fine, Ise-kun? If you want to, I can give you a massage…" Akeno asked teasingly, scooting over to the pawn, making Issei's face fuming this time.

"Akeno, stop teasing him. This supposed to be for him relaxing himself, no?" Rias said reprimanding her queen.

Akeno turned to Rias with her teasing smile still present. "Oh my, buchou… Are you perhaps jealous? Wanting to have Ise-kun for yourself to tease? Fufufu…"

Rias turned red this time. "Wha- No! I just want Ise to have a good rest after days of training! That's all! It's not that I want to tease him or anything!" Rias replied with flustered face.

Akeno giggled at Rias response and thought, "_Oh my, I've never seen Rias being this cute, before…_"

"U-um… Ise-san, if you'd like… I also can give you a massage…" Asia said even more shyly as her face also fuming.

Fortunately for Issei, before things could get even more awkward, the pawn noticed that Yuuto had joined into the spring together with Koneko. Issei inwardly relieved, knowing that he would no longer be the sore thumb in the hotspring once a fellow guy also had joined him.

"Haahh… It's good to have a fun bath like this after hard training, isn't it?" Yuuto said as he enjoyed the water. Koneko who was next to the knight also purred slightly as the water heat ran through her body. "Ise-kun, that ability you showed me during our last training really impressed me. I never knew your Boosted Gear could do something like that", Yuuto said to Issei.

Issei immediately relaxed as the topic in the bathtub had changed. "Yeah, I actually almost forgot about it myself, probably since I never really fought along side you guys before…"

Rias who noticed that her entire peerage was now enjoying the bath, returned from her flustered to her own self. "Well, I must say that I'm impressed at all of your progress in these past days. However…" Rias turned to Issei, who was now more relaxed. "Ise, how's your progress with Boosted Gear and Touki?"

Issei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry… It seems I still can't reach my Balance Breaker. As for touki…" Issei showed his right fist as an aura, still faint, but more visible than previously shown. "I still don't really get about controlling my base of life and all, but I know that I can increase my current aura through training…"

"Fufufu… Even so, you've done well more than I'd imagined. Everyone here also showed a significant growth, don't you agree, buchou?" Akeno said to Issei and Rias, whom nodded in agreement.

Rias knew that everyone had improved. Yuuto had gotten tougher and he had become better in employing his strength and speed as a knight, combined with his Sacred Gear. Koneko, despite being a rook, she had become more agile and faster, proven to be fast enough to be able avoiding Issei and Yuuto's combined surprise-attack during her last session. Asia had mastered few defensive spells, not to mention her Twilight Healing can be an irreplaceable asset in the rating game. Akeno's magic had also improved in terms of fire power, considering that she managed to fend off her power of destruction even longer than her previous attempts. Rias herself also had found more ways and techniques to use her power rather than simply fired it off like a canon. As for Issei…

Rias' thoughts about Issei came back to the earlier days of training camp. Not being able to achieve Balance Breaker was still understandable, unable to master Touki in less than 10 days after finding out about it was also one thing, but thinking back during his feats in the abandoned church and forest of familiars, Rias had expected Issei to fare much better during training than he had shown. Her suspicion about her pawn not using his full power had grown even more. But still, Rias had to admit that Issei was still faring even better than Yuuto and Koneko during his last session. In his last session, Issei managed to defeat Yuuto and Koneko, and he almost defeated her and Akeno with his boosted-dragon shot. Nonetheless, despite her suspicion, she still decided not to pry too much into it, at least until the rating game was over.

Rias finally dismissed her thoughts as she rose up from her sitting position. "Alright, everyone! We all have trained to be stronger, we all have become stronger, and I'm proud of it, all of you. Let's preserve our strength tomorrow and preparing ourselves to the fight on the day after! We, Occult Research Club will prevail and we will resume our daily lives once this rating game is over!"

Everyone, including Issei who managed to put his attention on Rias' speech instead of her naked glory, cried in unison. "YEAH!"

Then Issei also stood up from his sitting position as he thought of something. "Then everyone, what do you think of victory celebration in the clubroom once we've won?" Issei said as he pumped his fist to the air.

Everyone glanced at each other for a second, then everyone smiled in amusement as they raised their hands as well. "OOUGH!"

Issei grinned widely with his fist remained in the air as he enjoyed the happy atmosphere. However, right that moment, the towel that was wrapping around Issei's waist suddenly fell off, revealing Issei's 'little Ise' for everyone to see. Rias and Asia blushed as their eyes caught the sight of the 'little Ise', Akeno giggled with her hand on her cheek as she muttered 'oh my, oh my' with her eyes glued on the 'little Ise', Koneko blushed with a frown as she looked away, and Yuuto only stared for a second before he tried to muffle his laughter. The bath during that night ended up with Issei tried to drown all his embarrassment down into the hot-spring.

X

At the same night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, Issei was the only one that still awake. The pawn walked out towards the backyard as he stopped at the middle of the field and he closed his eyes, taking the feeling of his surroundings. Taking few deep breaths, Issei cracked his neck and stretched his limbs a bit, and his mind trailed-off to everything that happened in past times.

He gained the power of the Heavenly Dragon after his training to search for his father.

His life changed forever as he met with his master and his new friends from Occult Research Club.

He found another friend, whom he failed to protect despite his newly acquired strength. He also remembered the first time he had been so angry over his lost. He as well still remembered the terrible feelings and regrets from that day.

He remembered the words his master said to him the other day.

He trained to be even stronger along with his comrades.

He recalled the promise he made to his master on the other night and the laughter he shared with his friends earlier.

Then Issei told himself.

_I want power._

_So I can laugh again together with them like earlier._

_I need power._

_So I can be stronger for her sake, for their sake._

As the pawn told himself those words, a powerful aura mixed of red and green covered Issei's body from head to toe, and when Issei opened his eyes, his eyes were gleaming with power.

Later that night, everyone who was sleeping in the villa suddenly woken up by a sudden jolt of powerful aura that came from the backyard.

_To be continued_

**A/N: And that's all for chapter 7! I'm sorry if you found this boring as the entire chapter just consists of Gremory's peerage training days. So what do you think of my fighting scenes? What do you think of developments I have on everyone? What do you think about Issei having a talent to use touki? Did I mess up in describing Touki? Considering many readers had complained that Issei was still too weak from expectations. What do you think of the twist I put on Issei? Depending on your responds and how the story goes, the twist may be simpler or more complicated than you thought. And I'm also contemplating right now whether to give Ascalon to Issei or Yuuto later on. Another note, I regrettably say that the next update might take longer, since my exams are coming up, so expect a later update (it might be sooner, I don't know). Constructive reviews will be appreciated and flames will be ignored and frowned upon. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	9. Phoenix (III)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Woohoo! I can't believe that I manage to pull this chapter off when I was supposed to be studying! This chapter contains the rating game and the aftermath of the game altogether. Please enjoy! m(_ _)m**

**Chapter 8: Phoenix (III) – Dragon vs Phoenix**

It was late at night of the 10th day. Issei, clad in his school uniform, was lying on his bed, waiting for the time of the rating game, which was right at midnight. The reason he was wearing his school uniform because his master said that after all, they are the members of Occult Research Club. Rias herself had also ordered him to gather and meet up with the others in the clubroom 15 minutes before the game start. As our Red Dragon Emperor laid down and stared at the ceiling, he later closed his eyes as he attempted to focus, reading his own power signature to confirm his own condition, as well as reminiscing about days in the training camp.

"_It's tonight, huh…"_ Issei thought as he tried to get a feel of his new powers he had obtained from the training. He clenched his fist, he tensed his muscles, and Issei could feel that his body was covered in his touki. The touki still fairly weak, because Issei in the end still had not fully understood about the base of life, but the aura was thicker than the first time as Issei felt his body was even stronger this time. He turned at his left arm.

"You ready, Ddraig?"

**[Always. Let's show our opponents the might of the Red Dragon Emperor]**

Issei smiled at the dragon's answer. Then he quickly woke up from his position when someone was knocking on his room's door. From beyond the door, a familiar meek voice was heard.

"Um… Ise-san? Can I come in?" it was Asia who was standing beyond the door.

"Yeah, sure. Come on in", Issei immediately replied. His eyes widened ever so slightly at the sight of the bishop wearing her old nun outfit. "Asia, isn't that…?"

"Ah, this?" knowing what Issei was implying, Asia moved around to show her clothes more. "Buchou-san told me that I can wear an outfit I'm most comfortable with… So I pick this one, albeit I'm a devil now... What do you think, Ise-san?"

Issei smiled then he nodded. "Hm. Yeah, it looks perfect on you", Issei finished with small grin.

"Um… Can sit next to you?" Asia meekly asked as her gaze darted on around the floor shyly.

Issei simply moved aside for a bit and he pat the spot next to him, prompting Asia to sit down. After the former nun sat down next to him, Asia scooted over even closer, her left side of the body was making a direct contact with Issei's side.

"Ise-san…" Asia said as she stared on her hand that clutching the hem of her clothes. "I'm scared…" she said as her hands tightening around her clothes.

Issei simply looked with neutral expression and he put his right arms across Asia's shoulders, pulling her even closer to him. "It will be fine, Asia… I will always protect you. Not just me, everyone, Kiba, Koneko-chan, Akeno-san, even Rias ojou-sama will protect you as well", Issei said as he looked at Asia, who looked at him as well. "So you don't need to worry. We, all of us will definitely protect you."

At Issei's words, Asia sighed in relieve as she finally smiled. "Ise-san… Can we stay like this until we leave?" Asia asked as she tried to feel Issei's warm body.

"Yeah, sure", Issei replied with a smile, and Asia closed her eyes to enjoy the warmth while she still can.

X

The whole members of the club gathered at the appointed time in the clubroom. When Issei and Asia entered the room, they spotted everyone was doing their own things to pass time. Yuuto, clad in his uniform with gauntlets protecting his both arms and shins, was inspecting his sword at a corner of the room. Koneko, with her uniform as well and a pair of fingerless gloves with a cat's paw on the back of each hand, was reading a book on one of the couches while eating her snacks from time to time. As Issei and Asia came in and took their own respective seats, they soon also spotted Rias with her school uniform as well was sitting with her legs crossed on one of the couches as well. The king was sipping the tea that was served by Akeno, who stood beside her. The queen herself was wearing a shrine-maiden outfit instead of school uniform. Issei stretched his body for a moment before finally sat down, while Asia sat down and she was still fidgeting slightly. Issei himself simply leaned back on the couch as he closed his eyes patiently. Then his eyes opened again when Issei remembered something. He turned towards Rias.

"Um, buchou?" Rias turned to Issei, prompting him to continue. "Where's your other bishop? You said before that he was doing another job, so where's he now? Come to think of it, I didn't see him during the training either…"

Rias simply smiled bitterly and replied, "Well… My other bishop has… complicated circumstances. So until I take care those issues I can't bring him out to a battle. You'll meet him soon enough, so don't worry about it."

Issei blinked several times at his master's reply. "_Circumstances? What kind of circumstances? Is this bishop special? Whatever, it's not the time and place to think about those anyway. Besides, if I'll meet him soon then I guess I can wait_", Issei thought and he fell back on his seat again, closing his eyes.

After few more minutes of waiting, a magic circle appeared inside the room and Grayfia came out from it. The maid looked over the room's occupants before she nodded in confirmation. "I see that everyone have arrived. The match will begin shortly. Are you all ready?"

Everyone looked up at the maid without saying anything. The looks in their eyes were enough for Grayfia to understand. "Very well. The match will take place in an artificial dimension that was established specifically for holding a rating game. The two households of 72 pillars, Gremory clan and Phenex clan will be watching this match along with their close allies and peerages. Maou Lucifer-sama will be watching as well. Please keep this in mind."

Issei took it quite well as he aware that since this match was regarding about his master's future, of course the families and the other parties that involved in this marriage setting would like to know the outcome. However, his eyes widened at Rias' mumbling.

"I see. Onii-sama is watching this match too."

"_Wait, did she just said 'onii-sama' at the mention of the Maou (devil king)? Could it be…",_ Issei thought as he looked around his comrades if they knew something about it.

Yuuto who noticed Issei's bewilderment whispered to him. "Buchou's elder brother is the Maou Lucifer himself."

While Issei was still surprised at the fact that his master is directly related with the devil king, Akeno also replied in addition, "Buchou's brother also known as the Crimson Satan. He's the strongest devil in the underworld during his generation, thus he was entrusted to rule as one of the leaders of the underworld."

Issei's fist clenched even tighter when he took in the information. "_I see… So the Maou himself has come to watch us, eh? Let's try to give him a good show. What do you think about it, Ddraig?_" Issei thought with an excited smirk.

_**[You bet 'cha]**_

"It is time now. Everyone, please step in into the circle", Issei and everyone quickly turned toward Grayfia again and they did as she told. Soon the light from the magic circle covered them as Rias' peerage was teleported away from the clubroom.

When Issei's view cleared up, he found himself and the others (minus Grayfia) were still in the clubroom… Or not.

"_We're still in the clubroom? But I thought… Wait_", Issei was thinking if the teleportation had foiled, but then he realised the sight beyond the window. He walked towards the window and took a good look at the outside. "_I see… So that's how it is…_" Issei realised as he found that the night sky outside the school was transformed into shade of green aurora, clearly that they were already in a different dimension.

Issei took a look more around the surroundings and he found that not only the clubroom was the same as the one back at home, the entire school grounds were also present in the artificial dimension. Contemplating about the school-grounds being the rating game field, Issei's suspicion was confirmed by Rias as the king huffed in disgust.

"This is just classic him. They're truly underestimating us…" Rias tone was clearly not amused.

Then, Grayfia's voice was heard through out the room.

"**Hello, everyone. I'm Grayfia, a maid of Gremory household and I shall be the arbiter of this rating game between Rias Gremory-sama and Riser Phenex-sama. As per Rias Gremory-sama and Riser Phenex-sama's opinion, the battlefield will be the replica of Kuoh Academy, the school where Rias Gremory-sama attends in the human world. I shall observe this match in the name of my master, Sirzechs Lucifer-sama."**

"_Intentionally giving us advantage? Fine. That Phenex guy will get his favour returned… Definitely_." Issei thought his fist tightened as he kept listening at Grayfia's de-briefing.

"**Rias-sama's base is the Occult Researh Club in the old school building, while Riser-sama's base will be the student council room in the new school building. For pawns who'd like to be promoted, you need to reach your enemy's territory."**

Issei looked at the direction of the new school building. To think about it, Issei never used a promotion before. This rating game would give him an experience about being promoted into a rook, bishop, knight, or even a queen.

"**The match will begin in 10 minutes. I wish best of luck for both parties."** Then Grayfia's voice was not heard anymore.

Everyone was now gathered at the table in the middle of the room, discussing strategies. Issei agreed inwardly when Rias wanted to eliminate the enemy's pawns first. Issei honestly confident that he would be enough to deal with all the pawns, but having 9 queens to fight was way too dangerous, especially for the others. With the strong assumption that Raiser's peerage will go straight to the old school building through the sport-field and the woods, Rias assigned Yuuto to set up traps inside the woods and Akeno to set up defensive barriers, as well as illusion spells around the old school building. The king also noted that the gym near the old school building could give them an easy access towards the new school building, so Rias ordered Koneko to secure their route. Rias herself would stay in the base as the commander for a while before giving supports to the others depends on how the game would go, with Asia beside her as the medical-aid. The plan was quite simple, take down all of Riser's servants, then regroup to gang-up on Riser later.

Issei, who was about to ask what his task would be, was told by Rias to stay with her to talk about something. The others were a bit curious about what Rias wanted to say to the pawn, but orders come first.

RING!

As soon as the school bell was rang, signing that the match had begun, those who had been given their respective tasks were bolting out immediately through the window. After watching his comrades left, Issei turned towards his master.

"So, ojou-sama… What do you want to talk with me?" Issei asked with his arms folded.

Rias had thought to address the issue about Issei's performance during the training camp later, but she realised that this was the perfect time to confirm her suspicion. She could not risk her victory and the others' safety just because her pawn was holding back.

"Ise… I'd like to ask you about your performance during the training…" Rias closed her eyes for a moment before snapped it back open. "Were you… holding back during the training camp?" there was a tint of doubt in her tone. Asia, who was darting her gaze between Rias and Issei at first, stopped her gaze at Issei when the question was asked.

"Huh?" Issei put on an incredulous expression before he replied back. "Wha- Of course not! I was giving my all in that training camp! I was the one who proposed that idea during training! What makes you think such a thing, ojou-sama?"

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was expecting you to do… better… Considering the feats you showed us back in the abandoned church and in the forest of familiars. So are you sure that you're holding nothing back in that training? Because that was an important training, Ise, and I can't have my pawn to slack-off behind while the others were working so hard to be stronger…" this time, Rias' tone was serious.

Issei simply sighed. "Ojou-sama… I did my best to keep up with the others, and what you saw in the training was simply how good everyone in the first place and how better they had become. I'd like you to believe that not only me, but all of us have given our all in that training to be stronger, for you, ojou-sama…"

"I… I also believe that Ise-san has worked so hard as well, buchou-san…." Asia voiced her opinion meekly.

Rias sighed as she closed her eyes. "I see… Then I'm sorry about what I said, Ise, Asia. Of course you all have worked hard for this match…" Rias looked at Issei apologetically, which Issei simply replied with an accepting smile and nods.

"By the way, Ise. Are you sure that 'secret weapon' of yours will work against Riser?" Rias asked again. During the 9th night of training camp, when there was a sudden jolt of power from the villa's backyard, everyone only saw Issei, simply clad in his tracksuit, with a trace of powerful aura around his body. When they asked him about what happened, the pawn simply said with a wink that he just got himself a 'secret weapon'.

"You bet, ojou-sama. In fact, if you wish to, I can use it to defeat Riser Phenex and his entire peerage, right here, right now", Issei said with confident tone.

Rias only blinked twice before she smiled. "No, just safe it for later. This is basically a team-battle, Ise. Everyone had trained so hard too, so let's make their hard-work worth it, shall we?"

Issei simply smiled back and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright, now go! Show me the fruits of your training!" Rias commanded.

Issei nodded again with determined expression, then he jumped off through the window. Since he still flew awkwardly with his devil wings, Issei opted to use his devil-enhanced speed to trek his way to the enemy. After running for a while, he suddenly stopped. "_Shit, what was I supposed to do again?_" Issei smacked his forehead for forgetting to ask his master beforehand. Looking back, returning to the clubroom would be a waste of time while everyone else was probably fighting for their lives by now. Issei weighed his available options. Should he go to help Koneko securing the gym? Or should he go to help Yuuto in the woods and engaging enemies on the sport-field?

Koneko is tough, sure. But fighting multiple enemies in a closed space like a gym might be difficult even for her. Yuuto on the other hand, not only that he had a wider space for him to fight, he could just lured the enemy to the forest and let the traps to do the work if the knight were to be overwhelmed. Thus, Issei began his way to the gym to meet up with the rook.

X

As soon as he stepped inside the gym building, the pawn was met with a sight of Koneko facing four female hostiles. Issei remembered those Phenex girls from the clubroom earlier. One of them was a woman in a cheongsam, blue qipao with gold accents and his shoulder-length black hair was tied in two Chinese-style buns. The other girls are twin little girls with turquoise hair clad in gym uniforms, each of them were bringing blue and red gym bag, and there was also a girl with blue hair that was tied into four short pony-tails, clad in white haori and red obi under a red happi coat, her forearms and shins were wrapped in bandages and she wore a pair of zori as footwear. The blue-haired girl also had a wooden staff with her.

Looks like Issei had just arrived in time to join with Koneko when they were about to introduce themselves. The girl in Cheongsam was the one to speak first when all gym occupants noticed the Gremory pawn's arrival.

"I see, so you've come as well. Anyway, I'm Xuelan, Riser-sama's rook!" the girl identified as Xueland introduced herself. Her other comrades also followed suit.

"Ile and Nel, pawns!" this time it was the twins in gym attire who introduced their names together.

"I'm Mira… I'm a pawn as well", a girl with blue hair and a wooden staff said so.

Seeing that they should have returned the introduction as well, Koneko and Issei identified themselves.

"Toujou Koneko, a rook…"

"Hyoudou Issei, a pawn!"

After the introductions had been done and all, Xuelan stepped forward, cracking her knuckles.

"Now, with all said and done, let's just get this over and done with…" the Phenex rook said as she put on a kung-fu stance position.

Koneko stared at her rook opponent carefully, then she stepped forward, put up her fighting stance, and she said to Issei.

"Issei-senpai, I'll handle the rook… Can you please handle the other three pawns?"

Issei smirked as he cracked his right fingers with his right thumb, and his Boosted Gear formed on his left arm.

**[DRAGON BOOSTER]**

"Sure, leave them to me!"

**[Boost]**

The enemy's eyes were widened at the sight of Issei's Boosted Gear. "That gauntlet… I see, never thought that Rias Gremory has the Red Dragon Emperor on her side", Xuelan commented as she recognised the red gauntlet. "However, having a Longinus doesn't mean you know how to use it! Take him down, you three!" the rook told her other comrades.

Without saying anything, the enemy pawns, Mira, Ile and Nel also took their respective battle positions. The first prepared her staff pointing at Issei with her legs stood firm on the ground, while the twins put down their bags and pulled something from it after they unzipped them open.

GRRNGG-GRRNGG-GRRNGGG!

Issei's eyes widened in surprise as he did not expect that such petite girls would use chainsaws to fight.

"Disassembling time!"

"Split, split, split, split!"

The twins, with a chainsaw on each, shout in glee as they swung their chainsaws, now also clad in fire, successively towards Issei. Mira also followed behind them with her staff ready to strike. In the meantime, Xuelan and Koneko also had begun engaging each other.

"Haaat!"

Xuelan jumped to the air and sent a sharp drop kick towards Koneko, whom quickly dodged aside. Not only the strike was strong, considering the enemy possess the trait of a rook, Xuelan's fists and feet were covered in flames each time she attacked. The flames managed to burn and ripped a part Koneko's uniform with a sheer heat, but Koneko managed to dodge, blocked and retaliate Xuelan's attack as the two rooks exchanging blows to each other.

**[Boost]**

Issei was able to dodge and blocked the three enemy pawns well-versed attacks without much difficulty. He knew that his Boosted Gear would not break or even damaged when he sometimes ended up blocking the chainsaws with it, and his touki might be able to protect him from direct hits, but for some reasons the pawn felt himself slightly reluctant to take those chainsaws head-on. Why not just evade an attack if you were able to do so?

Issei saw that the chainsaw-wielding twins were aiming for his legs, he automatically hop to avoid the chainsaws that was about to detach his legs. However, while his eyes were still on the chainsaws, Issei sensed another thing coming. He looked up, and he saw that Mira was already about to swing her staff, aiming for his head while Issei was still immobile in mid-air from jumping.

"Got you!" Mira exclaimed as she swung her staff horizontally towards Issei's right side of the head.

**[Boost]**

However, just when the wooden staff was almost making contact, Issei did not bother to raise his hand for a guard,

CRAUCK! CRACK!

As he simply bore his teeth and he literally bit off Mira's wooden staff, shattering it into pieces. The owner of the wooden staff as well as her two fellow pawns widened their eyes at Issei's action.

"Wha-!" Mira's shock was cut short as Issei caught her off-guard and his right fist connected at the girl's left cheek,

BAM! CRASH!

Sending the blue-haired pawn across the room and through the wall.

"Mira!" The twins, Ile and Nel shouted at their fellow pawn and Grayfia's voice was heard across the battlefield.

"**Riser-sama's pawn has retired."**

After hearing their comrade's defeat, the twins turned towards Issei who was spitting out some splinters that went inside his mouth.

"Why you-!" then suddenly their shouts of anger were interrupted by another announcement in the air.

"**Riser-sama's 3 pawns have retired."**

All combatants in the room widened their eyes in surprise albeit Issei's and Koneko's surprises were more pleasant. Issei grinned at the announcement.

**[Boost]**

"Heh, nice one, Kiba!"

On Koneko's side, the girl did not say anything but she smiled at announcement that meant that their group were currently on the lead. She turned her attention back to her rook opponent whose attention was still on the announcement earlier. The Gremory rook did not waste any chance as she quickly sprung to her enemy.

"You're open", Koneko said as she jumped and performed a round-house kick with her left leg.

Xuelan who was caught off-guard for a second managed to barely evade Koneko's left leg by ducking at the last second. However, when Xuelan raised her head again, thinking that she had dodged the kick, Koneko's right leg suddenly extended to hit her head's left side as soon as Koneko left leg had passed her.

DUAGH!

"Ugh!" Xuelan grunted in pain as Koneko's right leg managed to strike her left temple. Dazed for a moment, the Phenex rook could not dodge when Koneko quickly used that moment of weakness to go around her and wrapped her arms on her waist.

Issei who took a glance at Koneko's eyes widened his eyes slightly, knowing what Koneko was going to do. How could he not, he had tasted it first-hand as well during the training.

"Ei!" Koneko jerked her body backward as she used her German-suplex on Xuelan, resulting a loud cracking sound on the ground.

BRUAK!

Issei who was about to comment was interrupted at the twin pawns whom had returned their focus back to the battle, this time, their chainsaws were coated in flames, increasing their powers as the chainsaws letting out even a louder noise.

"Where are you looking!?" Ile yelled as she swung her flaming chainsaw together with her twin sister.

GRRRRRNNNNGGGG!

**[Boost]**

"Whoa!" Issei managed to dodge and blocked the chainsaws with his Boosted Gear at the last seconds. The Gremory pawn was still able to engage with the enemy's pawns with enough ease, as he was still able to steal a glance at Koneko's fight from time to time.

However, when Issei took a glance at Koneko again, he found that Koneko still remained at her position with her body bent backwards and her arms still wrapped firmly around Xuelan's waist, whom was still had her head planted on the ground. Koneko was well aware that one suplex like that would not be enough to incapacitate a devil rook.

"I'm not done yet…" Koneko said as she flipped her body around, restarting her position with her arms still remained around Xuelan's body, as the Gremory rook prepared for another suplex, then Koneko threw Xuelan's body again, flipped back, and threw her again. The cycle repeated for several times.

BRAK! BRAK! BRAK! BRAK! BRUAK!

"Kuh…" Xuelan was barely able to remain conscious as her head was repeatedly slammed to the ground with continuous German-suplex, then, when the rook thought that her enemy had finished her continuous suplex, she suddenly felt that her body was in the mid-air.

"Fly"

Koneko threw Xuelan upwards after she said that word. Then, when Xuelan's body was rolling around in the air, Koneko leapt off and caught Xuelan's body when the enemy rook's body was exactly up-side down, her head was pointing right to the ground. Xuelan herself could not break free, not only it was difficult to move in the mid-air, her head was painfully beating too hard right now from those suplexes earlier.

"Hei!" Koneko then used her center of gravity to bring herself down back to the ground, bringing Xuelan's body along with her, and the Phenex rook's head was smashed to the ground with devastating sound.

BRUAAAGHH! BAM!

The ground was destroyed from the sheer force from Koneko's slamming Xuelan's body head-first to it, creating a small crater and Koneko's simply climbed out from it.

**"Riser-sama's rook has retired."**

"Xuelan!" Ile and Nel shouted together when they heard that their only ally in the room had been taken out as well.

**[Boost]**

Issei who was sweat-dropped at Koneko's technique quickly used the chance when the enemy twins' attention was brought somewhere else. "Where are you looking now!?" Issei said as if he wanted to return those words right to their faces. He raised both of his fist and he brought them down right to the twins' head.

BAM! BAM!

"Kyah!"

Ile and Nel let out painful shrieks as their heads were forcefully brought down to the ground by Issei's hit, letting a loud 'thud' from the ground beneath them. To conclude, the twins were now knocked out, face-down with large bumps swelling on their heads. Soon, the twins' bodies were covered in light before disappearing completely from sight.

"**Riser-sama's 2 pawns have retired."**

Issei let out a breath as he finally managed to defeat the enemy pawns. He turned to Koneko who was now approaching him.

"Good work, Issei-senpai…" Koneko said nodding her head.

Issei held up a thumb to Koneko as he grinned, but he quickly looked the other way when he noticed the torn parts of Koneko's uniform. The rook herself also quickly covered her exposed parts when she realised her current condition, she glared at the pawn with pink hues on her face.

"Don't you dare to look…"

"No, no, I'm not gonna look", Issei said nervously with his face blushing as well. "Say, Koneko-chan… That move earlier, where did you learn to do that?" Issei asked to lightened up the awkward atmosphere, while still looking away.

Koneko's pink hue disappeared soon after and she held out a thumb with her right hand while her left still covering her body. "Street Fighter. I always play as Zangief in that game", was all Koneko said without hesitation and her usual impassive face.

**[Boost]**

The voice from the Boosted Gear filled up another awkward moment as Issei looked at Koneko, to her face to be precise, with half-lidded eyes. He sweat-dropped again as he realised why that move earlier looks awfully familiar.

The pawn sighed as he raised his arms. "You know what, let's just focus and go to…" Then Issei's eyes widened in alarm as his instinct sensed a danger, as well as a magic energy signature, not belong to any of his friends, came over the building. He quickly coated his body with touki, as he quickly lounged at Koneko with his Boosted Gear arm extended to the rook.

"Koneko-chan!"

The Boosted Gear's green jewel shone and let out an announcement as soon as Issei extended it.

**[Transfer!]**

Koneko was taken aback at Issei's sudden seriousness. The pawn suddenly yelled at her, as if wanting to warn her about something, then, when he extended his gauntlet, a green light was covering her body, and she felt her strength multiplied several times. Just when Issei's arm grabbed Koneko's hand and was pulling Koneko to him, the rook's vision was suddenly covered with bright light when Issei was running towards the nearest exit with Koneko in his arms.

X

(Meanwhile, with Rias and Asia)

Rias was still looking outside through the window of the clubroom, waiting for further developments. Asia still remained with her, sitting down on one of the couches with her hands clutched together in prayer, hoping for everyone's safety. So far, she was content with how things had gone so far. Riser had lost one of his rook and more than half of his entire pawns. However, the biggest threat, Riser's queen still had not made any move, or so she heard from Akeno so far. Rias was also a bit frustrated of how she could have forgotten to give her newest pawn his orders. But considering the results she heard this far, she assumed that Issei had made an initiative to assist either Koneko or Yuuto. Either way, her pawn seemed to be doing well as far as she concerned. Until…

KA-BOOM!

"What the…!"

A large-scale explosion was heard, alerting Rias and Asia, whom quickly stood up from her seat and walked towards the window by Rias' side.

"What… What was that explosion?" Asia asked in worried tone, her body trembled in fear.

The king's eyes widened in horror as she saw that the explosion had occurred at the direction of the gym, where her rook was assigned. She did not know if Issei was there as well, and as much as she worried for the safety of her servants, Rias could not afford to loose her rook and her only pawn so early in the battle. She quickly summoned a small magic circle for communication link on her ear and she tried to contact her servants.

"Koneko, do you hear me? Are you alright? Koneko!" Rias was getting worried even more when nobody answered after a while. "Akeno, can you go to the gym?" Rias then changed the comm-link towards her queen.

"Yes, I'm on my way!" Akeno's voice could be heard from the magic circle besides Rias' ear.

Rias could only curse herself as she and Asia could only stared outside and hoped for everyone's safety.

"_Everone…"_

X

Akeno was flying as fast as she could towards the place where the explosion occurred. When she arrived, the queen gasped from the sight of the gym building was replaced with a huge crater, smokes and dusts came out from it. She flew closer to inspect any survivors, then she spot a female figure was hovering above the crater.

The said figure was a busty woman with long, wavy purple hair that fell all the way down her back and matching eyes. At the front, the right side of her hair fell over her breast and covered her right eye, while the left side fell near the top of her skirt. Her attire was a dress consisting of a navy blue tunic top with gold accents and a pale blue skirt with open sides, and black shoes over matching thigh-high stockings with garter-belts. The top revealed much of her cleavage, and was held with a gold choker with blue and red jewels. Over this, she wore a white overcoat with black and gold accents and matching pauldrons. For accessories, she wore a black headband with a red-orange jewel over her forehead to keep her long hair in place, and wielded a staff-like sceptre in battle. For cosmetics, she wore purple lipstick, matching her eyes and hair.

Akeno immediately recognised the only person that was able to cause such an explosion. The person was Yubelluna, the queen of Riser Phenex's peerage as well as the strongest member with the title 'Bomb Queen'.

Noticing Akeno's presence, Yubelluna turned towards the Gremory queen with an arrogant smirk. "The Priestess of Thunder… How pleasant it is to finally meet you in this battle…"

"YOU…!" Akeno hissed out with her voice filled with venom at the enemy's queen.

At Akeno's outrage, Yubelluna simply shrugged as she brandished her sceptre around and said, "Well, as you can see, thanks to our comrades' sacrifice, I managed to take out yours as well. The enemy's most vulnerable moment is when they were celebrating their accomplishments, after all…"

However, Yubelluna's moment was cut short when she sensed something was approaching her from above. The Bomb Queen quickly turned around and her eyes, as well as Akeno's, widened at the sight of Issei, his uniform was tattered and burned, his devil wings stretched, his slightly charred body was glowing faintly in white due to touki, and his left fist clad in Boosted Gear was cocked backwards, preparing to be launched in a form of a punch.

"Ise-kun!" Akeno was struck with awe and disbelief.

"What- Impossible!" Yubelluna could not believe that the pawn could survive her signature attack.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

"HAA!" Issei brought down his left fist right towards the surprised Bomb Queen.

Yubelluna quickly raised her staff and she formed a layer of defensive magic circle to defend herself. However, despite the stored boosted power was far less than the previous ones Issei had stored, which Issei had used all of them during the explosion, Issei's punch was still strong enough to shattered Yubelluna's magical shield as the Bomb Queen was forced to fall to the ground.

CRASH!

The ground caved in as Yubelluna crashed into it, leaving a pile of dust-smoke through the air.

After pushing away the enemy queen, Issei remained in the air as he tried to stabilise his position in the mid-air with his devil wings. He now could float and fly in a straight line, but still not able to make turns like the others. Akeno quickly flew over to Issei to have a closer look in his condition.

"Ise-kun, are you alright? Where's Koneko-chan?" Akeno asked, taking a look around Issei's body. The pawn's uniform was completely ragged from the explosion. His body covered in burns and charred marks but no bleeding whatsoever. Akeno was honestly surprised that the pawn managed to survive that kind of explosion and still managed to perform such a feat from earlier. However,

"What!? I can't hear you!" Akeno was taken aback slightly from Issei's yelling. "All I can hear are ringing sounds!" Issei yelled pointing at his ears, his head was cocked slightly. It seems that the explosion was putting quite a strain on Issei's eardrums. The pawn could even barely hear his own voice. Checking on Issei's ears, and seeing no blood came out of it, Akeno let out a relieved sigh as she knew that Issei's hearing would return soon enough.

Akeno soon spotted Koneko who also flew over them. A part of her clothes were ripped, though probably not from the explosion, the rook's body also covered with slight burns and dusts, but her condition was far better compared to Issei.

"Koneko-chan, are you okay?" Akeno was relieved at the first glance of Koneko but she still asked for a measure.

"Yes, thanks to Ise-senpai", Koneko said nodding with a small smile on her lips.

Dragon Booster Second Liberation: Boosted Gear Gift. Also known as the Gift from the Red Dragon Emperor, it is the final form and second ability of Boosted Gear in its gauntlet shape. It has the same appearance as the original Boosted Gear, except with a second jewel that grants the user the Transfer ability and that it covers more of the user's arm. The Transfer ability, allows Issei to transfer his stored power to his allies, increasing their parameter depending on how much boosts Issei had stored beforehand.

The Transfer had been used several times during the training camp. Thanks to this ability, Issei and Yuuto managed to make a combined attack between Boosted Gear and Sword Birth in engaging Koneko, Akeno and Rias. It made Yuuto can summoned more swords than his original capability to strike the opponents.

Back to the game, apparently, when the explosion occurred, Issei managed to envelope Koneko in a hug to protect Koneko from the blast. Thanks to Issei's power transfer as well, Koneko's enhanced strength and defence as a rook were multiplied until they were strong enough to protect her from the blast as well. While Koneko managed to covered her eyes and ears from the explosion, Issei was not so fortunate as his arms were too busy protecting Koneko. The pawn's touki was able to save him, but the blast still loud enough to affect Issei's exposed hearings.

Koneko turned towards her saviour, her smile still present as she gave a quick bow. "Thank you very much, senpai…"

"What!?" Issei yelled again, tilting his head closer to Koneko as he still could not make out what the girl's said, his ringing eardrums still had not died down.

Akeno giggled at Issei's predicament and Koneko simply snorted as she smiled in content. Akeno summoned her magic communication link to inform her king.

"Buchou, Ise-kun and Koneko-chan are fine. We're now engaging the enemy's queen", Akeno said looking at the spot where Issei had pushed her to earlier. She was aware that Yubelluna managed to avoid a direct-hit from Issei and was thrown only from the kinetic force, and that kind of fall would not do any actual damage to a queen.

It could be heard from Akeno's magic circle that, Rias, and Asia as well, on the other end let out a sigh which they did not know how long she had been holding in. After confirming their current status and receiving orders to proceed with cautious, Akeno turned her head towards Issei and Koneko. The pawn was mumbling some 'mob' words, trying to regain the feeling of his hearings, and the rook was trying to help, only to be replied by 'what' from the pawn.

Suddenly, Akeno sensed a magical energy hurdling towards them and she quickly put on a defensive spell, protecting them all from a massive fireball that exploded upon contact.

BOOM!

From where the fireball was thrown from, Akeno, Issei and Koneko saw Yubelluna with hostile expression, was back flying and her sceptre was pointed to them. Issei who was starting to regain his hearings as he massaged his ears prepared himself to fight again, but Akeno's hand suddenly blocked him.

Issei's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at his queen. "Akeno-san?"

"Leave her to me, Ise-kun… You and Koneko-chan should just go and help Yuuto-kun…" Akeno said without taking her eyes off Yubelluna.

"But-!" Issei was cut off by Koneko whom tugged on his sleeve. As the pawn turned to the rook, the said rook shook her head, with her eyes firm. "Let's go, Ise-senpai. Let's believe in Akeno-senpai here."

Issei weighed his options again. Should he back-up Akeno fighting the enemy's strongest member? His Boosted Gear's ability would be a big help to her. Or should he go to Yuuto, who was probably being outnumbered by now? Closing his eyes for a while, Issei opened them as he had made up his mind.

He descended together with Koneko to the ground and they started to head towards the woods where Yuuto was supposed to be. "We'll definitely come back for you, Akeno-san! Until then, good luck!" Issei yelled over his shoulder as he kept running with Koneko.

Akeno smiled at Issei's words, then she focused back at the enemy queen before her. The said enemy queen was still flying as she approached Akeno.

"That pawn and little rook were just lucky to be able to survive… But putting that aside, letting your comrades to escape while you stay to fight me… Admirable, but quite foolish of you, Priestess of Thunder."

Akeno simply put on her sadistic smile as thunder and lightning danced between her fingers. "_Ara ,ara_ … My pride as a queen simply wants to have a fair fight against the infamous Bomb Queen, fufufufu…"

"Please drop that nickname. I don't really like it, you know", Yubelluna said with distasteful tone.

The two queens then stopped talking and soon after, they immediately prepared several magic circles of their signature spells.

BOOM! BLAAR!

X

Meanwhile, Issei and Koneko were running across the trees. Issei, with his Boosted Gear started to charge his power again, looked over his shoulder for a moment when they heard sounds of explosions and thunder from behind. He tried his best to stay focus on the choice he had made, as he told himself again to return to support Akeno as soon as possible. While they were still looking for Yuuto, the dragon inside himself decided to bring up a topic as this was the proper time to bring it up.

**[Boost]**

_**[Say, partner…]**_

"_Hm?"_

_**[I get your reason of transferring your stored power to that rook, but back during that explosion, why didn't you use 'that'? Instead you only used your touki, and your touki still far from perfect]**_

"…_. What!? I can't hear you!"_

_**[Pssh. No need to play dumb, partner. And even if your eardrums were still ringing, I know you can still hear me from here just fine. So, why?]**_

"…_. Well… I, err… just want to keep it for later use, you know, for surprise…"_

Ddraig only sweat-dropped on his host's reasoning, then he sighed _**[Dumbass]**_

"_Shut up…"_

**[Boost]**

X

After trekking through woods and trees several minutes later, Issei and Koneko finally met with Yuuto. The knight was hiding inside a nearby bush, and when he spotted Issei and Koneko approaching him from the side, he gave them a brief nod. Issei and Koneko quickly lowered their bodies and crouched beside the knight.

"How's it going?" Issei asked to Yuuto while looking at the sport-field beyond the woods.

"The first three pawns were careless enough to fall into my traps. However…" Yuuto did not finish his sentence as Issei and Koneko quickly caught on that the rest of enemy troops were getting cautious themselves as they had lost several members of their team. "And what about you two? I heard an explosion earlier, and you looked kind of in a bad shape…" Yuuto asked as he took in Issei's and Koneko's condition.

"Meh, I'll manage. Koneko-chan's condition here is better than mine", Issei shrugged as he gave a quick massage to his ear again.

"What about Akeno-san? I also heard another explosions earlier… Buchou and Asia-chan?" Yuuto asked again.

Issei's expression turned sour. "Akeno-san is engaging the enemy's queen right now. And as for ojou-sama and Asia… I think they're still in the clubroom."

Yuuto looked down for a moment, "I see. Then let's take care the rest of enemy troops before we go back to help Akeno-san", Yuuto said after he looked to Issei and Koneko again.

"Yeah", Issei said and Koneko nodded. However, Issei noticed Yuuto's hands were trembling.

"You alright?" Yuuto turned to Issei again, then he realised what the pawn was implying.

"I can't say I am", Yuuto forced a smile. "I'm really nervous now… This is my very first rating game, Issei-kun… Not only this match is a serious battle between devils, buchou's future and our future as well are being put on the line here. We can't let the enemy to notice even a slightest openings in us."

Issei gave a knowing smile, then he pat Yuuto's shoulder. "Yeah, I was nervous too. But strangely enough, thanks to that explosion earlier, somehow my tensed muscles were managed to calm down after I blew off some steam back there."

Yuuto chuckled at Issei's words of encouragement. Then he felt a bit calmer. "Well, let's win this!" and Issei and Koneko nodded resolutely.

Right at that moment, a voice was heard from the sport-field.

"I know you're there, servants of Gremory! Stop hiding and come out! I, Karlamine, Riser Phenex-sama's knight, challenge you, knight of Gremory to a duel!"

Before Issei and Koneko could think of a respond, Yuuto stood up from his crouching position and he tightened his grip on his sword.

Issei turned to Yuuto with slightly worried look. "Um… Kiba? What are you doing?"

Yuuto simply smirked at Issei. "A knight just challenged me to a one-on-one duel, Issei-kun. As a fellow knight, it's my duty to respond in kind", then Yuuto proceeded towards the enemy knight identified as Karlamine.

Koneko turned to Issei. "Ise-senpai, shouldn't we stop him?" the rook asked regarding their knight comrade.

Issei shrugged before replying, "Nah, it's not everyday we can see a sword-fight between two honourable knights. And here I thought that I could only see this in the TV! Man, I'm getting excited myself!" then he grinned.

Koneko only sighed at the boys' antics, then she and Issei stood up and went out from their hiding to follow Yuuto as well. When they arrived at the sport-field, the rest of enemy's troops had also arrived. The enemy forces consisted seven girls including the one that just challenged Yuuto to a duel.

"I, Kiba Yuuto, Rias Gremory-sama's knight, have come to answer your challenge!" Yuuto said out loud as he stood right in front of Karlamine.

Feeling that they should introduce themselves as well, Issei and Koneko followed-suit.

"Hyoudou Issei, a pawn!"

"Toujou Koneko, a rook…"

"Well said! I'm glad that I'm still able to have an honourable fight with a fellow knight", Karlamine replied. The female knight was a young woman with light brown hair and green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a full set of silver armour with black accents that appeared to be a cross between a European knight's (chest plate, gauntlets and geaves) and a Japanese Samurai (hip plates and shoulder guards), and wore a headband that goes across her hair and forehead. She was equipped with a broadsword and a dagger, both of which were held with brown belts slung across her hip. The broadsword was slung on her left hip, and featured a red jewel on the pommel and had bandages across the handle for grip. The dagger, which was located behind her hip, featured a golden hilt with bandages on the handle.

"Geez, that Karlamine… Getting excited and ruined my plan… Seriously, she should got over with her obsession towards swords!"

Issei turned towards the source of the complain. The one who complained was the princess-like young girl that Issei noticed during the meeting in the clubroom. She was a beautiful young girl with dark blue eyes. She had long blonde hair and was tied into twin-tails with large, drill-like curls, and blue ribbons keeping them in place. The front of her hair had several bangs hanging over her forehead, with a V-shaped fringe hanging over the bridge of her nose. She was also wearing a frilly long pink dress.

"Well, whatever. Since it has come to this… Isabela, Siris, Ni, and Li! You girls go after the pawn and the rook while that sword maniac (Karlamine) is fighting the Gremory knight! Mihae, you stay back as rear support!"

The girls mentioned shouted in unison, """""Yes, Ravel-sama!"""""

The blonde girl in dress, now identified as Ravel, told her other comrades to engage Issei and Koneko. It seems that this Ravel girl somewhat had more authority over her allies.

The girls took their positions and they introduced themselves as well.

"I'm Isabela, a rook." said a girl with short brown hair, three red highlights and a white mask covering half of her face and dressed in delinquent outfit. Her outfit consisted of a black jacket and matching jeans. The jacket had wide shoulders and a wide collar, and featured three leather straps on both her arms. It was also slightly opened, revealing her rather-large breasts and cleavage, and it was cut off at her midriff. Her jeans had a section (on her right pantleg) cut off, revealing some of her thighs and butt, and also featured three leather straps on her calves, just below the ankles, and two extra straps on her right pantleg to keep it in place. She also wore black fighting gloves and boots.

A girl dismounting a large Zweihander from her back introduced herself, "I'm Siris, a knight". She was a tall young woman with long black hair with a dark blue tint and brown eyes. Her hair featured five thin ponytails going around her head, which were held up by a golden hair accessory on top of her head. Her outfit consisted of a white top with black accents that was modeled after a Chinese cheongsam, red shorts, and armored, knee-high boots with matching gauntlets. The top featured a diamond shape on the chest area, giving view of her breasts and cleavage.

"Ni and Li, we're pawns!" this time twin cat-girls, equipped with close-combat gear and skimpy sailor uniform introduced themselves.

Issei and Koneko took their battle positions with Issei crack his right fingers.

"Ise-senpai… This time, I'll engage the pawns. Can you please handle to rook and the knight?" Koneko asked to Issei. The latter simply smirked in return as he cracked his middle finger this time. "Leave them to me…"

**[Boost]**

Koneko immediately lounged at the duo Ni and Li, and soon they were starting to exchange blows one after another. Koneko, being a rook, did not have much trouble in defending herself against two pawns that had yet to promote.

Issei on the other hand, stared at the enemy rook and the knight in front of him. He also noticed that a girl in purple kimono, who was likely known as Mihae, was standing behind Isabela and Siris, but not too far from Ravel. Ravel herself was standing at the most behind, observing the battle. Without wasting anymore time, Isabela and Siris quickly lounged towards Issei, and Mihae also prepared to cast a spell at the moment's notice. Issei simply stared at the incoming attack of his two opponents with impassive, yet serious expression.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

X

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! PRANG!

Meanwhile, Yuuto just got his sword shattered by Karlamine's flaming broadsword after several clashes between the two's blades. As the Gremory knight leapt backwards to avoid another strike, the Phenex knight stopped to fix her position again. Yuuto himself gritted his teeth slightly, while their speed was equal since they both are knights, it still felt aggravating to have his weapon being taken away from him. The female knight herself was quite prominent in swordsmanship as well, after all, she managed to destroy Yuuto's sword.

"I must say, you're not bad at all, Kiba Yuuto. However, it seems the battle has been decided…" Karlamine commented as she pointed her sword at Yuuto.

The Gremory knight simply smiled in return. "Fufu, sorry but, that's not all of me, yet"

Karlamine snorted at Yuuto's bravado. "Hmph, that's really unsightly of you, knight of Gremory, to…" then her sentence was cut-off as eyes widened to see Yuuto created another sword in his hand. However, the sword was only a hilt with no blade.

"Freeze", at Yuuto's word, the surrounding air became colder and ice started to form from the hilt, creating the sword with an ice-blade.

"An ice sword!? Are you telling me that you possess multiple sacred gears?" Karlamine asked with slightly incredulous expression.

"Well, rather than multiple, I'd say that this sword, Flame Delete, is a part of my only Sacred Gear", Yuuto replied as he prepared his own stance. "Shall we test if you can still hold your flame before this sword of mine?" then Yuuto sprinted towards Karlamine to engage in another swords-clash.

CLANG! CLANG! CREAK… CREAK… CREAK… PRANG!

When Karlamine's flaming sword made a contact with Yuuto's Flame Delete, the former's sword, together with its flames, slowly frozen until it broke into tiny pieces of ice. Clicking her tongue, the Phenex knight brandished her dagger and pointed towards Yuuto.

"Fire is not the only element that Phoenix has control over!" Karlamine shouted as fire, this time combined with a whirlwind, shot out from Karlamine's blade, crating a fire vortex twirling towards Yuuto.

WHOOSSHH!

Yuuto remained calm as he dismissed his Flame Delete to the ground, and he summoned another sword. This time, the sword had a square-like hole around the tip of the blade.

"Stop", at Yuuto's command, a small black hole appeared in the middle of the square hole and the hole sucked all the wind from the vortex, automatically defuse the fire.

Before Karlamine could have made any comment, Yuuto beat her first, "Replenish Calm, the sword that absorbs all wind around it."

Karlamine put up a thoughtful expression. "Creating multiple swords while you claimed as a single Sacred Gear… Could it be…"

"Yes, this is my Sacred Gear, Sword Birth. It allows me to create demonic swords."

Karlamine smirked in amusement. "I see… It seems to be a fate for me to meet another special sword users…"

Yuuto raised his eyebrows in interest, "Another? You meant you met with someone like me before?"

Karlamine nodded, "Yes, around two years ago. However, unlike you who wield demonic swords, the one I met that time used a holy sword."

Suddenly, Yuuto's expression turned grim as his killing intent leaked more from his body. The rest of combatants felt Yuuto's killing intent as well, but they managed to remain focus in their own fight.

With cold tone, Yuuto said, "I see… I need you to tell me more of this holy sword user…"

Karlamine did not flinch much as she positioned herself with her dagger, wind and fire dancing around her blade. "I'm afraid not, since I've promised her secrecy as a knight. Why don't we talk with our swords instead of our mouths?"

"Fine by me…" Yuuto's cold expression remained as he lounged again to clash his blade with Karlamine.

X

Ravel Phenex, Riser Phenex' bishop as well as his little sister, was standing while watching the fight between two knights, a rook with two pawns, and a pawn with a rook and a knight. She was sure that Isabela, Siris, Mihae as well as Ni and Li are enough to take care the enemy's rook and pawn, while the Gremory knight, who could keep up with Karlamine caught her attention for a while. Oblivious with the other battles occurred as she remained to observe the battle between knights for a while longer, Ravel's mind sometime wandered to a fairy-tale she used to hear in the past, the fairy-tale about a knight in shining armour who struggled and went through many hardships to unite with the princess. The young Phenex girl always hoped that she would meet her own knight in shining armour someday as she look at the fight. However, Ravel's musing was interrupted by the voice beside her.

**[Reset!]**

Ravel snapped her head to the source of the voice and she saw Issei standing right beside her. The Gremory pawn simply smiled at her with his hand up in greeting.

"Hello, there"

Ravel's face turned to a shock expression at the sight of Issei. "Wha- How-!" Ravel turned her head towards the battlefield and she saw Isabela, Siris and Mihae were sprawled motionlessly on the ground. Siris' Zweihander was broken into two, Isabela's mask was shattered and the pieces could be seen near her, and Mihae… she was simply out-cold. Ravel also took a note that Ni and Li were starting to have difficulties in fighting the Gremory rook as well, as Koneko started to gain more upper-hand against the two pawns.

"**Riser-sama's rook, knight and bishop have retired"**

Grayfia announced as the bodies of the three mentioned disappeared in white light.

Ravel turned to Issei again, who surprisingly remained still on his spot in relaxed pose as the pawn was observing the fight that was still going on. She then noticed the red gauntlet that still present on Issei's left arm. However, while Ravel was still processing her thoughts, Issei's eyes was planted on Yuuto, the knight's earlier killing intent nerved Issei a bit, but the pawn decided to watch for now.

"I see… I guess it's understandable that Isabela, Siris and Mihae were loosing against the Red Dragon Emperor", Ravel said with cautious tone, her body shifted backwards, preparing to flee at moment's notice.

"Thanks for the compliment, err… Ravel-san, right?" Issei turned towards Ravel and he offered his right hand. "We haven't properly introduced ourselves, have we? My name is Hyoudou Issei, Rias Gremory-sama's pawn at your service", Issei said with a smile.

Ravel blushed slightly at Issei's introduction, then she huffed with her eyes closed. "Hmph, I suppose I should introduce myself properly as well. I'm Ravel Phenex, the youngest daughter of Phenex clan, one of 72 pillars in underworld", Ravel said without taking Issei's hand. The latter simply nodded and pulled back his hand.

After a second, while Issei returned to watch the occurring battle again, Ravel took a glance at Issei as she spoke up, "So… You won't fight me?"

"Would you like me to?" Issei replied with his smile still present and his eyes darted to Ravel, the latter saw the former's eyes gleaming oddly. She instinctively took a step backward and Issei quickly understood what she meant.

"Thought so. You don't appear to me as a fighter-type at all", Issei returned his gaze towards the battlefield.

"Are you sure? I mean… We're enemies, you know? I might going to attack you when I got the chance here." Ravel said nervously yet cautiously.

Issei only smiled at the question. "Just admit it, Ravel-san… You're fully aware yourself that you won't be able to beat me now", Issei glanced back at Ravel. The two staring each other for a minute before the latter finally turned away with a sigh.

"You're right. I admit that you're strong…" Then Ravel's gaze turned to the new school building. "But I doubt you're strong enough to defeat onii-sama. Given your current condition." Ravel said as she took in Issei's state from Yubelluna's explosion attack. The bishop also aware that, despite manage to survive the large explosion from earlier, the explosion must have had some effects Issei's body. The pawn could be seen stretching his neck and body, relieving his slightly aching muscles and joints.

Issei's eyes widened slightly at Ravel's declaration. "_Onii-sama?_" then Issei recalled that both Riser and Ravel had resemblance in their features. "You serve under your own brother, Ravel-san?"

"No, not really. The reason I joined onii-sama's peerage was because he wants to fulfil his so-called 'harem collection'. He said something about he needs a 'little sister type' to fulfil his collection", Ravel said with a shrug.

"Oh… I see…" Issei said with a sweat-drop. This Riser guy is just another pervert that does not die.

"And aren't you going to help them? They are your allies, right?" Ravel asked again.

Issei simply smiled as he watched the fight before him. "Well, we are comrades, I won't abandon them and all, but I believe in them as well. I'm ready to help if they're to need it, but you know…" Issei then showed his goofy grin to Ravel, "If I help them too much, what's the point of them training so hard for these past 10 days?"

Ravel only stared at Issei and she did not say anything else in return and turned her attention back to the field.

_**[It's 9 days, actually. Everyone was taking a break in the last day]**_ Ddraig added in. Issei himself only ignored the dragon's remark.

When the two resumed their observation again, the fight between Koneko with Ni and Li had been concluded as Koneko landed a jaw-breaking uppercut towards Li, with Ni had already knocked out nearby. As Li dropped to the ground after a mouthful of blood spurt from her mouth, both pawns' bodies disappeared in the white light as well.

"**Riser-sama's two pawns have retired."**

"Good work, Koneko-chan!" Issei shouted with his thumb up and the rook simply nodded in acknowledgement. Ravel only sighed at the defeat of her two pawns allies. "_Now that leaves only Kiba… I wonder how's Akeno-san doing now? There's nothing about her so far…_"

"**Riser-sama's queen has retired."**

"Oh, come on!" Ravel yelled in frustration as she stomped her feet.

"_Never mind. Nice one, Akeno-san!_" Issei thought as his smile widened. "_Wait, that means… How long have we been here then?_" Issei's eyes widened in realisation. They were supposed to finish their fight quickly so they could help Akeno.

Issei then turned towards Yuuto, who still had his cold expression and clashing swords with Karlamine. "Oi, Kiba!" it seems Issei's shout managed to snap Yuuto out of his own thoughts. "We've wasted too much time here! Remember our goal!"

Yuuto shook his head as he recalled the situation at hand. "_Of course… How could I forget? I guess I need to put this behind me for now…_" then Yuuto's eyes focused back on Karlamine. "Let's finish this…"

"Well said! I'm also on the same page! We'll finish this in one strike!" Karlamine stated as she sprinted towards Yuuto with the fire vortex around her dagger.

However, when Karlamine was closing in, Yuuto simply fixed his footing and he thrusted his Replenish Calm, and suddenly multiple demonic swords with various forms came out from the ground and impaled the surprised Karlamine.

SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING!

The Phenex did not manage to let out any scream as blood came out from her mouth, then her body, still impaled with Yuuto's demonic swords, disappeared in bright light.

"**Riser-sama's knight has retired."**

Issei let out a sigh as he walked from Ravel to regroup with Yuuto and Koneko. "Good work, you two", Issei said complimenting the knight and the rook. "Now, we just have to regroup with Akeno-san, regroup with ojou-sama and Asia, and…"

"Akeno-san!" Issei's sentence was interrupted with Yuuto yelled out the queen's name with his eyes widened in panic. Issei and Koneko turned their heads toward the direction Yuuto was looking, and their eyes widened in panic as well when they saw Akeno, with her body heavily injured with burn and charred marks, and her shrine-maiden outfit was torn here and there. Her breathings were heavy, and the Gremory queen was barely able to keep herself in the air as she slowly descending, or rather, falling towards Issei's group.

"Akeno-san/Akeno-senpai!" Issei and Koneko yelled out in worry as the former caught Akeno's body.

"Akeno-san? Akeno-san! Please hang in there!" Issei yelled as he shook Akeno slightly. He cursed himself for dragging his own battle and his comrades' battle for too long.

Akeno, whose eyes were previously closed from exhaustion, slowly opened them again as she showed a weak smile. "Fufufu, I did it, Ise-kun…" Akeno raised her hand in victory sign. "Although I did not manage to stop Yubelluna from using the Phoenix tears…"

Issei smiled in relief that his senpai was still in the game. "Yeah, good work for that, Akeno-san! Sorry that we weren't able to help you", then he turned to his other allies. "What's Phoenix tears, by the way?"

Yuuto, after let out a sigh of relief with Koneko, replied to Issei, "It's a healing artefact that can only be created by a pure-blood devil from Phoenix clan. Phoenix tears are famous for it's power to heal injuries, even to re-attach severed limbs." Then Yuuto sighed in exasperation, as if realising a blunder. "We should have taken into account that our enemy will bring Phoenix tears into the game…"

Issei's eyes furrowed at Yuuto's explanation. "Bringing healing potions of that calibre… It's kind of cheating, don't you think?"

"Not really", the group turned their heads towards Ravel who replied to Issei's comment. "We from Phenex clan are allowed to bring only two vials of our tears in rating games. One was given to Yubelluna, while the other one…" instead of finishing her sentence, Ravel simply took out a small vial containing water.

Deciding to test his luck, Issei asked to Ravel, "Well… Can you give that tears of yours to us? You know, I don't think that you'll need it, anyway", the pawn asked sheepishly.

Ravel put on an expression as if she was asked a stupid question. Rather, it was actually kind of a stupid question for her. "Do you really expect your enemy to do so?" Ravel said putting the Phoenix tears away.

Issei only sighed in understanding. Then Koneko stood up with her eyes on Ravel, presumably attempting to take the Phoenix tears by force, before her shoulder was held by Issei, who shook his head slightly.

The rook eyed Issei for a second, and she got the message that it was not really honourable to attack an opponent who does not want to fight. Koneko then closed her eyes and she relaxed her body.

"Alright, now we just have to bring Akeno-san to Asia, regroup with-"

KA-BOOM!

Another huge explosion was heard from the new school building.

"Oh, what now?" Issei whined as everyone turned towards the new school building. There was a smoke came out from an area within the building.

"Ise-san! Everyone!" everyone turned their heads to see Asia running towards them.

"A-Asia? What are you doing here? And where's-" Issei's was not able to finish his question as Asia quickly informed them when she arrived at the group.

"Buchou-san just accepted Riser-san's challenge, and she's currently fighting him in the new school building!" Asia said between her breaths, and she finally got a good look on everyone's condition, especially Issei and Akeno. "…(gasp)! Ise-san! Akeno-san! You're hurt!"

"Wait, what- Actually, Asia, can you tend to Akeno-san first?" Issei asked as he tried to cast a spell. He was not sure if he was doing right, then as he placed his hand on his ear, he channelled his magical energy and after focusing for a second, a small magic circle appeared beside his ear.

"Hello, ojou-sama? Can you hear me? Ojou-sama!" Issei was trying to establish a magic link.

"Ise?" Rias' voice was heard from Issei's magic circle. It looked like Issei had finally learned a thing or two about magic.

Relieved slightly that his master was still in the game, Issei replied, "Ojou-sama, I've heard from Asia, what are you doing there alone? This isn't part of the plan!"

"Then change of plans. Riser just gave me a challenge that I couldn't refuse, so this is now my fight, Ise…" Rias voice then cut-off by buzzing sounds as another explosion was heard.

"Ojou-sama?! Ojou-sama!" Issei yelled to get another respond but the connection was already cut. Issei dismissed his magic link and clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Asia, how's Akeno-san?" Issei turned to the former nun who was still using her Twilight Healing on Akeno.

"I'm half-way done!" Asia said as she poured every ounce of her power to her healing.

"Issei-kun, you should go first. Leave Akeno-san and Asia to us, we'll catch up with you soon", Yuuto interjected.

"What? But I can't just-" Issei was about to protest but Akeno cut in.

"Ise-kun… Right now, you're the only member that has the highest chance to defeat Riser… Just go, I'll be fine. Please, save Rias…" Akeno still sounded quite weak, but better than earlier as some of her wounds had been healed.

Issei stared Akeno for a second, then he looked at Asia who was still healing the queen. "We're going to be fine, Ise-san…"

Then the pawn turned to Koneko. "Go", the rook simply said while nodding.

Issei gave a quick glance towards Ravel, whom still standing there with her arms folded. It seemed that the Phenex bishop did not intend to fight at all. The pawn took a deep breath to steel his resolve, then he stood up and started to head towards the new school building.

"Hold it, you", Issei stopped on his track, he, along with everyone else looked at Ravel who threw a small vial towards Issei.

"Do you honestly think that you can defeat my brother in your state?" hearing her words, Issei took a look at the vial that contained Phoenix tears, then he looked at Ravel again in slight confusion.

"Don't get wrong ideas", Ravel huffed and turned her gaze elsewhere. "I simply want to show you that even in your prime condition, you still won't stand a chance before the might of the immortal bird…"

Issei took in Ravel's words for a few seconds, and he smiled. "You know, you really are a nice person, aren't you, Ravel-san?" then his smile turned to a grin. "I kind of like people like you."

At Issei's words, Ravel blushed furiously, as she stuttered, "W-w-w-what are you babbling all of a sudden!? Don't just blurt out something like that to your enemy in the middle of battlefield! Idiot, idiot!" Ravel said before she let out her fiery wings and flew somewhere else.

Issei only blinked couple of times and he turned to his friends, "Err… Did I do something wrong?" Issei asked sheepishly, not sure what really happened just now.

The others only sighed in unison at Issei's bluntness, with particularly Asia letting out a whine and Akeno letting out a giggle. Shrugging his thought for now, after watching Ravel flew far enough, Issei drank the content of the vial, and as his wounds completely healed, he continued his journey towards his master as he dashed and jumped away.

**[Boost!]**

X

BOOM!

On the roof of the new school building, Rias, now breathing heavily, just fired another of her power of destruction towards her opponent. She had launched all of her attacks towards Riser Phenex, but so far, the latter simply counter her attacks with his flames, or just took on her attack let his body to be disintegrated, only to recover after few seconds. Rias' last attack earlier just blew up the entire lower body of Riser from the chest down, but the latter only smirked in indifference. Soon, flames gathered around Riser's lower body and formed the destroyed body parts, earlier, returning Riser's state to full condition.

"Kukukuku… My dear Rias… It's starting to get painfully dull for me here. Why don't you just give up and take my hand now? It will save you from a lot of pain and humiliation…" Riser said arrogantly.

Rias' condition had been much worse from her previous state before fighting Riser. After firing numerous shots of her magic, her stamina finally ran out. Her magical reserves were now depleted, her breathings were heavy, her body, now forced to prostate on the ground struggling to stand up, and her clothes, are bruised and burned due to Riser's flames. Nevertheless, despite her current condition, while gritting her teeth in frustration, Rias Gremory remained proud.

"Giving up… to the likes of you? I'm sorry, Riser… But if I were to end up marrying you, I'd rather die, right here, right now…" Rias said between her heavy breaths, with a regal smirk on her face.

Riser's eyes twitched in annoyance from Rias' stubbornness. He let out his fiery aura and his wings, powerful flames of Phoenix soon erupting around his body again. "Still being stubborn until the end… But it ends now. I shall put you properly in your place before the might of the Phoenix!" Riser held up his hand and shot a large fireball towards Rias.

Unable to move anymore due to extreme exhaustion, Rias simply shut her eyes, ready to accept her fate.

SLASH! PA!

However, as she did not feel any pain nor heat that supposed to be enveloping her by now, Rias opened her eyes slowly and she saw someone, all too familiar to her, standing with his back facing her. When Rias took in the person's appearance, her sights spotted a red draconic gauntlet with two green jewels on it, clad on the left arm. The said figure's position just back-handed Riser's fireball with a simple back-handed punch with the gauntlet, dissipating the flame almost instantly.

Riser himself could not help but bewildered to see his prided flames to be easily swatted by a mere pawn whom he met during the meeting in the clubroom.

Rias who finally recognised the person before her, muttered a single word in slight disbelief tone. "Ise…?"

The said person turned his head to meet his eyes with her, and once their eyes met, the said person smiled kindly. "Ojou-sama… That was really reckless of you", Hyoudou Issei had arrived right in time to rescue Rias Gremory.

Rias Gremory only stared in silence for a moment, taking in the sight before her carefully. Judging from the rich aura that was pouring from Issei's body, the pawn was most likely had promoted into queen when he reached the place, since the place they were at could be considered as the enemy territory. Due to exhaustion, Rias did not manage to hear Issei's earlier remarks.

"… Jou-sama? Ojou-sama!"

Rias' mind was snapped back from her daze at Issei's shouting. "E-eh?" Rias simply asked in bewilderment.

Issei only sighed again while he looked over from his shoulder. "Ojou-sama, can you still move?"

Rias was way too tired as she could only muster so much strength in her body. It seemed that the fireball earlier was enough to scare Rias out of her wits for a moment as her legs just gave up on her.

Learning upon his master's current state, Issei shrugged as he stay smiling. "Then it's fine, ojou-sama. Asia and the others will catch up with us. Just stay there and rest", Issei then turned his gaze at Riser. "I'll take care of him".

Riser, who was only watching earlier, got out from his slight shock as he returned with his arrogance. "Hmph, I see that you managed to survive my flame… Well, I'll give you guys credit for taking out all of my cute servants without loosing any of your own. As reward, I'll wait for you to regroup with your comrades before I finish all of you myself", Riser said folding his arms patiently.

Issei did not say anything in return as he simply took few steps closer towards Riser. When he stopped, the pawn jerked his head slightly towards Rias, as if he was waiting something from his king.

Rias furrowed her eyebrows in confusion on what her pawn was doing, "_What is he…_" then, her eyes widened slightly in realisation. She steeled her expression as she gathered her resolves to put her faith in her newest pawn.

"Ise, this is my order", Rias said as she clutched her hands together on her chest. "Defeat Riser Phenex… And grant me victory!"

Issei's smirk could be seen when the pawn heard her orders.

"As you wish, _milady_…"

And when the pawn turned to Riser again, his eyes gleamed with power and he suddenly let out a burst of aura, mixed of green and red, flaring around him.

"_Let's do this, Ddraig!"_

_**[Hahaha, this is gonna be a blast!]**_

"Balance Break!"

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Red armour materialised on Issei's body starting from the rest of his left arm, his torso, his legs, his right arm, and finally his head. When the armour had finished to put itself on Issei. Riser and Rias' sight were met with a figure in red dragon armour covering his entire body.

"Ise… So you're able to reach your Balance Breaker during the training?" Rias asked in awe and slight disbelief, but Issei did not heed her question as his attention was focused on Riser.

Riser him self was baffled before he regained his composure by the sight of the armoured figure before him. "I see… You manifested the power of the Dragon into a suit of armour… However!" Riser's wings of flames erupted from his back as his fiery demonic power flared out around his body. "You, a low-class devil are still nothing in the face of the immortal me!"

**[Jet!]**

CRASH!

Suddenly, a red blur appeared pass through Riser and the Phenex king suddenly lost his entire right arm, along with a bit part of his right waist. Issei himself was found skidding to stop his advance behind Riser. Behind his helmet, Issei was smirking on the damage he had done to Riser.

"GUAAH!"

Riser, screamed in pain, clutched the stump where his body parts previously were. It was strangely enough, painful to him, but his damages were soon recovered with his Phoenix flame.

"_Kuhk_…! _This pain…! Could he be…!?_" Riser was suspicious of something at first, but when he took another look at Issei, the pawn did not seem to have anything other than his scale-mail. Then his eyes widened in disbelief and horror. "Don't tell me… This mere pawn is powerful enough to inflict pain on an immortal like me without the use of holy artefacts? Preposterous!"

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

BWOOSH!

Issei then sprout out a pair of dragon wings from his armour and using the armour's jet propeller, Issei launched again towards Riser.

Riser turned around then quickly fired a barrage of fireballs towards Issei, but the latter still launched without evading, taking the brunt of the fire with his armour. With incredible speed, Issei once again planted his right fist into Riser's gut.

"Ohok!"

Riser vomited a mouthful of spit mixed with blood, then when his back was jerked backwards from Issei's punch, the latter quickly brought his hands together and pounded Riser to the ground.

BAM! CRASH!

Riser was buried deep into a crater.

Issei, who was still in the air, found that a part of his armour was cracked and the pieces dropped to the ground.

**[Be careful, partner. The fire of Immortal Bird Phoenix can scratch even the scales of dragons. I suggest you don't take too much of that flame head-on]**

"Oops… Okay, I got it. Thanks for the warning, Ddraig", then Issei reformed the lost part of his armour and took another look around his dragon wings again.

Strangely enough for him, it feels easier to fly in his Scale Mail. Was it perhaps since there was a jet propeller to help him? Or the armour itself was helping him to move in the air? Issei's musings were soon interrupted when he suddenly had to evade sideways as a large stream of fire heading to him.

FWOOSSHH!

"Whoa! That's was close…"

X

Meanwhile, the rest of Rias' peerage finally arrived at the roof-top, where Rias was still sitting there. Akeno, who had healed completely, Yuuto, Koneko and Asia quickly went to Rias' side.

"Buchou/Buchou-san!" Rias turned her head towards the rest of her servants. "Where's Ise-kun?" Akeno asked the king.

Rias simply turned her gaze towards the red figure that was evading a torrent of fire and the others followed Rias' gaze as well. Their eyes widened as soon as they recognised the red figure.

"Is that… Issei-kun?" Yuuto asked with wide eyes at Issei. He was planning to support the pawn, but seeing something like that, Yuuto decided to stay out of the way.

"Ise-san? Is that really Ise-san in that armour?" Asia asked as she was intimidated by Issei's appearance.

"Fufufu… It seems that is what our little junior had been hiding from us since that night…" Akeno said as she looked at Issei who was confronting Riser again.

"Amazing…" Koneko said in amazement at the large amount of aura that surrounded Issei's body.

On the other side of the battlefield, Ravel was hovering in a good distance as she saw the spectacle of her brother being damaged by the figure in red armour.

"Incredible… Is that the power of a dragon?" Ravel said in slight worry for her brother.

X

Riser, with his breathings heavy, slowly ascend to the sky to confront the Red Dragon Emperor once again, while he tried to hold the pain that running through his entire body. The man could not believe, after years of victory and glory thanks to his flames and immortality, he met someone who managed to give him pain for the first time. An angel or fallen angel would be one thing, but this time, the person who inflicted pain into his person is none other than his own kind, a low-class one to add. Clinging to his pride as a high-class devil of Phenex clan, Riser steeled his self again.

"Wow… You really don't die, do you?" Issei commented, slightly impress on Riser's tenacity.

"Of course I won't! I'm a Phenex, a devil who has the same power as the legendary bird Phoenix! Even if you have grasped the power of the dragon inside you, you won't be able to beat me! Never!" Riser snapped as raging fire dancing around him again.

"I see… Then it's good, I guess", Riser furrowed his eyebrows at Issei's reply.

"Huh?"

"Since you won't die, it means that I can go all out against you!" Issei said as his body exploded in red and green aura again before he charged towards Riser.

The battle went on as Riser was being pushed back by Issei, whom flew around Riser with incredible velocity as his power and speed kept increasing by seconds. Riser could not do much but using his flames (which could only damage Issei's armour ever so slightly, and even if the armour were to break, Issei quickly regenerated his armour again) to attack Issei and surround himself to act as a barrier, while Riser would try to counter Issei's strike in futile. Simply put, Riser could barely touch Issei, let alone damaging him.

After the one-sided battle had gone for another while, Riser finally caught on Issei, whom was speeding straight with both of his fists pointed to him from the distance. Holding both of his hands towards Issei, Riser roared out and a giant torrent of fire was shot towards Issei.

The latter who saw his path was blocked by a torrent of fire heading to him, simply ordered his armour to increase his power again and he forcefully went to the fire, trying to penetrate through it.

FWOOSHH!

"UOOOHH!"

CRACK! CRACK!

The sounds of Issei's armour cracking could be heard as the Phoenix flame started to deal some damage on it.

**[Oi, partner! What did I tell you about Phoenix flames?]**

"I know, I know!"

While Riser was still busy putting more force in his flame attack, Issei skilfully changed the course of his flying and he went around to strike Riser from the side. Riser, who did not see anything coming, could not avoid Issei as the latter planted both of his fists towards Riser, pushing him and bringing him across the building as they went through the walls, and they finally dropped on the ground at the other side of the school building.

CRASH! BRAAAK! BOOM!

As Issei had Riser lying beneath him, Issei did not waste any more time as he started to pound Riser with punch after punch.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Riser who could barely guard himself from painful punches that Issei delivered, mustered his entire strength and magic to create a fiery explosion from his body.

"UOOOGH!"

BLAARR!

"Kuhk!"

Issei was forced to leapt back from the sheer force and heat of the fire that came out from Riser's body. The latter wobbly got up back on his feet, while the wounds and bruises on his face and body from Issei's attacks have started to heal, his mentality and spirit were starting to reach their limits.

"…(Pant)… (pant)… Why… WHY ARE YOU GETTING IN THE WAY OF THIS ENGAGEMENT!?" Riser roared in frustration, his physique may be unharmed due to his immortality, but his spirit would not recover that easily. In a fit of desperation, Riser ran charging towards Issei, whom also charged back. Soon the two were engaged again in a fist-fight as Riser desperately attacked Issei with his flame-coated strikes.

WHAM! WHAM! BAM! BAM! WHAM! WHAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Obviously, Issei was winning, as he easily blocked and dodged every strike from Riser, and the latter kept receiving a painful blow after blow from the former. Riser's mentality that had dropped nearing its limits had gone down even further.

"Isn't that obvious? A man like you doesn't deserve to be with her!" Issei yelled as his fist went towards Riser's gut. "And I have sworn that I'll fight for her! I'll fight to help her to achieve her dreams! I'll even defeat a God for her if I have to!"

BAM!

"Guhk!" Riser grunted in pain as his body skidded across the ground.

Riser got his footing again and he shouted, "Don't you understand!? This engagement is necessarily important for the future of pure-blood devils! A reincarnated devil brat like you doesn't have anything to do with this! So why are you getting in my way? WHY!?"

Issei sighed at Raiser's words. "If you really care about the future of those pure-blood devils or whatever, why don't you just marry a heiress from another clan!?" Issei shouted back as his armour charged his power even further.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Then Issei blurred away as he was suddenly appeared in front of Riser.

"Besides, didn't I tell you back in the clubroom?" Issei said as he used his right arm to deliver a jaw-breaking uppercut to Riser's chin, launching the latter high in the air. "I'll tell you again this time!"

BAM!

"Gaahk...!"

Riser who was still in the air could not move as Issei's strike to the chin managed to reach his brain as well. At the moment of his paralysis, Riser caught Issei was extending his left arm towards him.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! BOOST!]**

Then Issei shouted out on top of his lungs, "RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME!" then he fired his boosted Dragon Shot at Riser.

BWOOOOSH!

Issei's voice was so loud the spectators were able to hear it clearly. Ravel was taken aback with flustered face from Issei's bold declaration, while the members of Occult Research Club had various reactions. Rias' face was beet red, Akeno and Asia gasped with the former giggled afterwards, Koneko simply had wide eyes and Yuuto could not help but whistled.

"That's not what you said back there…!" Riser's voice was slowly disappeared when his body was enveloped in a large red light. When the light dissipated, Riser's body was not seen anywhere.

"Wait… What the hell am I saying!?" Issei yelled as his eyes widened and his face flushed in embarrassment. "_What the fuck was I thinking!?_"

Ddraig only laughed in half-amusement and half-mocking manner.

**[Hahahaha! Don't get all embarrassed when you just spoke a quote of the century! Hahahaha!]**

"**Riser-sama, the king, has retired. Victory of this rating game goes to Rias Gremory-sama."**

As soon as Grayfia's announcement was spoken, Issei dismissed his Scale Mail and he slumped to the ground.

"Fuaah… I never thought using Balance Breaker would be this tiring…" Issei said after exhaled deeply.

If it was not for the Phoenix Tears that Ravel gave earlier, Issei believed that his body would end up even in a worse shape after he dismissed his scale-mail. When Issei was still steadying his breath, his vision suddenly covered with bright light, along with his surroundings.

By the time his vision cleared up, he had already back in the clubroom, sitting on the floor. The pawn looked around and he found his friends and his master were behind him, still in their previous position when they were teleported back from the rating game arena. All of them were looking at Issei with a look of disbelief and awe.

Deciding to break the ice, Issei simply held up his hand in victory and he said, "Hey, guys."

Simply put, the others quickly snapped from their reverie as they regain their senses and they cheered as they ran to Issei. Rias was the first one to run towards her pawn as she quickly tackled Issei into her embrace. Tears of joy leaked from her eyes as she hugged Issei into her bosoms. Issei was blushing at the contact, but peeking from Rias' breasts, he could see the others were either complimenting him and simply smiled to themselves. From the cheering, Issei could hear Rias kept mumbling her words of gratitude.

"Thank you, Ise… Thank you very much… My Ise…"

Issei relaxed in his master's arms as he slowly returned the embrace. "Yes, it was my pleasure… buchou."

"By the way, Ise-kun…" Akeno's voice made Issei to break away from Rias, much to latter's displeasure, as the queen had her teasing smile on her face. "Those words you said when you blew Riser away… I never thought you'd be that bold… Fufufu…"

Issei and Rias' face were beet crimson red as they avoided each other's eyes. "Well… Sorry, it was just… Y'know…" Issei mumbled nervously.

"Hahaha, Issei-kun, I never heard a proposal like that in my entire life before…" Yuuto laughed teasingly as he patted Issei's back.

"No, no, no, no… Like I'm trying to tell you, it's just…"

"Pervert", this time, it was Koneko.

Issei simply stunned in place as Koneko's harsh words pierced through his body.

"Buchou-san and Ise-san… Hauu…" Asia whined in despair. It seemed Asia would have to do even better in winning Issei over.

Fortunately for Issei and Rias, before the situation could have been more awkward, the door was knocked and it opened to reveal the student council group.

"Sona, what brings you here?" Rias said with slight relieve in her tone as she spotted her childhood friend.

Sona stepped in with a smile on her face. "I'm here to congratulate you about your first rating game." Then her peerage followed behind her inside the room. "That was quite a performance you have there… Especially your pawn against Riser Phenex."

Issei noticed the reference from Sona's gleam, and when he also saw some of her peerage were giggling in amusement, and Saji with mixed expression on his face, his face went slightly red again. To avoid the topic of his 'declaration' to be brought again, Issei then said as he walked in. "Well, who's up for the party? We have to celebrate buchou's first victory, right? Kaichou, would you like to join us?" Issei finished as he asked to the student council.

"Well, thank you for the invitation, but…" before Sona could have finished, Rias interjected.

"Come on, Sona… Will you join us celebrating too? The night still long, and we don't have school later either. Why don't you take a break once in a while?" Rias said persuading, gesturing at Akeno who had quickly prepared a trolley full of drinks, cakes etc.

Sona looked around her peerage for a moment, whom looked back in her with looks that they would like to join the party as well (except Tsubaki, who was more reluctant and prefer to follow Sona's decision).

"I guess we'll have a drink or two…" Sona said after she sighed. Her peerage behind her had their expression brightened as they quickly blend in to talk with the members of Occult Research Club.

"Then, with all said and done…" Issei raised his fist to the air. "Let's party!"

"Yeah!" everyone chorused in unison.

X

Everyone inside the clubroom, Rias' peerage and Sona's peerage were holding a plastic cup with their choice of drinks on their hands. Rias stepped forward in the middle of the room, proposing a toast.

"For our first rating game victory!" Rias said raising her cup.

"Cheers~!" Everyone, plus another newcomer chorused as they raised their cups as well. Wait, another newcomer?

The other who recognised the foreign, yet familiar voice turned their heads and their eyes widened in shock at a figure of a man in white suit who had Grayfia, with her stoic demeanour, standing behind him. The man was a handsome and young, having the appearance of a man in his early 20's with shoulder length crimson red hair and blue-green eyes, similar to Rias. As a matter of fact, Issei thought he was looking for the male version of his master. The said man just finished downing his drink before he looked around with interest in his eyes.

The occupants of the room were frozen at the sight of the man, some of them even dropped their drinks on the floor with their eyes widened in shock and horror. The said 'male version of Rias' simply smiled as he looked around, as if wondering what was happening.

"What? You're supposed to drink after the cheers!" the man said gleefully.

As soon as the man had spoken, everyone quickly took to one-knee, bowing their heads in respect and submission towards the crimson-haired man. Issei who looked around the others' actions a second before, also quickly did the same after he patted Asia to prompt her to do the same.

The crimson-haired man simply raised his one hand as he showed his kind smile. "Stand up, all of you. At least for tonight I'm not here as a king", then everyone slowly stood up at the man's words.

Rias who was still in shock stuttered, "Wha- when- How-! What are you doing here, onii-sama?"

Issei's and Asia's eyes were widened at the mention of the word 'onii-sama' from Rias.

"_O-onii-sama? Come to think of it, that appearance… Holy shit! It's… It's the friggin' Maou!_" Isse screamed in his mind as his face paled slightly.

"_It- It's buchou-san's brother, the Maou himself!_" Asia thought as her eyes still glued on the crimson-haired man.

"Is it wrong for me to come here to congratulate my little sister's victory on her first rating game? I even went through the door to make it a surprise here…" the man replied with friendly tone.

"Well, I guess… That's not it!" Rias finally snapped from her stupor. "Onii-sama, you should've told me beforehand if you want to visit!" Rias said as she was agitated in more ways than one.

Rias' brother, or known as the Maou himself, simply laughed in amusement while Grayfia only sighed in exasperation. After laughing, the Maou addressed the others, "Now, now. Please return to your activities, everyone. We're here to celebrate for my little sister, no?"

Even with such a friendly tone, the rest of occupants still not sure what they should do in front of their king. While the room was still in process to regain its lively-ness, the Maou turned to Rias. "Rias, can I borrow your pawn for a moment?"

Rias widened her eyes in confusion, but after looking between Issei and her brother for a moment, she reluctantly complied. "Ise!" Rias called her pawn. Issei raised his eyebrows as he approached his master. "Onii-sama would like to talk to you for a moment. Is that alright with you?"

Issei turned his gaze towards Rias' brother, who still had his friendly expression on his face. "Hyoudou Issei-kun, correct? Can we talk outside the room? It won't take long."

"Y-yes, sure", Issei automatically replied. While the pawn followed the Maou and Grayfia towards the door, Issei was thinking about why a devil king would like to talk to him in private. Then his eyes widened as he recalled about the past events.

_RIAS GREMORY'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME!_

Issei's face lost its colour as soon he remembered that he had said those words. "_Oh_, _shit, shit, shit! Ddraig, what should I do here!? No doubt the Maou was watching me back there!_" Issei thought in panic.

_**[Man up]**_

"_Screw you!"_

Once they were outside the room in the hallway, Issei swallowed a lump as he decided to initiate the conversation first. "U-um… M- Maou-sama? What would you like to ask of me?"

The Maou simply smiled in kind manner. "Not much, actually. I simply would like to know the son of a friend of mine." Then he extended his hand for a shake. "Nice to meet you, Hyoudou Issei-kun. My name is Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly Sirzechs Gremory, one of Four Great Satans and also Rias' elder brother."

Issei nervously took the hand of the Maou known as Sirzechs Lucifer and shook it. "M-my name is Hyoudou Issei, Rias Greomory-sama's pawn. Y-Your younger sister and my master has been taking good care of me", Issei said while bowing his head slightly, still nervous. Sirzechs simply chuckled in amusement.

Then Issei's eyes widened slightly again at the mention of 'son'. "U-um, excuse me, Lucifer-sama… but when you mentioned that I'm the son of your friend, does that mean…"

Sirzechs immediately answered, "Yes, I know your father, and we've been keeping in touch for a while now. Your performance back in the rating game has truly proved yourself as his son. I'm sure Saitama-kun would be proud if he were to watch you there, Issei-kun." Sirzechs' smile grew brighter when he said those words.

Issei only let out sheepish chuckles as he rubbed the back of his head. While Issei was flattered from the compliment of the Maou himself, his eyes shot back as he remembered that there was something he had to say regarding the rating game.

"Please forgive me!" Issei suddenly bowed formally, resulting Sirzechs and Grayfia to rise their eyebrows. "Without considering anything, I suddenly have said those words about your sister! Please forgive my insolence that time!"

Sirzechs blinked couple of times at Issei whom still bowing his head. And then…

"Pfft…! Fuhahaha!"

From inside the clubroom, Rias and some others could hear their king was laughing. While curious of what was going on, they decided not to interrupt.

Meanwhile, while Sirzechs was barely able to control his laugh, Grayfia was smiling behind him, not bother to reprimand her master about his behaviour.

Issei slowly lifted his face enough to see the laughing Sirzechs. "Err… Lucifer-sama?"

"Hahahaha… Ha... Huff…" Sirzechs let out a breath, finally able to calm himself. Wiping out a tear that came from laughing in his eyes, Sirzechs smiled again at Issei. "Fufufu… You should apologise to my sister instead of me, Issei-kun… However, I like you even more now. My little sister really has recruited a fine man such as yourself to be her servant."

Issei only smiled sheepishly again at Sirzech's compliment. Then he was brought back to Sirzechs again when he asked, "By the way, how's your father doing at home?"

X

Long story short, after Sirzechs had done his private talk with Issei, the Maou and Grayfia bid their farewells towards Rias and the others, and the party went on without any incidents, aside of occasional bantering between Saji and Issei, occasional Akeno teasing Issei, and occasional some of Sona's peerage teasing Issei about his declaration when defeating Riser Phenex. All in all, everyone was laughing in joy during that little party.

At the moment, while everyone had gone to their homes, Issei was cleaning up the clubroom after the party late at night. The pawn had volunteered himself to stay behind since he was the one who proposed the idea of victory celebration in the first place. Issei let out a sigh as he finally had placed the couches back to their place.

"Okay, it's all done now", Issei said as his eyes darted towards the window. As he stared at the moon in the night sky, of which the light shone through the dark clubroom, Issei's mind drifted back to the time when he was talking with Sirzechs.

_(Flashback, one hour ago, in the hallway)_

"So your father hasn't come home, yet?" Sirzechs asked to Issei, whom simply shook his head in return.

"Is that so… I thought he was going to return home after I told him about you…" Sirzechs muttered with his hand on his chin and his gaze downwards.

"Um… Lucifer-sama…" Issei called resulting Sirzechs to look at him again. "What did my dad say when he heard about me?"

Sirzechs stayed silent for a moment before he replied, "He sounded surprised, but that's all. He was busy when I called him so we didn't manage to talk more…"

"I see…" Issei replied back with his gaze on the floor.

"Lucifer-sama, it's time", Grayfia suddenly said, as if she wanted to remind her master about something.

Sirzechs breathed out a small sigh as he smiled again. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Issei-kun. I wish I can stay longer, but I have to return to the underworld as a Maou. Send my regards to your father when you meet him…"

_(Flashback ends)_

Issei contemplated about that conversation. He was aware his father may has been gone to place to place, but he did not really expect that his father would be involved in the supernatural. Not to mention, having your father to have connections with one of leaders of the underworld was quite an information he had to take into his mind.

After moments of contemplations, Issei sighed as he prepared himself to go home. When he was about to walk to the clubroom door, the door opened up and Issei was greeted with a familiar crimson hair.

"Ise?" the owner of the crimson hair called as her head peeked out from the door.

"Buchou? I thought you went home…" Issei replied back.

Rias went in, closed the door and she turned to her pawn. "I thought you might need some help cleaning up… But it seems you had it just fine", Rias said smiling as she scanned around the tidy room before her.

"Yeah, it wasn't that hard, after all…"

After Issei said those words, the two occupants of the room fell into an awkward silence. The two fidgeting with their blushing faces refused to meet each other. After a minute or two, they spoke up.

"Ise/Buchou."

!

The two were caught off-guard when they called each other at the same time. Their face blushed even more as they avoided each other's gaze.

"Um, you can go first. Please", Issei spoke with a gesture.

Rias looked at Issei before she cleared her throat. "W-well, I just… I just want to thank you again…" Rias words made Issei's head to tilt in confusion. "Before, my life had already been set by my parents. I thought that I would never be able to live freely, only to end up as a trophy for some random man like Riser…" Rias said as her eyes gazing outside the window, then her gaze turned to Issei. "Then I met you", Rias said with expression full of joy and gratitude.

Issei's eyes widened, mesmerized by Rias' appearance under the moonlight. "Thanks to you, I'm now free. I'm now able to live as myself, it's all thanks to you."

Issei stayed silent with his eyes still glued at Rias for a moment, then he closed his eyes and his expression softened. "You're welcome, buchou", Issei said as he stared at his hand for a moment.

Rias then interjected again. "However, Ise…" Rias said with her expression downed slightly. "I am free, but only for now. There's still a possibility that there will be another talk of engagement and more to come. When that time comes… Are you still willing to fight by my side?"

Issei stared at Rias before he smiled in content. "Of course. I'm your pawn, remember?" Issei replied with a grin. "There are lots of strong and powerful people out there… Much stronger than Riser, I say…" then Issei clenched his left hand into a fist. "In that case, I just have to be stronger for you, right?"

Rias eyes widened at Issei's words. Her face started to feel hot all of sudden. "No matter what kind of enemies and obstacles that want to hinder you in achieving your dreams, I promise I'll be there for you. No matter how many times and how long, I'll always protect you!" At this Issei's vow, Rias' eyes gleamed in tears of joy.

However, before Rias could say anything else, Issei spoke again. "And also…" suddenly Issei was looking nervous while scratching his blushing cheek. "About that game earlier… I'm sorry", Issei said as he bowed to Rias.

This time, it was Rias who tilted her head in confusion. "Without considering your feelings… I selfishly spew out those stupid things about your virginity…" At this explanation, Rias' face went red again. "I should've been aware that your virginity is for yours to decide what to do with it… So, again, I'm sorry."

"Ise, lift your head up", Rias commanded at Issei whom was still bowing.

Issei complied and he raised his head. "Yes, buc-!"

Chuu….

Issei's sentence was cut off when Rias suddenly walked over and she pulled his head towards her and she crashed her lips to him. Issei, with wide eyes and face fuming in red, could not say a word as he could only take in the taste of Rias' lips on his. The two remained in their position long enough for Issei to slowly close his eyes in relaxation and his arms slowly raised until they were on Rias' waists.

When they broke off, Issei covered his red fuming face with his hand, receiving a giggle from Rias.

"That was my first kiss", Rias informed, touching her lips with her finger. "A first kiss is something a girl in Japan treasures, correct?"

Issei, still covering his face, mumbled in reply, "Buchou… If you do something like that to me…" now a smoke could be seen coming out from his head. "What am I supposed to do?"

Rias giggled again and she took Issei's hand off from his face. "Then consider it as your reward for now", Rias said, then she muttered with red face, "Next time, I… probably won't mind to give you my first…"

Issei cocked his head slightly, "Yes? What did you want to say, buchou?"

"N-Nothing!" Rias shook her head furiously.

X

_(Meanwhile, unknown location)_

Saitama, still clad with his same outfit last time, was seen sitting on top of a pile of fallen army of monsters with various forms and sizes, and around the pile, there were more corpses of those monsters on the barren wasteland of battlefield with craters and so much destruction on the terrain. The man himself was talking through his cell-phone with leisure and his usual straight-plain face.

…

"Okay… That's not something you heard everyday. Are you sure it was him who said that?"

…

"If you don't mind, then. Wait, actually I'll just drop by your place later. Can you save me that recording?"

…

"Thanks. I'll see you there, then Sirzechs."

Beep. Click.

"…(sigh)… Jesus, Ise… What did you get yourself into, man?" Saitama said with his expression unchanging.

"So you're done here, huh…" our bald hero turned his head to see a figure with white draconian armour with wings shining in blue descending from the sky.

"Hey, white guy, err…", Saitama greeted resulting a vein twitched on the newcomer's face behind his armour.

"It's Vali. How long will you take to remember a name that simple?" the figure in white armour, known as Vali spoke while supressing him from lashing out.

"What are you doing here?" Saitama said, ignoring Vali's remarks.

Vali sighed from behind his helmet. "Azazel sent me to check on you, of which I'd say it's pointless. You never need any help to begin with", Vali said as he looked around the destruction and numerous corpses across the field.

Vali then noticed Saitama's cell-phone in the latter's hand. "Keeping tabs on my rival again?"

Knowing what Vali meant, Saitama only shrugged. "Not really, rather, I suddenly got a call about him."

"How's he? Did he become even stronger?"

"Pretty much, I guess. Sirzechs just said that he just defeat an enemy that kind of can't die or something like that."

In this statement, Vali only chuckled in amusement.

"Anyway, let's head back. Azazel said earlier that he just got a new game and he asked me to try it with him", Saitama said as he stood up from his sitting spot.

Vali only snorted in his armour as he levitated himself again to the air. He looked back last time to see Saitama staring at him.

"What?" Vali asked him.

"You're not taking me with you?" Saitama asked with indifferent expression.

"Go back by yourself."

"Hey, come on now… You know it took almost like forever for me to go back on foot… You can just teleport me together with you, right?"

"Then just suck it up. I'm going back myself", Vali said as he started to flew away.

Saitama widened his eyes slightly as he started to run and jumping after Vali who was in the air. "Hey, come on! Don't be mean now, Volley!"

"It's Vali!"

_To be continued_

**And that's the end of Phoenix arc! What do you guys think of the chapter? Did I make Issei badass enough? Overall, please review about your opinion. Constructive comments will be appreciated while flames will be frowned upon. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	10. Holly Sword (I)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello there, readers! Here's the Holy Sword Arc of this crossover of One-punch Man and High-school DxD! Please enjoy! (^_^)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own neither of OPM nor High-school DxD.**

**Chapter 9: Holy Sword (I) – A Grudge**

_(Flashback, several years ago, Grigori Headquarters)_

"Azazel! Oi, Azazel!" a young boy, no older than 10 year-old, with dark silver hair was walking towards a figure of a man with six pairs of jet-black crow wings. There was also another man with a bald-head who dressed in a baggy, ragged clothes with a robe along with the twelve-winged man.

The one called as Azazel turned his head when he heard his name was being shout, then he recognised the sight of the one calling him. "Oh, Vali! Perfect timing, I was about to look for you!" said Azazel in glee as he waved his hand around. The bald man was simply staring at the kid with indifference.

When the kid, known as Vali, reached Azazel, the child immediately turned his gaze at the bald man before him. "Azazel, who's this guy?" Vali asked pointing at the man as soon as he finished eyeing him.

"Glad that you asked. This man here is Saitama. He'll be your sparing partner for now", said Azazel patting the shoulder of the bald man, whom identified as Saitama.

Vali furrowed his eyebrows in scepticism. "Him, my sparring partner? He looks like a wimp", Vali commented.

Saitama only rolled his eyes at Vali's comment. It was not his first time to be looked down upon based on his appearance alone. Azazel himself only chuckled in amusement. "Come on, don't say that. Why don't you give him a shot first before you say anything?"

Saitama himself whispered as he leaned his head closer towards Azazel. "Oi, Azazel, you sure you're paying me to fight a kid?"

"Hey, I can hear you, old man! Who're you calling a kid!?" a vein mark appeared on his face as Vali yelled while he put his hands on his waist.

Azazel laughed in amusement. "Hahaha, glad you're getting along so quick. As for you Saitama, I know you're strong and all, but you shouldn't underestimate this kid too much", Azazel said as he patted Vali's head, which Vali quickly swatted the hand away in annoyance. "Do you remember the 13 Longinus I told you earlier?" Azazel asked and he continued after receiving a nod. "This kid has one of them, and he had mastered all the basics a couple of years ago. I just need your help to train him to reach his highest potential."

Saitama stared at Vali, who also stared back, and he rubbed his bald head before he let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll help…. So, kid", Saitama said to Vali. "Don't expect me to go easy on you."

Vali only replied in mocking tone. "Ha! I'm gonna kick your ass six ways to Sunday, you cue ball! And I'm not a kid!"

Later, a scream of agony, curses and sometimes whines and cries were heard from Grigori training facility. The soon-to-be strongest White Dragon Emperor tasted a new meaning of power on that day.

_(End of Flashback)_

X

Issei was sleeping soundly right when the morning came. As he felt the ray of morning sun came through the window, landing on his face, he grimaced slightly as he mumbled in his sleep, then he pressed his face on the pillow in his embrace.

"Aahn…"

Suddenly, the boy flinched as he heard that moan in his slumber. Besides, his pillow, which should be only one on his bed, was resting right under his head, so how could he embrace another one? Not to mention, this particular pillow he was hugging had a really nice smell and when he pressed his face towards it, he could felt two soft things on his cheeks. The boy slowly opened his eyes, and as his vision got clearer, he drew his face away from his 'extra pillow', and he was met with a bountiful pair of woman's breasts. His eyes widened and his body stiffened in shock, then his eyes caught the sight of familiar red locks.

Swallowing a lump, Issei brought his eyes upwards from the sight before him and he was met with familiar pair of teal-coloured eyes. The owner of the said eyes was awake and smiling at him.

"Good morning, Ise."

Issei finally realised that while he was sleeping, he was hugging a naked Rias Gremory like a pillow for entire night. The boy's face immediately flushed in deep red, he jumped from his bed and immediately prostate himself in front of Rias who was still on the bed with all her naked glory.

"I-I-I-I'm so sorry, ojou-sama! I-I didn't mean to…!"

Then Rias immediately cut him off. "Ise, what are you supposed to say when someone greeted you first in the morning?"

Issei lifted his face from the ground and he saw his master was looking at him with gentle smile on her face. Looking away in embarrassment, Issei changed his position to seiza position on his knees and nervously replied, "G-good morning to you too, Rias ojou-sama…"

Rias only giggled at the spectacle as she sat on the bed, not bother to cover her body. Issei then tried to regain his composure as his face was still beet red, he took a deep breath as he tried to remember what happened last night. What were they doing together in the same bed? Why was his master in his house in the first place?

_**[She decided to crash in your house right after the party, remember? You were told that you can go to sleep first while she took a quick shower]**_

Issei let out a sigh at Ddraig's reminder. He certainly did not expect that Rias would have slept in his room instead of Asia's. He wanted to ask, but he found himself reluctant to do so. After taking back his composure as much as possible, Issei stood up and he took the blanket on the bed, he spread it open and he wrapped the blanket around Rias' shoulder to cover her modesty.

The red-haired girl raised her eyebrows, but she smiled in appreciation for the treatment. Issei looked at his clock, and he found that it was already too late to be called morning, let alone for him to do his training exercise, so he decided to get ready for a brunch right away.

"Come on, ojou-sama. Please get dressed and go downstairs. I'll prepare breakfast", Issei said with a kind smile.

Just when the boy was about to walk towards the door, someone was knocking from outside of his room.

"Ise-san, the food is ready!" Asia's cheerful voice was heard from beyond the door.

Issei's eyes widened at the call. He could not possibly show Asia this kind of sight. With quick thinking, Issei managed to come out with a proper reply. "O-okay! I'll be down there soon!" However…

"Yes, Asia. I'll be down there with Ise as soon as I'm ready."

Issei froze and he robotically turned his head towards Rias who was smiling playfully with gleams on her eyes. The boy swallowed another lump when the door suddenly slammed open, revealing a shocked-face Asia.

"Good morning, Asia", was all Rias said with cheerful smile.

Asia, still with her shocked-face, turned to Issei whom shaking his head frantically, as if trying to say that it was not what it looks like. Soon, the blonde bishop's eyes got teary and she brought her hands towards her pajama pants.

"I'll get naked too! I don't want to be left out!" said Asia as she started to bring her pants down her legs.

"Wow, wow, wow! Stop!" Issei immediately took a counter-measure as he quickly moved to put Asia's pants back to her waist before Asia's legs could have gotten off from the clothing. Asia, still teary-eyed, looked at Issei, who was still blushing and panting slightly in his breaths.

Issei took a deep breath before saying with a stern tone. "Nobody will strip anymore here! And ojou-sama…" Issei turned to his master, who was watching in amusement from the bed. "I'm begging you, put something on, already!" Issei pleaded desperately as Rias was still only in a blanket.

Rias rose from her sitting position as she smiled before let out another giggle. "Fine, fine…" Rias said playfully. When the girl walked towards the dresser, she stopped by the window for a second and she noticed something outside. "I guess all of them have arrived here."

"Ojou-sama?" Issei asked curiously about what Rias meant.

"Just go down first and I'll explain during breakfast, okay?" Rias said with a wink.

The boy simply shrugged and he took Asia, who had calmed down enough, with him downstairs.

X

"So, from today onwards, I will be living in this house as well", Rias said as she gave a formal bow on her seat. "I as well, will be in your care from now on, Hyoudou-san…"

"Of course, of course! I'm so glad to have more company in the house! Ise, your mother here is so happy for you giving me more daughters!" Hyoudou Haruka replied gleefully. For a second, Issei could have sworn that he heard his mother muttering something about more grandchildren.

Back to the topic, Issei poked his head a bit towards the front door, where all Rias' belongings were laid beyond it, and he gazed back at the situation on the dining table.

After Issei downed his glass of milk in one go, he put down the glass carefully as he asked, "Um, ojou-sama? Why would you like to stay in this house again?"

"I simply want to be closer with my junior, that's all. Do you have something to say?" Rias replied as she sipped her cup of tea.

Issei actually had few things to say. If Rias simply want to be closer with her servant, why did she not do this with others like Yuuto, Koneko, or Akeno perhaps? This might be favouritism, but in the end, who was he to judge his own master? It was already impolite enough if he were to kick Rias out of his house.

Letting out a sigh, Issei only nodded as he came up with a smile. "No, nothing, ojou-sama. I hope you'll like it here", Issei said. The boy had to admit, it might be interesting in its own right as well. Besides, from another point of view, his mother would have more extra hands to do housework.

"Well, with all said and done…" Rias clapped her hands. "Ise, can you please move my belongings inside the house once we finished our meal?" she asked her pawn.

"As you wish, ojou-sama…" Issei replied in compliance. His mother giggled at Issei's attitude while Asia whimpered as she kept trying to swallow her dilemma with her food. The blonde girl felt that a rival had finally shown up.

_(Scene Break)_

"Ah, Ise-san… I'll help too", Asia said as she ran towards the pile of boxes that belong to Rias.

"Oh, thanks, Asia. Just don't push yourself too much, okay? We're already more than half-done, after all", Issei replied as he brought another box from the pile.

"Ise, I forgot one more thing. The others will come here later at noon since we're not going to school, so I decided that we'll have club activities in your house, is it okay?" Rias asked as she helped out with the moving as well.

Putting down another box, Issei thought for a second. "Yeah. It's fine, ojou-sama. I'll just have to tidy up the living room later before everyone shows up", Issei replied.

When the last box had been moved at last, Rias wiped her sweats as she turned to Issei. "Well, while we're waiting for the others to arrive, let's have a shower. I'll wash your back."

"Eh?"

Issei was a bit petrified at Rias' offer. However, before the boy could have said anything in return, Asia suddenly hugged Issei's arm. "Geez! I don't want to be left out! I'll wash Ise-san's back as well!"

"Hoo? Is that a declaration of war, Asia? Ufufufu…", Rias said challengingly as she hugged Issei's other arm.

"Err… Do I even have any say in this?" Issei's question fell on deaf ears as the girls kept glaring at each other.

_**[Kukukuku… Just enjoy it, partner…]**_ Ddraig said mentally with amused tone. Issei could only sighed in return.

_(Scene Break)_

It took Issei's whole will-power in order to hold his composure during his bath-time with Rias and Asia, especially when those two were quarrelling about who would get the first turn to wash Issei's back. Now, dressed in a pair of shorts and a white T-shirt, the pawn was cleaning the living room with a vacuum cleaner

"_Good grief, those girls…_" Issei thought as he was vacuuming the living room. The boy wore an apron and a cloth over his head to keep him from the dust. "_But those sensations…_" Issei's mind trailed-off as he stared at blank space, his movement on the vacuum cleaner became monotone, stuck on the same spot over and over.

"_Ojou-sama's breasts are really soft… No wonder all of the guys fawn over her…_" Issei's mind recalled the sensation on his back. "_Asia's… While smaller, her breasts still there, and almost as soft as ojou-sama as well…_"

Then, just when Issei's lips twitched upwards, his eyes immediately widened, his face flustered, and he furiously shook his head. "_No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Bad thoughts, Ise! Bad thoughts!_" the boy thought scolding himself as he began to move with the vacuum cleaner around the room frantically. "_Don't let those thoughts cloud your mind, Ise! You must protect them! Their innocence! Even from yourself!_" Issei thought as his face still flushed.

Suddenly…

"Having lewd thoughts?"

"GAAH!"

Issei screamed in surprise and he turned around to see his mother smirking at him. Her body was leaning on the edge of the entrance of living room from the hallway.

"Mom!" Issei whined to his mother. Haruka simply giggled as she approached her son.

"Well? I'm still waiting for your answer", the woman said as she stopped in front of Issei.

The boy gave an incredulous look. "Wh- No! I'm not thinking about breasts or anything!" Issei denied as he shook his fuming head.

"Hoo… I see, I see… Those girls, especially Rias-chan sure has a pair of amazing knockers… So, which one do you prefer? Rias-chan or Asia-chan?" Haruka said with playful grin.

Issei's face went even redder at his mother's question. "Oh, come on now! Like I can answer that!" Issei whined to the woman.

"Just be honest now, sweetie… Your mother has been waiting for the day where we can talk about your girlfriends, you know?"

"Geez, mom… We're not in that kind of relationship… Speaking of, where are those two?" Issei retorted and he asked about Rias and Asia's whereabouts.

"Rias-chan and Asia-chan are in the kitchen, preparing snacks for your friends later", Haruka replied as she scanned around the room. "You should leave this kind of thing to me and go have fun with your friends, you know?" the woman said with bitter look.

"Mom…" Issei's expression suddenly softened. "I'm fine, trust me. You've been busy taking care of me and the house ever since… dad left us…" Issei finished with his expression turned bitter.

Haruka could only let out a small sigh as she smiled bitterly. "Still can't get over your dad, aren't you?"

Issei chuckled a bit in return. "Well, I guess I am…"

Suddenly, Haruka enveloped her son into a hug. Issei was already taller than her so the woman rested her head on her son's shoulder as her arms circling around his back. Issei who was taken a back slightly from the hug, relaxed himself and he returned the hug as he rested his head on his mother's shoulder.

"Thanks, mom…" Issei said in content. "I'll bring him home, I promise."

Haruka broke off the hug, she caressed her hand on her son's cheek and she smiled at her son, who smiled back. "I know you will. Just don't force yourself too hard, okay?" Issei simply nodded in response.

The two Hyoudou's turned their heads at the sound of the doorbell. "Looks like your friends have arrived. Go greet them, I'll take over things here", Haruka said as she moved and took away the vacuum cleaner from the living room, while Issei took off his apron and his cloth from his head and walked towards the front door.

"Yes, coming!" Issei said as he heard another doorbell. The boy opened the door to see his friends from Occult Research Club in their casual outfit (A/N: I'll leave their clothes in your imagination). "Hey, guys."

"Fufufu, thank you for having us today, Ise-kun…" Akeno greeted with her usual smile.

"Good afternoon, Ise-senpai…" Koneko greeted with her usual stoic face, but beneath that expression, she was enjoying her visit.

"Sorry to intrude, Issei-kun", Yuuto said with his usual smile as well.

"It's fine, you guys… Just come on in", Issei replied as he made a path for the others to come through.

Upon stepping inside, while they were putting off their shoes, the guests were greeted by Haruka, Rias and Asia. The latter two were dressed in their respective casual clothing as well.

"Thank you for coming, everyone", Rias said in greeting.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Akeno-san, Koneko-chan, Kiba-san", Asia said addressing the others one by one.

Issei then moved to his mother's side. "Everyone, let me introduce you my mother. Mom, these are my friends from the school, Akeno-san, Koneko-chan, and Kiba."

The three introduced guests widened their eyes ever so slightly at Haruka's appearance as they thought pretty much the same thing.

"_So young…"_

"A pleasure to meet you, Hyoudou-san… My name is Himejima Akeno. I'm sorry, but at the first glance I thought you are Ise-kun's elder sister…" the said girl introduced herself with a polite bow before she commented on Haruka's looks.

Issei only rolled his eyes at Akeno's remarks. While Haruka giggled in return. "Fufufu, I'm flattered to be told such a thing by a beautiful girl like you, Akeno-san…"

The other two also did the same gesture as Akeno when they introduced their names.

"My name is Toujou Koneko, nice to meet you."

"I'm Kiba Yuuto, nice to meet you, ma'am."

Haruka's smile grew even wider as she clasped her hands in joy. "Oh my, thank you so much for coming here. I'm so glad that my son managed to make new friends other than Motohama and Matsuda… Those two are good kids, but-"

"Alright, alright… Let's continue in the living room, shall we?" Issei said, cutting-off his mother's words as he motioned the woman to the living room. "Just make your selves comfortable. I'll be back with snacks", Issei said as he left to the kitchen.

_(Scene Break)_

"Uh… What are you all doing? Mom, what are you doing?" Issei asked at the crowd before him, with deadpanned expression and with his hands holding a tray full of drinks and snacks prepared by Rias and Asia beforehand.

"And this is the 5 year-old Ise…" Haruka said gleefully as she showed the picture of her 5 year-old son, drinking a milk in nude, in the album.

"Oh, my… Look at his butt… I never knew that Ise-kun likes to streak like that, fufufu…" Akeno commented with the same glee. Apparently when Issei was going to the kitchen, Haruka immediately took their family photo albums and showed the contents to all guests in the living room.

Issei remained deadpanned as he gazed at his friends who were enjoying the album before them. "Ise-senpai's embarrassing past…" Issei spotted Koneko muttered those words as the little girl looking at one of the albums.

When Issei looked at the others, he spotted his master, while her eyes were sparkling, the girl was somewhat in a trance while looking at the pictures. "Little Ise, little Ise, little Ise…" the pawn heard his king mumbling those words like a mantra.

"Yes! Yes, I can understand what your feelings, buchou-san!" Issei could see Asia said as she scooted next to Rias, the blonde's emerald eyes were glittering with joy as well.

Letting out a sigh, Issei put down the tray on the table before he joined the crowd. "Mom, why would you show them my old pictures?" Issei asked with exasperate tone and with his face slightly flushed to his mother. The boy would not say that he was embarrassed, since it was only natural for him to act like that during his childhood. However, having people to take a peek at your past felt… somewhat disturbing in more ways than one.

Haruka turned towards Issei with playful smirk. "Fufufu, Ise… While it's your job to make me proud as my son…" Haruka put her thumb up. "It's one of my duties as your mother to embarrass you in front of your friends. Tehe!" Haruka finished with a wink.

Issei's eyes twitched as a vein popped on his face. While his mother looks young, having her to act all cute despite her age tends to annoy Issei to a degree. After releasing yet another sigh, Issei stood up as he attempted to wrap up the current session. "Alright, alright! That's enough with my things!" Issei moved towards Yuuto who was the closest to him. "This is supposed to be a club-meeting, remember?"

When Yuuto was having a turn to take a look at the album, he skilfully managed to avoid Issei's grasp on the album. "Hahaha… Come on now, Issei-kun. Sure we can learn more about yourself, right?" said the knight as he flipped another page.

Suddenly, Yuuto's expression stiffened when his eyes landed upon one particular picture. The picture showed the little Issei was posing like a superhero together with a child with light brown hair.

"Say, Issei-kun…" Yuuto said with cold tone.

Noticing the tone, Issei's expression hardened ever so slightly as he replied with slight cautious. "Yeah?"

"Do you remember anything about this picture?"

Issei took a glance at the picture, "Well… That's Irina, the kid I usually hang out with when I was small… But a year or two after we knew each other, she left to move to Europe or something… What about it?"

"Do you know anything about this sword, then?" Yuuto pointed at the sword ornament on the wall above the two children in the picture.

"Hmm… I only know that the sword belongs to her dad… Again, what about it?" Issei asked in return.

"Heh…" Yuuto snorted as his gaze became colder. "To see another holy sword again this soon… Such a small world, indeed…"

Issei furrowed his eyebrows as he noticed a particular term. "_Holy sword...?_" However, the boys' musings were interrupted by another gleeful voice from Haruka.

"And look at what we have here! Ise's first bread-eating contest in grade-school!"

Issei's head snapped towards his mother and the girls as he remembered what he was about to do before talking with Yuuto. "Crap… Come on, you girls! And you too, mom! I told you to knock it off!" Issei said as he walked away from the knight.

And the girls, safe for Koneko, whined in disappointment as Issei snatched the photo albums away.

X

The school days after the rating game with Riser went on as usual. The crowds of male and female students shrieked in surprise, hatred and jealousy when they saw Issei, now together with Rias and Asia (he used to walk with only one of the girls), were walking through the school gate.

Later after class, Issei, sitting on his desk, was looking outside at the sky through the window beside him. During entire lessons, his mind was trailing off to the day when the Occult Research Club was visiting his house. After Yuuto had seen the picture that had a 'holly sword', as the knight had said, the club activity in his house went on like usual, only with Yuuto having a dark expression on his face during the entire meeting.

"_I wonder what was that all about…"_ Issei thought to himself as he could not take his mind off from yesterday's event.

"Ise, you bastard!"

Suddenly Issei felt that his head was being hit by an iron club. "Ouch!" Issei yelped as he rubbed his sore head, looking at his two friends, Matsuda and Motohama. It was strange for the devil, how could a hit from two mere humans felt hurt to him?

"Okay, what is it this time?" Issei asked staring half-lidded at his angry friends.

The two sobbing their tears while their expressions were mixtures of anger, sadness and betrayal. "After all these times we look up on you as our senior…!"

"We thought we were bros!"

"Don't you care how we felt when you introduced us to one of your 'girls', huh!?"

Issei furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh? What are you…" then Issei's eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh…" He just recalled that he had introduced Mil-tan to them.

"'Oh'!? Is that 'oh' your can say to us!? We only asked you only one! Just one! One of your girls for us to get along! Was that too much to ask!?" Motohama yelled crying anime tears with Matsuda.

"Um, I already told you, I don't…" then Issei scoffed. "You know what? I won't even bother anymore. Believe what you like", Issei said with his hands up. "So… how is it? With Mil-tan, I mean?"

"That's horrible! I think cosplayers will never be the same to me ever again!" Matsuda cried. Motohama interjected, "So for revenge, we've decided to talk shit about you all over the school!"

"Or rather, we have spread out of those rumours since this morning."

Issei tensed up a bit at the word 'rumours'. He looked around the class, and he spotted some of his classmates were whispering at each other while they looked at him with a look of disgust, some of their looks were strangely pleased as well.

"Alright, I'll bite. What did you tell everyone?" Issei asked as he knocking his fingers on the table.

Matsuda and Motohama snickered at the question.

"Glad that you asked. First of all, there are rumours that you pulled Rias Gremory-senpai and Himejima Akeno-senpai into your harem by black-mails and dirty means! Everyday, after school, you'll indulge your carnal desire on them with various kinds of savage erotic plays!"

Issei froze at the statement. Think about it again, with all those two girls' advances on him (which he did not really understand the point of), it might be just a matter of time until that rumour became true.

"_I've been fearing my own sanity, and my virginity regarding those two ever since that rating game…"_ Issei commented warily in his mind.

"Then, there's also where you have dragged Asia Argento-chan, our new transfer student into your sick fetish!"

"_I'm not even sure my own fetish, but seriously!? How the fuck can I do that to Asia, of all people!?"_ this time, a vein mark popped out on Issei's head.

"We also said that you have sunk your teeth on our school's mascot, Toujou Koneko-chan!"

"_Her too!? I didn't even talk much with her!"_

"And the last but not the least…" Issei swallowed a lump as he saw his friends' grin grew wider. "As the girls like it, we've also spread that you have tried few kinky stuffs with the school prince, Kiba Yuuto!"

BAM! BAM!

Issei was standing up, his fist clenched and smoking, and Matsuda and Motohama were faced-down on the floor, with a smoking bump on each of their heads.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Issei looked around and see his classmates were looking at him with odd gazes. Letting out a sigh, Issei simply picked the two knocked-out bodies and placed them on both of his shoulders. Upon walking to the door, Issei was met with Asia and a girl with brown hair styled in twin-braids, she was also wearing spectacles with pink frame.

"Ise-san, where are you going- what happened with Matsuda-san and Motohama-san?" Asia asked innocently.

Before Issei could have replied, the girl with pink glasses interjected. "Meh, maybe Hyoudou was just being teased and harassed by those two, he ended up knocking them out and now he's carrying him to the infirmary. Am I right, Hyoudou-kun?" the girl smirk in confidence.

Issei almost forgot that the girl beside Asia was sharper than he thought. Aika Kiryuu, a classmate of his and Asia, also known as the perverted girl who can calculate a man's 'manhood' size from just looks. There were several occasions where the girl tried to take a 'measure' on Issei, which prompted the latter to cover his crotch on those occasions.

"Right on the money…" Issei replied with a sigh. "By the way, Kiryuu…" Issei looked at the girl. "You… didn't happen to put any weird ideas into Asia's head, did you?"

At the question, Kiryuu only smirked as her glasses flashed, "Kukuku… I wonder?"

Issei's swallowed another lump, worried for Asia's innocence, as the girl in question simply blinked, not understanding what Issei and Kiryuu were implying.

"Anyway, I gotta go and drop these two idiots. Asia, I'll see you later in the clubroom", Issei said after taking out a breath as he went past the girls. Asia simply nodded, however, when Issei's eyes met with Kiryuu's during the exchange, his eyes and hers were exchanging messages through the glints alone.

"_I got my eyes on you"_

"_Bring it on"_

Then Issei quickly averted his eyes and proceed towards the school's infirmary.

X

Later at night, Issei was standing in front of large doors of a mansion of his new client in a middle of the town. The meeting in the clubroom went on as usual, except for Yuuto who still had his dark expression since yesterday. The knight even dozed off when he was being called and all. However, Issei quickly put the thought at the back of his mind for the moment and focused back at the task at hand.

"This new client is quite reach, I suppose… But…" Issei's mind noticed the strange atmosphere around him and the building. _"This presence… though it's not hostile, but…"_ Issei could not help but suspicious.

_**[I'm here whenever you need me, partner]**_

Issei was relieved a bit having his dragon partner ready to aid him at the moment's notice. _"Yeah… Thanks, Ddraig."_

"Here we go now…" The pawn steeled himself and knocked on the door. "Hello, I'm the devil you summoned!" the boy yelled.

The door opened by itself, and a spine-chilling gust of wind washed over Issei. The boy swallowed a nervous lump and he heard a voice.

"Ah… Come in here, devil-kun…" Issei followed the voice into a room.

Upon coming into the room, Issei was met with a man with black hair, golden bangs and black goatee. The man was wearing a green yukata and sitting down on a couch in front of a large TV screen.

"Okay… So what is your wish?" Issei took the initiative to ask first.

The man simply shrugged as he beckoned him to sit next to him. "Nothing much. I just bought this new game here and I need someone to play with. Would you mind?"

Issei looked at the newest X-Box console and at the TV screen that showed the game 'Halo Reach'. At the sight of the game, Issei's eyes widened.

"Someone seems interested…" The man said with a knowing smirk.

"Yeah, you bet I am…" Issei's lips twitched upwards. "I always want to try playing this game."

"You ever play FPS before?" the man asked again as Issei took a seat next to him.

"Well… Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, you know, simple stuffs", Issei replied.

"Oh, I actually have those too. Let's play them next time, shall we?"

"No problem, so… shall we play now?" Issei said as the man simply smiled and started the game.

_(Scene Break)_

**[You seemed to be having fun]**

Issei suddenly remembered his earlier paranoia when he was entering the house before, but now, he managed to fulfil a contract and his worries were all forgotten.

"Uh… Yeah, my bad there. But still, I didn't expect him to be… easy to talk with…" Issei replied back to Ddraig, scratching his cheek in slight embarrassment.

**[You didn't even bother to at least ask him, did you?]**

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I got caught in the moment."

**[Well, I guess I can't be helped since he let you go. Just keep your guard up if you ever come to him again, you hear me?]**

"Okay, okay…"

Just when Issei was about to head back to the clubroom, the boy sensed a magical signal on his palm and a magic communication circle appeared on it. The pawn could see Akeno's body being projected from the red magic circle.

"Akeno-san? What is it?" Issei asked looking at his open palm.

"Good work for today, Ise-kun. Sorry for a sudden notice but we've received another order from the Archduke", Akeno replied with her usual smile.

"Another stray?" Akeno simply nodded at the question.

"I'll send you the location to your phone and we'll meet there, Ise-kun", Akeno said as Issei's phone suddenly buzzed. Speak of the devil.

Issei had already able to use magic for communicate, but he still had to rely on his gadgets for more advanced communication like seeing coordinates and stuff. Like during his previous training days, the pawn still lacking in magic department.

"Okay, I got it. See you and the others later, Akeno-san", Issei said looking at his cell-phone as he turned off the magic link.

Issei opted to leapt or perhaps fly towards the location, however, before he could have made any movement, the boy stopped as he thought to himself.

"_Can I do this now?"_

Looking at the coordinate on his cell-phone again, Issei relaxed himself as he closed his eyes and channelled his magical reserve. Soon, a magic circle appeared on his feet and Issei's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to focus even harder. The magic circle glowed brighter and then…

BOOM!

**[Pssh, too bad. Good luck next time, partner]** Ddraig smirked at his host's failure.

It exploded, leaving Issei's body covered in dust. "(sigh)… It's still no good", Issei simply muttered to himself, ignoring the dragon's comment as he began his journey on foot towards his comrades.

X

This time, at an abandoned construction site, Issei landed not far from his friends, who had been gathered before him.

"Oh, good work for tonight, Ise", Rias said as being the first one to saw him.

"Yes, good work for tonight too, ojou-sama, everyone", Issei said as he approached his group. While everyone nodded and greeted him in return, Issei noticed that Yuuto was still in his trance. "So… I take that our target is inside the building?" Issei asked, ignoring the knight for a moment.

"We believe so", was all Rias said as she and the others stared at the abandoned building.

Issei stared into the building as he cracked his index finger with his thumb. "Ojou-sama, should I?" Issei volunteered himself as he moved forward.

"Yes, please do, Ise. Koneko, Yuuto, you two go with him. I, Akeno and Asia will act as the rear support", Rias commanded at her peerage, followed by affirmative replies from everyone, safe for Yuuto. The Gremory knight just awoke from his mussing when everybody chorused their affirmations.

Issei was starting to worry about Yuuto, but he chose to focus at the hunt for now. When the three chosen vanguards went inside the building, Issei and Koneko could sense that they definitely were not alone. Soon enough, a monster, taking a form of a deformed giant scorpion appeared from the ceilings. Its upper body was that of a man with huge claws as its arms, the rest of the lower body was that of a scorpion.

"Okay… So let's wrap this up smoothly, guys…" Issei prepared his touki and Boosted Gear, starting to charge his power while Koneko took her fighting stance, however, unknown to anyone Yuuto was barely paying attention.

The monster, the stray devil roared, and Issei and Koneko quickly moved to engage it. The monster strode forward, and while Issei and Koneko quickly stepped aside to evade the monster's advance to run them over, Issei's eyes widened when his gaze fixated on Yuuto, who was still on his previous spot.

"Oi, Kiba! In front! Front!" Issei yelled out loud.

"Yuuto!" Rias shouted in worry, this time manage to snap the knight out from his trance.

Yuuto quickly summoned a demonic sword and skilfully managed to cut off one of the monster's claws that was directed to him at the last second, however, the monster still had not given up on targeting Yuuto whose position was still the closest to it. As the monster threw its other claw towards Yuuto, Issei quickly appeared between them and held the claw in its place with both of his arms, preventing it to take another inch closer towards Yuuto.

"Nggh…!" Issei grunted as he was slightly overpowered for a second from the sheer force since he did not manage to position his feet properly. After few seconds of struggling, once he got a better position, the pawn took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the next course of action.

"Hup!"

The pawn did not bother to used his stored-up boosts, and relying on his touki-enhanced strength, the pawn threw the monster's body to the side towards a wall. The monster let out a pained growl as its body hit the wall, and while the monster was just struggling to stand back up, Issei was already running to it with his Boosted Gear cocked back.

"Haah!"

As Issei thrusted his left fist towards the stray devil, the monster's upper body exploded as soon as the pawn's Boosted Gear made contact, the impact caused the stray devil's blackened blood splattered across the ground. As the upper body that controls the rest of the limbs had completely gone, the lower body of the monster simply limping away before it finally collapsed to the ground.

**[Reset!]**

In the end, it was Issei who did most of the job during the hunt that night.

"_Okay, that was easy…"_ Issei dismissed his Boosted Gear and thought to himself as he did not expect that the stray devil was not as strong as he anticipated.

Issei looked around at the carcass of the stray devil and he found Koneko came out from behind the devil's remains, her face was not amused at all. Apparently, when Issei blew the monster away, Koneko, who was standing behind the stray devil got caught by the blood splattered from Issei's attack. Seeing the dirtied and tainted body (no pun intended) of the rook, Issei gulped as he rubbed his head.

"Um… Sorry about that, Koneko-chan… You okay?" Issei asked.

"Disgusting…" Koneko replied with harsh tone as she tried to rub away some of the blood from her face. "But… good work, senpai", Koneko raised up her thumb as she had to admit that Issei's attack really did the job.

While Issei was still a bit confused either to thank or apologise to her again, a slapping sound was heard across the room.

Turning towards the source of the noise, Issei found that Rias' hand just slapped across Yuuto's cheek, the latter's cheek was tinted red from the slap.

"Are you awake now?" Rias asked with stern, yet slightly cold tone. Yuuto did not say anything in return. "We've managed to finish the hunt without casualties, but your actions could have killed someone. What's a matter with you?"

"I'm sorry about the battle earlier, it seems I wasn't feeling well…" Yuuto replied with a fake, sheepish smile. "It should be fine now, right? I'm a bit tired, so please allow me to take a bit of break from the club activities. Excuse me…", Yuuto simply replied as he turned around and walked away.

Rias and the others did not say anything as they watched their knight walked away, however…

"Wait", a hand landed on Yuuto's shoulder after he walked for a while. "You've been really out of it since yesterday and it became even worse only in a day. What's wrong with you, really?" Issei asked stopping the knight.

Yuuto was silent for a second, then he shoved Issei's hand away. "It doesn't concern you", the knight said with the same fake smile he showed to Rias before.

"Well too bad, pal…" Issei replied harshly as he gripped Yuuto's collar shirt. "Now after all we've gone through as a team, there's no way I could just leave you alone. Seriously, tell me. What the hell is going on with you?"

Yuuto was about to retort, but seeing Issei's expression that says the pawn will not receive any bullshit, the knight only sighed in defeat. "You're too emotional for your own good, Issei-kun…" Yuuto said as he broke away from Issei's grip. "I… just remembered something when I came to your house…"

Issei's eyebrows raised up slightly. "Which is…?"

"My reason to fight… My reason to live…", Yuuto replied.

"Your reason… Isn't it for Rias buchou?"

"No…"

Issei's eyes widened slightly when he saw the hatred in Yuuto's eyes.

"It's for vengeance…" Yuuto said as he clutched his hand. "To destroy the holy sword Excalibur… That's my only reason to fight…"

Issei could only stared at Yuuto's figure that gradually disappeared into the darkness of night.

_To be continued…_

**And that's all for the opening of Holly Sword arc! What do you guys think? Please read and review! Constructive criticism will be appreciated while flames will be frowned upon. Another thing, I'm currently looking for a beta for this story (perhaps for my other story as well), so if anyone willing to be my beta, please PM me. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	11. Holy Sword (II)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello folks, Ahsoei here has returned with the next chapter of holy swords arc! Without further ado, please enjoy! m(_ _)m**

**Chapter 10: Holy Sword (II) – Reunion and the Excalibur(s).**

Kiba Yuuto was walking alone when suddenly rain poured down from the black sky. Ignoring the water dropping and drenching his body, the Gremory knight kept walking nowhere with his eyes as if being in a daze.

"_There's no way I had forgotten about Excalibur…"_

Ever since he saw the picture with a holy sword in Issei's house, he remembered again his hatred towards the sword.

"_I was just being caught up with the atmosphere of my current life…"_

Yuuto remembered that his current comrades, life and even his current name were received from his master, Rias Gremory.

"_Is it even alright to live as it is? Aren't I wishing too much?"_

Yuuto's thoughts suddenly were interrupted when he sensed someone was approaching him. From the darkness, Yuuto spotted a man who was clothed in a priest's attire, along with a cross hanging on his neck, walking in front of him. Seeing someone from enemy's side suddenly appeared, Yuuto prepared himself to fight, the knight also thought that he could blow off some steam. However, just when the priest had walked more few steps, he fell to the wet ground.

Baffled, not expecting how things turned out, Yuuto approached the fallen priest out of curiosity, yet still being cautious. The knight took few steps closer and he found a large horizontal line, tainted with red blood, across the priest's back. And when the knight also spotted a tool that was used as a mass-produced holy sword, it seemed that the priest had engaged something or someone that managed to left a fatal slash on his back. But the question is, who or what did it?

As if answering his question, Yuuto felt a killing intent from behind and he quickly summoned a demonic sword, and managed to turn around and fend off a blade that almost pierced through his abdomen.

CLANG!

As the knight was skidding back from the push, he got a good look of his attacker despite of the low visibility from the rain.

"Y-you are…!" Yuuto said with venom in his voice.

The said attacker had a white hair, the same clerical attire, and familiar distorted grin. "Well, well, well… Look what I found here…" the rogue priest, Freed Sellzen brandished and twirled his sword in his hand with his teeth visible from his maniacal grin. "I honestly want to see you again. And now I'm so happy that I'm gonna cry! Ahahahaha!"

Yuuto's eyes widened at Freed's sword before him. "That sword…!"

It was a long sword which the blade resembled the blade of a long Kris, its blade was wavy and slightly jagged instead of straight, unlike swords in general. The blade was glowing in golden aura of holiness.

"Well, now that we've met and all, I want to test how this thing is going to work on you shitty devils… You can also try your demonic swords on…" Freed said as he licked the blade of his sword. "My Excalibur-chan, that is…"

Yuuto clicked his tongue in rage, readied his sword and he charged towards his enemy.

X

"The Holy Sword Project?" Issei asked to Rias, who replied with a nod.

Currently, Issei, Asia and Rias were sitting inside Issei's room to talk about the Gremory knight during the last hunt. When Issei asked his master about Yuuto's issues with holy swords, apparently, before Yuuto was reincarnated into a devil by Rias, the knight used to be an orphan that was subjected by the church into a research experiment that was known as 'Holy Sword Project'. The project's goal was to create a person that can wield a holy sword, particularly the Excalibur.

"This is the first time for me to know such a project ever existed…" Asia commented with a grim expression.

According to Rias, holy swords are weapons that pose a threat towards devils, a single touch from the holy swords themselves could be fatal for devils. While there were numerous kinds of holy swords from various mythologies and religions, Excalibur was one of the most famous among them.

The church took Yuuto in as one of the test subjects to be raised and tampered in order to adapt to Excalibur. Apparently holy swords like Excalibur cannot be wielded by random persons, and because the number of people who had compatibility to wield them are scarce, the church decided to conduct such an experiment to create a holy sword wielder by their own hands, in other words, artificial holy sword wielders.

When Yuuto and his friends were deemed not being able to wield the holy sword, the church labelled them as defects and disposed of them soon after. Yuuto managed to escape from the research facility thanks to the sacrifices of his comrades when they were about to be massacred, but the boy himself was practically dying when the crimson-haired girl found him in the forest. After she had reincarnated Yuuto into her knight, Yuuto, being the sole survivor of the Holy Sword project, swore that he would destroy the Excalibur to avenge his fallen comrades.

After listening Rias' story of Yuuto, the atmosphere inside the room suddenly turned all gloomy. Issei simply looked down with hardened face as he tightened his fists. He also felt as if his stomach was churned up.

"Poor Kiba-san… It's not an acceptable actions by those who serve the Lord…" Asia said with sad expression on her face.

"I can tell that Yuuto has talents in swords, so I reincarnated him into a devil so he can effectively use his talents instead of wasting it by obsessing over his hatred for holy swords… However, even after all these years, Yuuto's hatred towards those swords are still there", Rias said with a sad expression as well. "People keep saying that we devils are evil existence… But human's ill intentions may be the worst evil of all…"

"I see… That explains Kiba's dislike towards exorcists as well…" Issei said as he took out a photo album. "I guess it all started again from here", Issei continued as he showed a picture that Yuuto saw with him in the other day.

"So you know people who are related to the church, Ise?" Rias asked as she looked at the picture with Asia as well.

"Well… To be precise this is the picture of me with my childhood friend who is a Christian… Never thought that a holy sword was around this place 10 years ago…" Issei replied.

"It is indeed a holy sword, not as powerful nor famous as the Excalibur, but still a real deal", Rias said with calculating look. "Well, that's all we could find so far… So for now…" Rias stood up from her seat. "Let's call it a night and go to bed", Rias suddenly took off her nightdress.

Issei and Asia's faces flushed immediately at the sight of Rias stripping and their eyes almost bulged out in shock. "What the-! O-Ojou-sama, why are you taking off your clothes!?"

(Scene Break, midnight)

Issei sighed as he just finished his glass of water in the kitchen. His master just took of her clothes in front of him and Asia, saying that she could not sleep with her clothes on.

Things had gotten worse when Rias said that she would like to sleep with him and Asia started to strip her clothes as well as saying that she would sleep with Issei out of jealousy, resulting a little quarrel between the two girls, and they finally decided to ask the pawn himself to choose who would be the lucky girl that night.

In the end, Issei had to choose both of them to sleep together with him, with Issei positioned right in between Asia and Rias. Due to nervousness and his rationality started to run out, the pawn decided to sneak out of the bed as soon as the girls had fallen asleep, and went to the kitchen to cool-off his head.

"…(sigh)… What will I ever do with those girls…" Issei said to himself. But soon after, his eyes turned serious as his thought quickly went back to the issues with Yuuto and the Excalibur.

**[Worried about that knight, partner?]**

Issei turned to look at his left arm when he heard his inner dragon spoke. "Ah, Ddraig. Good work for today."

**[Pssh… Good work to you. I barely did anything during that hunt earlier. So… Well? How are you feeling?]**

Issei smiled faintly at first for a second before he asked to his left arm. "As you had guessed, I am kind of worried about this… holy sword thing. Say, Ddraig… Do you know anything about Excalibur?"

Ddraig remained silent for a second. **[Well… nothing worth mentioning… But wait…]** Ddraig paused for another second. **[Actually, I heard an intriguing rumour during my past days with your predecessors]**

"A rumour?" Issei became intrigued.

**[Yeah, that rumour said that the Excalibur sword had been broken since the Great War]**

Issei's eyes widened at the information. "Broken? But that project…!"

**[I know, I know… However, just because it was broken doesn't mean it can't be repaired, partner…]**

Issei let out a breath as he conceded with Ddraig. "Point taken. Speaking of that Excalibur and the Great War… Did you witness it yourself when the sword was broken?"

**[To be honest… I don't remember]**

"You don't?"

**[Yeah… All I remember were, me trying to kill the white one, then suddenly the three factions were ganging up on us, then everything afterwards was fuzzy. When the three factions turned their weapons against us, it was too chaotic for me to discern what was what… I was too focused on rampaging and blasting things and people around… The Excalibur might had been broken at the point after me and the white one were defeated, or even before us heavenly dragons were dragged into the war. I don't know]**

"I see… Well, the event where Excalibur had been broken before is still a hint that Kiba's goal can still achievable in one way or another. Thanks, Ddraig." Issei replied and Ddraig only replied with a hum.

"Now…" Issei now had returned to his room and he was facing another problem for the night. "How am I supposed to go back to bed?" Issei stared at the bed with two girls lying on it. He could just made his way back to his previous spot, but thinking of two beautiful girls on his sides while sleeping was already too much for him. Besides, the girls were the reason he got out from the bed in the first place.

_**[Just be honest with yourself, partner… You're in that age after all…]**_ Ddraig said teasingly in Issei's mind

"_Shut up, you…"_

_**[Now, now, remember partner… While your power is increasing in each passing day, the time where you will encounter the white one is coming closer as well…]**_

"Vanishing Dragon…" Issei muttered the title that Ddraig mentioned to him in the past.

After contemplating of things for a minute, with a final sigh, the pawn decided to take out a futon and slept on the floor, much to Ddraig's disappointment.

X

It had been few days after the last stray devil hunt. The Gremory knight had not been seen ever since that night whether in school nor clubroom. Issei was currently doing a quick shopping for dinner from his mother so he asked permission to skip club activities that day. Rias gave him the permission, but the pawn still could not understand his master's and even Asia's grumpy mood ever since that particular day.

"_I wonder if I've done something wrong to those two…"_ Issei thought to himself as he sighed.

The morning after Issei had chosen to sleep on the floor instead of the bed with the two girls, Rias and Asia had been seen to be angry, if lack of better term, to Issei, who was totally clueless of what was going on.

After paying the proper amount for the ingredients, Issei took his usual route to his house with a bag of vegetables, eggs, and other stuff in his hand. When Issei was still on his way out of the shopping district, Issei met with familiar black hair that was tied into a long ponytail with an orange ribbon. The owner of the said black hair seemed to take a notice of Issei's presence as well.

"Akeno-san!" Issei said in greeting.

"Oh my, Ise-kun… I don't know you're shopping groceries as well… Ufufu…" Akeno greeted back with her usual giggles. The queen was seen carrying two plastic bags on her hands, each of the bags was bigger than Issei's.

"Yeah, from time to time… Sometimes my mom is too busy with her part-time jobs so I do the shopping for her", Issei said rubbing his head with sheepish smile. "By the way, Akeno-san… Aren't you supposed to be in the clubroom?"

"Actually I'm on my job now. Yuuto-kun has not returned yet, so I was chosen to fill-in his job. Apparently his client this time is a widow, and she needs someone to shop few things while she was doing her housework…" Akeno replied with a bitter smile.

"I see… So Kiba is still missing, huh…" Issei said with down-casted eyes. Then looking at Akeno's shopping bags again, Issei looked up to his queen again. "Well, let me take those for you, Akeno-san", Issei said extending his free hand.

"Oh, no thank you. You don't have to, Ise-kun… This is my job, and you're seemed to be busy as well", Akeno refused in polite manner.

"Meh, I still have plenty of time before my mom comes home to cook dinner. Besides, I can't just leave a lady to bring those heavy bags on her own, can I?" Issei replied nonchalantly with a polite smile.

Akeno stared at her junior for a moment, before a smirk adorned her face. "Are you trying to force me to share a contract with you?"

Issei's eyes widened at this. "Wha-! No, no! I just want to help, that's all! I swear!" Issei replied in panic tone.

"Fufufu… I'm just kidding, Ise-kun…" Issei's shoulder relaxed in relief when he learnt that Akeno was joking. "I'll gladly accept your offer."

Right now, Issei was walking side-by-side with Akeno with his own shopping bag on his right hand and both of Akeno's shopping bags on his left.

"I'm glad that there's a gentleman who's willing to bring these stuff for me. You're really a big help, Ise-kun…" Akeno said expressing her gratitude.

"It's no problem, Akeno-san… Anytime", Issei replied with the same nonchalant manner.

Akeno giggled again at Issei's reply, then, after few more minutes of walking, Akeno's eyes darted towards Issei's left hand that was bringing her bulging bags, then, a smile came to her face as she thought up of something. Slowly, she extended her hands towards Issei's left, and when their fingers made contact, Issei stopped on his tracks and he found Akeno was taking one of her two shopping bags from him.

"Akeno-san?" Issei asked at her action.

"At least let me do this much. I appreciate your help but I can't let my junior to do all the work, can I?" Akeno said as if she wanted to return what Issei had said with a smile of her own.

Issei blinked once before he smiled back. "Thanks, Akeno-san." Then the two proceed again.

As the two were walking again, Akeno slowly walked closer and closer towards the pawn, resulting the latter took a curious glance at the former.

"Um, Akeno-san? What's wrong?" Issei asked as he noticed that Akeno's shoulder was brushing his.

"Fufufu, nothing… I just want to get closer with my kouhai (junior)…" Akeno replied with her smile remained on her face.

"I understand, but it's kind of hard to walk like this…" Issei said nervously.

"Come on now, Ise-kun… After everything you've shown to me about yourself, there's no way I can hide it from you anymore… I've already taken a great liking to you", Akeno replied as she leaned her head closer to Issei.

"At first, I only thought of you as a cute junior to be teased… However, when you joined as one of us, you have shown me, all of us as well many surprises. You've proven yourself to be kind, caring, and mostly, so powerful… Especially during our times in the forest of familiars and the rating game", Akeno said before she brought her free hand over her chest.

"You're really have amazed me when you managed to gain a favour from a dragon king… And when I saw you fighting Riser Phenex with my own eyes… No, when you showed us what you could do during that rating game… It was very amazing of you… Your feats, strength, everything. You even defeated that Riser Phenex, who is known to be an immortal. After seeing all of those, I can't help but feel hot… and I've been feeling strange things around my chest whenever I remembered what you did… Could this be… Love?"

Seeing Akeno's entranced eyes, Issei could not help but inwardly sweat-dropped. _"Okay… This is starting to get weird…"_ Issei gulped, not knowing of what to say in return. "I… can't answer that, Akeno-san… Sorry", Issei smiled sheepishly.

"Fufufu, it's okay if you can't answer that…" Akeno smiled as usual until a mischievous expression appeared on her face. She brought her hand from her chest over her mouth.

"In that case… Let's have an affair, you and me."

"Excuse me?" Issei could not help but taken aback by such suggestion.

"Yes, an affair. I want to be close to you, as you're close with Rias and Asia-chan. And this…" Akeno said as she brought her hand over Issei's chest.

"Will be our. Little. Secret…" Akeno finished as she brought her face closer to Issei.

Issei blinked few times as his face was blushing due to the closeness. _"An affair? What's she talking again? Affair behind whose back, anyway?"_ Issei thought as he swallowed a lump.

"Um… Akeno-san, why would you call this… Whatever you're proposing with me, as an affair in the first place?"

"Well, aren't you going out with buchou?" Akeno asked as she pulled her face away.

Issei only let out a breath in slight amusement. "Um, Akeno-san… I think you've misunderstood something. I'm not in that kind of relationship with ojou-sama…"

"You're not? I thought you two have done so many things… Not to mention the way you're addressing her…" Akeno said slightly surprised for a second before a playful smirk came on her face again.

"Well, you know that it was just our agreement back when I joined the club for the first time…"

"You're right about that. Well, what about Asia-chan, then?"

"Asia? Well, she's cute, kind and all, but I can't bring myself to touch her. She's like my… little sister, I think?" Issei was not sure himself what to think of Asia. He sure cares about Asia, but he found himself wanting to protect her more than dating her.

Hearing Issei's reply, Akeno pondered for a while. Then her playful smirk appeared once again. "Well… If you say so, would you like to give it a shot with me?"

Issei swallowed another lump. "Give… what a shot?"

"You know, something that can make us grow closer, know each other better… Or should I say, naughty stuff?" Akeno said sensually while licking her lips. "Don't worry, it will be still our little secret…"

Issei's eyes began to twitch. _"Okay… What the hell's with her?"_

Issei did not hate Akeno. In fact, he admired her to a certain degree as a graceful woman after his master. However, whenever she was behaving like this made him lost his rationality bit by bit.

_**[For all I know, she's probably just teasing you]**_

Hearing his inner partner's thoughts, Issei pondered for a second and he inwardly smirked as he came out with an idea. _"Well, I always wanted to try this, anyway…"_

Issei took a quick, deep breath as he steeled his mind. _"Here goes nothing…"_

"Do you mean it?"

"Eh?"

As he said those words, Issei's gaze turned steely as he walked towards Akeno, who did not see it coming. The latter unconsciously took a step back, her gaze fell upon the former's as Issei attempted to get closer.

"I-Ise-kun?"

Noticing the edge on his queen's tone, Issei's lips twitched upwards into a small smirk. Akeno, who was still surprised of the turn out of events, found her back was cornered against a wall. After a quick confirmation that they were alone in the area, which he found quite fortunate for himself, Issei inched his face closer as he brought his free arm on the wall beside Akeno's face, as if trying to prevent the girl to escape.

Issei tried his best to make his tone as seductive as possible. "I asked, do you mean it?" Issei's face was now very close to Akeno's. The latter was blushing from the closeness, their noses almost touched each other.

From other people could see, one could say that Issei was hitting on Akeno.

"I have to admit, you're pretty irresistible as well, Akeno-san… If you're asking something like that to a guy like me… Even I can't tell what I'll do about you…" Issei said as he slightly decreased the distance between his face and Akeno's flustered face once again.

"Wa-wait, Ise-kun… I was just…!"

"What's the meaning of this, Ise?"

Before the situation could have escalated any higher, Issei and Akeno suddenly froze at the new voice. Akeno, slightly relieved, quickly turned her head towards Rias who was standing not far from them with her arms folded. Issei, however, robotically turned his head as cold sweats started to trail on his paled face, and he was met with his master, who was clearly far from being amused with the situation they were in.

However, Akeno, being mischievous and cunning as she was, quickly used that moment of confusion as her own opportunity.

"Oh, my… What should we do, Ise-kun? Just when we're about to get to the good part…" Akeno said as this time, she was the one who leaned her body closer towards Issei. Her mischievous smile returned on her face and she pressed her closer toward Issei as well.

The pawn widened his eyes, not expecting the sudden counter-attack, and he jerked his head away slightly while his hands tried to push Akeno's shoulder away from him.

"I was thinking of helping you on your errand… But it seems you're having fun with Akeno, right, Ise?" Rias said with her expression on the edge.

Issei quickly broke away from Akeno. "W-wait, ojou-sama! Let me explain! It was just-!"

"Like I care! Do as you like!" Rias huffed in annoyance after pouting as she turned her heels around and disappeared in teleportation magic.

Issei remained frozen on his spot, while his hand still trying to reach out on the empty space in front of him as the wind blew.

_**[Whew… Busted. Well, you did pretty good back there, partner. I admit it was quite convincing on your part]**_

On Ddraig's comment, Issei straightened himself, and without looking, the pawn could tell that his queen was holding back his giggle in victory. He let out a defeated sigh without turning back.

"Akeno-san?"

"Yes?"

"I'm so sorry for earlier."

"Fufufu, I guess I can forgive you this time. But seriously, Ise-kun… You actually almost gave me a heart-attack back there…" Akeno said as she moved to Issei's side, handing him back his shopping bag, which the latter received.

"Well, shall we go, then?" Issei asked as he tried to muster a smile.

"Fufufu… Yes, let's", Akeno said as she walked forward, followed by Issei.

"By the way, Ise-kun. Don't you think buchou was really cute when she caught us? She had been like that when it comes to you…"

Issei only let out a dried chuckle, followed by another defeated sigh.

"_So much for getting back at her…" _

_**[Another time, partner… Another time…]**_

X

Long story short, after Issei was done escorting Akeno with her errand, the latter returned back to the clubroom before she landed a quick peck on the former's cheek, much to his chagrin. Feeling that there was nothing more he could do at the moment, Issei proceed to return to his house. On his way, he met with Asia. Fortunately for him, knowing Asia being an angel (?) and all, the girl's mood was seemed no longer grumpy, as the girl was greeting him cheerfully as usual.

"Ah, Ise-san! Good evening."

"Hey there, Asia. Good work for today", Issei greeted back with his own smile.

"Have you done your shopping, Ise-san?" Asia asked as she proceeded to walk beside the pawn.

Issei in response simply showed his grocery bag to the girl. Asia nodded back in acknowledgement.

"If I'm not mistaken, buchou-san was helping you there, did you meet her?"

Issei flinched at the question. "Y-yeah, I did…" Issei inwardly sweat-dropped as his mind trailed back to that misunderstanding earlier. _"How am I supposed to tell her?"_

"Asia, is something wrong?" Issei asked as he noticed Asia's solemn face.

"Um… The truth is… When buchou-san came back to the clubroom, she looked so upset. Did something happen, Ise-san?"

"Uh… Yeah. There's a misunderstanding between me and her, but nothing to worry about, everything will be fine once I explain to her", Issei replied, his eyes unconsciously avoiding Asia's. _"I hope…"_

"I see… Come to think of it, I've been talking back to buchou-san a lot, lately… I wonder if she was upset about me as well…" Asia's face became even more solemnly.

"Hahaha, you don't need to worry about that, Asia…" Issei patted her head. "I'm not gonna say for you to keep disobeying her, but it's not bad at all to voice your thoughts for once in a while. Just make sure you won't go overboard, okay?"

Asia smiled in relief and she nodded in response.

When the two arrived at their house, suddenly, both of them felt a chilly sensation when they were about to go through the door.

"_This presence…!" _

Issei's eyes widened as his instinct started to kick in. The pawn and the bishop could not mistake the presence as the presence of someone from the church, and Issei could sense more than one presence from inside the house.

Issei steeled his eyes as he grabbed on the doorknob. "Asia, stay here. If I don't come back after thirty seconds, go run back to school and tell everyone else. Don't come in unless I say so", Issei instructed, staring at Asia.

The girl was hesitant for a second, and she steeled her expression and nodded. Issei nodded back and took a deep breath, and with steady pace, he opened the door and went inside the house. His movements, while taking off the shoes and all, were cautious, yet did not waste any moment.

"Mom, I'm home!" Issei shouted with slight cautious in his tone.

He could not waste any time to ensure his mother's safety, yet at the same time he could not bring himself to act rashly, considering Asia's safety was at stake as well. He had to be calm in order to avoid the worst possible outcome.

After a second, a reply was heard from the dining area. "Oh, welcome home, Ise! Come in here, we're having someone unexpected!"

Issei let out a relieved sigh after hearing his mother's cheerful greeting. The presence remained in the house, but at least he knew that his mother was still alive, at least. However, that 'someone unexpected' made him feel edgy once again.

"Yes, coming!" Issei shouted back as he carefully strode towards the dining area.

Upon arriving at the dining table, Issei was met with his mother and two girls in white robes. One on the left was a young woman with chin-length blue hair with a green fringe on the right side and dark yellow eyes.

The other on her right was a beautiful young woman around Issei's age with long, chestnut hair and violet eyes. Her hair was tied into twin-tails, each was held with a blue scrunchy.

Glancing at the two guests, Issei quickly concluded that the two were indeed exorcists, judging from the crosses that hung on their necks. Issei also judged while they were enemies, at least both of them had enough sense not to be hostile and starting a fight while his human mother was still around.

After making sure that the current situation was safe enough for now, Issei turned his gaze at the front door, while Asia was peeking from the doorstep. He motioned Asia to come, which she followed. When Asia was close enough to him, Issei mouthed, 'stay close to me' and Asia nodded in response.

"Oh my, Asia-chan. You've back as well. Welcome home", Issei's mother greeted the blonde as soon as she spotted the girl at the entrance to the dining area. Asia simply smiled sheepishly and slightly bowed due to nervousness.

Unknown to the rest, the two guests laid their eyes for a moment at Asia before one of them broke her gaze and turned to Issei.

"Hello, Ise-kun…" the girl with twin-tails waved at him in friendly manner.

When Issei took another look at the girl, he blinked twice, and something in his brain clicked. "Err… One moment, please."

Issei said as he turned to Asia. "Asia, why don't you go upstairs and get changed? You're probably tired from the school, right?"

Asia immediately got the message to hide in the bedroom for now, and she complied. After Asia had gone upstairs, Issei walked towards one of the drawers, took out a photo album, skimmed through pages and he stopped before his eyes darted between the twin-tails girl and the album on his hand. After a minute, he furrowed his eyebrows as something was revealed to him.

"Irina-chan? Shidou Irina, is that you?"

"Oh my, so you do recognise me…" the girl known as Shidou Irina had an expression of amusement and surprised altogether. "What's with that tone of formality, anyway? We're childhood friends, remember?"

"Well… Yeah, but you… You really have changed a lot…. Irina-chan", Issei said while scratching his cheek. "10 years ago, I almost mistook you for a boy. But now… You're so… so… girly."

"I know, right?" Haruka popped in. "When I ran into them on my way home, I wouldn't have recognised her if she did not recognise me first! Irina-chan, you really have grown into a fine woman!" the older woman said with her hand on her cheek.

"Ufufu, you're flattering me, Haruka-san… You're also not much different when I left for England 10 years ago. You still look so young and beautiful!" Irina replied back.

Seeing the exchange of flatteries between his childhood friend and his mother, the gears in Issei's mind quickly worked to assess the currently somewhat bright atmosphere. There was still a chance that the two exorcists might had yet aware about his and Asia's true nature. If he were to play his cards right and act like normal until the two took their leave, everything supposed to be just fine.

However, the fact remained that there were two things that truly made him feel edgy rather than the mere presence of the two exorcists. The first thing was a large item covered in white cloth, leaning on the table-side beside the girl with blue hair, who remained silent and stoic for the entire time. While Issei could tell that the blue haired girl was no ordinary person, the said item's shape resembled that of a sword, a big sword, and upon looking at it, Issei felt like his skin was crawling and his instinct screamed that the boy should stay away from it as much as possible.

The second thing was Irina's white armband. Whatever it was, the armband also gave Issei a fright as his devil instinct screamed about the same thing to him.

However, Issei quickly focused back to keep up his act to avoid the unwanted confrontation.

"So…" Issei said, gaining the other's attention. He knew talking was risky, but if he were to stay quiet, it would be even more suspicious and his effort to avoid battle would go down to the drain.

"It's really been like over 10 years, hasn't it?" Issei asked with a natural smile he could muster.

"Yeah! And imagine how much I miss you over those years I was in England! And I'm so glad that your appearance hasn't changed much!" Irina replied back with her cheerful smile.

"And this lady is…?" Issei asked as his gaze fell upon the blue haired woman.

"Ah, this is Xenovia. My friend from the church where I studied before", Irina gestured her hand towards her friend, known as Xenovia. The girl in question did not say anything as she only stared intently at Issei, who nodded in greeting.

"Speaking of church…" Issei tried to remain 'normal' as he scanned on Irina and Xenovia's attire. "You said that your dad got a work at the church, so you had to move out. I guess you two ended up being affiliated with that church too, eh?" Issei said as he tried to keep his tone natural.

"Yes… Many things have happened", Irina said as her smile fell slightly. "And I, we sure many things have happened to you as well, Ise-kun."

The looks that Issei got from Xenovia and Irina's eyes, when the latter said those words put him on the edge. His façade almost fell when he heard the next words.

"Really, you can never tell what might happen at a reunion…"

_Shit._

From the tone, looks and sentence alone, Issei immediately knew that the chance about their unawareness had been thrown out of the window. The two exorcists had been aware of his true nature all along.

"Oh, oh!" suddenly, Issei's paranoia was interrupted by his mother's voice and the sound of her clapping hands from excitement. "Ise, I almost forgot! You won't believe this, Irina-chan said that she had met your daddy back in England!"

Issei's worry had been gone almost immediately, replaced by the feeling of curiosity as soon as his father was mentioned. He was frozen for a second before he quickly went to take a seat beside his mother, across the table from Irina and Xenovia.

"Is that true?" Issei asked to Irina with serious stares that demanded no jokes.

Irina's cheerful air suddenly returned. "Yes, yes! I met him together with Xenovia when we're recently being assigned together. And you won't believe it, Ise-kun, but Saitama-san was really as bald as ever, like in his old pictures! I'm actually a bit worried that your hair might end up like him! His baldness could be genetic, you know?"

Issei suddenly paled and he reached to his hair. "Hey, don't say things like that! That scares me, you know! Like hell I'm gonna end up like him!"

"Hehehe, just kidding, just kidding…" Irina said as she waved her hand in dismissal. Even Xenovia barely managed to hold down a snort of amusement as she faintly smiled. "Still, I know that your father was travelling around the world, but I never expected to meet him in person during my stay in England, of all places."

"When did the last time you see him?" Issei inquired.

"Around several days, almost a week ago, I think. Oh, yeah! One more thing about it, Saitama-san mentioned about something to do in Japan, so I think he's coming home around now! Isn't it great, Haruka-san?"

Hyoudou Haruka was ecstatic from the news, as she grabbed her son's shoulder and shook his body. "It is, it is! Did you hear that, Ise? Daddy is coming home!"

"Err… Y-yeah, yeah… M-mom, can you stop shaking me? I'm gonna get dizzy…" Issei said while still being shaken by his mother.

"Oh, right. Sorry, dear", Haruka immediately let go of her son.

Issei straightened himself up as he pondered about the news of a moment. He smiled a bit, as a part of him was happy that his father was planning to come home, however, while he did not hate his father, a part of him could not help but feeling angry as his eyebrows knitted and he clenched his fists tightly.

True, he did not hate him, because back then he was too young to learn about hating someone. Besides, even without his father around, Issei had been able to live happily with his mother alone.

However, when he heard about his father's return, he could not help but feel agitated. That nerve of that man… After leaving and being not around for them for all those years, he had guts to suddenly show his face to them? Issei did not like this side of his father that acted however he pleases.

"How…" Issei's question gained another attention from everyone. "How was he doing? What's he doing in England, anyway?" Issei could not help but ask.

"Well, he's…" Whatever Irina was about to say was interrupted by Xenovia.

"Irina, it's already time. We have to go."

Irina blinked at her partner and after a minute, she smiled as she rose up from her seat. "Sorry, but we have somewhere else to go. We'll continue this talk another time. Is that alright?"

Issei would like to hear more, but his survival instinct told him to let the enemies go for now. "Yeah, next time, I guess."

"You're welcome to stay here longer, you know", Haruka said as she stood up as well, escorting the girls.

"No, thank you, ma'am. It's fine. We have to fulfil our own schedule, after all", Irina said as she bowed.

Xenovia, bringing her large item with her, took a last glance at Issei. "I'll be ready

in our next meeting…" the girl said in steeled tone. Issei only stared back with the same steel gaze.

"Ise-kun", Issei's eyes turned back to Irina, who was smiling genuinely. "Despite our current situation, I'm truly glad to meet you again."

For some reasons, Issei also showed a genuine smile in return. "Yeah, it is truly nice to see you again."

Issei finally let out a relieved sigh as soon as the two female exorcists went out through the door. Despite having them aware of him being a devil, no fight had occurred. However, ignoring his mother's gleeful humming as she waltzed back to the kitchen, his mind trailed back at the news that his father is going to come in near future. What should he say when he meet him? What will his father say when he meet him? Thinking of that reunion alone had made him feel nervous already.

X

"Ise! Asia!"

Rias barged into the house and immediately enveloped the mentioned two, who were about to welcome her at the front door, into a big hug.

"Are you hurt? Did they do anything to you?" Rias asked with concerned tone.

"Don't worry… We're fine, ojou-sama. They were not that reckless to start a fight while my mom was around…" Issei replied to comfort his master.

"Ise-san is right, buchou-san. We're both fine…" Asia replied as well.

"Nevertheless, I couldn't imagine what could have happened to you when I received reports about the sighting of two church's associates around your house. I'm so glad that both of you are alright…" Rias said as she turned to pull Asia into her bosoms.

"It's okay, buchou-san… I'm sorry that I talked back to you back in the clubroom… I just want to be together more with Ise-san…" Asia replied with her voice slightly muffled from Rias' cleavage.

"It's fine… Still, if because of us fighting, we got separated and I were to loose you…" this time, Rias turned to her pawn and pulled him into a hug as well. "I'm so sorry… I should've taken better care of you… Both of you…"

Issei's expression softened as he returned the hug as well. "I told you we're fine, ojou-sama… I'm sorry too about earlier."

Before Rias could have responded anything in return, Asia broke-off their hug out of jealousy as she puffed her cheeks cutely. After giggling from Asia's cute antics, Rias cleared her throat, and the king regained her composure.

"Anyway, for those exorcists to make contact with the devils in charge of the territory during the daytime, it's possible that they want to speak with me", Rias concluded.

"People from the church want to speak with a devil… A negotiation? Or a pact, perhaps?" Issei put his two cents.

"I don't know their intentions, but… We'll be expecting them in the clubroom tomorrow after school."

"Will everything be okay, buchou-san?" Asia asked, slightly worried.

"Hopefully, yes. But still, to confront us without any attack whatsoever… It looks like they come for official business, as if they were being cornered… The matter is probably related with numerous reports of priests being either disappeared or murdered when they were visiting this town."

"Disappearance and murder… I see… Those two are probably going to either ask for permission to conduct an investigation around the area, or to ask us if we were to have any involvement on the matter…" Issei gave a thoughtful look before turning to his master. "What do you think about it, ojou-sama?"

"Sounds likely. Well, we just have to see about it tomorrow…" said Rias ending the conversation.

Later that night, when Issei was sleeping, this time with Asia and Rias making sure that he would not slip away from their side, the pawn suddenly remembered about something.

"_Crap, I still haven't cleared up that misunderstanding with her…"_

X

Rias' hunch was right on the money. By the next day after school, the clubroom's tables and chairs were occupied by Rias, with Akeno sitting next beside her while the two exorcists from yesterday were sitting across them.

The rest of members, this time with Kiba Yuuto, who finally showed up at school, were standing on the side, watching the exchange.

However, while Issei was already wary enough about the two exorcists and their holy artefacts, whatever they were, the pawn could feel that Yuuto's killing intent and hatred were filling the atmosphere. Issei was not even sure anymore, who he had to look after, whether he had to look out for the exorcists or the angry devil knight beside him.

"We'll go straight to the case", Irina was the one who initiated the conversation.

"The other day, three of the holy swords Excalibur were stolen while in storage, under the church care.

"Three?" the others turned their gaze at Issei. "Excuse me, but… I've heard that Excalibur was broken long time ago and all, but three? What exactly happened to that famous sword?"

"Before I answer that… Ise-kun, how did you know that the Excalibur was broken in the Great War? I thought you just became a devil recently", Irina replied.

Issei only blinked and let out a faint smirk. "I have my own resources. So, mind telling me more about this… multiple Excalibur swords?"

"Well, while the church couldn't restore the Excalibur's true form, they managed to salvage seven important fragments of the original itself…"

Xenovia then continued the explanation after Irina. "And through alchemy, the seven fragments were transformed into seven new cores, and the church has created seven new swords as the cores' vessels. One of them…" the blue haired girl unravelled the white cloth of her large item and revealed a two-handed sword with a cross in the pommel, a grip long enough that could be held with three hands (judging from Xenovia's hand position), an axe-like guard, a second grip with a chain-like form, and a long blade that ended with three points.

"… Is this, the Holy Sword of Destruction, Excalibur Destruction. This sword is under the catholic supervision", Xenovia introduced her sword and she started to put the cloth back on the sword again.

"And mine is…" Irina said as her armband twirled around, and it immediately changed its form into a katana. "Holy Sword of Mimicry, Excalibur Mimic, which is under the care of the protestant church. It's really convenient for travelling, since it can freely change shapes", Irina said proudly as she played around as the sword kept changing shapes.

Despite the danger it brought over, Issei had to admit that those swords' designs were pretty cool in his eyes. However, he also had understood the reason of Yuuto's killing intent. The object of his ire was standing right before him.

"I see… What is your intention in this town, then?" Rias asked after hearing the exorcist's explanations.

"Of seven Excalibur fragments, two each are held by the catholic, protestant, and orthodox churches, and the last remaining one, which was lost during the Great War. The discussion and investigation about how each one was stolen from each sect have brought us to this land."

Rias' lips twitched downwards slightly at the fact that the holy swords were stolen and had been brought to Japan, her territory to add.

"Such careless moves from the culprit… Speaking of, who would do such a thing in the first place?"

"We believe the one who had stolen the three Excalibur fragments is none other than Kokabiel of the Grigori, the 'One who Guards Against the Children of God'", Xenovia stated with grim tone.

Rias' eyes widened at the mention of the name. "A fallen angel cadre… The famous one to add, whose name appears among those inscribed in the bible…"

_**[Hoo? So the angel of the stars was behind this fiasco? Interesting…]**_

Hearing Ddraig's comment in his mind, Issei glanced a bit at his left arm. _"You know him, Ddraig?"_

_**[Not really, I only heard about him. That guy is quite famous through millennia, you know. He's also known as the star of God, a high-ranking fallen angel who commands an army of 365,000 angels]**_

Hearing the information, Issei could somewhat tell that this Kokabiel was definitely stronger than Riser Phenex.

_**[Well, considering that you are a devil and him being a fallen angel, I suggest you to be careful when you face him]**_

Issei took his dragon's words but did not say anything.

"Kokabiel had wiped out all of the exorcists and priests who had been covertly dispatched in this town for the past few days, which bring us to our request… No, our demand…" Xenovia closed her eyes and took another breath before opening her eyes again,

"We ask the devils to keep out of the fighting between Grigori and us over the Excalibur swords. In other words, you devils are to not interfering our mission."

Rias grimaced at the demand. "Aren't you full of yourself? Are you suspecting us for teaming up with the fallen angels?"

Xenovia simply shrugged, "The headquarters had concluded that it is not impossible."

Hearing this, Rias steeled her expression and raised her voice. "We are not, and never will, allying ourselves with the fallen angels! I swear in the name of house of Gremory!"

Xenovia only smirk faintly. "That's good enough, it's not like we're asking for your help. In fact, we understand that if you were to only temporarily team up with us from the God's side, there would be no small impact on the three-way stand off."

"Then, what will the people from the orthodox church do about this?" Rias asked again.

"Until this matter is resolved, they will protect the remaining blade with their lives."

Rias did not like the development. "So you're telling me that you two are the only ones that are sent to retrieve the swords from someone like Kokabiel? Do you have a death-wish?"

"That's right", Irina replied with resolve, followed by Xenovia.

"It's been determined that if the fallen angels were to make use of the Excalibur swords, we are allowed to destroy those swords instead. At least if we can't retrieve them, we won't allow the swords to be used by wrong hands."

"And for that, we dedicate our bodies, ourselves. The only thing that stands a chance against an Excalibur is another Excalibur, after all…"

Rias scoffed at the exorcists' statements. "The faith of people from the church like you two is uncanny as always… I wonder, is it possible if it's only you girls?"

"Please don't mock our believes, Rias Gremory. We don't intend to simply throw our lives away in this mission", Irina shot back, slightly irked.

Rias raised her eyebrows. "How confident… I assume you have some sort of a secret weapon?"

At the question, Xenovia was silent for a second before she simply replied, "I'll leave that to your imagination…" then the two exorcists stood up.

"That's all for our business here. We'll take our leave", Xenovia and Irina started to walk to the clubroom door.

"Why don't you stay a bit longer? We've prepared tea and snacks, after all", Rias said half-heartedly.

Xenovia did not even look back as she simply waved her hand. "We don't need it."

Irina herself could not help Xenovia's impolite reply. "Sorry about that, maybe next time…" Irina said with a sheepish smile.

However, before leaving, Xenovia took another glance at a certain blonde haired girl. After taking the girl's appearance for a second, Xenovia finally opened her mouth.

"I thought I was having a wrong person, but now I'm sure. Meeting you at Hyoudou Issei's house yesterday was the last thing I expected… Aren't you the 'witch' Asia Argento?"

At the mention of the 'witch', Asia flinched and immediately got herself feeling nervous. While Issei on the other hand, narrowed his eyes dangerously, fists clenched when the blue haired exorcist called his friend the nickname that brought bad memories upon her.

"Eh? Really, that rumoured former 'Holy Priestess'?" Irina chipped in as she put her gaze on Asia. "I heard you're exiled at one point, but I didn't expect you to become a devil of all things."

"Err, um… I'm…" Asia did not know what to say.

"It's alright. We won't say to our higher-ups about what we saw here", Irina's gaze was somewhat showing some sympathy. "It'd be a real shock for people who once knew 'Holy Priestess' Asia Argento, if they were to hear your current situation, after all…"

Asia could only silent at the statement.

"But still, for one who was once known as the 'Holy Maiden', to have fallen as far as you have into a devil, do you still believe in our God?" Xenovia asked the former nun.

"Xenovia, when she chose to be a devil, she's not supposed to have anymore faith in the Lord, right?" Irina added.

"Not necessarily. People who commit treason can still feel guilty in their conscience, there are also those who still retain what little left of their faith, which I'm feeling right now from you, Asia Argento…" Xenovia said as her eyes never left the girl in question. "Again, I ask of you, do you still believe in our Lord?"

"It's just that I cannot let it go… My faith has always been a part of me, after all…" Asia replied.

Xenovia closed her eyes, taking in Asia's reply. "I see. In that case, then I will cut you down, right here, right now in the name of God. Our Lord's benevolent hand will reach out even towards the most sinful…" Xenovia brandished her sword, however…

"Oi…"

Suddenly, Xenovia felt a goose-bump as a huge surge of killing intent filled out the room, or rather, aimed particularly at her. She had sensed the blonde devil knight's killing intent since she entered the room, but she did not pay too much mind about it.

However, this killing intent managed to force her to tighten her grip on her Excalibur as she instinctively pointed her blade at the source of the killing intent.

Even Irina was affected as well, as her eyes widened in shock and she quickly turned towards the said source with her hands quickly reached out at the Excalibur Mimic around her other arm.

The source of the killing intent was none other than the brown haired pawn, who was sending sharp, yet cold gaze towards the two exorcists. Issei's killing intent even enveloped Yuuto's own, making the knight had to redirect his attention from the holy swords to the pawn. For other members of the Occult Research Club, they recognised that look in Issei's eyes.

Yes, it was the same look Issei had during his fight with the rogue fallen angels when he failed to rescue Asia when her life was taken away. His gaze now was not as intense as the previous one, but still quite intimidating nonetheless.

"Go ahead and touch her, and I'll kill you…" Issei's cold tone making his words sounded more like a promise rather than a threat as a loud 'crack' was heard when he pressed his index finger down with his thumb.

Irina could not help but let a cold sweat to roll down her temple when she took a look at Issei's eyes. _"Is that really the same Ise-kun I know from ten years ago?"_

Holding the urge to swallow, Xenovia tried her best to keep her ground before Issei.

"Aren't you girls already too cocky? You waltzed in to our territory, selfishly told us what to do, and now you want to hurt one of our comrades? How funny…" Issei continued with a smirk.

Asia had tried to calm Issei down and making him stop by holding his sleeve, but the pawn did not even budge. However, Issei managed to calm down slightly when he caught the sight of Asia's pleading eyes. Still, he would not stand down so easily from the exorcists that just threatened one of his friends, his family.

"Saints don't need friends. All they need is God's love, the same also applied to her before she was exiled. It was her job to be benevolent and affectionate towards people without any favouritism", Xenovia managed to remain calm enough to reply back.

"Hoo… Is that so? From all I know, you guys from the church recruited her without her consent, exploited her power to gain more followers and benefits, and when she made a trivial mistake out of kindness, you suddenly kicked her out without her able to say anything? Tell me, is that you girls call as God's love?!" Issei shot back with sarcastic tone.

"That's right, Ise-kun. God does love us all. In Asia's case, it could be that her faith was lacking, or her faith to Him was just false. As simple as it is", Irina lowered her hand as she regained her composure.

"What is that girl to you, anyway?" Xenovia asked.

"She's my friend, my comrade, my family. And I've promised to always protect her! If you lay a hand even on her hair alone, I'll beat you down, every single one of you selfish bastards!" Issei declared as his anger rose up.

"Is that a challenge to us and the church? Even if you're Saitama-dono's son, a mere lowly devil like you to shoot off your big mouth like that…" Xenovia felt slightly intrigued, despite the fear she was still feeling from him.

"Hmph, perfect timing. Let me join too…"

Everyone in the room turned their heads towards the source of the said voice, which belonged to the Gremory knight who had jumped into the opportunity.

"And you are?" Xenovia asked him.

"Let's say that I'm your senior…" Yuuto replied with venom in his voice as several demonic swords sprouted from the ground. "Although I'm a failed creation compared to you two…"

A battle was inevitable.

_To be continued…_

**And that's for chapter 10! What do you think about this chapter? I know my description of Kokabiel might not match up with what it supposed to be, since I only read it from Wikipedia, so I tried to alter his history a bit to match with my plot. No flame, please. Only constructive comments are allowed. m(_ _)m**

**P.S. I'm still looking for a beta for this story. If anyone interested, please PM me. Thank you. m(_ _)m**


	12. Holy Sword (III)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello my dear readers! Here I present you the next chapter of Holy Sword arc! And below is my answer to a guest who ask a question in the review.**

**Guest Oml: Saitama will have a role to play in this arc. That's all I can say. **

**Now with that out of the way, please read and enjoy! (^_^)**

**Chapter 11: Holy Sword (III) – Search and Destroy**

Currently, the Gremory group and the two Excalibur-wielding exorcists were standing at the courtyard behind the old school building.

"I want to confirm something first before we begin", Xenovia said with her sword ready by her side. "This match is simply a private duel that doesn't concern the church. We don't have any intentions to escalate things to be higher than this. Do you people recognise that fact?" the girl asked towards Rias Gremory in particular.

The Gremory heiress did not seem please about this idea, but knowing her knight, she could not do anything to change his mind.

Right after the knight introduced himself as their 'senior' in the clubroom, Rias knew that Yuuto would not simply just let go the two Excalibur wielders without any attempt to destroy the sword. Besides, she could not just let go the exorcist that just threatened one of her beloved servants away just like that. Thus, they decided to bring this outside into a duel in order to at least let the knight to blow off some steam.

Even Rias had ordered Akeno to erect a barrier to prevent any outside interference. All she could do was to make sure that there would be no casualties from this match.

"Yes."

Xenovia nodded at the confirmation. "Very well then, I shall test the power of Rias Gremory's servants, Saitama-dono's son, and our so-called senior", Xenovia said as she readied her fighting stance.

"Ise, Yuuto! Although it's just a match, be really careful of the holy swords!" Rias commanded.

Issei only nodded calmly, while Yuuto did not seem to hear his master's command at all. Instead, the knight chuckled after a moment.

"What's so funny?" Xenovia asked when she heard Yuuto's chuckling.

"No, no…" Yuuto replied as he tried to calm himself. "It's just that I'm so happy, the thing that I wanted to destroy so bad has finally appeared right in front of my eyes…" the knight finished with so much killing intent leaking from his body.

"The power you showed us earlier… 'Sword Birth', huh? A Sacred Gear that allows its possessor to create demonic swords through imagination alone. It's quite unique among the demonic-sword related Sacred Gears…" Xenovia commented. "I heard there was a test subject that managed to survive from being disposed of by the Holy Sword Project. Could it be you?"

Yuuto did not do reply anything as his killing intent increased even more, instead.

Issei who was right beside him could not help but furrowed his eyebrows in concern. _"This guy's gonna loose it…"_

Issei in fact, was inclined to stop Yuuto as well when the duel was proposed. However, he did not know Yuuto's feeling and about his loss in the past. He did ever experience loosing someone, however, thanks to his master that someone managed to stay with him, unlike Yuuto's case. So what right did he have to stop the vengeful knight? All Issei could do for now was to make sure that no irreversible damage would be done by the end of the match.

"Ise-kun." Issei turned his attention towards his childhood friend in front of him. "It was truly a shock for me to see you became a devil after 10 years apart from each other…"

"Yeah… Actually, I was kind of shocked as well that after that 10 years, you became someone who would bad-mouthing someone like Asia…" Issei replied with monotone.

"_Not to mention, she's willing to wear that kind of suit?"_ Issei thought commenting at the black tight body-suit on Irina's body. _"Is that really made by the church? The way it shows their curves instead of covering them is quite-"_

_**[Focus, partner…]**_

"_Right, sorry", _Issei shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. _"Dammit… Day by day I've become closer to those two idiots…" _Issei focused back on Irina, who was still rambling despite his reply earlier.

"When I was chosen to wield the Excalibur, I thought that I finally would be able to serve as the Lord's representative! But alas, I found my dear friend had turned into my enemy! Such a cruel destiny! I'm sure that this is one of the Lord's trial!" Irina said with a praying pose, followed by waving her hands around, as if she was in some kind of play.

Issei only blinked at the sight. He could swear that, for a second, he saw sparkles and flowers were coming out of nowhere around Irina's body when she spoke.

"However! By overcoming this trial, I'll move one step closer towards the true faith! Come, Ise-kun! I shall judge your sins with this Excalibur! Amen!" Irina finished with pointing her sword towards the pawn.

Issei's eyes were twitching as he sweat-dropped. _"Oh man… What the hell did the church put in that head of hers?"_

_**[I suggest that you stay away from this girl for a while, partner. I think this girl is the type that is difficult to deal with]**_ even Ddraig was taken aback by Irina's passion.

"…(Sigh), whatever. Let's get this done and over with!" Issei said as he summoned his Boosted Gear.

**[DRAGON BOOSTER]**

Both exorcists widened their eyes at the sight of Issei's red gauntlet. Xenovia and Irina did not expect to see a god-slaying artefact upon their arrival on Japan.

"A Longinus…"

"Isn't that a mid-tier Longinus, the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet, the Boosted Gear? To find it at such a place…"

However, Yuuto quickly started himself as he lunged towards Xenovia. "You won't escape with just wounds if your attention was too focused on Issei-kun!"

Xenovia quickly returned her attention back on the duel as she quickly clashed her holy sword with Yuuto's demonic sword.

"I see… Sword Birth, Boosted Gear, and Twilight Healing. Those Sacred Gears are viewed as heretics for us the church. One could say it's inevitable for you guys to turn into devils…" Xenovia said as she broke away from Yuuto.

"My power is also the power made from the hatred of my comrades! Comrades that were killed while they were still full of regrets! I'll crush the Excalibur with this power!" Yuuto gathered his power again as he readied himself for another attack.

Meanwhile, Irina had also started her own duel with her childhood friend.

"Here I come, Ise-kun!"

As Irina lunged at him, Issei simply kept calm and he dodged Irina's attacks without much trouble. _"Let's see what she got for now, shall we?"_ Issei thought to himself as he just evaded another slash from Excalibur Mimic.

While still dodging, evading, and parrying Irina's strikes, Issei still managed to take few glances at the match between Yuuto and Xenovia. So far, the latter was on the lead as she just shattered Yuuto's Holy Eraser.

"Tch, I guess this won't do after all…!" Yuuto admitted begrudgingly. Then, he summoned a pair of flaming and ice swords. "Burn up! Freeze! Flare Brand, Freeze Mist!"

As Yuuto swung his swords at Xenovia, the latter dodged them without too much effort. "Fast movements from the knight's trait and combination of demonic swords of fire and ice, eh? Naïve!"

Xenovia raised her Excalibur Destruction and she swung it down, crushing Yuuto's dual swords effortlessly and creating an explosion when the holy sword connected to the ground.

Yuuto clicked his tongue as he was forced to leap back to avoid the blast. Xenovia simply smirked at her handiwork. "The word 'destruction' that follows after the name of my Excalibur implies its properties. The sword is an incarnation of destruction itself, there's nothing that this sword can't break."

Yuuto forced a grin as he wiped a few dust and dirt from his face due to the blast. "Even if it's not the true Excalibur, this destructive power… I guess destroying all seven of these swords will be a path of carnage, after all…"

Issei, whose match with Irina was paused for a moment when the both combatants' attention was diverted to the explosion, could not help but feel impressed. _"Such power… And there are still another six on that level, and Kiba wants to destroy them all? Damn it, dude… Just what had you gotten yourself into?"_

"Don't look away, Ise-kun!" Issei's eyes quickly widened and he suddenly crouched and ducked just when Irina's sword was about to reach his neck. "Shall we finish on our side?"

Issei remained indifferent as he agreed inwardly. _"These holy swords are really bad news. I got to end this now."_

"Yeah, let's finish this, Irina-chan…" Still remained in his crouching position after avoiding the previous slash, Issei clenched his fist.

What happened afterwards was not quite clear for Irina herself.

Shidou Irina was a talented fighter. Being offered to be an exorcist to serve the Lord who she put her faith in so much, Irina had shown a remarkable aptitude to wield one of seven Excalibur fragments. Trained by one of the church's finest sword-masters, Irina had been strong enough to fight toe-to-toe against forces that ordinary humans cannot cope with.

However, despite all of that, Shidou Irina was still a human.

Compared with Hyoudou Issei, who had tampered his body with gruesome physical training for seven years, not to mention his body had been enhanced further by evil pieces, Irina was basically weaker than him.

As soon as Irina had attempted to launch another strike with her holy sword, Issei had lunged faster towards her and planted his right fist on her abdomen, forcing the air out of her body, sending her away until she crashed into a tree.

Xenovia, who did not expect to see her partner to be knocked away, widened her eyes in worry as her attention was diverted for a second from her own opponent.

"Irina!" Xenovia shouted at her partner, whom was lying face-down on the ground with her holy sword sprawled beside her.

"Where are you looking at!?" at this shout, Xenovia quickly came back to face Yuuto, who summoned a large bastard sword. "Let's finish this as well! We'll see whether my demonic sword or your holy sword that has greater destructive power!"

Issei, who just finished his duel with his childhood friend, could not help but clicked his tongue at Yuuto's poor choice of swords. The same thought was shared with Xenovia as well.

Upon seeing Yuuto had difficulty to move his sword properly due to his knight traits, Xenovia simply came directly to him. Yuuto mustered all his strength as he swung down his sword.

"Unfortunately…" Xenovia said it coolly as she easily crushed Yuuto's sword with her Excalibur. "That's a wrong choice you've made."

Having his sword broken, Yuuto was slightly pushed away from the force of Xenovia's own sword. Seeing the former's body stumbled away, the latter had prepared her own finishing blow.

However, right before she could have implemented her own blow, suddenly Xenovia sensed something fast was coming from her side. Instinctively raising up her sword in guard, Xenovia found a fist clad in red gauntlet was making a contact with the blade of her sword.

CLANG! KHINNN….

Issei's left fist managed to knock Xenovia away as the latter was skidding back on the ground. When she finally stopped, Xenovia's sword and body were trembling from the shock coming from Issei's punch. It took a minute for her to finally seize the vibration on her sword.

"What a power…! Is this the power of Saitama-dono's son… The Red Dragon Emperor?" Xenovia muttered as she gritted her teeth as she glared at Issei, who was looking at his gauntlet. The blue-haired girl's eyes were widened when she caught a white aura was coating the pawn's body.

"_A touki…! I see… I guess it's not that surprising about his strength…"_

Issei noticed there was a bit smoke coming out from his fist, right after his fist connected with the holy blade. Not to mention, during his fight with Irina, particularly when he had to parry Irina's sword with his gauntlet, Issei felt like his skin under his gauntlet was burned when the holy sword made contact with the Boosted Gear.

**[That's the effect of the holy attribute of the Excalibur, partner. Thanks to your devil-hood, even my armour won't be able to protect you completely from the flare of the holy aura]**

Issei took in Ddraig's advice as he made a mental note that he needed to look into this issue later.

"What are you doing, Ise-kun?" Yuuto asked Issei as if he did not need his help from the first place.

"You're welcome", Issei simply replied as he took a glance at Yuuto with sharp gaze, as if he was reprimanding or warning the knight, before he returned his gaze at Xenovia, who just recovered. "That's enough for this duel, don't you think?"

Xenovia only lowered her sword and nodded in reply. Even Yuuto himself could not help but slumped to the ground in defeat, begrudgingly admitting that he would have lost had Issei not interfered.

Issei then walked towards Irina to check up on her. The said girl was trying to stand up, while holding her sword with her left hand as support and her right hand holding down her hurting stomach as she inhaled and exhaled to ease the pain.

"Irina-chan, are you… Well, I know it's stupid to ask, but are you okay there? Can you still walk on your own?" Issei asked as he offered his hand.

Irina smiled weakly as she finally managed to get on her feet, and she held her hand up politely. "I'm fine, Ise-kun… That's a nice punch, I admit."

"Hehe, yeah… Your swordsmanship was pretty good too", Issei complimented back.

"Irina, are you badly injured?" Xenovia came over to support her partner.

"Yeah… I'm fine, Xenovia. My stomach still hurts so much, but I'll be fine soon", Irina said as she kept massaging her tummy.

"I see… I guess this time it's your win…" Xenovia turned to Issei as she brought Irina's arm around her shoulder. "However, let me say this one thing", she turned to Yuuto who was still kneeling on the ground. "Knight of Gremory, your weapons are those varied demonic swords and that swift speed of yours. When you summoned that huge sword, you've just sealed your own abilities as you don't have enough muscle strength to back it up. You shouldn't have seek for destructive power in the first place."

Xenovia packed her sword back as she was still supporting Irina. She then turned to Rias Gremory, who had approached them with the other devils when the duel had been settled.

"I'll be counting on you regarding our discussion we had earlier", Xenovia said as she turned to walk away with Irina.

Irina took another glance at Issei before she left. "Ise-kun… Next time, I won't loose. I'll always be available whenever you ever feel like being judged. Amen", the girl said with a cheerful smile despite her current state.

Issei only scoffed in amusement as he smiled back and waved his hand.

"Ah, one more thing", this time Xenovia stopped before she turned to glance one more time to Issei. "Consider this the reward for your victory. The Vanishing Dragon has already awoken. You may be strong, but you'd better be careful when you meet him one day. There are rumours that the current White Dragon Emperor is much stronger than his predecessors."

And with that, the two exorcists left the Occult Research Club and the school ground, leaving everyone, especially Issei, with the thought about the other heavenly dragon.

X

After the two exorcists had left, Issei put his thought about the Vanishing Dragon and dismissed his Boosted Gear. Upon revealing his forearm, he spotted few blisters and burned marks on his skin. While the gauntlet had prevented the worse damage on his person, the holy aura from Excalibur could still slip through the armour and burned his skin in result.

Asia who got the sight of Issei's left hand quickly covered Issei's hand with both of her own and her Twilight Healing was put into work immediately.

"It's okay, Asia. I'm fine", Issei tried to refuse Asia's healing, though he appreciated it.

"No, let me do at least this, Ise-san…" Asia smiled in kind. "You've spoken up for my sake. This is the only thing I can do to thank you…"

Seeing the girl's blushing face, Issei smiled back as he patted Asia's head. "Thanks, Asia… Besides, that's what friends for, after all…" Issei said as he felt that the burn started to ease up.

"Hold it, Yuuto!"

Issei and Asia turned their heads to see Rias was trying to stop her knight from leaving. "I won't forgive you if you leave me! You're the knight of Gremory household! You'll cause trouble for everyone if you were gone!"

Yuuto remained silent before he tried to pry off his king's hand off him. "I was able to escape thanks to my comrades. As a result, I put all of their regrets in my demonic swords…" Yuuto finished as he finally walked off and disappeared from everyone's sight.

Rias who could not stop her knight only grimaced with worried expression as she put her hand over her chest. "Why did things turn out like this…? Yuuto…"

Two days had past, and there were still no news about the disappearing knight of Gremory. Issei who had been giving some thought about the matters at hand, had decided his next course of action as he wandered around the town after school.

After walking for a while, he finally arrived at the local park, where there were no much people around. He stopped on his tracks, turned around, and he saw Koneko who was already standing before him.

"What are you doing, Koneko-chan? Shouldn't you be with Rias-buchou and the others in the clubroom?"

"I can ask the same thing to you, Ise-senpai…" Koneko replied with indifference. "What are you plotting?"

"Well…" Issei looked around. "Just looking for a change of atmosphere while I'm figuring something out about the recent situation…"

"Is this about Yuuto-senpai?" Koneko asked.

"So you already can tell this much…" Issei snorted as he smiled and ruffled through his hair. "Were you ordered to follow me?"

Koneko shook her head. It means that she was following the pawn on her own volition.

"Okay then… But before we talk more…" Issei took a glance at the tree not far from them. Koneko's eyes also darted following the direction where Issei was staring at. "Let's take care of another person stalking us first, shall we?"

As if Issei's voice could be heard, suddenly a shadow burst out from the said tree and Issei quickly used his hands to gesture Koneko to give a chase for now, as the pawn would take a detour to block their stalker escape route.

Koneko nodded in understanding and she quickly ran after the person who was stalking them earlier. Despite being a rook, thanks to the training camp she had before the rating game against Riser Phenex, she could run fast enough to keep up with the target.

The said target was slightly surprised at his pursuer, picked up his speed when he suddenly stopped when a familiar figure was already standing in front of him just when he was about to get out from the park. The said figure had a brown hair and was folding his arm with a smile plastered on his face.

"Yo, Saji… Mind telling me what is the student council secretary doing here?" asked Issei, who was blocking the now identified stalker as the student council secretary, Saji Genshirou.

Saji clicked his tongue as he found himself being surrounded from two directions. And without a way to escape the Gremory pawn and rook, the Sitri pawn replied, "Well, I just spotted you suddenly waltzed out from the school while you're supposed to go to your club, followed by Toujou-san here. I was simply following you guys out of suspicion."

Issei remained silent for a second. "How much did you hear?"

"Not much. But enough for me to report to kaichou that you guys are plotting something behind your master's back."

Issei gave Koneko a look, which the latter nodded in agreement. Then Issei turned at Saji again.

"Sorry, pal. But we'll have you to keep us company for a bit longer…"

"Make me!" Saji replied back with challenging tone as he put up his fighting stance.

_(Scene break)_

"Dammit, let me go!" Saji said as he was struggling to break free from Issei and Koneko's grasp.

The Sitri pawn's position was, his body was laid on the ground, while both of his legs were held by the two Gremory devils. Issei was holding Saji's right leg and Koneko holding the left one. The owner of the legs was crawling his way out futilely.

Ignoring Saji's plea and complaints, Issei kept his conversation with Koneko.

"Well, if you want to out of this, now's the chance. As long as you keep this from everyone else."

Issei's plan was basically to contact the two Excalibur-wielding exorcists and asking them permission to destroy one of the Excalibur swords. Of course, Koneko and Saji were surprised at this. Saji immediately wanted to run away, but was immediately stopped by Issei and Koneko.

"Buchou will definitely oppose this idea, but I will help. This is for Yuuto-senpai's sake, after all", Koneko replied resolutely.

Issei's lips twitched upwards ever so slightly despite the danger he was bringing his junior into. "I appreciate your help, but while this negotiation might succeed, there's also a chance where the negotiation will fail as well. The worst-case scenario, we'll have to fight those two by ourselves and worsen the relationship between the church and the devils. Are you sure you still want to cope up with me?"

"No! I don't want to be part of this stupid idea! Let me go, goddammit!" Saji voiced his complaints, but was still ignored.

"I won't run away, for the sake of our comrades", was all Koneko reply as her eyes became more resolved than before.

"Thanks, Koneko-chan… Really, thanks…", Issei said as he smiled in content, which Koneko returned back as well with her small smile.

"I said wait, dammit!" Issei and Koneko turned their heads towards Saji again. "Why should I help in the first place!? I have no reason to help you guys! I'd get killed by my master, the student council president!"

"Come on now, Saji… You're not the only one in a tight position, you know? We also don't want to be found out by our master as well…" Issei said nonchalantly.

"Fuck you, Hyoudou! Your master, Rias Gremory, is serious, yet gentle! My master is serious, yet only serious! She'll kill me! And it's gonna be a torture, I tell you!" Saji wailed out as he imagined the stern expression of Sona Sitri that terrifies him so much. "Please man, just let me go! I ain't gonna tell a soul about what you're trying to do!"

Having enough of Saji's complaint, Issei and Koneko pulled Saji up from the ground and the Red Dragon Emperor held the student council secretary firmly on his collars. "You know what? If we let you go now, there's still a chance that you might slip out some details before a sharp person like kaichou. And if kaichou knows about this, she'll definitely tell our master as well, which we're trying to avoid now", Issei said with stern glare, then a smirk came up on his face.

"Besides, considering that you also went out of the school while you're supposed to be helping in student council, I think that alone has already warranted your punishment from your master."

Then, his eyes darted to Koneko. "One more thing, what will everyone say, if they knew that a student council member was stalking a girl, the school's mascot of all people?" Issei said as his smirk widened a bit.

Koneko only snorted as she sent a slight dirty look at both boys. She did not like being used as an excuse or black mail material, but the situation demanded. Besides, Issei had a point about Saji following behind her in the first place.

"Kuh…! How dirty…!" Saji hissed out.

"Well… In the end, you're staying with us, whether you like it or not. However, if you comply without a fight, we'll let you go at one point. Probably…" Issei said in finality.

Saji grimaced for a minute, then he sighed as he stopped resisting. "Fine, I'm in. Happy?" Saji agreed begrudgingly as he muttered something about being killed and already dead.

"Now that's the spirit!" Issei said in satisfaction as he patted Saji's shoulders. "Now, I think we can start from the downtown or shopping district. If those two exorcists did not change their outfits, it shouldn't be hard to spot them among other people", Issei addressed his two accomplices, marking the start of their search.

X

The search was disturbingly very easy. After few minutes of walking, Issei and his gang had found Irina and Xenovia were asking for charity from the people around. Their white robes made them sticking out like sore thumbs among the crowds.

People passed as they were looking at the two with weird gazes, parents were hushing their children from looking at them, only few of the people who were kind enough to even bother to drop one or two yens in the charity box.

"Um… Please help the lost lambs of the Lord!" Xenovia pleaded with dry, yet nervous expression.

"Please give us your charity in behalf of our Father in Heaven!" Irina said with teary eyed and her hands clasped together in prayer, presumably out of desperation.

The three devils that were watching them had different reaction on each of them. Saji's eyes were twitching, Koneko remained indifferent while Issei could not help but feel amused at the sight.

"Seriously, just what the hell? Hyoudou, you better go now! I feel even nervous myself just looking at them…" Saji whispered.

"Hush! This is way too funny to miss. Quick, someone give me a video camera! Do any of you have a video camera? This isn't something you can see everyday!" Issei replied with unconscious enthusiasm as he kept his amused expression.

Koneko on the other hand, only sighed at the boys' antics as the three kept watching for the time being.

"Any small amount will be appreciated and remembered by the Lord in Heaven!"

"What's with this? So is this the reality of Japan's giant economy? I never like countries that don't have a single whiff of our faith to begin with", Xenovia complained with almost empty charity box on her hands.

"Don't be so harsh, Xenovia…" Irina replied with sad expression. "We're out of both travelling expenses and food. These pagans aren't showing any mercy, even when we're resorting to this, you know? Aah… How pitiful we are, we can't even buy a single loaf of bread!"

Xenovia only scoffed at Irina's reply. "Hmph, isn't that because you bought that fake painting?" Xenovia pointed her finger at a painting of an old man near them.

"What are you saying!? This is a painting of a saint! The person at the exhibition told me so!" Irina shot back while hugging the painting.

"Fine. Then tell me, who's this?" Xenovia asked about the person in the painting.

"I think it's… St. Peter?"

"Don't be ridiculous! This is not St. Peter!"

"No, it's definitely him! I'm sure that much!"

"Haahh… Why must I have this one as my partner…? Oh, God… Is this another one of my trials?" Xenovia complaining about Irina with exasperated sigh, as she ruffled through her hair. Then she returned to berate her partner.

"Because of this, the Protestants' concept of values differ from those of us Catholics! Show more respects towards the saints!"

Irina shot back at this. "What?! It's you Catholics who are still bounded to old laws!"

"What did you say, you damned heretic!?"

"What, you heretic!?"

GROOOWL….

The quarrel between the two exorcists was put to stop by the sound of their hungry stomachs as both of them slumped to their knees.

"Oi, Hyoudou…"

Meanwhile, on the three devils side, Saji started to feel that he had seen enough called out to Issei, who was still watching with amused looks. Even Koneko also had started to tug on his uniform.

"No, no. Come on, just a bit longer", Issei simply replied as he kept watching.

Back to the exorcists…

"Anyway, let's fill our stomachs for now, otherwise we'll never get back the Excalibur swords…" Xenovia said first.

"You are right. Should we try to rob the pagans' money here? I think God would forgive us about it…" Irina replied with her suggestion.

Then, as if finding the idea appealing, both exorcists showed mischievous smirks on their faces.

"I'd say we raid a temple."

"Yeah, and loot out the money box… But wait", Irina thought of something. "We can't do that. The last thing we need is dealing with the policemen."

"Uhm… Let's drop it, then", Xenovia agreed. "Oh, then how about putting up a street performance with our swords to gain funds?"

"Yes, that's more like it! We can cut fruits for attraction!"

"Well, we don't even have any fruits to begin with, so let's cut this painting instead", Xenovia raised her blade at the painting Irina just bought.

"No, you can't do that!" Irina protested as she hugged her painting again.

"Fine! Then let's find the merchant who sold this fake painting, and get your money back!"

"I told you, it's not a fake! It's a real painting of St. Paul!"

"Aha! I knew it! So it's not St. Peter, after all!"

As the two exorcists returned to their bickering, Koneko finally had enough as she tugged Issei's uniform even harder, and when the said pawn turned to look at the rook, the latter gave him a serious look that wanted no more games.

"Alright, alright", Issei finally conceded and he walked over towards the exorcists. "What are you two idiots doing here?"

X

"Delicious! Japanese food is so delicious!"

"Indeed, it is! The taste of my homeland!"

Currently, Issei, Koneko and Saji, along with the two female exorcists were sitting inside of nearby family restaurant. The three devils only ordered drinks while they were watching the two exorcists wolfed down large amounts of food hungrily.

After all the food had been finished, Xenovia wiped her mouth and she let out a sigh. "Although it's for the sake of carrying out our missions… But to sell our souls to devils like this…"

"Gee, you're welcome…" Issei replied with sarcastic tone. After all, the food had been bought by his money.

"Thank you for the meal! Oh Lord, please bless this kind devils for treating us!" Irina prayed out loud as she held her cross.

As the result, Saji and Koneko winced in pain as they grabbed their heads, while Issei only twitched his eyes from the headache and cleared his throat in warning.

"Oops, sorry. It's already my habit", Irina smiled sheepishly while sticking her tongue out.

"So, what do you want from us?" Xenovia asked.

The three devils regained their composure at the question. "First of all, you said that your mission is to at least prevent the holy swords to fall to the wrong hands, correct?" Xenovia nodded at the question.

"Then I won't beat around the bush. I'd like you to let us to destroy at least one of those swords."

At this question, the two exorcists glanced at each other, and when Irina was about to voice her answer, she was beaten first by Xenovia.

"I guess it's fine, if you really are able to destroy it, that is…" Xenovia replied.

Issei raised his eyebrows at the unexpected affirmation from the blue-haired exorcist, while Irina was gawking at her partner.

"However…" Xenovia continued, "Please don't blow your cover. We don't want to be suspected to have relationships with devils, after all."

"Wait, Xenovia! I know it's Ise-kun and all, but we're talking to devils, you know?" Irina voiced her disagreement as she rose up from her seat.

"Just be honest, Irina… This mission is way too hard for the two of us alone", Xenovia said her reasoning.

"I know that, but still…!"

Xenovia interrupted Irina's argument, "At the very least, we'll just have to destroy the three Excalibur swords and return to headquarters", Xenovia took a glance at her Excalibur Destruction. "And even if our holy swords are seized, we could still try to destroy them with our bare hands. Then, if we use our last resort, our probability of returning safely is about 30%, which is practically suicide."

"You should have known that all along, Xenovia. That is not the thought process of us, believers of the Lord", Irina scoffed at Xenovia's reasoning.

"Then I've changed my mind. My faith is flexible, and it can adapt to the best case whenever necessary."

At Xenovia's words, Irina furrowed her eyebrows. "You know, I always think that your faith is strange…"

"I don't mind about that. I do believe that accomplishing the mission and coming back safely is another way to prove our faith…" Xenovia replied, did not mind about Irina's comment about her. "Survive, and keep fighting for the God's sake, am I wrong?"

"Well, you're not… But…" Irina started to have a second thought.

"Besides, we are here not borrowing the devil's power…" Xenovia turned to look at Issei. "We're here to borrow the power of a dragon."

Irina and Issei's eyes widened at Xenovia this time.

"According to the legend, the dragon can be as powerful as a demon king, correct? I believe that this meeting is also a sign from God", Xenovia continued her reasoning.

"W-well… It should be fine if we're borrowing the power of a dragon, but no! It's sophistry! Seriously, your faith is really strange!" Irina could not help but felt incredulous at her partner's idea.

"Come on now, Irina. Aren't we talking about your old friend here? Why don't you trust him for once?" Xenovia asked her partner.

Irina could not come up with a come back anymore. "Well… I guess so…"

"Besides…" Irina's eyes turned to Xenovia, who returned her gaze once again at Issei. "If it's Saitama-dono's son… I guess I can trust him as well…"

Issei smiled at Xenovia's whole reasoning. "Well, then it's settled. I'll lend you my dragon's power. Let me call another person for this plan", Issei said as he took out his cellphone and made a call to someone.

X

"Okay, Kiba has agreed and he's on his way here. So…" Issei said after he had invited Kiba Yuuto for his plan for the day. "While we're waiting for him, I'd like to ask you girls something… Irina, and err… Xenorita", Issei asked with his hands clasped together in Ikari Gendo-style with his face stayed casual, despite he just mispronounced one of the girls' names.

Xenovia's eyes twitched at the mispronunciation. If it were not for the treatment and the food, the girl would have lashed out with her holy sword around. "It's Xenovia! Seriously, you really are your father's son…" Xenovia retorted with a slight growl.

Irina only giggled at the name while the other two devils sweat-dropped.

"Actually, Ise-kun… That name you just called her was exactly the same that Saitama-san mispronounced her name once before…" Irina quipped in.

"Oh… Right, sorry. And yeah, about my dad… How did you two know him? And what's he doing in England, anyway?" Issei asked after blinking twice.

Saji, who sensed something sensitive about the topic, leaned his head to whisper beside Koneko's ear. "Say, Toujou-san… What's the deal with Hyoudou's dad?"

"Ise-senpai's father has been travelling since long ago, and senpai plans to look for him after graduating high-school", Koneko replied while looking at Issei with her usual stoic face. Saji simply nodded at his new information.

Xenovia and Irina blinked a couple of times and the former took a glance at the latter. "Well, it's actually Irina who had known him first before I did…" Xenovia said pointing at her partner.

Issei then looked expectantly to his childhood friend to explain.

"Well… I don't know what he was really doing in his journey, but I met him in my middle-school years, several years ago…" Irina tried to recall her meeting. "He asked me for some direction for a local lodging with very poor English. It only took me seconds to recognise your dad from your old pictures. After that, I invited him over dinner with my family."

Issei nodded at the story. "I see…. Speaking of, how are your parents?"

"They're doing well, thank you. My dad still works for Protestant Church", then Irina glanced back at Xenovia, "The second time of our meeting would be during my first mission with Xenovia after receiving the Excalibur, right?" asked Irina, prompting the latter to continue about their meeting with Saitama.

"Yes, I don't know how he did what he did, but he saved our lives during our mission to hunt down a vampire", Xenovia nodded before speaking.

Issei's eyes widened slightly at the word 'vampire', however, being dragged into supernatural, the boy should not be surprised that vampires exist in that world. "Well… What did he do, actually?" the pawn asked, intrigued.

"Your dad was so strong, Ise-kun! He was like, 'woosh'! And then, 'bam'!" Irina said with excited tone as she moved her arms around to demonstrate.

Not understanding what his childhood friend meant, obviously, Issei raised his eyebrows to Xenovia, whom closed her eyes and let out a small sigh.

"Well… I honestly couldn't believe what I saw back then, but…" Xenovia opened her eyes, "Your father just obliterated the vampire with one punch."

The devils, who had been listening simply widened their eyes at the story. "Well… It could be that the vampire had already been weakened enough for him to finish-off…" Issei tried to reason.

"Well, that's what I thought at first, but… we know what we saw…" Xenovia replied. "Our holy swords could only do so much against such a powerful vampire. Yet, your father's fist took him out as if he was swatting an insect…"

The three devils who heard this remained wide-eyed at the exorcist's story. "Err… My dad… He's a human, right?" Issei asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"I know it's hard to believe, but at least that time, I believe he's a human…" Xenovia replied.

"After helping us, Saitama-san just disappeared soon after, and of course, when we reported back to the church, they didn't believe it a bit and they decided that the mission was accomplished by our own effort…" Irina quipped in with a slight remorse.

"That's why… We want to see him again, and we'd like to thank him properly for saving us. We owe him our lives, after all…" Xenovia finished with tone of resolve.

"Wow, Hyoudou… Your dad sounds like a badass…" Saji put his two cents, however, deep down the Sitri pawn still felt reluctant to believe such story.

"This is actually the first time for me hearing what he can do…" Issei replied. "Well, I do know that he's somehow also acquainted with Lucifer-sama…"

At the mention of the name of the demon king, the rest on the table let out their surprised reactions.

"EEH!?"

Although being from different factions, devils and exorcists could tell that someone who has connection with one of the leaders of the underworld is clearly not an ordinary person.

However, the soon to be question about Saitama's relation with the demon king was halted when another person was approaching the table.

"What happened? I heard a shriek just now", Yuuto, who had finally arrived at the meeting, came in the hurry when he heard the noise.

X

"I understand the situation…" Yuuto said after listening to Issei's plan about hunting down the lost holy swords.

When the Gremory knight had come, everyone on the table decided to put their thoughts and worries about the previous conversation, seeing that the time was not suitable to continue further. So they returned to the main topic of the day.

"But you know, I feel not satisfied about this… permission to destroy the swords and all…"

Xenovia furrowed her eyebrows at this. "What a rude thing to say. If you were a stray, I would've cut you down at this very moment."

"Can you?" Yuuto replied and the two glaring at each other.

Issei sighed and quickly calmed things down. "That's enough, you two", the pawn looked at the two sword users with his own glare. "If you guys don't get your things together, we'll end up killing each other before we even can find an Excalibur."

Yuuto and Xenovia calmed down after a second. They still scowled at each other but they conceded with Issei's point.

"So… I heard you're still holding a grudge about the Holy Sword Project? You're a survivor of that project as well…" Irina spoke up.

"Yes, I am…" Yuuto replied with a cold tone.

"But that project showed results. Thanks to the project, the numbers of holy sword users have increased significantly. Me and Xenovia here are the example", Irina said.

"Well? Then what about the other test subjects that were deemed as failures? The church killed them all because they don't have aptitude to wield one!" Yuuto hissed at Irina.

"You're right", Xenovia quipped in. "For the church, that project is one of their worst cases in their history. The person in charge of the project was labelled as a heretic, exiled, and that person had been put under the fallen angel's care."

"Fallen angels… Who's that person in charge?" Yuuto asked.

"Valper Galilei, the Genocide Archbishop."

"A church's rogue, huh…?" Yuuto gave a thoughtful look. "Speaking of, I actually was attacked by someone carrying an Excalibur few days ago…" then Yuuto's eyes turned into a sharp glare. "I remember his name was Freed Sellzen. Does it ring a bell?"

"Freed Sellzen? So he was in this fiasco too?" Irina sounded slightly surprised.

"So you do know him?"

"Yes. He is a prodigy who became an exorcist under the leadership of the Vatican when he was only 13 years old. He was famous for the number of his contribution in regards of exterminating devils and monsters alike one after another."

"However…" Xenovia added in. "He went to far, ending up killing even his own comrades. The church exiled him soon after."

"Freed never had any ounce of faith in our Lord to begin with. What he possessed was bloodlust towards his opponents and an abnormal obsession with combat. It's only a matter of time until his loyalty was questioned", Irina said.

"I see… Now I know, who I have to find… If I go after the Fallen, then…" Yuuto muttered as his eyes hardened with determination.

"Anyway, we can start by looking for either one of the two people you mentioned. Do you guys have any way for us to keep in touch?" Issei asked to the two exorcists.

Xenovia took out a pen and wrote something on a nearby napkin. "You can use this. If you guys find out about anything, then call this number", Xenovia gave her number.

"Thanks, and you can call this number if you find something as well", Issei also had written his own contact number on a separate piece of paper and handed it to Xenovia.

"I see. Well then, thanks for the meal. I'll make sure to repay this favour, Red Dragon Emperor, Hyoudou Issei…" the blue haired girl took her leave.

"Thanks for the meal, Ise-kun! Even if you're a devil, the Lord will forgive me, as long as it's your treat!" Irina also said her goodbyes before she went after her partner.

After the two exorcists had left, Yuuto turned towards his friends. "Issei-kun… Everyone… Why are you doing this? Things would only gotten worse if you messed this up."

Issei only snorted with calm expression. "Do I actually need a good reason to help my comrade? I just don't have a heart to ignore all of this…"

"But there's also a possibility that I'd be the one to mess up and makes things worse for buchou, you know? I also have dragged you into my own problems as well…"

Issei let out a sigh. "You know… I actually don't really understand about all this vengeance and stuff, but I know everyone won't like it if we just went blindly without any real direction just like that… What I can do now is to make sure that you won't get yourself killed on your own. Besides, making a contact with those two girls back there without ojou-sama's knowledge also has made me onto the same boat as you, right? So before you're completely become a stray, I'm gonna help you finish this quickly and bring you back in one piece."

Yuuto only remained silent at Issei's words. Then, he felt someone was tugging on his sleeves and he turned his head to see Koneko looking up at him.

"Yuuto-senpai… I'd feel lonely if you go away… So I'll help. Please, don't disappear on me…" Koneko pleaded with sad expression.

Issei had to admit that Koneko was really cute despite the atmosphere. Yuuto, after hearing Koneko's plea, finally sighed.

"Hahaha… If you guys are saying things like that, even I have to get my things together, don't I?" Yuuto said as his expression softened into a smile. "I understand, I'll accept you help. Thanks, Issei-kun… Now, I know who my true enemy is. But I'd still like to destroy the holy sword if possible", Yuuto said with conviction.

Issei and Koneko smiled back in content. "Glad to hear it. Now, that we've come to agreement and all, let's…"

"Uhm, excuse me… Are you including me too?"

The three devils of Gremory turned their heads towards Saji, who had been only listening from the beginning. "I told you that I don't have anything to do with this, right? And you guys have left me out this whole time. What's with the holy sword and Kiba, anyway?"

Issei and Yuuto shared a glance, then the two nodded at each other before Yuuto spoke up. "I guess I can tell you about my past as well…"

Yuuto started to talk about his past. He was a nameless orphan who was chosen by the church to participate in the Holy Sword Project, a project to specifically make anyone capable of using holy swords. Yuuto also explained about his days of gruesome and inhumane experiments along with his comrades, boys and girls around his age, in order to make them to be able to use Excalibur. Despite the torture and the harsh treatment, Yuuto and his comrades had never lost their faith to God, believing that their hardships to be rewarded one day.

However, that day never came. One day, the results came out and Yuuto and his comrades were deemed to be failures in wielding holy swords, then the church decided to dispose of them based on that reason. All of the failed test subjects were placed in a chamber and the chamber was filled with poisonous gas, killing the test subjects slowly by the hands of their supervisors.

Yuuto managed to escape death thanks to his comrades' sacrifices, and when he was out into the cold, and almost froze to death, he was rescued and reincarnated by the devil who was now his master, Rias Gremory.

"I want to avenge my comrades… Rather, I don't want their deaths to be in vain. That's why, I have to prove my strength for their sake that I'm stronger than any holy sword…" Yuuto finished his story.

Hearing the story from a different perspective, Issei felt conflicted. He knew that Asia had a sad childhood with the church, but after listening to Yuuto's past, Issei doubted about the church even more. He did not know much about the church and its system, all he knew that the church supposed to be a benevolent and kind faction that definitely should not do what happened with Yuuto.

Then a thought came to his mind. Thinking about his father's affiliation with the demon king, did his father find out about the atrocity the church had committed? What was his reaction? What will he do about it?

"Uuhuu…"

However, Issei's contemplation was interrupted by the voice of crying and sobbing that came from Saji, who was busy wiping his flowing tears.

"Kiba!" The Sitri pawn grabbed Yuuto's shoulder, surprising the latter, with his tears still flowing from his eyes. "That was just too cruel! I feel horrible about myself! I thought you're just some popular pretty boy, but I was wrong! I'm so sorry about your past! I know now that you're actually a good guy! I understand why you hate the church and holy swords so much!"

Neither Yuuto nor Issei had expected about Saji's outburst. But before either of them could have said anything in return, Saji spoke up again. "Now I don't care anymore if you're a popular guy or whatever, I'll help too!"

"Err… Thanks-"

"Now that we're a team, I believe this is a chance to share something about myself to you guys!" Saji straightened up and raised his finger. "My dream is… to marry the student council president, my master, Sona Sitri, and have her to bear our child!"

"Stop! Stop!" Issei stepped in and covered Saji's mouth. The latter pried the former's hand off him. "What the hell, Hyoudou!? I was just getting to the good part!"

"Too much information! That's something you're supposed to keep to yourself!" Issei replied with slightly blushing face and he sighed. "You know what? We're getting off the track here. Let's just roll, shall we?"

Koneko only sent Saji a dirty look, muttering something about being a pervert, while Yuuto only laughed sheepishly. Saji, who was a bit annoyed being interrupted, decided to comply with Issei along with the other two.

Thus, the temporary alliance between devils and exorcists had been formed and the search for Excalibur had begun.

X

Two days had past since the short alliance to search the holy sword had been formed. At the moment, Issei was at his classroom, sighing on his desk. The search did not show any results so far. He, Yuuto, Koneko, and Saji had been searching around the town blindly during the first day, and then, they decided to borrow some clergy and nun outfits from Irina and Xenovia in order to lure out Freed Sellzen, since the rogue exorcist had been hunting the agents of the church that were sent to the town. However, the result was still not different than the first day.

Now, on the third day…

"No luck today either, huh…" Saji whined as he and the other three devils were walking in the alley at the deeper part of the town with their clergy and nun outfits.

"It's just a second day we came up with this disguise, so I actually won't expect any instant result, but…" suddenly, Issei's eyes widened as he sensed something in the air. Something hostile.

"Huh? What's up, Hyoudou? Everyone?" Saji asked as the three devils of Gremory suddenly went quiet.

"Ise-senpai, Yuuto-senpai…" Koneko said in alert.

"Yeah…" Issei understood what the rook meant, followed by Kiba. "It seems the plan worked…"

As the devils stayed focus to detect any movement or presence, Issei's eyes shot up. "Above us!"

Right on cue, a figure carrying a sword landed on them and the devils managed to dodge on the nick of time. The said figure had a white hair, was wearing a clergy clothing and wielding a sword radiating with holy aura.

"Hey, guys… It's been a while, hasn't it?" the said figure said with a maniacal grin.

The devils quickly went to battle positions, and Issei glared at the enemy. "Y-you are…!"

"Kukuku… Glad to meet you again… I still haven't paid you back for what you did to me before, have I?"

However, Issei's glare turned into a look of confusion. "Um, actually… Who are you again? Have we met before?" Issei tilted his head slightly.

The others, even the enemy figure almost face-vaulted at Issei's question. The time and place really did not suitable for such a thing.

"You motherfucker! Do you keep forgetting the face of every guys you bashed in the other day!?" the figure shot back in anger.

"No, not really…" Issei still tried to look into his memory. "It's just that… Seriously, did we see each other somewhere?"

Vein marks started to appear on the enemy's face as his anger built up. Yuuto leaned towards Issei's ear.

"Um… Issei-kun, that's Freed Sellzen. The rogue priest I told you about in the restaurant", the knight whispered.

It took few seconds for Issei's memory to click and his eyes widened in recognition. "Uh… Oh… Oooh! So it's you! The dude with those fallen angels from before!" Issei said with his fist on his palm.

"About fucking time you remember! Now that I have this baby here, I'll be sure to pay you back hundred times more than you did to me!" Freed said as he brandished his sword in the air, the same sword he used on Yuuto on the other night.

Feeling the dangerous feeling from Freed's sword, Issei did not say anything more and quickly prepared his Boosted Gear.

**[Boost!]**

Saji manifested something like a black gauntlet that resembled a small lizard, or more like a chameleon with a deformed face on his left hand. Yuuto manifested his Holy Eraser, while Koneko put on her fighting stance.

Saji took the initiative to have the first strike. "Stretch, my line!" he launched his black lizard gauntlet forward and a blue line shot out from the gauntlet, making its way towards the rogue exorcist.

Freed quickly intercepted the incoming attack by swinging his sword. However, instead of getting cut, the line managed to latch and tied itself on his leg. His movements became limited.

"Kiba, get him now! I won't be able to hold him too long!" Saji shouted as he tried to keep his line in place.

"Thanks!" without wasting any more seconds, Yuuto took the opportunity and he lounged towards Freed with his demonic sword ready at hand. However…

"Heh, that's too bad! Your shitty demonic sword won't be a match…" Then Freed swung his holy sword, shattering Yuuto's own sword. "With my Excalibur-chan!"

Seeing his sword got shattered, Yuuto quickly leapt back and summoned another demonic sword, but Freed managed to crush it again in no time.

Issei clicked his tongue. He wanted to switch with the knight, but Yuuto would not be able to settle with his past if the knight could not surpass the holy sword. Thus, he went with that option.

"Oi, Kiba! You won't beat him with just that alone! Here!" Issei stretched his Boosted Gear forward and the green jewel glowed.

**[Transfer!]**

Yuuto felt his power being multiplied. "I'd prefer to do this alone, but since it has come to this, I have to use it!" then he slammed his palm to the ground. "Sword Birth!"

Numerous amounts of demonic swords sprout out from the ground towards Freed, aiming to impale him. Before Freed could intercept the incoming Yuuto's barrage of swords, the devil knight leapt to the air and he threw more demonic swords towards the exorcist as well.

"Hoo… So you wanna play this way, huh!? You damned devils!" Freed prepared his own stance. And then…

SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING! CRASH!

His body blurred in a high velocity and he destroyed all of the demonic swords in matter of seconds.

"What the-! Had he ever been this fast, before?" Issei could not help but surprised at such a speed that Freed displayed.

"Your numbers won't win against my Excalibur Rapidly! In terms of speed, I'm invincible with this baby!"

"Tch… No good, huh?!" Yuuto said as he saw all of his shattered swords. Then, the knight saw that Freed had disappeared already. "Issei-kun, look out!"

"Gotcha!" Freed had already ran on the wall in the alley above Issei with his sword ready to attack.

Issei saw the incoming attack and prepared to intercept, however…

"Not so fast!"

Saji immediately threw another line from his sacred gear towards Freed's leg, throwing the latter out of balance.

"Absorption Line!" at this command, the line from Saji's sacred gear glowed and Freed suddenly felt his power being drained.

"What the fuck!? This line… It's absorbing my power?!" Freed cursed as he was brought down to his knees.

"How's that? This is my sacred gear, Absorption Line! I'll keep sucking out your power until you pass out!" Saji said with pride.

"A sacred gear that steals energy? That's quite neat", Issei commented as he felt impressed.

**[I see… That boy had a sacred gear with the soul of Vritra, the Prison Dragon, one of the dragon kings…]**

"Dragon king… Like Tiamat-san?" Issei asked at Ddraig's comment. The heavenly dragon only hummed in affirmation.

"Dammit, your dragon-type sacred gears are so fucking annoying! Just break, already, dammit!" Freed cursed around as he tried to cut the line. However, his attempt with his holy sword was futile.

"Oi, Kiba!" Saji yelled at the Gremory knight while he kept focusing on his line. "Now's another chance! Finish this guy off in one shot!"

Yuuto did not waste any seconds as he quickly conjured two demonic swords in his arms. "There are still two more swords, after all… I might as well take what I can get!"

"Oho, so it's Sword Birth… A sacred gear that can create demonic swords… So you're the one who escaped from that institute, aren't you?" A voice interrupted Yuuto on his track.

Everyone turned their gazes towards the top of a building and they saw a short, bespectacled elderly man with grey hair and moustache, wearing a priest outfit.

"Oh, old man Valper!" Freed called out at the old man.

Yuuto glared at the elderly man hatefully. "Valper… Galilei…!"

"At your service", the old man now known as Valper Galilei, returned the greeting. Then, he turned his gaze to Freed. "Freed… What do you think you're doing?"

"Look at this! This stupid lizard tongue is a tough nut to crack!" Freed pointed at Saji's line.

Valper only sighed. "You're still immature in using your Excalibur. Focus on using the 'element' I've given to you…"

"Alright, right!" Freed replied in understanding and after concentrating for a second, his Excalibur radiated holy aura even more in golden glow. "Oh, so like this, eh?" then he snapped Saji's line in one swoop.

"Freed, we're running out of time here… Leave this place for now and return to Kokabiel", Valper commanded as he walked away.

"Tch. Fine…" Freed clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, but obeyed nonetheless. "I'll take my leave now! We'll settle this later once and for all, you shitty devils!"

Just Freed was about to go away, a voice interrupted him followed by a blur.

"Not so fast!" suddenly, Xenovia showed up and she lounged towards Freed with her Excalibur Destruction.

Using his speed granted from Excalibur Rapidly, Freed dodged the strike easily and gained more distance.

"Freed Sellzen, Valper Galilei… We shall deal with you accordingly in the name of God!" Xenovia exclaimed as she arrived at the scene together with Irina.

"Hah! I'll deal with you bitches later!" Freed shot back as he threw a white ball that exploded in flash when touching the ground.

When the other's view cleared up after the flash, neither Freed nor Valper was in sight.

"Damn! After them, Irina!"

"Got it!"

Xenovia and Irina quickly leapt away already, tracking down the rogues. Seeing the two female exorcists went away, Yuuto also leapt towards the building where he last saw Valper Galilei. "I'll follow them, too!"

"Wha- Wait, Kiba!" Issei was about to give a chase when suddenly he felt two familiar presences looming over him, along with Koneko and Saji.

When the three turned their heads around, they were met with the face of their un-amused masters.

"Ise, Koneko… What is the meaning of this?"

"Yes… Would you care to explain what's going on, Saji…?"

The three devils' faces went pale at the question.

X

What happened next; Issei, Saji, and Koneko were reprimanded by their respective master. After hearing the entire explanation about Issei's plan regarding Yuuto's grudge towards Excalibur and the encounter with the enemy, Saji was punished by a thousand spankings by Sona.

"Aaaahhh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please forgive me, kaichou!" Saji pleaded as he stuck his butt out. Sona remained impassive as her hand glowed in blue aura.

"Man up, Saji… Just prepare yourself for your punishment, one thousand spankings", Sona said with cold tone.

As the punishment/spanking was going underway, Issei and Koneko on the other hand…

"What troublesome children you are… Making me worry so much", Rias said as she pulled both Issei and Koneko into a hug.

"Noo! Look over there! Rias-senpai just let them go without a second thought just like that!" Saji whined while his ass was still being punished.

"Quiet, Saji. She has her way, I have mine, 980 times to go", Sona replied coldly.

Issei, while still being hug by Rias, could not help but felt his face warm for various reasons. The pawn could not really tell if it was from his master's breast of her kindness. However…

"Okay, now. Ise, stick your butt out", Rias suddenly said.

"Eh?" despite knowing what his master was implying, Issei could not help but thought that the sudden change of atmosphere was… truly unpleasant, for lack of better term.

"I still have a duty to discipline my servant. You'll have a thousand spankings too", Rias said with sadistic smile as her hand flared up in red aura.

While the said pawn understood why Koneko was being let off the hook, considering he was the main perpetrator in the first place, Issei ended up swallowing a lump.

In the end, after knowing that the enemy forces had likely started to move with their plans, Rias had allowed Issei and Koneko to help searching Yuuto or the two female exorcists with assistance of her familiars and the student council. The king also had contacted Akeno to pick up Asia as well to regroup and help with the search. While Rias aware that things might get dangerous and a fight might broke out, having Asia close by her would make things easier for the others instead of risking the powerless bishop to be taken hostage.

Currently, Issei was running alone across the town searching for the allied sword wielders. Rubbing his butt, Issei was a bit surprised that the spanking did not hurt as he had imagined it to be. Most likely that he had become even sturdier that his master's hit was barely hurting him, but Issei managed to show that he regretted his actions behind his master's back earlier.

The pawn had decided to locate the enemy's base. He visited every place that he deemed possible to be a hideout for fallen angels, such as the abandoned church at the outskirts of the town. However, he found nothing when he checked the place.

The boy pondered for another moment and he tried to expand his search towards another secluded area, until he found an old-looking mansion at the other side of the town.

"Weird… Had this building always been here?" Issei muttered to himself.

Trusting his instinct for a moment, he carefully broke through the front gate as he trudged along the front yard. The garden seemed not maintained, and when he arrived at the front door, he could spot some dust had pilled up. The pawn decided to look inside the house for a good measure, he entered the main hall that was filled with large staircases and some pillars.

When he looked around the room, Issei suddenly felt a presence. Whoever this presence belonged to was not to be underestimated, and Issei could feel a holy aura from the presence. Thinking that it could be Freed, Issei prepared his Boosted Gear and touki silently, and he clenched his fist. Carefully approaching a pillar, he used the element of surprise and he quickly moved over to the other side behind the pillar, and launched his fist at the possible enemy.

However, his fist suddenly halted on its track when the owner of the presence, raised her sword in retaliation and managed to stop her attempt as well. Her?

"Ise-kun?"

"Irina-chan?"

Issei widened his eyes at the familiar face. The presence belonged to Irina all this time and Issei almost attacked his own childhood friend out of paranoia. After all, all he could sense that time was simply a holy aura with killing intent.

"Geez, you scared me there!" Irina exclaimed with somewhat slightly playful tone as she lowered her guard.

"That's my line, you know", Issei shot back.

"So… I take that you also feel something is off about this mansion?" Irina changed the topic.

"Yeah… Though it's just my instinct. Want to look around together? You know, for old time's sake as well", Issei offered with a small grin to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Mmm… Okay, I guess we can. We're still in alliance, after all… Fufufu…" Irina said accepting Issei's offer.

As the two childhood friends started their 'quest' to explore the suspicious-looking old mansion, they were not aware of a pair of red eyes watching them.

_To be continued…_

**That's all for chapter 11! What do you guys think about it? No flame, please. And also, I'm still looking for a beta for this story. If anyone interested, please PM me. Ahosei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	13. Holy Sword (IV)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello again, my dear readers! This might be the most difficult chapter I've ever made so far. I've tried to create my own twist on this arc for the first time, so I won't say I can make a good one right off the bat. But I hope you find it passable. So, without further ado, here's the climax of Holy Sword arc!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD nor One-punch Man, as well as other franchise where I referenced from in this story.**

**Chapter 12: Holy Sword (IV) – Return of the Hero**

_(Flashback, many years ago, Grigori territory)_

"So, how has this world been treating you?" a figure of man with long black hair, pointy ears and five pair of black wings sprout from his back, wearing a black suit, asked without looking at the bald-headed man behind him, as if he could sense the said man's presence from miles away.

"Mm, fine I guess…" the baldy known as Hyoudou Saitama only replied nonchalantly.

The ten-winged fallen angel only raised his eyebrows slightly, not expecting, yet at the same time, could tell that that was definitely the answer that would come from the man beside him.

"I see… Then, what do you think, exactly? About this world… The world where God, our Father, no longer exist?"

Apparently, Saitama was walking around the area around Grigori when he spotted the fallen angel with ten black wings was standing on top of the nearby cliff, looking at the faraway sky of the underworld. Saitama only approached the fallen angel out of boredom.

When he was asked the last question, Saitama only shrugged. "No biggie, actually. I never really believe in god or anything like that, but hearing about the death of God, who people always praise of, is still something you don't hear everyday…"

The fallen angel only chuckled at the answer. After knowing Saitama for quite a while, the fallen should have known that such a human would not be shaken by the fact he just stated through the earlier question.

"Then, what do you think about those who are inhabiting this world?" the fallen angel finally turned to look at Saitama.

"Nothing much, I think… In the end, I still need to do what I used to do from time to time…" Saitama walked to the fallen angel's side.

"A hero, eh?" The fallen angel returned his gaze to the sky. "Still, it's kind of strange for you to work with us, the fallen, who had been known deceiving the humanity you've been fighting for."

"I still have much to learn about this world", Saitama replied. "Your boss is the only one of few people I can ask for information… Besides, to be honest I can't play the hero forever, you know? Someone will have to take my place eventually…" Saitama said as he also gazed at the sky.

"Kukuku… You really are something else, Hyoudou Saitama…" The fallen angel chuckled again. "Everyone else would not put their trust to Azazel, not even a bit."

"Would you?" Saitama asked back. The fallen angel's expression remained unfazed, yet Saitama could notice a wavering feeling within the fallen angel's eyes.

"At first, yes. But now… After everything that had transpired, I can't agree with him anymore…"

Saitama's eyes narrowed at this. "Then what are you gonna do, um…"

"Kokabiel"

"Yes, Kokabiel. What are you gonna do?"

"You should learn to remember people's name properly. Otherwise you'll make enemies out of everyone else in no time", the fallen angel, now known as Kokabiel, the Star of God, replied with a sigh. "Tell me, Saitama… What is the path for humanity to achieve peace? Saving the world?"

Saitama only remained silent at the question, prompting Kokabiel to continue. Honestly for him, when Saitama first became a hero, every trouble, every disaster, every conflict could be solved with his punch. However, now that Kokabiel mentioned, he never really stopped all conflicts for good. All Saitama did was solving a conflict, and remained on stand by until his fist was needed again. He never contemplated how to prevent all those conflicts to re-emerge again for a long run. But he became curious, now that he had a family to care of, which was still felt somewhat out of character for him, he wondered if this world would ever no longer need his power. Everyone live in peace and harmony with so little, if not at all, conflicts.

However, Saitama was not naïve. He knew conflict will always comes up as long as humanity exists. That was why heroes and saviours were born and made from time to time. Even in his homeland, people always applied to be a hero in the association, whether for their personal gain or for a just cause, but because evil and conflicts always there, waiting for someone to solve them one way or another. The only thing he can do is to make sure that those conflicts will not come up as long as possible, and to make sure that its number to be as low as possible. But the question remains, how will he do that?

"There's only one path to peace… their destruction…" Kokabiel said with a smirk on his face.

_(End of Flashback)_

X

Issei and Irina were roaming around the hall of the mansion they just went in. One could say that the mansion they were exploring now was something out of a horror flick.

"So where's Kiba and Xenovia? Aren't they supposed to be with you?" Issei asked his childhood friend as he looked around the pillars.

"We're split up a moment ago. But I've contacted them to meet up here. They should be here any second from now", Irina replied as she scanned around the walls.

Issei hummed at the answer when he ran his hand on the pillar's surface. However, Issei found that, despite seemed to be abandoned, the interior was not as dirty as he expected.

"Someone's using this place…" Issei commented as he rubbed a speck of dust from one of the pillars.

"How can you tell?" Irina raised her eyebrows at her childhood friend.

"From the amount of dust. Someone had done half-assed job in maintaining this building", Issei said as he blew away the dust from his finger. "They only cleaned it enough to be used, but not for the long run. Whoever owns this place is only using this as a temporary shelter."

"And how do you know about that?" Irina raised one of her eyebrows this time.

"Trust me, my mom had pounded everything into my head when I was learning how to take care of my house since I was eight. She could tell when I didn't put my mind in cleaning up the house."

"Okay…?" Irina reluctantly accepted Issei's logic for the time being. "Then, who do you think is owning this place?"

Issei looked at Irina for a second, "Rather than asking who is owning this place…" then he looked up towards the staircase. "What the hell is that?"

Irina looked up at Issei's direction, she followed the staircase up and the stairs were divided to left and right. Right at the intersection, she saw a monument-like structure. From the size it was big enough for four adult men to carry.

"Indeed, what is that?" Irina asked as she was closing in, followed by Issei by her side.

When they were close enough at the monument, they found runic symbols written across its surface, glowing in blue.

Issei furrowed his eyebrows when his eyes ran through the symbols. Irina also narrowed her eyes as if she noticed something. That monument-like structure was definitely the one that lured them in.

"Irina-chan, are you feeling it?"

"Yes, I am… I sense… Something from this thing. It's not just an ordinary monument", Irina replied as she reached out her hand to touch the surface, but was suddenly held by Issei.

"Wow… Hold it right there, Irina-chan…" Issei said as he grasped Irina's fore-arm with firm, yet gentle hold. "Things usually turn ugly when you touch unknown things out of curiosity. We don't know what this is, after all…"

Irina only snorted at her childhood friend's warning. "Sheesh, Ise-kun… You've watched too much movies", she said with playful smile, but she still conceded as she pulled her hand back.

Issei snorted back at the remark as he eyed Irina sceptically. "Anyway, we might not have much time here. Should we split up, do a quick look around, and meet up here again?" he said as he took a step away towards one of the stairwells.

"No, no…" This time, it was Irina who held Issei's arm, stopping the pawn on his track. "Bad things always happen when people started to split up in places like this one. I'd say we stick together for the time being."

"And you're telling me I watch too much movies… Or is it our little exorcist here got a cold feet?" Issei said with teasing tone and a grin on his face.

"Of course not! I'm a seasoned servant of the Lord too, you know! I've already used to do things like this with Xenovia!" Irina retorted with slightly blushing face.

"And did you always stick with her around when you're in a place like this?" Issei asked with his teasing tone remained present.

"Well… While dangerous, splitting up sometimes can help to speed up our work too!"

"Then why don't you want to split up now?" Issei asked with one of his eyebrows raised up.

"Well… It's with Xenovia back then, but now I'm with you…" Irina muttered around the last part as she fiddled around her fingers.

"What? What are you saying again?" Issei leaned in slightly closer, not being able to hear what Irina said.

"Nothing! Anyway, let's start from that way!" Irina quickly ended the conversation and she pulled Issei around towards one of the stairwells. Issei himself could only blinked as he reluctantly followed behind her.

X

Meanwhile, Rias was on her way to regroup with Akeno and Asia after she gave her instruction towards her servants. It had not been long yet since she gave out the order, so she thought she could meet them if she went to the directions of Hyoudou residence.

Right on her thoughts, just when she took the last turn to Issei's house, she met her queen who was standing in front of the house together with Asia, who was wearing her nun outfit. The former was having an amused smile on her face, while the latter face was somewhat blushing.

"Akeno, Asia", Rias greeted them who turned to their king. "What's the status?"

"My familiar is still searching for Yuuto-kun and the girls from the church. I myself just met Asia-chan not long ago", Akeno said with her smile remained.

Seeing her queen and bishop's expressions, Rias raised an eyebrow. "Um… What happened?"

Asia's blushed deepened, while Akeno giggled in amusement. "Fufufu… Buchou, you should have seen Asia's attire when I came inside the house…"

Rias eyed Asia with calculative look for a second, then she dismissed the thought. "Now's not the time. We have a work to do." Akeno and Asia's expression straightened up at Rias' tone.

Suddenly, a hostile, familiar presence came upon them, making the three devils turned their heads immediately towards the source. Their eyes were met with a familiar white hair and clergy outfit, Freed Sellzen.

As soon as the three devils took their battle positions, Freed held up both of his hands. "Whoa! Whoa! Time out! I'm not here to fight! Not yet, at least…" he said with slightly surprised expression and it soon replaced with a grin.

"I'm here only to accompany my boss to talk to you", the rogue exorcist pointed his thumb upward, and right on cue, Rias, Akeno and Asia felt an overwhelming presence from the sky.

They look upwards, and they saw a figure wearing a formal black suit, raven long hair, and five pairs of jet-black wings sprouting out from his back.

"Greetings, heiress of Gremory. Your crimson hair really reminds me of your brother… Which I despise so much…" The fallen angel said with a smirk on his face. "I'm Kokabiel of Grigori… I'd be lying if I say I'm pleased to be your acquaintance…"

Even Rias could not help but felt nervous. The holy, yet impure aura that flared out from his ten black wings sent chills to her entire body. "Are you the one behind all of this fiasco?" Rias managed to let out those words.

Kokabiel only snorted in amusement. "Why, indeed I am… I'm the one who has stolen three Excalibur swords from the church…"

"And why would you do that, exactly?" Rias said as she tried to keep her composure.

"To save the world…" Kokabiel simply replied.

"Excuse me?" Rias asked with bewildered tone.

"This world…" Kokabiel said as he looked into a distance. "The humans living here don't even realise that they're advancing towards their own end. I'm here to stop it… To achieve peace!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm surprised that you managed to recruit someone like Freed Sellzen there to cope up with your… whatever you're doing now", Rias asked with sceptical tone as she sent a quick glance at scowling Freed.

"Oi, oi! Don't get wrong ideas! I don't give a fuck about peace or whatever my boss is plotting, I'm only looking forward to the chaos he's gonna bring out!" Freed pointed at Kokabiel, who was scowling as well.

Rias eyes widened after few seconds. "By chaos… Don't tell me…!"

"Yes, I will start a second war between the heaven and underworld. While there's an option for me to do this with my army alone, but I need a better 'catalyst' to achieve peace. Another great war between three factions would be a good one, don't you think?" Kokabiel smile returned.

"B-but!" Everyone's attention went towards Asia. "But the world is already peaceful, right now! Why wouldn't you just leave it be?" Asia had gathered all of her courage to speak up.

"Little girl…. I'm afraid you've mistaken 'peace' with 'quiet'", Kokabiel said with slightly sympathetic tone.

"I don't understand at all, how can a war lead the world towards your so-called peace?" Rias asked with incredulous tone.

"I'm glad that you asked… Let's talk over my 'evil plan' at your academy, shall we? After all, that school of yours and that little sister of Leviathan has been my choice of the stage to start the war." Kokabiel said before he looked at the rogue priest.

"Freed."

"What?"

"Do you still have them? As you'd like me to keep my word, I'd rather you to keep yours as well."

Freed sighed in slight annoyance, but he smiled nonetheless as he opened his robe, revealing four swords with holy aura radiating from them. "Yeah, yeah, I have them here. Now can we go already? I want to start the fun part!"

The three devils' eyes widened at the swords, especially one of them that looked familiar.

"Those swords… Are they the stolen Excalibur?" Akeno asked.

"Yep, yep!" Freed replied with distorted cheerful grin. "Hahaha! My boss here is really fucked up, no? That's the part of him that made me want to go along with this world peace bullshit in the first place. He even let me to wield these awesome swords! These here are Excalibur Rapidly, Excalibr Nightmare, Excalibur Trasparency, and this one is Excalibur Destruction I managed to get from one of that blue haired girl. I want to have that Excalibur Mimic from the other bitch too, but… Oh well, having to wield these four is already awesome enough for me."

Remembering that her knight was with the exorcist as well, Rias' aura flared up from anger. "You…! What have you done to…!" But her outrage was interrupted by Kokabiel himself.

"No need to worry about those two you think of, Gremory girl… While we managed to get our hands on the Excalibur Destruction, its wielder and your servant managed to get away. They're alive at least… However…" Kokabiel paused for a moment. "Your other servant… As well as the other exorcist girl sent from the Vatican… They're now inside my base of operations. I'll make sure that my subordinates will… attend to them…" Kokabiel smirked as he finished and disappeared in black feathers before Rias could have said anything.

"I'll see you later, bitches!" Freed also disappeared after throwing off his signature flash-bang.

"Ise-san…" Asia said in worried tone, her hands clasped together in prayer.

"Buchou, your orders?" Akeno asked to her king.

Rias closed her eyes in thought. Should she found her pawn first, regroup with everyone else, and charge towards Kokabiel with full power? But that might take too long, considering going inside Kokabiel's base might tantamount to suicide. She also had to look for her knight as well. Or should she focused on Kuoh Academy first?

Rias then summoned a communication link to contact Issei. "Hello? Ise? Can you hear me?" after waiting without answer, "Ise, do you hear me? Answer me!" but still no answer came out. The same things went with her cell-phone as well.

After a moment, Rias closed her eyes for a second before opening them again and addressed her servants. "We'll put our faith in Ise for now. We'll regroup with Koneko, Sona and the others at Kuoh Academy at once!"

"Are you sure about this, Rias?" Akeno could not help but asked back. Despite the grave situation, abandoning her servants was not how Gremory doing things, after all.

"Akeno", Rias said with tone of finality. "Believe me, if not for our current situation, I'd rather to charge towards Kokabiel's base head on and rescue him as soon as possible. But have you forgotten of Ise's power?"

Akeno blinked at Rias' eyes that showed unwavering conviction, then she smiled. "Yes, you're right. We're talking about Ise-kun, after all…"

The two Kuoh great ladies then glanced at Asia, asking of her opinion as well.

"I… I want to help Ise-san too, but… Buchou-san is right. Ise-san will come back to us!" Asia steeled her resolve.

Rias nodded in affirmation. "Very well… Now, let's go!" Then the three devils quickly proceed towards Kuoh Academy.

Few minutes later, Rias, Akeno, Asia and Koneko were regrouped with the student council.

"I understand the situation… First off, we the student council will set up a barrier to supress the damages to areas outside the school. However, if Kokabiel really wants to start a war, he may going to destroy this entire town as well", Sona said with grim tone, Saji and Tsubaki were standing by her side.

"In addition, it's safe to assume that Kokabiel has done with all of his preparation. My familiar has confirmed me the sighting of Kokabiel channeling huge amount of his power on the school ground. It seems that he's now waiting for the time to release it all at once."

"So he really intends to destroy this town to spark a war with the heaven and the rest of underworld… I won't ever let him to harm our territory!" Rias said with resolve in her eyes. "Thank you, Sona… We'll handle the rest from here… Somehow."

"That's recklessly confident from you, Rias…" Sona said as she shifted her glasses. "Your opponent now is practically a monster on a whole different level. Should you seek help from your brother?"

"Come to think of it, you also haven't called for your sister as well…" Rias simply replied.

Sona could not help but felt a bit peeved at this. "My case is different… Your brother loves you, Rias… I still think you should call for him."

"If that's the case, I've already informed Sirzechs-sama about this matter", Akeno spoke up.

Rias widened her eyes in slight betrayal upon her queen's independent action. "Akeno! How could you…!"

"Rias!"

Being called by her name instead of her title, Rias was halted of her words. "I understand that you don't want to stir up trouble for your brother from your family… But admit it, the scope of this matter has far exceeded your ability alone!" Akeno moved closer towards Rias. "Put your pride aside and let's borrow the strength of a demon king!"

Rias wanted to refuse, but she knew herself that her queen had a point. "Fine… I get it", Rias said with tone of resignation. Akeno only smiled in relief at the reply.

"I'm informed that the reinforcement from Sirzechs-sama will come in at least an hour."

"One hour, huh? Alright, I guess we have to be prepared for the school to be destroyed. But I swear in the name of Sitri that I'll hold up the barrier with my servants until the back-up arrives", Sona decided.

Rias nodded at her childhood friend. Then, she proceeded with her own peerage. "Alright, everyone. Our task here is to distract Kokabiel inside the barrier until reinforcements arrives. However, unlike the fight with Riser, this is an all-out war. We'll survive this battle, and we shall return to our daily school life!"

"YES!" All of her peerage shouted in unison.

"Buchou!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice came out and everyone turned their heads to see Yuuto and Xenovia arrived before them.

"Yuuto, you've come back!" Rias said with a relief. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine. Are we heading there to face Kokabiel?" Yuuto asked and he received a nod from his master.

Rias then turned to Xenovia. "I honestly feel strange asking you this, but are you okay? Can you still fight?"

"I only have a wounded pride here, for letting them to take away my Excalibur…" Xenovia replied begrudgingly, her hands balled into fists. "But I can still fight. I still have another ace up of my sleeve."

"By the way, buchou… Where's Issei-kun?" Yuuto asked after he looked around.

Rias looked downcast for a second before replying. "I… I don't know… The last time I heard he was trapped in the enemy's base along with Irina-san… I couldn't make any contact with him at all. I wish I could've helped him, but I also have to trust him…"

"It's alright, buchou…" Yuuto interrupted. "I understand the situation. If it's Issei-kun, I'm sure he'll be fine and return to us soon enough", Yuuto said with reassuring smile.

"I concede as well", Xenovia followed. "Irina is with him too. If they're alive, they'll find us."

"Knowing Ise-senpai, he's probably fighting his way back here now", Koneko put her two cents.

"Yes, you're right…" Rias agreed. "Now, let's go", Rias said as she walked pass the school gate, followed by the others, including Xenovia.

"_Be careful there, Rias…_" Sona said in her mind as she watched the back of the Occult Research Club.

X

Meanwhile…

"Thanks for the food…" Issei clasped his hands together as he just finished another canned food and gulped down his can of soft drink. "Man, this emergency rations didn't taste as bad as I thought…"

"Thanks of the food", Irina also followed-suit as she just finished her snack. "Whew… I agree. While it's wrong to eat at times like this, but I guess now I'm now fuelled up", said Irina as she wiped her mouth.

"You need to take it easy, Irina-chan…" Issei said, standing up from his sitting spot. "We didn't waste that much time, it's just a quick snack time. And we're quite famished after all those battle with Freed, no?"

"I guess I'll go along with you for now, Ise-kun…" Irina said, standing up as well. "But don't you think it's strange now? After a while we walked from the stairs, I can't feel anything from outside at all… As if all of our connection with the outside world had been severed or something…" Irina said with weary tone as she looked around.

"You're right…" Issei agreed. "Let's wrap this up and get outta here after we check at the study room you found earlier, shall we?" Issei said as he opened the door. Upon stepping out, Issei was met with a corridor filled with remains of suits of armour sprawled lifelessly on the ground. "Still… What's with those things? After a minute we walked in here, they suddenly attacked us… Good thing they're suck… But can Grigori do something like that? Making an army of hollow armours?"

True to his words, just a while ago, after Issei and Irina had walked pass the stairs leaving the strange-looking monument, they got themselves inside a long corridor with windows at one side and doors at theo other, with minimum lightings on the wall. Just when they took a couple of steps forward, suddenly the suits of armour that were set up across the way moved by their own and attacked them with their swords, spears, halberd etc. Their movements were rather sloppy, considering that Issei and Irina managed to dispatch them without trouble. But they had to admit, everything that had occurred so far were things that usually happened in a horror flick.

The room where Issei and Irina were eating at earlier was some sort of a storage room that Issei found right after Irina found the study room when they were looking around the hallway. The room was filled with weapons, rations, clothes and other necessities. While they did not have much time, Issei's persuasion and Irina's stomach managed to convince her to have at least a quick fill-in before she moved further with the mission.

"I don't know, but spells that can program and move inanimate objects are not uncommon to begin with. Let's go now, we've wasted enough time", Irina said as she proceeded first.

"Yeah, yeah…" Issei followed suit. "Come to think of it, isn't it like old times?" Issei asked, receiving a look from his childhood friend. "Remember, when we're kids? We tended to go around the neighbourhood and playing adventures like this one?" Issei asked with nostalgic smile.

Irina looked up for a second in though before she giggled. "Fufufu… Indeed, just like the old times… Anyway, we're here", Irina replied as she opened the door of their destination.

The study room they intended to look around was quite spacious despite the simplicity, a square-shaped room with two high shelves filled with numerous books and records, a coffee table and set of chairs in the space between the shelves, and at the other side of the room, a desk with a computer set and a window covered by a curtain behind the chair. Surprisingly, unlike the corridor, the lightings in the room was brighter, giving the two childhood friends a better visual.

"Alright, let's do this quick. Irina-chan, you can start with the records, I'll see what I can find in the computer", Issei took an initiative, while Irina quickly obeyed and started to look around the shelves.

Irina took a particular folder that caught her eyes out from the shelve and opened it, while Issei sat on the desk and started to rummage through the keyboards. However, when Irina was about to read the title, Issei suddenly yelled.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Startled out of her wits, Irina snapped her head towards Issei who had his eyes almost popped out from its socket, glued at the computer screen with incredulous expression on his blushing face.

"What? What is it? What happened?" Irina asked wearily.

"There's… There's so much PORN!" Issei replied while gesturing his hands at the screen.

Irina's entire face reddened immediately at the 'p' word. "Por-! W-w-Why are you looking into the private stuff in the first place!?"

"But this isn't private anymore! It's all over the desktop!" Issei almost could not believe his eyes either at the number of the files showed up.

"_Rather, why the hell am I still looking at it!?"_ Issei shouted in his mind, he supposed to have turned off the screen immediately.

**[Perhaps you're starting to awaken to your inner desire, partner…]** Ddraig voiced his opinion teasingly. **[It's totally normal to be into these things at your age…]**

"But- but! Look at this! Clockwise rim-job, reverse clockwise rim-job, and… My god (ouch!)… Chicks with dicks!?"

**[What! There are no chicks with dicks, only guys with tits!]**

"…What?"

**[*Cough*… you didn't hear anything]**

"Nooo! Stop iiiit! I'll never become a bride if you keep talking about those things!" Irina yelled with her hands covering her ears and her head shaking.

"R-right, sorry!" while Issei did not really get about the bride part, he still knew that he had to stop looking at the porn collections and change the topic. "Err… How's on your side?"

Taking a deep breath, Irina regained her composure before answering. "Well… Here, you should read it too", Irina said as she showed the contents of the folder after Issei came over.

"Holy Sword Project… by Valper Galilei?" Issei read it with slight disbelief. "I thought the church had confiscated all of his research files?"

"Judging from the ink, I guess he managed to make a copy before the church could take the original. Let's look what's inside…" Irina said as she flipped through the pages. After reading them for another while, Irina's eyes widened. "What the…"

X

Kokabiel was sitting on his floating throne above the Kuoh Academy's grounds, watching the battle beneath him. He was disappointed, albeit expecting that the top dog did not come right off the bat, instead their relatives, Rias Gremory and her peerage plus one exorcist from Vatican, came up to challenge him.

However, despite being rookies, Kokabiel admitted that the devils were doing pretty well against his Cerberus while the exorcist chose to remain on stand by while guarding the weaker devil one. He wanted to unleash two at first, but since he knew that there were other two intruders in his base, he decided to deploy just one and kept the other Cerberus for later.

True, Rias, Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko did not have much difficulty in dispatching a Cerberus. However, the tough part came up. Valper Galilei was standing at the middle of the field with a large magic circle written on it. Surrounding him, just above the ground, were the four Excalibur swords.

"It is done…" Valper said as the four Excalibur slowly merging into one single sword. "The ritual to fuse the four holy swords into one is complete", Valper continued his magic at work as the power of the fused holy sword was absorbed into the large magic circle on the ground. "With this spell from Kokabiel, and the power of my new Excalibur as its fuel, this whole city will be levelled in 30 minutes."

Everyone could not help but at least widened their eyes, considering that Excalibur could be said to have one step closer to be fully revived again.

"Hmph… So Valper's research of holy swords had gone this far, huh…?" Kokabiel looked at the new holy sword with passive gaze.

"If you'd like to cancel the activation of this spell… I'm afraid that you'd have to defeat Kokabiel first…" Valper said with a grin.

"30 minutes… Sirzechs-sama's reinforcements won't make it in time!" Akeno exclaimed with horror in her face.

"Kokabiel…" Valper calmly address his 'master'. "Would you mind if Freed to test the power of this new Excalibur?"

Kokabiel looked at Genocide Archbishop for a while, then he closed his eyes and gesturing his hands in permission. He would enjoy every sight he could get his eyes on as much as possible before the war began.

Freed grin maniacally as he stepped down from a tree where he watched everything so far. "My, my… I honestly don't understand what my current boss is thinking… But, but, but! I guess I can enjoy to have an honour to wield such an awesome sword!" Then the rogue exorcist held the new Excalibur with his hands. "Kehehehe… You all devils, I'll butcher you really good into itty, bitty pieces…!"

Seeing Freed moved the new Excalibur freely in his hands, Xenovia stepped up as she looked to Yuuto. "Our alliance is still valid, right? Let's destroy that sword together."

Yuuto raised his eyebrows slightly. "Are you sure?"

"That sword… I can't see it as a holy sword anymore. It's just a corrupted sword with holy aura. If the push come to shove, I'll just have to collect the shards."

Yuuto nodded, but before he engaged Freed, he turned his attention to Valper Galilei. "Valper Galilei…" Yuuto said with hatred in his voice. "I'm a survivor of the holy sword project… No, rather, I was murdered by your project, then reborn as a devil."

"I have a question for you! Why would you do such a thing in the first place?"

Valper only looked at the Gremory knight calmly, then he smiled in recognition. "I see… A survivor of that project, eh? Very well, I guess I can tell you…"

X

Meanwhile, Issei and Irina were reading stacks of folders that sprawled all over the table and the floor, most of folders are the copies of Valper's research of holy swords, particularly about Excalibur.

Issei flipped through pages of the draft in his hands, then he spotted a page that consists picture of children, boys and girls with small profile. All of the pictures of the children were stamped with 'deceased' in red. Issei immediately knew that these children were probably the failed test subjects of the holy swords project.

"_Anastasia, Tyler, Erika, Letitia, Cristian, Alec, Malley, Kadan, Gilver, Tosca… Izaiya…?_" Issei skimmed the name in his head until he found the last name had a familiar picture. A child with blonde hair and a mole under his left eye, the picture was also stamped as 'deceased' as well.

"How's your end, Ise-kun?" Irina asked as she peaked over, while she still had a folder opened on her hands.

"Does he look familiar to you?" Issei replied as he showed and pointed at the profile 'Izaiya'.

Irina furrowed her eyebrows for a second, then her eyes widened. "That face… Isn't that your knight friend?"

"Yeah. Although the name is different, but I can tell that he's Kiba…" Issei said while nodding.

"And how can you tell? There's a chance that he's just a child with the same face, right?"

"What are the odds? Besides, thinking back of Kiba's background, his current name is not necessarily his original identity, right?" Issei said. "Anyway, how's your side?"

"Here", Irina showed her folders this time. "This is Valper's research log… As well as his journal."

Issei started to scan the file together with Irina. They did not have the luxury to take in every single word, so all they did were skimming through sentences and connecting some key words into information.

_My heart danced whenever I listened to those stories of holy swords ever since my younger days…_

Then they changed to another sentence.

_It was heart-breaking when I found that I could never hold a holy sword, thus I became enamoured with those that could wield them…_

_However, the number who were gifted to wield a holy sword since birth were scarce, so with all my heart, I indulge myself studying to create one…_

Issei and Irina's eyes widened at the next part of the log.

_After months since the project had started, experiment XX on subject 0XX code name Izaiya had concluded that a certain gene was required in order to wield the holy sword. Soon enough, another conclusion was reached that while these children did not have enough genes to wield the sword, it is possible to extract the necessary genes, crystalized them, and pass it down to another person, making that person to have enough 'genes' to properly wield Excalibur… _

Irina covered her mouth in disbelief. "It can't be… But now I know… The thing that was put inside us during the blessing to wield Excalibur fragments… It was the genes of the failed test subjects? People…?"

"Valper, you old son of a bitch…" Issei said in anger.

X

"Thanks to this, my research was able to make a dramatic leap forward. But those from the church condemned me as a heretic and banished me…" Valper said as he showed the crystalized 'genes' from his research, then he looked hatefully at Xenovia. "When I saw you wielded the Excalibur… It seems Michael has a nerve to use the results of my research, even though Michael himself condemned me…"

"You're telling me, that you slaughtered me and my comrades so you could take our genes!?" Yuuto said gritting his teeth furiously.

"That's correct. In fact, I've used about three crystals on Freed for him to wield the holy sword. The one on my hand is the last one."

"Hyahahaha! Let me tell you that the other test subjects died during the trial of this power, you know? I'm awesome if I say so myself!" Freed commented with hearty laugh.

"You toyed with all of us… Our lives, just to satisfy your own desire! Valpeeeer!" Yuuto screamed as his anger peaked.

"Yes… Yes! While I found that Kokabiel's ploy for his so-called peace was rather foolish, but I'll gladly use this opportunity to show those damn angels and the other idiots who dared to condemn me, the fruits of my research! Soon, I'll create more Excalibur wielders and turn them to go against the heaven!" Valper said with a glee.

"You're insane… All of you…" Rias clenched her fist tightly, as her face also morphed to anger.

"Whatever, I guess I can give these dregs to you. After all, it's just a shadow of what it once was…" Valper replied as he tossed the last crystalized genes to the ground near Yuuto.

The knight slumped to his knees, his sword forgotten, then he slowly picked up the small crystal in front of him. He held it with such gentleness as he knew that the crystal was all that was left of his past comrades.

"Everyone…" Yuuto said with meek voice as tears started to build up in his eyes. "I'm sorry…"

X

Issei and Irina were still stunned about the truth regarding the holy sword project, with the latter took it worse. While Irina wished to use her Excalibur Mimic to fight for the her God and protect His creation and world, gaining a power with sacrifice of people who were killed mercilessly felt horribly strange for her. It was as if she was standing over the corpses of those children who had been subjected for the holy sword project.

While Irina still contemplating about her resolve, Issei caught a sight of a particular book in the shelf. The book looked old, and it did not look like other books with its much smaller size. Rather, the book was more like bunch of notes being compiled into a book. He picked it out, opened it and he ran through the pages as he found that the language written was very old, ancient to be precise. Even his gift of 'language' from his devil-hood could not help him deciphering its enterity.

_**[Want me to translate it for you?]**_

Issei looked at his left arm with his eyebrows raised. _"Ddraig? You can read this?"_

_**[Of course I can. I'm a heavenly dragon, remember? My body might be no more, but my thousand years of knowledge is still here]**_

"Then, what is this book all about? I can't really make out what it says…"

_**[It's a journal…. Kokabiel's diary to be exact. You still want to know what it says?]**_

"_I… don't really like prying into other's privacy, but now's not the time. We may find an alternative to defeat Kokabiel from this."_

Ddraig simply hummed in affirmation as Issei scanned through pages just like what he did with Valper's research log, with the dragon translating the words that went through Issei's eyes.

X

Meanwhile, Kokabiel just saw another amusing development. Few moments after the Gremory knight had been mourning for his crystalized comrades, suddenly the crystal in his hands glowed and the knight was enveloped in a blinding light.

However, while everyone else only saw a mass of light enveloping Yuuto, the said knight's view was all white, and his eyes caught the sight of several familiar figures.

"Everyone!"

Yes, all of them are the soul of Yuuto's past comrades that were subjected to holy sword project. Yuuto still remember all of their faces, which while showing regrets, none of their expressions were showing any anger or hatred towards Yuuto. In fact, their gazes were so warm and gentle.

"I… I…" Yuuto could not find any words to say. After stuttering for a second, he finally managed to let out more. "I always… I always kept wondering…." His words were choked by his own tears. "Whether… Whether it is okay for me to be alive…" Yuuto said between his sobs. "There were children who had dreams more than I did… There were children who deserved to live longer than me…! Is it really alright for me living a peaceful life, while all of you're dead saving me?"

The ghosts of the deceased children did not change their warm loving gaze, instead they circled around Yuuto and started to compose a song as beautiful sounds were coming out from their mouths.

While Freed and Valper grimaced in disgust, every devil and Kokabiel were mesmerized by the song.

"_Hoo… How interesting… To hear this song after those centuries…_" Kokabiel mused.

"Is this… The rumoured sacred song?" Xenovia said as she kept looking at the singing ghost, mesmerized by their voices.

"So warm…" Koneko simply commented.

Rias and Akeno did not say anything as they only listened intently to the sacred song, while Asia clasped her hands in prayer and tears pouring down from her eyes.

"This song… It's so beautiful… I can feel their love and warmth towards Kiba-san…" Asia said.

"E-everyone…" Yuuto said as he felt the warmth around him.

One of the souls, a girl stepped forward and she pulled Yuuto into a hug. "We're fine, now… So please, live on…"

The others also said their parting words of encouragement.

_We might not be able to do anything alone…_

_But when we're together, everything will be fine…_

_We've accepted our past with the holy sword…_

_There's nothing for us to fear of any longer…_

_Even if there is no god watching over us…_

_Our hearts will always be one…_

Yuuto smiled at their words as he felt a huge burden had been lifted up from his shoulders. Then, all the surrounding lights slowly absorbed into him, and the knight's body was radiating with power.

As the wind blew from Yuuto's aura, Rias and the others could feel his power even from their distance. "What happened!? Yuuto!" Rias yelled in worry.

Akeno's eyes widened as she looked at Yuuto's aura. "This power… Could it be…!"

Kokabiel could also feel the spike of Yuuto's aura from his floating throne at the sky. Then, he suddenly remembered some of Azazel's lecture during his Sacred Gear research.

_A Sacred Gear will use its owner's thoughts and feelings as nourishment to grow stronger as it progresses. However, there exists an entirely different domain. What the owner's thoughts and feelings violently erupt against the flow of the world, the Sacred Gear will reach its peak. This phenomenon is known as…_

"Balance breaker? So that kid finally achieved that stage…" Kokabiel said with somewhat proud smirk.

"Uugh…" A groan was heard from Freed Sellzen. "Can you cut all this creepy orchestra? That song really makes my skin crawl… Just get on with it already and let me cut you into pieces with this super Excalibur-chan!" the stray priest shouted with his sword ready.

However, Yuuto only remained silent and muttered few words after few seconds. "… I will become a sword…" Yuuto said with resolution. _"My comrades… My comrades have merged with my spirit. Let's overcome Excalibur together. Our feelings that we couldn't say back then! The wishes that we couldn't fulfil back then! Right now! Right here!"_ Yuuto thought to himself.

"Yuuto, finish it! Surpass the Excalibur! You are the servant of I, Rias Gremory! My knight will not lose to a mere holy sword!" Rias shouted in encouragement.

"Yuuto-kun, I believe in you!" Akeno followed as well.

"Yuuto-senpai!" Koneko shouted at Yuuto with convictions.

"Kiba-san! Please do your best!" Asia also encouraged the knight as well.

"I shall become a sword for buchou and my comrades! Please respond to my feelings this time! Sword Birth!" Yuuto put all of his power into work.

Then, Yuuto's Sacred Gear and the spirits of his past comrades started to mix. The mixture started to align and form a shape as the demonic power of Sword Birth combining with the holy power of the children's spirits.

Soon, the new sword was completed. Yuuto could feel its sensation. His Sacred Gear, his comrades were telling him that it was sublimation. The sword gave out divine light from its blade and ominous aura from the red inscriptions on the middle of the blade. Holy and demonic aura could be felt radiating from Yuuto's new creation.

"Balance breaker: Sword of the Betrayer… You shall taste the power of this sword that has both holy and demonic powers with your own body!" Yuuto announced as he started to run towards Freed.

Freed's fused Excalibur clashed with Yuuto's holy-demonic sword as soon as they were in range. Thanks to Yuuto's speed from his knight trait, he managed to give the stray exorcist a hard time to grasp his movements. However, being a seasoned fighter from the Vatican, Freed could still keep up with Yuuto's speed and blocked the strikes from the knight. However, every time the blade made a contact, the holy aura that covered Freed's Excalibur was slowly erased by Yuuto's sword.

"Wha…! That sword surpasses my super Excalibur-chan!?" Freed said in surprise when he knew what happened to his weapon.

"If it were the true Excalibur, I would've lost. But that kind of Excalibur won't be able to cut the feelings of me and my comrades!" Yuuto replied as he continued to send relentless strikes towards Freed.

Clicking his tongue, the stray exorcist chose to step up his game as well. Using the power of Excalibur Rapidly and Destruction inside his sword, his movement suddenly became much faster than before and his blows created explosions every time it hit the ground.

However, due to Freed's uncontrolled killing intent, Yuuto had no trouble of reading Freed's movement and easily dodged each of devastating strikes.

"Come on! Why aren't you hitting!? You're supposed to be the unrivalled holy-sword-sama, aren't ya!? Ain't you supposed to have lots of legends of being the ultimate holy sword!?" Freed yelled in agitation.

As the two swordsmen remained on stalemate, Freed decided to use more of the power inside his Excalibur. Suddenly, his blade disappeared, Excalibur Trasparency had been put into work. But Freed's killing intent remained at large, so Yuuto could still tell where the attack would come from.

However, having the destructive power of Excalibur Destruction, Yuuto was forced to dodge, as he could not afford to risk his sword to be broken from the Excalibur's destructive powers. But he knew that he could not win if he just kept dodging.

"Leave it to me!"

Suddenly, Xenovia stepped in as she lounged with her right hand extended into the air. "St. Peter, St. Basil the Great, St. Denis, Holy Mother of Mary… Please hear my voice!" she chanted in prayer.

Then, the space around her right began to distort, revealing a pocket dimension. Xenovia put her hand inside it, then from the pocket she pulled out a sword, a uniquely-shaped broadsword with a blue blade and a golden edge. The sword had a semi-circular guard on the left side of the handle that extended to the bottom just above the pommel, with a small extension on the right side of the handle. Standing from the tip of the blade, the Durandal was slightly taller than the female exorcist, surpassing the latter's height by just a few centimeters.

"In the names of the saints whom reside within this blade, I shall release it… Durandal!"

Everyone, including Kokabiel, widened their eyes in astonishment.

"Durandal!?"

"So you're not the wielder of Excalibur?"

"No, not exactly. I was originally the wielder of Durandal. I was just chosen to wield Excalibur as well. That's all", Xenovia replied as she held her new holy sword with both of her hands.

"Absurd! My research has not reached the stage where Durandal can be wielded!" Valper retorted in disbelief.

"Of course you haven't. Even Vatican can't make an artificial wielder of Durandal."

"Then why!? How can you wield it!?"

"Simple. Because unlike those artificial holy sword wielders, I'm a natural born one."

Valper became speechless at Xenovia's words. He could not believe that he would be seeing face to face with the natural wielder of a holy sword.

"My Durandal is so powerful, giving me quite hard to control since it doesn't listen to its own wielder most of the time. That's why, I have to store it in a dimensional pocket, otherwise it would be dangerous. Now, Freed Sellzen… Shall we have the showdown between Excalibur and Durandal? Show me the power of your sword to its fullest. I'd be disappointed if you go down in one strike…" Xenovia declared as her holy sword was radiating with a holy power more powerful than Freed's own holy sword.

"This is a hoax, a fucking hoax, I tell you! I don't need damn situation like this, you bitch!" Freed cursed as he desperately began to attack Xenovia with his Excalibur.

When the two blades with high destructive power made contact with each other, the clash of power sent a shock wave to the surroundings, but Xenovia's Durandal prevailed as it immediately snapped Freed's Excalibur's blade in half.

Seeing the Excalibur had been broken easily enough, Xenovia sighed in disappointment. "As I thought… It's just a corrupted sword with holy power… Its destructive power is no match for my Durandal…"

Freed himself only looked at his broken sword with the look of despair. "You gotta be shitin' me… My great Excalibur-chan was defeated? Fuck! This is fuckin' horrible! Aaarrghh! How could this happen!? Just when I managed to lay my hands on it!"

While Freed was still distracted over his loss, Yuuto jumped into the opportunity. He ran straight towards the stray exorcist, and when Freed noticed the incoming attack, he quickly raised what remained of his sword to block the holy-demonic sword.

BAAAKIIIN!

The sound of crumbling metal was heard as Yuuto's sword cut through the remnants of the fused Excalibur, along with good part of Freed's flesh on his shoulder to his stomach. As Freed fell to the ground with blood coming out from his wound, Yuuto smiled faintly in pride.

"_I won… We won… We've surpassed the Excalibur…"_ Yuuto thought as he lowered his sword and looked at the sky. However, despite his victory, Yuuto felt something big had lost inside him. It was his aim for life. Now that his long-life objective had been fulfilled, what would he do from now on?

Kokabiel smirked at the sight, as he knew that the things on his side had been developing, he quickly started preparing a spell to send some of his consciousness to attend things on the other side.

"Holy-demonic sword…?" While Kokabiel was still casting his communication spell, he heard Valper was talking with disbelief tone. "Impossible… The polar opposite of two things can't merge…"

Seeing that the source of the tragedy was still alive, Yuuto steeled himself and pointed his sword at the Genocide Archbishop.

"Valper Galilei… Prepare yourself!" Yuuto declared as he resolved himself to finish things once and for all.

"…Of course! I understand now!" Valper said as if he found something else. "Holy and demonic… It will make sense now, if the beings representing the two have become unbalanced! It was not only the demon lords, but the God has also-!"

STAB

Just when Valper looked like he had an epiphany, he felt a pain on his chest, and he saw a spear of light had pierced through him. Without a word, he fell to the ground after coughing a solid amount of blood. Everyone did not have to check things again as they were all aware that the Genocide Archbishop had finally died.

"Valper… You've done well. I'll take over from here…" Kokabiel said with his hand extended, no doubt that he was the one who threw that light spear.

The fallen angel cadre stepped up from his throne, he descended slightly, and looked over the devils and Xenovia who readied themselves for a battle. Kokabiel only smirked.

"Well done… All of you. I shall take you all on as I have acknowledge your potentials… But I'd have to ask first, do you still want to fight, even after both of your masters are no more?"

Hearing Kokabiel's words, Rias was the one who asked first. "What are you talking about?"

Kokabiel only snorted at the question, then he chuckled. "Kukuku… How could I forget? Of course you wouldn't know… yet. Very well, allow me to enlighten you… of the truth."

X

Meanwhile, during the fight at Kuoh Academy, Issei was frozen after few minutes he read the little book in his hands. He did not read the entirety of it, but he knew more or less of what was written so far. The pawn was frozen when he read one particular sentence.

"_Ddraig… Are you sure that you didn't translate it wrong?"_ Issei asked inside his mind.

_**[As much as unbelievable it sounds… Yes, I'm sure. Besides… I also have a bit memory during the great war… The Biblical God seemed… Extremely exhausted when he was engaging us the heavenly dragons…]**_

Issei could not believe what he just read. Ddraig had no reason to lie to him. What terrified him more, the one who wrote this journal most likely did not lie either. Issei aware that the thing he just found out was something crucial, and letting wrong people to find out about it would only caused more trouble in the future. No, forget trouble. This information would change the relations between the three factions forever.

"Ise-kun?"

Suddenly, Issei's musing was interrupted by the voice of his childhood friend, whom seemed to have snapped out from her stupor. The pawn immediately closed the book, and tried to hide his earlier shocked expression.

"What is it, Irina-chan?" Issei asked in neutral tone.

"What were you reading?"

"Kokabiel's journal… Mostly rubbish, but thanks to this I now know that he wants to start another great war", Issei replied.

The pawn told himself that nobody, especially Irina should know about what he read just now. So, instead of lying to her, he decided to tell half of the truth. While the answer could satisfy her curiosity, Irina would not ask unwanted questions any further.

Suddenly, Issei and Irina's senses perked up as they felt a familiar aura signature was covering the entire surroundings, the entire building.

"This power…!"

"Yes, no doubt about it… It was from that weird structure we saw earlier!"

Issei looked around and he said, "Irina, we're done here. Let's get ou-…! … Irina-chan?" Issei was about to take his childhood friend outside when he caught his childhood friend was approaching the window.

When Irina felt the power, she caught a glimpse from the curtains, that the light that slipped through the gaps of the curtain seemed too bright considering it was already night-time. Curiously, she approached the window and opened the curtain, only to see something unexpected.

"Um… Ise-kun? I think you need to take a look at this…" Irina called out.

Issei, who was also aware of the abnormality when Irina opened up the curtain, approached beside her to get a better view. His eyes also widened in disbelief when he got a good look of the outside.

The sky was filled with many colours like aurora instead of being a night sky, everything else on the neighbourhood was similar, but the landscape and the surrounding buildings were twisted and more vibrant with some abnormal growth compared to the human world. In other words, Issei and Irina were sent to a different dimension along with the whole complex of the mansion.

"Um… Ise-kun, are you seeing this?" Irina asked as her eyes were still glued on the sight before her.

"Err…. Yeah, I'm seeing. But I'm still working on believing. Are- are we in a… You know?"

"A limbo…? Sort of?"

"I'll take a quick look outside", Issei said as he calmly walked towards the door.

He opened the door slightly to take a peek, and he saw that the entire interior structure of the building had undergone dramatic changes as well. In addition, numerous fallen angel soldiers and hellhounds were sighted patrolling in the hallway. He closed the door silently before the guards caught the sight of him and he turned back towards Irina.

"Yes, we're inside a goddamn limbo…"

Irina covered her mouth in further disbelief. "But… How? Could it be…?"

**[Yeah. We have to do something about the structure you found earlier if you want to get back to our original dimension]** Ddraig voiced his conclusion from Issei's left arm.

"But, why now? That monument didn't show any sign of activating earlier!" Irina asked.

"Because I just activated it…"

A foreign voice put them into alert while Issei remained calm and Irina prepared her Excalibur Mimic at the direction the voice came from. When they turned their heads, they saw the angel of stars was floating in front of them. Strangely enough, they did not feel anything coming out from the fallen, as if he was not there.

"I take that you're Kokabiel?" Issei asked after taking in the five pair of jet black wings.

"Indeed, I am… Though I'm not exactly here just for you know. You're also one of the devils of this town, as well as the exorcist that was sent by the Vatican, correct?" Kokabiel replied and he still asked, despite already knowing the answer.

Knowing that the fallen angel before them was just a projection, Issei spoke up. "Let's not beat around the bush, shall we? What's with your deal with stealing the holy swords and trying to restart the Great War? You of all people should've known that three factions will meet total annihilation if you people fight again", Issei said while Irina remained on guard.

"I guess I haven't explained them to you… Very well, I'll tell you. Everything is… For the sake of the peace."

"Excuse me?" Irina could not believe her ears.

"As I said, for the sake of peace… For the better world."

Issei furrowed his eyebrows. "Care to explain how? When everyone's dead?"

"Have you ever considered of how the current humanity fare themselves with the world?" Kokabiel started with a question. Receiving a look from the two, the fallen angel continued on. "Yes… I honestly feel sorry for this world… Those humans who inhabit it have lost their way, and only quickening their process to end themselves. I, being once the child of our Father, as well the watcher of humanity, it is my duty to ensure their survival… To prevent them to destroy themselves…"

"But what you're about to do now is destroying them through the war! Not only the three factions and the world of supernatural, human world will be devastated as well!" Issei said his point.

"Exactly! But know this, devil… Humans, despite how fragile they are… They always survive ever since the disasters in the dawn of time. I know very well, that humanity will survive from the war I'm about to start, even only one or a couple will remain, humanity will always find away to survive. And I'll see into it that fallen angels will survive in the end, since we are able to expand our numbers through conventional means, while angels and devils are not. And us, the fallen angels shall lead the surviving humans towards the new age of prosperity!"

"You're really are crazy if you think your scheme's gonna work out…" Issei spat.

"Yeah, he's right! Even if you managed to spark another war, Grigori and underworld won't survive another attack from the heaven and our Lord!" Irina added her two cents.

Kokabiel only chuckled at Irina's input. "You really don't know anything, do you, my dear?" Irina only narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Let me ask you this, then. Put the humanity aside, what do you think will happen to the heaven if another great war were to start again? Rather, what did the church teach you?" Kokabiel asked to Irina.

"Isn't that obvious? The heaven will suffer damage beyond repair if more angels were to die from the war!"

"Then think about it. There's actually a loophole in that statement. You know that devils had lost their original leaders and cannot afford to have another war due to the low number of pure-blood devils, right? Us from Grigori also had lost majority of our members while our leaders remain. So why would Heaven also afraid of another war so much? Even they don't want to have more casualties, as long as they have our Father on their side, sure they have nothing much to fear, don't they?"

Irina only got confused even further, while Issei's expression got bitter. After all, he knew what Kokabiel was trying to imply.

"It's simple, actually. Because they're trying to cover the truth away from you", Kokabiel said.

Irina widened her eyes and Issei clenched his fist even tighter. The latter was given a choice in his head, should he stop Kokabiel to say anything further, or should he let Irina to find out the bitter truth, knowing that she would learn that eventually?

"Tell me, girl. What do you think about the current Heaven's system for you?"

"What are you talking about? The system is doing just fine, as far as I can tell!"

"I see… So Michael has been doing a good job in maintaining the system up there… Then, do you know that long ago, the numbers of believers of the Lord were much more compare to these days of age?" Kokabiel asked before continuing. "There are other reasons why the numbers of believers had decreased. Some of them had lost their faith when they know the truth after the Great War."

"The truth? What are you trying to say?" Irina became more confused.

"Let me show you this, then…" Kokabiel pointed towards an empty space, and a screen manifested itself from thin air and showing the battle at Kuoh Academy between Yuuto and Freed. The Gremory knight was holding a sword with shining blade and red inscriptions at its centre. "That sword there… Is a holy-demonic sword. Your devil comrade just managed to achieve his balance breaker."

Irina and Issei were wide-eyed at the screen. Irina saw Xenovia was unleashing Durandal, while Issei could not hold back his smirk as he was proud inwardly at Yuuto's new achievement. But, that moment was ruined when Issei realised that Yuuto's balance breaker was what Kokabiel trying to emphasize.

"A sword that possess both holy and demonic power? How is that possible!?" Irina finally realised the events before her.

"Well, as much as I'd want to chat more, my time here is up. I need to go back to those at your academy. If you want to know more about the truth I spoke of, why don't you ask your devil friend over there?" Kokabiel said as he turned his gaze at the now stunned Issei.

"You've read that book, haven't you? You know everything I've written there, and you simply asked me again earlier only to clarify my points. And oh, if you want to rescue your comrades, be my guest. But only if you managed to find a way out from this dimension…" Kokabiel chuckled as his body disappeared along with the screen.

"Ise-kun?" Issei turned to see Irina. "What's he talking about? What did you read in that book?"

Issei's jaw tightened at this. "Nothing… Nothing at all", Issei steeled himself. His childhood friend did not have to know about this, at least not yet. "Come on, we gotta go back to the others", Issei said as he prepared himself before opening the door outside. Irina only stared at Issei's guilty expression for a second, then she chose not to pry further and followed him.

By the time they came out from the study room, all enemies immediately directed their attentions on them. Mobs of fallen angel soldiers and hellhounds began to lounge at them with their respective attacks, and Issei quickly summoned his Boosted Gear to counter them while Irina with her holy sword.

Fending off the enemy was not particularly difficult, given Issei's strength and Irina's swordsmanship. However, Irina felt her sword heavier than usual. Her mind was in turmoil. So many uncertainty and questions were swirling inside her head. As a warrior, she could come to terms about the sacrificed children from the holy sword project, but Kokabiel's words earlier bothered her to no end. As if to make matters worse, the enemy forces were not the only things that hindering them, the building itself had become their enemy as well.

Occasionally, the walls would try to squash them, the floors would unleash spikes to impale them, and pit-falls would appeared out of nowhere to trap them. Despite the dilemma she was experiencing, thanks to the team work between two childhood friends, the two youngsters managed to overcome the obstacles. And for some reasons neither of them could fathom, they somewhat could tell that while they still had a long way to go, they were heading to the right direction.

Every heavy swings she made, every steps she took as she ran across the presumably limbo, she could not stop herself from thinking about Kokabiel's words.

_Numbers of believers of the Lord were much more compare to these days of age…_

_Some of them had lost their faith when they know the truth after the Great War…_

_If you want to know more about the truth I spoke of, why don't you ask your devil friend over there?_

Irina took a glance at Issei. Did he hide something from her? If so, why did he not want to tell her so bad? Irina pondered as she recalled Kokabiel's words again.

A holy-demonic sword…

Irina was still curious about that sword. How come a sword could house two powers of oppose each other? If something had been tampered inside the sacred gear, it might be one thing, but as far as Irina remembered, Kiba Yuuto had not mastered his sacred gear when they first met, and the knight suddenly managed to achieve that stage in matter of days? What are the odds? Besides as the matter of fact, even with special tampering the balance between two opposing sides is absolute. Unless…

_Michael has been doing a good job in maintaining the system up there…_

Why did Kokabiel mention Michael instead of the Lord? While Michael also holds an important role in running the Heaven, the system is governed by the God himself. Then, when the matter about holy-demonic sword came to her mind again, Irina's eyes widened.

"_No… Impossible!"_

Irina might be ignorant and childish sometimes, but she was not a fool when the situation calls for it. Remembering her lesson back in her days in England about the war and three factions, she was taught that the original leaders of three factions were the ones who have been keeping the balance in check, and if the leaders were to be perished, the balance will collapse, making the merging between each side to be possible.

"_Holy and demonic…! I know that devils had lost their original leaders, but… the angels? No, I won't believe it!"_ Irina thought as she felt harder to breath, her sword even heavier than before, and she felt her legs heavy as well, as if she was running on a mud.

Thankfully for her, there were no enemies in their vicinity for the time being, thus she converted her Excalibur Mimic into her wrist, feeling that it would ease the unknown burden somehow.

"Irina-chan?" Irina's anxiety was cut-off by the voice of her childhood friend. "Are you okay?" Issei asked in worried tone.

"Y-yes, I'm fine…" Irina tried to sound as fine as she could. But she could not deny the anxiety that had been building up in her heart. Irina was now terrified beyond her imagination of the information and the truth Kokabiel had spoken off earlier. She wanted to find comfort by asking the boy beside her, but could help herself to do so.

"Get ready, I think we're close now", Issei said when they arrived in front of a large door.

Irina let out a small breath of relief. Perhaps the upcoming battle beyond the door might be a good distraction for her worries. She nodded, brandished her Excalibur Mimic once again as Issei pushed the door open.

When they stepped into the room, they were glad that now they had returned to the great hall, which was now looked more spacious, where they found the monument in the first place. However, what they saw further ahead had shaken their entire core. What shook them was not the numbers of fallen angels and hellhounds, as well as a giant Cerberus that had been waiting for them, but the huge magical scriptures that appeared above the glowing monument that emitting power. The alphabets were floating and arranged into one sentence that was the cause of Issei and Irina's shock.

GOD IS DEAD

Issei widened his eyes at the floating sentence and he quickly snapped his head to check on Irina. Much to his horror, Irina was the one had it the hardest. At first, Irina's jaw was opened and her eyes like frozen, her body trembled from the shock she got from that particular sentence.

"Lies…" was the first word Issei heard from her mouth as Irina tightened her hold on her sword. "Lies, lies, lies, lies… LIES!" Irina roared her denial as she blindly charged towards enemy with her holy sword.

"Wha-! Wait, Irina-chan!" Issei was forced to join as well and another enemy mob engaged him as well. The pawn was left with no choice but to fend off the enemy in front of him before he could go to his friend.

As she was blinded with rage and denial, Irina had already felt exhausted after few swings of her sword. She could not believe the fact that just appeared before her. The Lord that she had put her devotion into had been dead before she was born. The Lord she had been fighting for never existed in the first place. At first she thought that it might be just some kind of trick to tip her off, but what convinced her was Issei's expression earlier.

Put Kokabiel's testimony aside, there was a reason why Issei refused to tell her anything. She had known Issei since little, hence she knew that the boy is earnest, kind and not the type who tells baseless lies. The reason his childhood friend did not want to tell such a painful truth to her was because it was _the_ truth. She did not know how Issei could find out such a fact but she knew when Issei was being serious or not.

She barely able to block an incoming giant paw of the Cerberus directed at her. Her body was thrown away quite a distance and skid on the ground with painful thud.

"Irina-chan!" Issei said as he just blew away another hellhound with his punch. However, just when he was about to lounge in to help his friend, a mob of fallen angels had beat him first as they ganged up on him with their spears of light.

Groaning in pain, Irina slowly rose up and she only remained kneeling on the ground. While her sword was still on her side, she could not find any strength in her legs as her entire core had been overtaken by despair. She looked up with her teary eyes, only to see the Cerberus that struck her earlier was already opening its three jaws to mow her.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

"Dragon shot!"

BWOOSHH!

A massive red beam was shot forward and obliterated the Cerberus and the rest of the enemy in front of Irina. The female exorcist turned her head around to see a figure clad in red draconian armour with his right hand extended forward.

"Irina-chan, are you okay?" The armoured figure, known as Issei asked through his helmet.

"Ise-kun?" Irina said as tears were freely flowing on her cheeks.

Issei felt relief when he saw that Irina was more or less unharmed, his earlier transformation had blown away the mob of fallen angels through the sheer force of his explosive aura, leaving their current location free of the enemies for the time being. Of course, Issei was aware that it was only a matter of time until the next wave of enemies would storm into the hall.

"Irina-chan, you have to stand up! It's not over yet!" Issei encouraged as he offered a hand towards the girl.

"_It's over…"_ Irina thought to herself. "Don't mind about me, Ise-kun…" Irina replied with a bitter smile as she looked down, her tears still flowing. "Just leave me here and go…"

Issei was taken aback by his childhood friend's reply. "What the hell are you saying!? We gotta get out of this place!" Issei yelled back as he kneeled down to help Irina.

_**[Partner, she's in no condition to even think rationally. That news about Biblical God really got into her]**_ Ddraig said in his mind.

"_Damn it…"_ Issei cursed. He had to do something about this quick.

Issei then cupped Irina's face with both of his hands, and he dismissed his helmet and levelled his eyes to hers.

"Irina-chan, look at me…" Issei's first sentence was not heeded as Irina remained down-casted. "I said look at me! IRINA!" at Issei's yelling, Irina flinched and her eyes finally met his. Her face was flushing from crying, and because she also noticed how close their faces were.

"I… I honestly don't know anything about God… I even don't know anything about the past demon kings as well…" Issei said as he struggled to find the correct words. "But so what if god is dead? Is that all your reason to fight? What about your friends, Xenovia? What about your parents!?"

Irina's eyes widened at the question. "I… I…" The girl was still shocked. Nobody could blame her, from her point of view, her main reason to fight, her purpose never existed in the first place. Knowing that only after years had past, of course someone like Irina would loose the sight in front of her.

"Those who are dead, god or whatever, only wish for the living to be happy! Even I, a newly reincarnated devil can tell that the past demon lords wish their kin to prosper even in their deaths! You should've known that your God also wishes for his creation to live in prosperity as well, am I correct? That's why you mustn't give up! If you give up here and now, everything will really over! Everything you've been fighting for, everything that your god had died for, will disappear forever! Do you want that to happen?!"

At Issei's words, Irina's lips trembled as tears flowing more from her eyes, but she did not cry it out. She looked to the ground again, as if thinking about something.

After few moments, suddenly Issei sensed something was approaching quickly from behind. He just turned around to intercept the enemy attack,

STAB

Only to see a holy blade ran pass next to his head and impaled a fallen angel that was about to stab Issei with his sword of light.

Of course Issei was startled at first, then he turned to see Irina was gripping her holy sword firmly, and when she looked up, her tears had ceased, and her yes were filled with a new-found determination. The female exorcist stood up as she wiped off the rest of her tears, and prepared her battle stance once again as the new enemy forces, now consisted of tens and hundreds of fallen angels and hellhounds, had re-organised their formation.

"I'll have to talk with the elders of the Vatican and Michael-sama after we stop Kokabiel…" Irina said. "But first, what do you think we should do with that monument and this dimension?"

**[Just destroy it]** Ddraig replied to her. **[This dimension was created by that structure, if you destroy it, this artificial dimension should collapse and you'll return to the human world]**

"Well, you heard the man", Issei said as he turned his gaze at the enemy ahead and his scale-mail helmet manifested back on his head. "Are you ready, Irina-chan?"

"Whenever you are", Irina replied, pointing her Excalibur Mimic at the enemy mobs. "Ise-kun…"

The boy glanced at his childhood friend.

"This really brings back memories, doesn't it?" Irina said with a wink and cheerful smile.

Issei chuckled at first, glad that his childhood friend had returned. "Damn right, it does…"

Then, as the two youngsters advanced forward with their battle cry, the enemies also retaliated with their battle cry as well.

X

Over fifteen minutes had past since Kokabiel's destruction spell had been activated. Currently, Kokabiel were looking at his opponents, who seemed to have seen better days.

After he told the truth about the death of Biblical God, everyone had various reactions. Most of the devils did not take it too hard. Asia however, was not believing at first and she questioned about the God's blessing and His divine protection that had been applied so far, but after Kokabiel replied with the similar words he said to Irina regarding the system, the former Holy Priestess fainted immediately into Koneko's arm.

Xenovia seemed like she had lost the strength to even wield Durandal properly. She had a panicked expression that was too unbearable to look at as she muttered that Kokabiel was lying all the time. The active believer, God's servant and a person who lived by serving God as her mission. If the existence of God was rejected and she lost the means to live, it would be natural to become like that.

Even Yuuto could only bite his lips, mulling over of what his life meant.

Afterwards, the fight had gone completely uneventful for Kokabiel. Even with the combined efforts of Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Yuuto's new balance breaker and Xenovia's Durandal, which the latter somewhat still chose to fight on, the shock they received from the truth he spoke earlier had affected their performance drastically. Yuuto's holy-demonic sword and the wielder of holy sword Durandal could only do so much to graze his cheek. Koneko could not even touch him as she was struck by Kokabiel's steel-hard feathers from his wings. Even Rias and Akeno's combined attack of thunder and power of destruction, Kokabiel could deflect them without much trouble.

However, Kokabiel had also found another interesting development. Judging from the lightning magic he had seen, Rias' queen is the daughter of Baraqiel, one of the fallen angel leaders in Grigori, much to the queen's displeasure.

Now, Kokabiel was standing not far from an injured Rias, who was already on her fours due to exhaustion and Kokabiel's relentless attacks.

"First, allow me to say this to you", Kokabiel said. "You lot have done well to get this far…"

The others, who had been brought to either their knees or got taken down, especially Rias, only gritted their teeth in irritation at Kokabiel's words.

"But rest assured… At least you won't have to see the destruction I was about to bring forth…" Kokabiel finished as he summoned a light-spear, large enough to destroy Rias.

However, when Kokabiel was about to throw his spear, he narrowed his eyes at another figure that stood up as a shield in front of Rias.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kokabiel asked.

"Asia, get out of there… It's dangerous…" Rias weakly ordered her bishop who was spreading her arms protectively, before she finally passed out. The latter's face shown fear, but mostly a resolve to stand up despite all odds were against her.

"Please… Stop this! Don't hurt my friends anymore!" Asia shouted out. Her legs were trembling from fear, but she still refused to stand down.

Kokabiel looked into Asia's unwavering look, then he only sighed and he smiled sympathetically. "Remarkable… If only you remained human instead of being reincarnated into a devil…" Kokabiel praised and said with regret in his tone at the same time.

However, his attack was halted once again when he sensed something was approaching from his side at high speed. Out of reflex and instinct honed from the Great War, he quickly hardened his five black wings as his shield. He managed to protect himself just in a nick of time when a powerful fist connected to his wings.

"THE HELL ARE YOU TRYIN' TO DO TO MY FRIENDS YA BASTARD!?"

BAM!

The force behind the punch was so great that Kokabiel was thrown away until he crashed into a nearby school building.

Everyone's eyes were widened when they saw a figure in red dragon armour suddenly appeared and pushed back a ten-winged fallen angel cadre with a single punch.

Asia was the first to react. "Ise-san!"

"Ise-kun/Issei-senpai/Issei-kun/Red Dragon Emperor!" everyone else along with Xenovia yelled out the name of the person who had come just in time.

X

Meanwhile, the student council was panicking when they saw a red blur had flew straight through the barrier they had set around the school.

"What the hell was that!? That red blur just heavily damaged our barrier!" Saji yelled out as he tried to maintain the barrier with the best of his ability.

Sona and the other student council did not bother to comment as they poured more power to repair the barrier. And a female figure with chestnut hair in twin-tails, wearing black tight suit, holding a holy sword suddenly ran passed through the barrier while it still in the middle of being repaired.

"Excuse me, coming through!"

The group only blinked several times as they kept trying to fix the barrier.

X

Issei, still in his scale-mail, turned his head to see the blonde girl and dismissed his helmet. "Asia, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. But buchou-san is…" Asia looked at Rias worriedly.

Issei only nodded after he scanned around to see his friends' conditions. Then he carried Asia, receiving a light squeal of surprise from the latter, towards his king.

He put Asia down as soon as he arrived at his king's side. Rias was still unconscious although her wounds did not seem to be life-threatening. Asia quickly put her Twilight Healing into work on Rias' wounds. Issei brought Rias in his arms, shook her body gently to wake her up if possible.

"Buchou! Please open your eyes! Buchou!" Issei yelled, but Rias did not show any respond.

"RIAS!"

At her name being shouted, Rias groaned softly as her eyes twitched before opened slowly. When the girl got a good look at Issei's face, she finally fully awoken, albeit still felt rather weak.

"Ise…" Rias said in relief as she brought her hand to Issei's cheek. "You've returned…"

"Yes, I'm back. I'm terribly sorry for the wait, buchou", Issei replied with relieved tone when he saw Rias' wounds had started to close.

Rias herself only smiled back and closed her eyes again in order to recover her strength back as soon as possible.

The others, who had regained enough strength to stand up and walk on their own, approached to greet Issei and had their injuries treated by Asia. Xenovia also came with Irina by her side.

"Everyone…" Issei said addressing the others. "I'm so sorry for being late…"

"At least you've come before any casualties could be really made…" Yuuto replied with a smile. "Looks like you also had a hard time on your side too."

Issei only chuckled while scratching his cheek. Irina also smiled mirthfully as her body seemed a bit roughed up as well.

"Sure I did… And will you believe me if I said that I was trapped in a friggin' limbo with Irina-chan?"

Everyone only raised their eyebrows and Xenovia turned to Irina with a look that said, 'seriously?'.

"Anyway, we'll talk later of what happened while I was gone", Issei said as he turned towards the place where Kokabiel had crashed earlier. "You guys should rest up. I'll take care of the rest…" Issei said as he calmly walked towards Kokabiel, whom slowly emerged from the debris.

When everyone was looking at Issei's retreating back, Irina noticed that Xenovia was slowly gazing to the ground.

"Irina…" Xenovia called her name. "When you're gone… Kokabiel said…"

"I know."

Xenovia turned her wide eyes towards Irina who smiled bitterly. "He had told me too when I was in trapped in his artificial dimension. Let's talk about it after this battle, okay?"

Strangely enough, Xenovia also smiled back bitterly and she nodded, then turned to see Issei encountering Kokabiel again.

Kokabiel, who had almost half of his wings bent and barely usable due to Issei's punch, slowly floating to the air with an amused expression. There was also a bruise on the side of his face, blood also trailed from the edge of his lips.

"It's been a while since the last time I received such attack…" Kokabiel commented as he observed his damaged wings. Then he looked down to see Issei donned in his scale mail armour, minus his head.

"I see…! The Red Dragon Emperor! Kukukuku… Rias Gremory, you truly have a unique taste like your brother in choosing your servants! A survivor of Holy Sword Project who achieved Balance Breaker, daughter of Baraqiel, and the wielder of the Welsh Dragon too!" Kokabiel commented with a laugh.

Rias, who had regained consciousness as her wounds had mostly healed, only narrowed her eyes at Kokabiel's remarks.

"Oh, please don't misunderstand. I mean it as a compliment", Kokabiel said again before Rias could have made any comebacks.

Unknown to the rest, Akeno's body flinched slightly when she heard her father's name was mentioned in front of Issei.

"_Daughter of who?"_ Issei thought questioningly.

**[The Lightning of God… The 9****th**** watcher of leaders of 200 fallen angels… I see now… Partner, I'll explain when we have the time, just focus on the fight]** Ddraig said after he seemed just finished connecting dots.

Issei shrugged his thought as he heeded Ddraig's words, and he focused himself on the fallen angel floating above him.

"I remember you and your companion… Despite being this generation's Red Dragon Emperor, you have my praise to be able to get out from that dimension", Kokabiel said to Issei.

"Thanks…" Issei only replied dryly.

"Before indulging myself in fighting one of the two heavenly dragons, I, Kokabiel, one of leaders of Grigori, would like to know the name of the current wielder of Boosted Gear."

Issei stayed silent for a moment before he decided to comply. "It's Hyoudou Issei, this generation's Red Dragon Emperor, as well as the pawn of Rias Gremory."

Kokabiel's eyes widened at the mention of Issei's surname. "Hyoudou…?"

After another moment of silence, Kokabiel began to chuckle, which soon turned into a full-blown laughter. Issei and the others only furrowed their eyebrows at the fallen's sudden outburst.

"Kuhahahaha! Of course! Of course you are so strong! Hahahaha!" Kokabiel kept laughing while holding his sides. "Today has been full of surprises! From Gremory's unique servants, the holy-demonic sword and Durandal; the encounter with the Welsh Dragon, and to add, the wielder of the Welsh Dragon itself is actually _his _son!"

Issei blinked a couple of times at the mention of 'his son' before he replied. "What are you talking about? You speak as if you know my father…"

"It is because I do know your father, Red Dragon Emperor…" Kokabiel ceased his laughing at last.

"…What?" Issei asked in bewilderment.

_**[Wow… Your dad really knows lots of kinds of people…]**_ Ddraig retorted, which only replied by a snort from his host.

"Your father, Hyoudou Saitama was one of the strongest people I've ever known. He drops by the Grigori to be Azazel's errand boy from time to time. It's strange though, despite his strength, only a handful amount of people who even know of his existence", Kokabiel mused. "As a matter of fact, I tried to ask your father to join me…"

"What?" this time, it was a shock that came from Issei and everyone else.

Knowing his father was acquainted with the Lucifer was one thing, but to be acknowledged from leaders of Grigori as well? What kind of person Hyoudou Saitama exactly?

"But no need to worry. Unfortunately, he declined. Although I didn't expect his son of all people will be the one to stand in my way, kukukuku…." Kokabiel giggled. "I wonder what he'd say if he ever found out you're a devil, though…"

Issei only snorted. "Well, it's not like he had a right to tell me what to do after he left me for more than fifteen years. Rather, why are we even talking anyway? I'm supposed to stop you here and now!"

"Well, can you stop me at this point? You only have less than five minutes before my spell destroy this entire town", Kokabiel pointed at the large magic circle on the ground.

"Five minutes…" Issei said before his head was covered by his scale mail helmet again. "That's plenty", then he suddenly disappeared from where he stood.

**[Boost!]**

Suddenly Kokabiel's faced was already bashed in by Issei's right fist, as the latter's Boosted Gear has started to double-up his power. The fallen let out a pained groan as his body was sent away towards the sky. Everyone else who was spectating the fight could only watch with astonishment when Issei landed another hit to Kokabiel.

"Angel of Stars… I won't let you destroy this town!" Issei said as he suddenly appeared behind Kokabiel while the latter still in the mid-air.

Issei used his elbow to hit Kokabiel's back, but his elbow strike was weaker compared to his punch, thus Kokabiel managed to regain his balance despite the pain across his back.

"Kuh…! Let's see what you got, then!" Kokabiel snarled as he summoned countless spears of light, and he threw them towards Issei.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Boosted Gear multiplied Issei's power by folds once again as Issei roared and destroyed the spears successively by his own blows. When the spears had been eliminated, both of Issei's gauntlets were smoking from the direct contact with the spears.

"Shit, this stuff really burns!" Issei whined as he tried to shake the pain off from his smoking hands.

**[Of course it hurts! You just punched through pure light element with your devil body! If it's not for my power protecting you, your hands would have been charred black by now!]**

"Impressive! What about this, then!" this time, Kokabiel summoned a massive spear of light.

"HAA!"

However, just when he just threw his spear, Issei already closed their distance and punched through the spear and square right to Kokabiel's right cheek. Before Kokabiel could have thrown away again, Issei's left hand grabbed Kokabiel's right to halt him, then using his right fist, Issei started to pummel Kokabiel's face relentlessly.

"Grrhh!"

Enduring the pain on his face from Issei's blow after blow, Kokabiel tried to retaliate as his right hand also grabbed Issei's left fore arm, and using his light power-coated left hand, Kokabiel also started to pummel back.

Soon their brawl turned into a simple hitting each other's face, while Kokabiel's light-coated fist managed to cause a crack on Issei's scale mail as well as hurting him, the fallen slowly got overpowered by Issei's dragon strength, as more blood was drawn from his face.

Suddenly, Issei stopped his attacks and chose to swing Kokabiel in the air and threw him towards the ground, towards the large magic circle to be precise. Issei threw Kokabiel so hard that the impact cause the ground to crack, as well as his bones, when Kokabiel hit the ground, but his spell was still active.

Weakened from Issei's relentless attacks earlier, Kokabiel failed to notice sooner that Issei started to gather power on his left palm. Issei tried to regulate his magical power so while it was strong enough to damage Kokabiel and broke his destructive spell, it would not be too strong to obliterate the rest of the surrounding. Soon, a red ball of demonic power glowed on Issei's hand, and the dragon shot his left hand towards Kokabiel, whom found himself could not move.

"Dragon shot!"

DOOONN!

Issei's dragon shot got a direct hit on Kokabiel, causing the ground to shatter into a crater and the magic circle to disappear along with it. Issei himself decided to take another measure as he dived straight head-first into Kokabiel, whom was lying inside the crater.

"OOOOHH!"

BAAAMM!

Issei's both fists collided with Kokabiel's body, causing the latter to cough a solid amount of blood, then Kokabiel finally knocked out from the impact.

Few moments later, the other devils and the exorcists only had their mouths opened at the fight before them. They almost could not believe it, their combined efforts could barely touch Kokabiel, yet Issei alone managed to defeat him in matter of minutes.

"He… He won…" Xenovia commented.

"Ise-kun just…" Irina said.

"Defeated a fallen angel cadre…" Yuuto finished where Irina left off.

"Our junior has become even stronger, hasn't he?" Akeno commented with her usual smile.

"That's our Ise, after all…" Rias said with relieved smile.

Asia and Koneko could not say anything until Issei was spotted coming out from the crater that he created earlier. His body was covered with dusts and burned marks here and there, but he was fine nonetheless. The pawn had already dismissed his scale-mail, knowing that the fallen angel would not be able to move anytime soon.

"Hey, guys", Issei greeted in laid-back manner as he walked towards his friends.

Asia was the first to run towards Issei, followed by the rest as well.

"Ise-san/Ise/Ise-kun/Ise-senpai!"

X

Meanwhile, the student council was almost done in repairing their barrier.

"What were those noise and explosion earlier?" one of Sona's pawn, Ruruko asked in wonder.

"I don't know, Ruruko… But somehow I can tell that the fight inside is over…" Sona replied when she felt that one of two powerful auras had dissipated.

Suddenly…

**{Divide!}**

A white blur came together with the sound when their barrier suddenly got distorted and shattered from the unknown power on the work.

"Oh, what now?" Saji whined as he finally let down his arms, knowing that the barrier had completely shattered.

X

Everyone inside the school ground sensed something powerful was approaching fast when they saw the barrier above them had been shattered. Issei, however, felt that the incoming aura was somewhat familiar, yet foreign at the same time.

Soon, a figure clad in white armour was seen descending from the sky. The armour was identic with Issei's scale mail, only the difference was the motive colour was white, the jewels on his body were blue, and a pair of blue shining wings were attached on his back.

Everyone who had learned about Longinus tensed as they recognised the light wings. Issei simply turned to face the white armour with his Boosted Gear ready on his left arm.

"Vanishing Dragon…"

"In flesh. I'm the host of Albion, the White Dragon Emperor", the figure in white armour replied in calm tone. "It seems I just missed the party here…" he said with slight sarcasm.

"I guess you did. Well, what do you want here, actually?" Issei asked. He was calm, but cautious at the same time.

"Hmph, I was sent here by Azazel to retrieve Kokabiel. I'm also going to pick up that exorcist over there, since I have few questions for him", the white armour said pointing at Freed's unmoving body.

*COUGH *COUGH

A noise was heard from inside the crater where Kokabiel was laying on. When everyone took a look, they saw Kokabiel regained consciousness as he coughed out another blood.

"You're soft, my rival…" the White Dragon Emperor commented at Issei. The latter only shrugged the comment as he kept looking at Kokabiel, whom could not move his body at all.

"…(sigh), looks like I've lost to the Welsh Dragon…" Kokabiel said weakly. "But from our fight, I could somewhat gouge your strength, Red Dragon Emperor…" Kokabiel looked at Issei.

"Compared to Saitama… You're weak…" Kokabiel commented while having difficulty to talk. "Unlike your father, who is an utter beast… You're nothing more than a cub that can't even bear its fangs and claws… Shackled in a cage like a little animal you are…" Kokabiel finished before he turned to the White Dragon Emperor.

"Vanishing Dragon… So you're the one sent here by Azazel, huh?"

"Yeah, I am. Although I'd love to have a bit fun in here… Too bad that the red one here had taken all the good stuff…" The White Dragon Emperor replied with disappointed tone.

**[Well, sorry for spoiling your fun, white one…]** Ddraig retorted from Issei's jewel on Boosted Gear.

**{Red one… Looks like you got yourself a capable host here…}** a voice came out from the White Dragon Emperor's light wings.

**[Same goes to you. Say, you want to fight now? Although I can't sense any hostility from your host]**

**{Hmph, I also don't sense any hostility from your host as well… Let's put our fight for another time. We'll fight eventually sooner or later, this kind of things happened sometimes}**

**[Yeah, looking forward to it]**

Everyone simply stared at the conversations between the two entities that were rumoured to be on par with God and Satan, when Kokabiel spoke again.

"Don't be so down, boys…" Kokabiel said with a smirk. "If you want to fight so bad, Vanishing Dragon… Let me give you, all of you here, the last entertainment from me…" Kokabiel finished.

Using his last ounce of strength, Kokabiel muttered a spell and suddenly, a giant magic circle appeared on the sky above Kuoh Academy. The size of the circle itself almost covered the entire school grounds.

"What the…!" Rias said with shock on her face.

And then, the magic circle glowed and something came out from it. That something is a fallen angel soldiers. Soon, another followed as more and more fallen angels, varying from two-winged until six-winged started to fly out from the magic circle.

"This is…! A mass teleportation magic!? That magic circle is acting as a gateway!" Akeno exclaimed with horror on her face.

Unlike normal teleportation magic that requires complex procedure to move things, what Kokabiel did was simply creating a portal in form of magic circle for anyone to pass through from another location. In this case, his army.

The White Dragon Emperor only smirked under his helmet as he saw legions of fallen angels started to pour down from the circle, while Issei widened his eyes in worry as he saw that all of his friends had been too exhausted to fight anymore.

"Kukuku…" Kokabiel's giggle could be heard. "Our numbers may have reduced greatly after the war… But my comrades, who share the same sentiment with me, will make sure to see through my plan! Now, humans, devils and two heavenly dragons! Can you face the might of 182,000 of my army!?" Kokabiel screamed in excitement.

The White Dragon Emperor quickly prepared to take flight, while Issei clicked his tongue as he prepared to summon his scale mail once again, until…

THUD!

"Eh?"

The first fallen angel who came through the magic portal simply dropped to the ground and did not move anymore, causing everyone to stop on their tracks. The same thing also happened to the rest of the fallen angels that followed. They simply dropped to the ground one by one.

"W-what's wrong? What happened?" Kokabiel himself could not help but baffled at the sight.

Then, Rias who also did not know what was happening, felt something wet drip on her skin. She inspected the wet stuff that was red in colour, then her eyes widened.

"This… This is blood!" Rias said and she looked up towards the giant magical portal.

When everyone looked up at the sky, the portal was not only pouring out fallen angels, but also something akin to a rain of blood.

The student council, who finally decided to go inside the school ground, was also shocked at the development, as fallen angels were falling (no pun intended) around them.

"Wha… What's happening from the other side?" Yuuto asked in confusion.

Kokabiel could not believe his eyes at the sight of his brethren fell one by one. "I-impossible! My whole army!? What could have…!" his bewilderment was interrupted and answered at the same time by one of the fallen angels that managed to stay awake after falling to the ground.

"Ko-Kokabiel-sama… Bad news…" the fallen angel soldier said weakly. "Our troops… have all been eradicated…!"

"What!? Impossible! What about the mercenaries we prepared as our back up!? Who could possibly have done all of this!?"

"We… We just found out that… Our mercenaries had been destroyed weeks ago… By one single man…!" the fallen soldier finally lost his consciousness.

"One man…" Kokabiel's eyes widened after a moment. "I see…! Dammit, so that's how it goes, Azazel…! Guhk…!" Kokabiel cursed until he finally passed out for real after coughing another mouthful of blood.

While everyone was still watching the fallen angels kept falling to the ground (again, no pun intended), one figure that stood out than the fallen army came out by the time the portal collapsed and disappeared from sight.

"Look!" Akeno alerted everyone else to direct their sights at the foreign figure among the fallen angels that was descending to the ground.

BOOM

The figure landed, causing the ground beneath him to shatter from the sheer force, and stood up.

Everybody stared intently at the new comer that most likely to be the one who had destroyed the entire army of fallen angels by himself. The figure was a man that looked in his late 30s, wearing a plain yellow jumpsuit with a short zipper at the collar and a belt. He was also wearing red gloves, red boots and a white cape that had few stains of blood on it.

However, his most noticeable feature was his shining bald head. When the stranger turned around facing the spectators, almost everyone showed reactions of recognition.

Irina and Xenovia only stared wide-eyed and their mouths gapping at the familiar man before them.

The White Dragon Emperor only snorted under his armour.

"Hmph, of course Azazel would send you out of all people…"

Rias and Asia immediately noticed the face from the old pictures they took a glance of in Hyoudou residence.

"_Isn't that…?"_

Akeno, on the other hand, only widened her eyes as she recognised a familiar sight of the man's back from her past before the bald man turned around.

Issei cringed his eyebrows as he tried to say something when he saw the face he only saw from pictures and old memories. His mouth was gapping up and down looking for a word, and only one word that escaped his lips.

"…Dad?"

_To be continued…_

**Oh yeah, guess who has entered the stage, baby! So, what do you guys think about the twist and this chapter? No flame, of course. Special thanks for LordGhostStriker who had inspired me to create my own twist regarding Kokabiel! Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	14. Intermission

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello, folks! It's been some time since the end of fight with Kokabiel in this story. I hope you readers are doing well, since I'm being bombarded by bunch of things from university, new house etc. This chapter has no action, it's more like an interlude about the aftermath and what happens when Saitama reunite and met with Issei and the gang. WARNING: OOC! You have been warned. And I do not own neither Highschool DxD or One-punch Man. Now, onto the story!**

**Chapter 13: New Life and Hello**

_(Flashback, at certain town in human world)_

A figure of young girl, around 11 years old, with black hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a ragged, dirty dress was running through an empty suburban street in the dead of the night. As she ran, her breathing became heavy, bruises and dirt were covering her clothes and some of her skin; the girl did not even bother to care about the pain in her muscles. She was terrified, her mind kept telling her to survive, to keep running until she lost her pursuers, or to find a safe place to hide from those pursuers.

The girl kept running despite her exhaustion and she did not look back. Hope for her pursuers no longer chasing her, and fear for her pursuers were right behind her, were filling her mind. However, she did not hear anything behind her as far as she ran, just when she was about to stop to take a quick break…

"Over there! I saw her! That tainted child of the fallen!"

A voice was shouted through the night, and it was enough to force the little girl to run again. After another god knows how long, the girl's feet finally succumbed to the exhaustion and she fell on the ground. She tried to get back on her feet, but her strength was fading. She turned her head to look up when she felt the moonlight was obstructed by something, and she saw an imposing figure of someone in Shinto priest outfit and wore a white kabuki mask. On his hand was a sword and there were several dozens people in similar attire standing behind him.

"We've finally found you, daughter of fallen angel…" the man with a mask said with a cold tone as he took a step closer towards the girl.

The little girl could not say any word as her throat was parched from all the running, her body was shaking from fear, and she could not stand up due to exhaustion.

As she looked at her current situation, she contemplated of the past events. Why did this happen to her? What did she do? Had she ever done something wrong to these people? Did she or her parents upset them? All she could remember that she was simply living a happy life with her father and mother. Her father might not be the nicest man around, considering most of people's opinion about his kin, but her mother was the kindest woman she had ever known. Her father might be barely at home all the time due to his work, but he was an honourable man and he loved his family dearly, thus she was happy with that.

All of those happy times were gone when one night, a man claimed as her grand-uncle from her mother's family showed up at their home and attempted to kill her, saying something along that she was a 'wicked existence' and must be purged from the clan. Her father was away for work, so she and her mother were left on their own device to defend themselves. Her mother was trying her best to convince her grand-uncle to let her daughter live, but instead, the man was convinced that her mother's mind was 'corrupted' by the presence of the girl's father. Thus, the mother was murdered as she attempted to shield her daughter from her grand-uncle.

Her father just arrived right after the mother breathed her last breath, and chased out the attacker for the time being. Overwhelmed by grief, the little girl scorned her father for not being there when she and her mother needed him the most, blaming him for failing to protect his own family. The father only silent, and decided to give his daughter some space.

And back to the present. After being alone travelling and sustaining herself by helping people around, using her little knowledge of evil spirits purification she learned from her mother, she was suddenly being hunted again from people from her mother's clan. She was finally cornered, and she almost cursed her own fate, she felt that she was wrong to push her father away, but another part of her was still blaming him for her mother's death. The words that were spoken from her attacker convinced her a little that death might not be so bad.

"Now, you can join your mother on the other side!" the man said as he raised his sword. The girl could only closed her eyes in resignation on her impeding doom.

Just right before the man swung down his sword, the man's underling behind felt something was moving past them with incredible speed, towards their leader who was about to deal the finishing blow on the girl.

CRANG!

The sound of wind, as well as shattered steel echoed through the air. When the masked man knew it, he found his blade had been broken and the girl he was aiming was no longer on her previous spot.

"What the-!?"

He was baffled at the sight of a little girl suddenly vanished from his sight, and he immediately looked up and found someone, wearing a ragged cloak was crouching on the ground a bit further in front of him, with the unharmed girl in his arms.

"Who the hell are you!?" asked the one of the assailants with disbelief tone.

The little girl opened her eyes weakly after she felt that she was being swept away from her previous spot, and she felt something warm was enveloping her body. It was not the warmth of her parents, but still warm nonetheless. As her body was put slowly to the ground, the girl's consciousness was slowly fading, and the last things she remembered before falling into unconsciousness were her apparent saviour's back with his tattered cloak swayed by the wind, his bald-head shone by the moonlight, and his voice when he introduced himself.

"Just an average man who serves as an average hero."

_(Scene Break) _

When the girl regained her consciousness, it was already morning as she could see the sun was about to peak from the horizon and she found herself at the front terrace of an abandoned shrine. Recalling the events of last night, she widened her eyes and was about to stand, only to find that she was draped in a ragged cloth, presumably belonged to the man who saved her life, serving as a blanket. She had no idea what happened after she passed out. How did she end up in her current place? What happened to her saviour? What about her pursuers? Was her saviour alright?

The girl pondered those questions with worry. She knew well that the pursuers from her mother's clan were all seasoned fighters who had been prepared to fight forces beyond human's capabilities, and she thought that the man from last night might not be able to take on one of them, let alone taking all of them on. Whatever happened last night, it seemed that her saviour had chosen to use the old shrine as a temporary refuge, and the girl decided that she had to keep moving, with the hope that her pursuers would focus back on her and leave that kind stranger alone. She was forever grateful for the man's help, but what else could be done by now? She had felt terrible enough after the death of her mother, she would not forgive herself if she were to involve a stranger into her problems any further. After folding the cloth and put it on the wooden floor, the girl was about to leave when suddenly a red magic circle flashed on the ground in front of her, revealing two figures to appear from the light.

The first figure was a man with noble clothing, and the other was a girl around her age with red-crimson hair, wearing a cute, simple-looking dress. The girl with black hair took a step back in fear, realising what the two people before her were.

The two, especially the man seemed to notice her fear, then he put up a gentle expression as he bowed himself in greeting.

"Good morning. We're sorry for startling you but I assure you, we mean you no harm", the man explained. "Let me introduce ourselves. My name is Heinrich Cornellius Agrippa, a servant of Lord Gremory from the house of Gremory", the man introduced himself before he gestured towards the crimson haired girl beside him. "And this is my master's daughter, Rias Gremory, the future head of Gremory clan."

The girl introduced as Rias Gremory took a step forward with a friendly smile. "Hello! You can call me Rias. What's your name?"

The girl raised her eyebrows at the two strangers. She was aware that those two were devils, and influential ones. Despite the ominous aura shrouded their bodies, she sensed almost no malice nor hostility from them, as if they really meant their words of not harming her. Testing her fate, the girl swallowed a lump and she replied.

"It's… It's Himejima Akeno…" the girl replied with a hint of fear remained in her tone.

"I see… Akeno-chan, is it?" Rias took in the information. Then she widened her eyes when she looked again at Akeno's body. "Oh, my. Looks like you're hurt. Come on, we can treat your injuries in our place", Rias reached out her hand.

Akeno looked blanched and doubtful at the sudden offer. "Eh…? B-But…"

The man known as Heinrich only chuckled. "Don't need to worry, Himejima-san. Consider this our gratitude for saving our important client. Come, we'll make sure that your injuries are treated. After that, we can talk more about the details", Heinrich said as he offered his hand as well.

Later, the bald man came back to the shrine grounds with a plastic bag on his hand. Upon arriving at the spot where he left the little girl he rescued last night, he only saw his cloak was neatly folded on the floor with a little note placed on top of it. He looked around and called out to see any signs of the girl, but he found nothing. Then, he picked up the note and he sighed softly after reading it. Putting the note away, he sat down next to his cloak, took out a bread that he bought from a convenience store, and he took a bite as he stared at the breaking dawn.

_(End of Flashback)_

X

At Kuoh Academy, right after the legions of Kokabiel's army just fell on the school grounds, the student council, now had joined with occult research club and the _Hakuryuukou_ (White Dragon Emperor) were watching at the reunion of the supposedly father and son. While the Hakuryuukou simply watched for amusement, the rest knew better than interfering between two of them; One who defeated a fallen angel cadre by himself, and the other one who just single-handedly decimated hundred-thousands of fallen angel army by himself.

Irina and Xenovia, who still remembered of the man who aided them few years back, were not sure what to make out of the situation.

Rias and Asia, who once saw newcomer's face from the old pictures in Hyoudou residence, were convinced that the new comer is none other than Saitama, the father of current Sekiryuutei. Asia could not help but swallow a lump from unknown nervousness.

Yuuto and Koneko, who barely knew anything, could not help but wonder about the display of strength that Saitama showed earlier. The word 'dad' that they managed to hear from Issei's mouth, gave them even more questions. And in addition, Koneko's instinct also went alert at the presence of the newcomer in front of her.

Akeno only stunned at the sight that saved her life those years ago. When Saitama arrived, she immediately recognised the sight of his back and his bald head. But she still needed more confirmation if the man in front of Issei was truly her saviour back then. She never forget, after the deal with Himejima clan and the meeting with Gremory clan, she kept telling herself from time to time to thank her saviour properly if they ever met again.

Sona, who found herself somewhat unable to say a single word towards either one of the two, decided to lean her head towards her old friend.

"Rias, I don't know much what really happened here, but who's that man? He just came out of the blue…" Sona asked in low voice.

The rest of student council also marvelled at the sight. They looked at Rias, want to know more about the bald man.

"That's Ise's father", Rias replied after glancing at Sona, before she returned to stare at the father and son.

Sona and the rest of her peerage, who managed to hear Rias' answer, widened their eyes at the revelation and they looked back at the father and son whom so far only stared at each other.

"_Those two don't look related at all…"_ was pretty much what everybody else thought of Issei and Saitama upon the revelation.

Meanwhile, Saitama and Issei only kept staring at each other. Both of their expressions were unreadable. While Issei kept staring straight to his father, the said father silently took a look at his surroundings, the devils from occult research club, student council, the two exorcists, and finally on the white draconic armour.

"Oh, Valley! So Azazel sent you here, too?" Saitama called out and waved his hand nonchalantly.

The devils blanched at Saitama's laid-back attitude before they turned towards Hakuryuukou, whom seemed slightly shaking at the calling.

"Oh, for the love of…! IT'S VALI, GODDAMMIT! And shouldn't you greet your son first instead of starting mispronouncing people's names!?" the Hakuryuukou yelled back in frustration.

The others only sweat-dropped at the somewhat comical outburst.

"Ah…" was all Saitama said as his eyes set back on his son, who remained looking at him with unreadable expression, his Boosted Gear still latched on his left arm.

The Hakuryuukou only sighed deeply before he picked up Kokabiel and Freed's body. "You know what? I'm leaving. Finish your family reunion and wait until Azazel contact you again", he said as he took flight leaving academy grounds without looking back, even when Saitama protested for the Hakuryuukou to wait for him, before he returned to deal with his son.

Going back to matters at hand, Saitama was still not sure what to do as he kept staring at Issei. _"He's grown…"_ Saitama thought as he measured his son. His mind trailed back at the little baby he saw fifteen years ago. _"And hot-damn, that's one hell of a gauntlet he's got there…"_ Saitama looked at the Boosted Gear.

The rest of people's attention had returned back to see how the reunion would turn out. Even after the exchange between Saitama and Hakuryuukou from earlier, the tension returned as intense as previous one, and no one dared to even mutter a single word.

After what it felt to be forever, Issei finally took a step forward, with his expression unchanging, and he took more steps as he was closing in to his father. Everyone else took another breath as they were curious of what Issei was about to do.

_**[Partner?]**_ Even Ddraig could not predict what his host was going to do.

Saitama simply raised his eyebrows at his approaching son. He kept the plain stoic expression on his face as Issei finally stood right in front of him.

After few seconds of another stare-down, Saitama held up his hand in greeting.

"Yo, Is-…"

BAM!

If the scene was unnerving for the spectators, the next scene simply blew them out of their minds. What happened in the reunion between father and son was the latter's left gauntlet fist was making its way right on the former's right cheek with a force enough to blew the surrounding air away as soon as the hit connected.

Everybody had various reactions. Some of them had their hands over their mouths as they gasped with wide eyes, some others gobsmacked at the spectacle, the others cringed at the sight of a man being punched in the face by Sekiryuutei.

_(Scene Break)_

Meanwhile, the Hakuryuukou who was hovering across the night sky suddenly halted his flight, then he turned his head towards direction of Kuoh Academy.

**{What is it?}** The Vanishing Dragon asked, wondering the sudden action of his host.

"I… I feel like I just missed something amusing back there…" Vali replied as he kept staring at the distance.

**{So? You want to go back?}**

Vali pondered for a while, looking around at his surroundings and the bodies under his arms.

"No. I've already gone this far, so I'll make it back to Azazel first. It's probably nothing important", the Hakuryuukou dismissed his thoughts and continuing his flight away from Kuoh Academy.

_(Scene Break)_

Saitama, while being unharmed whatsoever, only blinked twice after the punch managed to slightly jerk his head away. The punch came from his son simply surprised him, thus he could not help but being taken aback. However, he could not help but wonder about the tingling sensation at the moment his son's fist made a contact with him. It was like having your cheek being scratched, but the feeling disappeared immediately after. Soon he regained his composure as he found satisfaction in Issei's eyes for some reason, though the latter was still not smiling.

"That's for mom, you shitty old man!" Issei exclaimed with his left fist smoking from the impact. However, he furrowed his eyebrows at Saitama's condition.

"_Strange… Could've sworn that I was quite serious with that punch… He didn't seemed hurt at all…"_

Saitama who heard his son's claim only supressed a snort as he let out a faint smile. "Well, I guess it's my bad…" Saitama replied as he rubbed his head awkwardly. Then, looked to Issei again.

"By the way, if you honestly called that a punch, you're sorely mistaken, kiddo", Saitama said, making Issei wondered before the latter's vision suddenly went blank with a pain shot through his head.

BAM!

As the force behind a simple jab was several times more powerful from Issei's previous punch, everyone needed few seconds to finally recognise that Saitama just sent his son flipping through the air several meters high before Issei dropped to the ground with a loud thump.

"There, that's what you call a punch", was all Saitama said after his son had fallen to the ground.

"ISSEI!"

Rias, the exorcists and everyone from occult research club yelled out Issei's name in worried tone as they quickly ran towards Issei's body. The student council also followed behind them. Rias and Asia were the first to arrive and they found Issei's face with swollen eyes and blood dripping from his nose. Asia quickly put her Twilight Healing to work as Rias looked at her pawn worriedly before she, along with everyone else turned their eyes to Saitama, who remained casual.

"… What?" Saitama asked at the people who were looking at him with incredulous expressions. "Come on, I didn't hit him that hard… He's gonna wake up in no time, right kid?" Saitama called out to his son, expecting a reply.

However, no reply came out after he waited for few seconds, as the others only narrowed their eyes at Saitama .

"Ise?" Saitama called out again, but no answer came out after few more moments. Asia was still busy applying her healing properties on Issei's swelling eye.

"Err… You there, son?" now Saitama felt worried for once after a while. No reply came out from his son after more than a minute passed. At this rate, everyone including Asia was glaring at Saitama with narrowed eyes. Asia's eyes were more like being teary from worry.

The bald man's face became pale slightly as he assessed the situation.

"_Shit, Haruka's gonna kill me…"_

X

_Compared to Saitama… You're weak…_

Those words echoed within Issei as he suddenly saw the figure of his father took a glance at him, turned his back and started to walk away.

"… Dad?" Issei called out but his father's back started to get further.

"W-wait!" Issei tried to chase after him, but the distance only seemed to slowly get further away.

"Hey, wait for me!" Issei suddenly felt tired only after running for few seconds and his father only getting further and further.

"Stop, don't go!" Issei tried desperately to reach him as he kept running as hard as he could, but Saitama's figure only got smaller as their distance increased.

"No, please! Don't leave me!" Issei felt his eyes got teary. He thought of using his Longinus to double up his speed, but he could not summon its power. He felt so weak, as if his power was leaving him.

Issei could only running in vain as he saw his father's figure slowly disappeared into the distance.

"DAD!"

Issei opened his eyes, letting out a drop of tears as he found himself on the bed with his arm stretched out towards a familiar ceiling. He got up, he looked around to find that it had already afternoon and recognised he was in his bedroom before a slight migraine got on him. Rubbing his eyes and the sore spot on his head, which was hit by his father last time, Issei tried to recall what happened before he knocked out. He also found himself still clad in the same outfit before he lost his consciousness last time.

_**[So you're finally awake]**_

The sound in his head interrupted his musings. Issei immediately recognised the voice.

"_Ddraig? Ugh… What happened? How long was I out? My memories were kind of fuzzy…"_ Issei replied in his mind. His throat was too dried for him to speak, anyway.

_**[… How much do you recall?]**_

"_Um… Let's see, I came to school, I fought Kokabiel, the Hakuryuukou showed up, then…"_ Issei's eyes widened after a pause. _"My dad came…"_

_**[You missed the part that you socked him in the face]**_

Issei blinked a couple of times at Ddraig's input.

"_I did?"_

_**[Yeah, you did. Then he knocked you out in return]**_

"_Fuck…"_ Issei buried his face in his hands. _"Wait, how long was I out, again?"_

_**[About that-]**_

"Ise-san?"

_**[Well, let's have her answer for you]**_

Ddraig decided to let Asia to answer Issei's question when the blonde girl came in the room. She was clad in her Kuoh Academy uniform.

"Ise-san! You finally wake up!" Asia joyously ran and tackled Issei into a hug.

"Y-yeah… good morning, Asia…" Issei patted Asia's head who was clutching his torso. He tried to speak despite his parched throat. "Where are the others? What happened after I passed out?"

"Buchou-san and the others are at school, she said she had something to take care of at the club, since she's the president…" Asia said as she looked up at Issei.

"Irina-san and Xenovia-san had to report back to the Vatican after the battle, and they hoped for your well-being…" Asia's eyes got teary again. "I'm so worried that you hadn't woken up ever since Saitama-san hit you… Thank goodness you're awake…" Asia returned to bury her face in Issei's chest.

"_Hang on, did she just say 'finally' earlier? Seriously, how long was I out?"_ Issei pondered with slightly wide eyes.

"Um… Asia, how long was I knocked out, exactly?" Issei asked the girl.

"Well…" as the girl finally let go of her hug, Asia seemed hesitant about answering. She took a glance here and there before she finally said, "About three days…"

"Three-!" then Issei dried throat finally acted up, and the boy cleared his throat before speaking again. "Actually, can you get me something to drink, please?" Issei asked as he rubbed his neck.

"Oh, yes! Right away!" Asia shot up from her spot, fetched a glass of water on the desk nearby, and she handed it over to Issei before she settled by sitting beside him. "Here you go."

Issei only nodded in gratitude and he immediately downed the glass. However…

"Oh, you're awake."

PFFT…!

Issei took a spit-take of the water inside his mouth and nose onto the floor as soon as his eyes shot out the source of the voice while coughing out the rest of his drink. At his room's door, a figure of a middle-aged man with bald head, clad in simple white T-shirt and a pair of shorts was leaning at the door frame with plain expression.

Issei's jaw dropped as he stared wide-eyed at the man, his finger pointed at him, and his jaw finally moved back as he tried to speak incoherent words while looking back and forth to Asia and Saitama.

"Wha-! Ah!? Uh? Buh…!?" Issei was too startled to say anything.

Asia quickly interjected. "Ah, Saitama-san was the one who carried you all the way back home, Ise-san. He's sorry for hitting you too hard and has talked to Haruka-san about it", Asia said with happy tone with her hands clasped together.

Issei looked at Asia with a slight disbelief look, then he turned to his father who was still remained at his spot. Issei's expression was showing that he tried to make sense of the situation, but he could not come up with anything.

Saitama only rubbed his head before he turned around to leave. "Anyway, Asia-chan is kind enough to skip her club activities to check up on you after school. If you're feeling better, come down. Haruka had prepared lunch."

Issei only stared incredulously at the doorframe where Saitama had been earlier. He rubbed his eyebrows together and took a deep breath.

"Ise-san? Are you alright?" Asia asked worriedly as she leaned in towards the boy.

Issei only smiled back at her as he patted her head again. "Yeah… I'm fine, Asia. Thanks. You can go downstairs first. I'll catch up in a minute."

Asia simply smiled back brightly before she left the room. After hearing Asia's footsteps on the stairs, Issei sighed again as rummage through his hair with both of his hands.

"By dead god… It's all real…"

**[You okay there, partner?]** Ddraig sympathized.

"I… Don't know…" Issei replied hesitantly.

_You're weak…_

Kokabiel's words echoed in his mind again, then Issei simply shrugged the thought away and he took another deep breath, before he began to prepare himself for the day.

X

The atmosphere at the dining room was… awkward, for the lack of better word. Issei and Asia were sitting next to each other on the table, while Saitama and Haruka sat side by side across them. Asia was nervous darting her gaze around Saitama and Issei, while Haruka simply smiled happily at the sight of her son and husband sitting on the same table for lunch. After few minutes that felt like forever, Saitama and Issei, strangely enough, moved in unison as they picked up their chopsticks.

""Ittadakimasu…""

Haruka and Asia, with the latter blinked in slight surprise, also followed as they began eating. While the women were eating, they noticed that Issei and Saitama were staring at each other with unreadable gaze. Not to mention, both of their movements were strangely in sync; while Saitama was reaching for ketchup, Issei also reached out for the said ketchup after Saitama, and they spiced up their side-dishes at the same manner; when Saitama was eating his own set of lunch, Issei was eating in the exactly same manner as Saitama. It was as if father and son were mirroring each other.

If it were not for the silent and tensed atmosphere, Asia would have found the sight amusing, adorable, even. However, the stare, or rather, the mild glare that was sent to each other between father and son with their unreadable expression had done nothing but making the girl more nervous. Haruka did not seemed affected at all as she kept smiling, or the woman was simply hiding it well beneath her smile.

The silence was broken only when Issei and Saitama had finished their first bowl of rice and they extended their respective bowl-in-hands towards Haruka and they spoke "Seconds" at the same time.

"Yes, yes…" Haruka playfully complied as she added more rice into the bowls.

As they resumed their eating, Saitama received a look from his still-smiling wife. Haruka's look in her eyes was urging him to say something. Saitama narrowed his eyes slightly at the gesture, but he finally complied.

"So… Ise", Saitama started. "I heard you're joining a club in school with Asia-chan… Occult Research Club, right?" Saitama said.

Issei blinked, kind of not expecting the sudden question from his father, and he only hummed affirmatively in reply.

"Mm-hm."

Saitama only nodded back, then he received another look from his wife again before he spoke another thing.

"Uh… How's your meeting with that Irina girl? She's your childhood friend, right?"

Issei swallowed the food in his mouth, then he looked down at the table, as if avoiding to look at his father.

"It's… good, I guess…" Issei replied with a hint of hesitation in his tone.

"Then… How's school?" Saitama finally went to cliché topic.

"Everything's fine. Though I ended up skipping few days thanks to a certain someone…"

Then the conversation was killed again with Issei's sarcasm as he finally turned to look at his food instead his father, whom only looked down back to his food with slightly guilty expression.

Asia could not help herself to say anything as the lunch went on with the tension remained between Issei and Saitama. She wanted to at least break the ice between the two, but being orphaned since childhood, Asia could not give any input due to her own inexperience with parents and all. Besides, she believed that it would be rude of her to interfere such a 'bonding' event.

""Thanks for the food…""

The lunch finally ended with Issei and Saitama said those words and put their eating utensils in unison as well. Asia sighed, feeling bad not being able to even relieving the tension between the family as she stood up following Issei, who was prepared to go out.

"You're leaving, already?" Haruka, who was cleaning up the dishes, asked out. "You should rest more, Ise. After all, this idiot punched you pretty hard…" the woman looked at her husband, whom looked away with more hints of guilt on his face.

Issei only smiled. "Don't worry, mom. I gotta at least show my face at school, considering I've been worrying everyone. I'll be fine with Asia here", Issei turned towards Asia whom smiled back, before he returned to his mother again.

"Besides, I think you still need more quality time with… dad here", Issei said as he sent a quick glance to Saitama.

Everyone noticed Issei swallowed a bit before he mentioned his father. Haruka and Asia could not help but worry for him. Just when Issei and Asia were about to leave, a voice suddenly called out.

"Oi, Ise", Saitama called out calmly enough. The boy in question only turned his head enough to see his father at the corner of his eyes.

"It's…" Saitama seemed trying to find his own words as he rubbed his head. "Sorry about the other night…" Saitama said awkwardly. "And, err… It's good to see you again…"

Even if Saitama tried to sound sincere, his plain facial expression ended up suggesting that he did not really mean those words. At these words, Issei only turned away. His jaw tightened, his lips twitched, Asia and Haruka could only look in concern what the boy would say in return.

"Let's go Asia", Issei simply said before he said his own goodbyes. "We're leaving!"

Nobody could tell if those words were meant towards both of his parents or his mother alone. Asia ended up just bowing politely before she rushed after Issei. The parents only looked at the direction their children left and Haruka folded her arms together before turning to stare at her husband when the sound of the door shutting was heard.

"Dear", Haruka said with a sigh and half-closed eyes. "Really, is that the best you can do?" She asked with dry tone.

At this question, Saitama only replied with a small sigh as he continued washing the dishes.

X

Meanwhile, when Issei and Asia had stepped past the house's gate, Issei stopped for a moment to look back at his home. After few seconds, Issei sighed deeply as he rummaged through his hair.

"Ise-san?"

Issei opened his eyes and he saw Asia, who was looking at him with concern.

"Are you really alright? Maybe you should stay at home, after all…" the girl asked.

Issei rubbed the back of his head as his gaze darting around. "I'm fine, Asia… It's just…"

"It's about your father, isn't it?"

Issei snapped his head to see Asia who had an understanding smile on her face. "I… I don't know anything about having parents, let alone a father…" Asia looked down for a second before she returned her gaze at the boy.

"But I can tell that Saitama-san is a good person", Asia held Issei's hand gently. "Your reunion with him might not be a good one, but I'll support you until you can settle your problems with him", Asia said with a gentle determination in her eyes.

"It's never too late to make up with your parents, Ise-san. And Saitama did regret about hitting you too hard that night. I, buchou-san and everyone else will help you to go through it all! I'll do anything I can to help you make up with your father!" Asia encouraged Issei. Her grip on his hand tightened slightly from her willingness.

At Asia's words, Issei could only chuckled and he patted her head as he pulled Asia closer to him almost into a hug.

"I-! Ise-san!?" Asia stuttered in surprise. Her face was flushed from the proximity between her and Issei.

"You're really something, you know that, Asia?" Issei said as he caressed Asia's head gently. They kept their position for few moments before Issei finally let go of her.

"Thanks to you, I'm fine now", Issei said with a smile and he offered his hand.

"Come on, Asia. Let's meet the others!"

Asia nodded with a smile of her own as she took Issei's hand, and the two continued their trek towards the school.

X

Upon entering the clubroom, everyone in Occult Research Club jolted from their position as soon as they caught the sight of the pawn.

"Ise/Ise-kun/Ise-senpai!" Rias, Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko were quickly moved towards Issei.

"I'm back, everyone… Sorry for making- Ooph!" Issei's greeting was cut-off by Rias Gremory as the latter pulled the former's head into her bosoms, burying him into a hug.

"Ise… My Ise…" Rias murmured as she stroked Issei's head lovingly. "I've been so worried ever since you're passed out from… his punch."

There was a hint of distaste when Rias remembered how Saitama knocked out her precious pawn several days ago. Although it was not entirely intentional, she strongly believed that a father like Saitama was not supposed to punch his own son that hard, especially after the said father had left his own family for the last fifteen years.

"Thank you for your concern, buchou… But I'm fine now..." Issei returned the hug lightly until he patted his master's back, hinting her to let go so he could breath.

Rias let go, and when Isse was about to address the other members his eyes caught a sight of a familiar blue hair, whose owner of the said hair was sitting on one of the couches in the clubroom.

"Yo, Sekiryuutei", the owner of the blue hair greeted casually.

Issei blinked a couple of times before he simply replied, "Hey there, Xenovia. You're… here."

Xenovia blinked back, not expecting Issei's calm reaction.

"You seemed… Taking this pretty well. I was expecting you to at least surprised of my presence…"

Issei only snorted at Xenovia's comment. "Honestly? After having my daylights knocked out by my long-lost father, only to find the said father is now staying in my house after I woke up few days later? I doubt anything will surprise me anymore for today…" Issei said in exasperated tone.

Xenovia nodded in understanding, while everyone in the clubroom showed their respective amused reactions on Issei's claim.

"Speaking of, how's your father doing? And… Are you okay, now? He hit you pretty hard, after all", Xenovia asked.

At the question, Issei only looked away while rubbing his head with slight frown. Everybody's expressions showed concern at the boy's expression.

"Meh, aside from nasty migraine when I woke up, everything's fine, I guess", Issei waved off. "Rather, have you thanked him properly this time? What happened to Irina and the Excalibur swords after that? And also, why are you here in the first place?" Issei tried to change the topic.

Xenovia gave a thoughtful expression for a second.

"Well, I have thanked Saitama-dono properly this time, though…" Xenovia's expression went a bit troubled. "He still mispronounced my name…" Xenovia recalled the way the bald hero addressed her last time.

She still remembered, when Saitama just volunteered that he would be the one to carry the knocked-out Issei back home as apology, Xenovia and Irina quickly approached him to greet him. Then, with the very same, indifferent expression Saitama had been using in everyday life, Saitama simply raised his hand and called the blue haired girl as 'Xenogear' while he did not have any problem remembering Irina's name, much to Xenovia's chagrin.

"Ah…" Issei showed a pitied look. "Um… Sorry about him…" Issei said scratching his cheek.

Yuuto and Akeno only stifled a giggle at the memory.

"It's fine. I guess that's just Saitama-dono being himself…" Xenovia quickly waved it off with a small smile.

"Oh, and also, Irina had to return to Vatican to return the Excalibur fragments as well with Valper's corpse. And as for your last question…" Xenovia trailed off, and a pair of black bat wings grew out from her back.

Issei and Asia widened their eyes at the sight of Xenovia's wings. Asia covered her mouth to show her shock.

"Wha-! Are those devil wings? How did you…" then Issei blinked twice and he turned to Rias with an understanding look. "Oh…"

Rias only winked at Issei's analysis.

"Okay…" Issei turned to Xenovia again as he put one hand to his waist. "Care to explain why?"

"I've found out that God is gone…" Xenovia said as she closed her eyes, before she opened them again. "So I chose to be a devil as a self-abandonment. I received a "Knight" piece from Rias Gremory. It seems like what makes me great is my holy sword Durandal. So I was able to become a devil with 1 piece. And I was also placed in this school. From now on, I'm a 2nd year student and also a member of the Occult Research Club. Lets get along, Ise-kun." Xenovia said, while breathing with her nose.

Issei stared at Xenovia for a moment before he finally spoke.

"Um… No offense, Xenovia… But that cute way of talking doesn't suit you at all… Especially when you say it with serious face."

"Hmm… I tried to copy Irina, but I guess it won't be that easy, after all…" Xenovia said as she put a finger under her chin.

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Issei replied before he turned to Rias.

"Buchou, are you sure of reincarnating her? With such a valuable piece?" Issei asked.

"Why not? Having a wielder of the Durandal feels reliable. And in addition, my knight is now complete with two swordsmen, along with Yuuto", Rias replied as she glanced at her first knight, who smiled proudly in return.

"Yes. I'm a devil now. I can't go back. No, maybe this was a good thing. Hmm, but since God is gone, my life was a failure. But serving under a devil who was once my enemy is… Even if she is a sister of a Maou…" Xenovia added in with her gaze down-casted in slight depression, since she would not be able to pray anymore.

Issei only nodded again. He chose to believe in his master, he knew that his master is not the type who thinks about small things. Besides, having a wielder of a holy sword of Duranda's calibre would definitely strengthen the group. But speaking of holy sword…

"Wait, if you're here, and Irina-chan went back to Vatican with the fragments… What about your Durandal, then? And your Excalibur Destruction?" Issei pointed out. "And is it even alright with you to betray the Church?"

"Excalibur fragments are important artefacts of the church. It's a given that I have to return my Excalibur as well. The shattered fragments from the battle can be reconstructed by alchemy into holy swords again… And unlike the Durandal, the Excalibur fragments still have other wielders that could be chosen. Having Durandal is enough for me. When I mentioned the absence of God to them, they became silent. So I became an outsider for knowing the absence of God. The Church hates outsiders and heresy very much. Even if that person is the wielder of Durandal, they will cut them off. Exactly the same way as the incident with Asia Argento", Xenovia replied as she laughed at herself.

Asia looked down in understanding at the kindred spirit, while Issei narrowed his eyes at the Church's extremities of dealing with their so-called heretics.

"Irina… She has a stronger faith than me. At first, I was afraid what would've happened to her when she found out about the truth, but it seems thanks to you she was able to hold up. She said that she wants to have an audience with the Archangels regarding that truth." Xenovia informed with narrowed eyes.

"Although she was still disappointed that I became a devil, since she would rather have me to stay in the church…"

Issei took in the information Xenovia gave him. He wondered how the angels would react at Irina's knowledge, considering of how the leaders of the Church had treated Xenovia when she knew about the truth.

After few moments of silence, Rias finally spoke up.

"Oh, yes. The Church have made contact with us devils. More precisely, the Maou talked about this incident. They said, 'We would like to make contact with you because of unclear and dishonest actions of the fallen-angels even though we feel unsatisfactory about this'. They also apologised about Valper because it was their mistake for letting him escape in the past."

The devils in the clubroom took in Rias' information of the Church's dissatisfaction. Issei took a mental note that there would likely be some sort of a meeting between leaders of the three factions in future.

"But still", Xenovia spoke up again. "This school is truly terrifying. Because there's not only one, but two sisters of the Maou attending this school." Xenovia said with a sigh.

Issei blinked at Xenovia's words. "Two?" Issei asked around the room.

"There's another high-class devil aside from me in this school, remember?" Rias said.

Issei racked his brain for a while. Another high-class devil. Then his eyes widened at the image of the student council president. The nod from Rias when he looked her way only confirmed his thoughts.

"Ah… Hahaha…" Issei gave a dry laugh.

For him, the news about the student council president being a sister of a devil king like his master was still less surprising than his long-lost father, but slightly more surprising than Xenovia becoming a devil in its own way. On the way to the old school building, Issei also realised that the damage from the battle against Kokabiel had been repaired, which he assumed was done by devils and people related to the Maou. Issei guessed it was not too much surprise considering there were two Maou's relatives handling everything about the school.

"The truth about this incident was sent to the God-side and the devils' side by the viceroy of the fallen-angels, Azazel. The theft of the Excalibur was an action taken by Kokabiel only. The other leaders didn't know about it. He planned to break the tension between the three sides. Because he tried to start another war, he was put in the Cocytus for eternity in a frozen state." Rias explained again to her peerage.

"But it ended thanks to Ise", Rias smiled proudly at her pawn. "Though the Grigori had planned to send out one of their own to stop Kokabiel…"

"Vanishing Dragon…" Issei added.

At the title mentioned, everyone else in the room remembered of the intimidating aura that Hakuryuukou had given during his appearance. There was no doubt that the current host of Vanishing Dragon would be at least as strong as the Sekiryuutei, Hyoudou Issei.

When the boy's thought tracked back to the figure in the white draconic armour, his mind remembered one of things the Hakuryuukou spoke about himself.

_You're soft my rival._

As well as Kokabiel's.

_Compared to Saitama… You're weak._

Issei's brows furrowed at the memory, but he quickly dismissed them.

"There would also be a meeting between the representatives of the angels, devils and Azazel. Apparently there is something Azazel wants to talk about. I heard that maybe Azazel would be apologizing about Kokabiel then. Though it's suspicious if Azazel would apologise."

"_So there will be a meeting…"_ Issei confirmed his suspicion at Rias' explanation.

However, Issei caught a glimpse of disgust in Rias' tone. The pawn assumed that Azazel, the fallen angel governor was someone not well-liked by everyone.

"We were also invited to that meeting. We have to report about the incident at the meeting because we were involved."

Issei blinked and he looked towards his master again. Ever since his 'trial' during his early days as a devil, and the bold 'proclamation' during the rating game against Riser Phenex, Issei had developed a sense of wariness towards a figure of authority. The boy was aware that the people in upper echelon could crush him with a simple word of order. Sure, he could just escape, but he was not sure if he was prepared enough to live as a fugitive, and in this case, a stray.

Everyone in the clubroom showed nervous expressions knowing that they would have to attend a meeting with important leaders.

Issei attempted to lighten up his nervousness by posing Xenovia a question.

"Say, Xenovia. The Vanishing Dragon belongs to the side of fallen angels, right?"

"That's right. Azazel is gathering Sacred Gear possessors who have a Longinus. I don't know what he is thinking, but it's definitely something not good. The Vanishing Dragon is the top fighter among them. I heard that he is the fourth or fifth strongest out of all the strong people there including the leaders of Grigori. And judging how he appeared in his balance-breaker form, it's safe to assume that he's as strong as you", Xenovia replied.

"I also heard… That the Hakuryuukou had achieved his balance-breaker when he was still around 10-11 years old."

Issei's eyes widened yet again at Xenovia's input. _"That young? I worked my ass off for over 7 years to achieve my own balance-breaker and that bastard mastered his balance-breaker earlier than me!?"_ Issei thought incredulously.

_**[Which means the host of white one has outclassed you in terms of his mastery over his Longinus. You better be careful, partner. Remember, there's just so many factors that can decide the victor of a battle]**_ Ddraig reminded him.

"_Yeah, thanks for the tips, Ddraig"_, Issei replied as he calmed down.

"…That's right", Xenovia said again, as this time she approached Asia. "I have to apologise to Asia Argento. I thoughtlessly judged you without knowing your suffering. Since God no longer exists, then the same goes with His love and blessing as well. I'm sorry, Asia Argento. Please hit me much as much as you want."

The blue-haired girl bowed his head before the blonde, like a Japanese would repent to someone. Asia looked troubled, while Issei could tell the steel expression on Xenovia's face. The boy could not help but smile a little at Xenovia's bluntness. He was aware that their first meeting was a rough one, but Issei admired that kind of earnestness displayed by the girl. The attitude of someone willing to admit their mistake when the situation demands it, truly a befitting of a knight. Issei could only admire such behaviour.

"No, I don't intend to do something like that, Xenovia-san…" Asia said after shaking her head slowly. "I'm enjoying my current lifestyle. Even though I'm a devil now, I met someone…" Asia took a glance at Issei and everyone in the clubroom. "People who are important to me. I am happy because of the place I live in now and the people I have met." Asia finished with a beautiful smile on her face.

That strong, yet kind attitude to forgive those who wronged her of the former nun, as well as the smile of which the beauty rivalled the Virgin Mary herself, was what Issei really liked about Asia as the boy smiled even wider.

Xenovia snorted with a sad smile on her face. "So only you and I are the only Christians that found out about the absence of God. I won't be able to say something like a divine punishment to you now. So a heretic huh? I was a holy sword user who was admired, but now a heretic huh. I can't forget about how their eyes and attitudes changed when they saw me…" Xenovia then started walking to the door.

"Then I'll take my leave now. There are still things I need to learn before I transferring to this school."

"U-Umm…!"

Asia stopped Xenovia before the latter could leave the room.

"This weekend Ise-san and I are going out to play with everyone. Do you want to join us, Xenovia-san?"

"_Eh?"_

Issei raised an eyebrow at Asia's invitation. Did they plan such a thing? When did they plan it? Issei's memory trailed back to the time when they were searching for the stolen Excalibur swords. He finally remembered that during his busy time in school, Kiryuu had once asked him and Asia to hang out on the weekend. When Issei was asked, due to his tension and thoughts over the holy swords, Issei simply dismissed them with 'yes, yes, I'll do it' without listening properly.

"_Ah, that's right… Kiryuu once asked about it, didn't she?"_ Issei inwardly smiled wryly.

Xenovia's eyes widened at Asia's kind offer. After what she did to her, the latter still wanted to befriend her. Xenovia then shook her head with bitter smile.

"I'm sorry, I'm not interested this time. However…"

"Yes?"

"Can you take me around the school next time?"

At Xenovia's request, Asia's face beamed in joy. "Yes, I'd love to!"

Everyone smiled at the exchange, things seemed were going to be fine between the former members of the Church. Then Xenovia turned to Yuuto.

"Kiba Yuuto, I swear in the name of my holy sword, Durandal. One day I would like to have a match with your holy-demonic sword."

"Alright, I won't loose next time", Yuuto replied with a confident smile.

Issei smiled again at Yuuto's expression. It looked like something had changed inside the male knight after the incident with Excalibur and Kokabiel. After Xenovia had left the room, Rias clapped her hands to gain everyone's attention.

"Alright, everyone! Now that everyone had returned, let's start club activity again!"

"YES!"

Everyone replied with energetic voice. That day, all of them laughed again.

X

By the time Rias, Issei and Asia returned home that night, they were greeted by Saitama at front of the house. The man was seen holding a bag of groceries in both of his hands.

"Oh, it's you guys. Welcome back", Saitama greeted.

Issei wanted to at least say something back, but whatever he wanted to say was forgotten when he got a look at Saitama's outfit. The man was wearing a long jeans, a pair of white sneakers, and what made Issei furrowed his eyebrows were a hoodie that Saitama wore as his top with a word 'oppai' printed on it, there was also a picture akin to woman's breasts under the word.

"Ah! Good evening, Saitama-san!" Asia greeted with a polite bow. Rias and Issei also followed suit with a nod.

"Yeah, Asia-chan, Ise, Ria-tan", Saitama casually nodded at Asia and addressed his son and his master.

Rias flinched at the name addressed to her, while Issei only gobsmacked and raised his eyebrows in surprise at his master's nickname. Rias cleared her throat as her face was flushed with embarrassment.

"Saitama-san… As I've been telling you for the past few days, please stop referring me with that name. My name is Rias…"

"Well… It's just ever since I stayed in touch with your brother, he kept telling me about you, you know. It's like he kept saying, 'Ria-tan this', 'Ria-tan that'. So… that name's already stuck in my head…" Saitama explained.

"Ugh… A-anyway, can you at least try to call me by my name, please?" Rias groaned with her face still flushed.

"Then… Rias-chan"

Rias would like to retort again at such a nickname from Saitama, but at least that one was not as childish as the way her brother addressed her in the past. So she would have to make do with this for now.

"Have you been wearing that shirt for the whole day?" Issei finally said as he pointed at Saitama's outfit.

"Yeah, what of it?" Saitama simply replied with indifferent expression.

"Does mom know about that?"

"Well, of course she does. This is what I bought with her during our first date, after all. I never thought your mom still keeps this all these years…"

Issei's jaw dropped and he looked around to see any neighbour or people to witness such an embarrassing outfit before he turned to Rias and Asia. The two girls only shook their heads with the former placed a hand on his shoulder, as if telling him just give up and let it go.

Issei only grumbled as he face-palmed. He made a mental note to do something about that disgrace of an outfit later.

"You know what? Let's just… Get in the house, please?" Issei asked in resignation, almost pleading.

As Issei strode into the house, the two girls with him only smiled awkwardly and Saitama only followed with unchanging expression behind them.

When the four got inside the house, they were greeted by Issei's mother, whose face remained beaming with joy ever since she found her husband had come home. After few greetings, Issei, Asia and Rias prepared themselves for dinner as they went to the bedrooms, and Issei took a glance back and saw that Haruka was standing on Saitama's way when the latter was about to go to the kitchen.

"Um…. Haruka? What is it?" Saitama stared at his wife.

Haruka did not say anything as she only held her face up, closed her eyes and puckered her lips. Saitama cringed slightly when he understood what his wife was implying.

"Uh… But there are kids here…" Saitama noticed that Issei was looking at them.

"Mm!" Haruka remained unmoving as she maintained her position.

Saitama always felt reluctant to comply at the particular request, but looking back to his experience so far, if he were to refuse his wife, things would get even more troublesome for him to handle. In the end, Saitama only sighed in resignation before he sent a look to Issei, which the latter grunted and reluctantly went upstairs. However, when Issei was about to turn at the corner, curiosity overcame him and the boy decided to crouch down and sneak a peek from the corner of the stairs. His eyes widened and narrowed as he was forced to sweat-drop at the sight of his father gave his wife a light 'I'm home' kiss.

"Good grief, those guys should just go get a room…" Issei grimaced in his mind.

_**[Come on, partner. They're married, remember? What's so weird about a little smooch once in a while?]**_

"I know, but-!" Issei was interrupted and gasped at the sight that almost made his eyes jumped out of their sockets.

Haruka pouted when Saitama retracted his face back. Saitama looked at his wife's pouting face, not knowing what did he do wrong. However, before he could have asked anything, his wife suddenly grabbed his head with both of her hands, and she lunged herself at him and crashed her lips even deeper with his. Saitama was about to retaliate, but with a reason that even he could not fathom, his other instinct slowly took over as his vision became black.

Issei dropped his jaw as his skin paled significantly at the display of affection between his parents. He could not believe to see that his father's arms slowly sneaked around his mother's waist to her back, pulling her closer to him. While the boy could only see his mother's back that was embraced by Saitama's body, Issei felt he would rather gouged out his own eye balls with a spoon than kept looking the make-out session of his parents, if the boy could even move after the shock.

Just before things could get even messier, Saitama managed to grasp his rationality and pushed his wife away, not too strong but enough to gain distance. He quickly shook his head to return to reality, then he saw Haruka's face was flushed in euphoria. Saitama took a deep breath and he flicked Haruka's forehead lightly. The woman let out a yelp and she was still giggling as she rubbed her sore spot.

"Put yourself together, woman", Saitama reprimanded. "Geez, even after all these years you still barely changed at all…"

"Fufufu, same goes to you. And what was that talking after you dare to leave me and Ise alone for all these years?" Haruka said playfully.

"Oi, I sent you cash to help every month, didn't I?"

"Yes, yes. That's why our son still believe that you haven't abandoned us…" Haruka then hugged her husband. "That child will never admit it, but he actually missed you so much, you know…" she whispered.

Saitama only sighed once again as he returned the hug for a second. Then his wife quickly let go her arms and sent a quick peck on his lips. "Just don't forget to make up with him, okay? Now, go and tidy yourself up. Dinner will be ready soon", Haruka said with a wink as she walked towards the kitchen.

Staring at the retreating back of his wife, Saitama let out a small groan as he buried his face in his hands. He looked up as he reminiscing about his past comrades.

"Good grief… Look at what I've become. Genos and the others would have laughed their asses off if they were to see how I'm doing now…"

Saitama had encountered and fought against numerous types of opponents. He faced the most heinous terrorists, the fiercest of mysterious beasts and monsters, the most advanced killing machines, master of martial-arts, psychics that can throw giant buildings and blow things up with their minds alone, powerful space warlords and aliens that had destroyed planets, even the forces of nature themselves. And against those opponents, Saitama reigned supreme with the power of his fist alone. However, ever since he came to this world, he encountered even more powerful people in their own ways. Some of them have the power to kill a god itself, the others have their ways to go around his defence, and one of them practically possesses infinite power. Yet Saitama still felt confident that he could take on those people if he were to go all out.

Then again, unexpectedly for him, of all things it was a single woman that actually managed to 'dominate' over him, and the strangest thing was that he ended up willing to do anything to spend the rest of his life with her. Yes, that woman was the one who had become his wife, Hyoudou Haruka.

Saitama scoffed with a small smile at the thought and he levelled his sight again, then, his eyes met with Issei's who was still peeking out from the corner of the stairs. The look of the boy was that of an absolute horror, as his eyes wide, his lower jaw remained hanging, and his face was pale-white. The two males kept staring for a moment, with Issei's mind had shut down since the 'make-out' session had begun. After a minute, Saitama cleared his throat, looked around and just walked off to his room downstairs, leaving his son to his own device.

Issei remained unmoving in his position for several more minutes until the dragon inside him started to feel worried.

_**[Partner? …Partner, are you there?]**_

…

_**[Hellooo! Ddraig to Hyoudou Issei!?]**_

Issei did not say anything as his mind had completely shut down from the shock.

"Ise, what's wrong?"

"Ise-san?"

Rias and Asia came out from the rooms and they found Issei was crouching on the staircases with his face lost its colour and his mouth wide open, his eyes spoke as if he just witnessed something hideous.

X

It took several good minutes of snapping Issei back from his stupor until Rias had to resort to smack Issei's head with her demonic-enhanced arm. Although Issei's face remained shell-shocked even when his body finally moved to do his current chores to clean himself.

And currently, if the atmosphere was tensed enough during lunch, the atmosphere during dinner could only be described as… awkward and hostile. The hostility actually came from Issei who was glaring daggers at Saitama, who kept avoiding his son's eyes to his food instead. The girls who were looking at the spectacle could not help but confused. Issei only glared at Saitama without touching his dinner at all. Even Haruka could tell that she had to do something to help her son to reconcile with her husband.

"Ise, your food is getting cold", Haruka reminded her son.

Issei did not say anything and he picked up his chopstick and started eating, while he kept his glare on his father.

Haruka turned to look at Rias and Asia with a look that asked what was going on. The two girls however, only shrugged and shook their heads as they did not know what happened either.

On the other hand, Saitama just had no idea what he had gotten himself into.

"_What a pain… Is this about earlier? I was the victim earlier, right?" _

Saitama glanced at the girls, requesting 'back up'. The women glanced at each other, seeking for solution, a topic that could break the ice.

"Um!" Rias decide to take the initiative. "How's your day, Saitama-san? Haruka-san?"

"Oh, it's wonderful, Rias-chan", Haruka was thankful for the topic Rias brought up. "And didn't I tell you and Asia-chan to address me as 'mother'? You two can call my husband as 'father' as well, isn't that right, dear?" Haruka turned to her husband.

Saitama decided to play along. It was better than nothing, after all.

"Y-yeah, right. Man, Ise… You're really doing a good job giving us daughters. I never thought you have it in you, kid."

Listening to the conversation and the words from his parents, Issei blinked and his face turned flush slightly. "I… I didn't do it for you, okay? I just did it to help them, and mom seemed so happy about it…" Issei turned away.

"_Good! His mood lightened up!"_

"Fufufu, these past few days had been so great. I got new members for the family, my husband came home, and I got my workload reduced since I have my husband here to share the work! Not to mention, I really missed his presence so much…" Haruka got carried away with her words.

"Yeah… Sure it's good to spend more time with him, eh?" Issei's tone sounded hostile once again as he returned his glare at his father.

Rias and Asia sighed in disappointment as Issei got moody again.

"_Seriously, why me!?"_

Saitama narrowed his eyes at his wife after he complained inwardly, whom actually did not know what made her son being grumpy in the first place. Her words that reminded Issei of the married couple's earlier make-out session were purely accidental.

"Anyway", the Hyoudou matriarch spoke up, gaining the attention of everyone again. "Tell me, how are your days and your club activities? My husband also told me that you kids had some kind of a match when you went for your club field-trip."

At the question, everyone's eyes shot up. What Haruka mentioned was definitely about their training camp and the rating game with Riser Phenex. The three devils then turned their gazes to Saitama, who was glancing at his wife as well. Apparently, Haruka had chosen an unexpected topic.

"Hm? What's with that look?" suddenly, everyone's eyes returned to Haruka, who remained calm.

"Um… Haruka-san, about that field trip and game…"

"Call me mother, and you don't need to hide it, Rias-chan…" Haruka interrupted softly. Her eyes closed for a moment before she opened them calmly. "I always know, that you girls are more than meets the eye and my son is also a part of your world", Haruka said with kind face.

Rias, Asia and Issei were not sure what to say or do at that point as their gaze darted around in guilt for concealing the truth.

"It's fine", Haruka's next words pulled the devils attention back to her. "Ever since I met my husband, I've been aware that there's a hidden side world that I can't ever go to, the world where my husband always fight for what he believes in", Haruka placed her hand on her husband's, resulting Saitama's look at his wife to soften.

"I don't care who or what you are, I won't pry and will respect your privacy. But please…" Haruka looked straight into Rias and Asia's eyes. "Take care of my son."

"Mom…"

Issei was touched by his mother's words of understanding. Rias and Asia could not help but admire the maturity of Issei's mother.

"Don't need to worry, mother", Rias replied with determined smile. "Ise is a part of my family too. I'll never let anything bad happen to him."

"I-I also will take care of Ise-san. He's my friend, after all!"

"Thank you… It means so much to me", Haruka finished with her genuine smile. "Now then, tell me in a bit more detail how's my son doing in that game", Haruka leaned in towards the girls with excitement.

Rias, Asia and Issei was still believe that it was unnecessary to tell Haruka about the violent part, so they decided to describe the game more like a sport competition rather than a mock war. Of course, they skipped the part where Issei shouted out his bold proclamation. As Issei got embarrassed being hailed as the key to the victory and the champion of Gremory, the heavy atmosphere from earlier was completely forgotten. Saitama could only impressed at the turn out of events.

"_Changing the tides of the atmosphere with such approach of having conversation… As expected of Haruka!"_ Saitama nodded as his respect and admiration to his wife increased by folds.

Thinking that the coast was clear, Saitama decided to join the talk.

"I've watched the recording of your game with your brother, Rias-chan", Saitama chided in, receiving a look from the others. "And you did well in there, Ise…"

At his father's words, Issei's cheek gained a faint shade of pink as he looked away. "Well… I did it for the sake of my master and my friends, I didn't do it for you or anything…"

The three females of the house could not help but amused at Issei's reaction. While Haruka was glad that her husband and son were starting to get closer, Rias and Asia felt that they just found another side of Issei that they never knew of.

However, Issei suddenly frozen and he turned to Saitama with dreaded look.

"W-wait a second", Issei's voice became shaky. "If you've watched the recording… Does it mean that you saw _everything_?"

Rias and Asia also frozen for a second at Issei's question before their expression turned to a dreaded realisation as well. Haruka on the other hand, only got curious at the question.

"Yep, every single event. In fact, I got my favourite part saved in here", Saitama picked out a cell-phone and he played a voice recorder.

"**RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME!"**

The three devils gobsmacked at Issei's voice recorded during their first rating game, while Haruka covered her mouth to supress her gasp at her son's voice from the recording. Asia's eyes got teary as she recalled Issei's 'proposal' to Rias, while the mentioned two's faces were burning red.

Ddraig did not bother to hider his amusement as he roared in laughter in Issei's mindscape.

"I never got bored whenever I heard this part with Sirzechs. Seriously, kid… You really made my day that time", Saitama said in amusement.

However, Saitama's musing was interrupted when Issei's chopsticks broke from the boy's hands as he slammed the table when he stood up.

"Dad…" Issei said in a dark tone. "I won't say this again… Delete that recording now…." He said with his fuming face. The boy was at the verge of going berserk.

"Eh?"

Saitama had not realised that he just made a bad move. He looked around to see Rias and Asia were looking at him with less intense gaze, but their expressions were demanding the same thing as Issei.

"Ise…"

Suddenly, Haruka's voice made Issei flinched and the boy turned his head mechanically as he expected at least an upset look from his mother. However, he got the exact opposite instead.

Haruka's eyes were glittering and her face had a proud smile on it. She stuck her thumb out and said the words that probably would hurt Issei's conscience.

"Good job."

GYAAAARGHH!

At the two words, Issei finally snapped as a scream of frustration echoed from Hyoudou residence, followed by sounds of the panicking girls, clattering and couple of shattering noises as the dinner turned into a brawl between father and son. The result of the chaos was never brought up, but at that night, Rias and Haruka had to apologise to the neighbouring houses for the ruckus the males of the house had caused.

X

"…**Remember day we dreamt, and it's painful for me. I could see your face, I could hear your voice…~"**

Inside a karaoke box, Issei just finished singing the song 'Reluctant Heroes' while Matsuda and Motohama kept booing him, demanding to switch with them, Kiryuu and Asia just cheered for him, Koneko was focusing more on the snacks and food on the table, and Yuuto just sipped his coffee elegantly. The next day after the chaotic dinner was the weekend where Issei, Asia, and apparently Yuuto and Koneko as well, were going to hang out with Matsuda, Motohama, and Kiryuu. After spending half of the day playing bowling, shopping, getting Asia to wear a gothic-lolita outfit in courtesy of Kiryuu, which Issei somewhat ended up appreciating it, they decided to spend the rest of the day by singing and relaxing in a karaoke box. Issei wanted to invite Saji as well, considering the hang out session to be as well as a celebration for Search and Destroy party during Excalibur fiasco, but the other guy said that he was forbidden by Sona to play around with opposite sex, much to Saji's dismay. Issei came to pity his fellow pawn for his amount of work and discipline.

Motohama and Matsuda started a duet as Issei returned to his seat. He dropped his shoulders as he still felt exhausted from last night. Never in his life he had been so exhausted before, right after sleeping for several days, and he had already exhausted again after not even 24 hours had past. And Issei blamed all of it on his father. He looked around and found that neither Asia, Koneko or Yuuto had sung yet. When Issei was about to persuade at least one of the three to sing, his cell-phone rang out and he looked at the screen. It was a message from Rias.

'_Currently picking a swimsuit. I will choose the one that you will like' _

The message also had a heart mark at the end. Issei pondered for a moment. His master mentioned in the morning that she had her own plans with Akeno that day. But the question for him was, if they were shopping for swimsuits, why would they bother to match his taste? Issei would prefer those girls to pick the swimsuits of their own taste.

Then, when Issei chose to take a sip of his soft drink, a photo was sent to his cell-phone.

PFFT…!

Issei spit out his drink again as his eyes bulged out when he saw the content of the picture. Apparently it was a photo of Rias and Akeno in their choice of swimsuits in the changing room, and the two girls were using rather erotic poses.

"Ise-kun? Are you okay?"

Yuuto's voice caused Issei to immediately hide his cell-phone and he quickly turned towards the pretty boy.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, Kiba."

"Are you sure? Your face is red…"

Just as Yuuto said Issei felt his face rather hot.

"W-well… I guess I sang too much earlier? Hahaha…"

"Ise-senpai, are you perhaps having lewd thoughts?" Koneko asked this time.

Issei frantically shook his head.

"Dear, no, no, no, no. Why would I think of that?"

"Because there's blood dripping from your nose", Koneko pointed out with stoic, judging face.

Issei touched his nose, and he did spot a blood.

"Ahahaha, it seemed the wound from my dad last time was acting up again. Don't worry about it…"

"Ise-san, if you're wounded you should've told me. I'll take care of it immediately!" Asia added as she noticed Issei's predicament.

"Say, Hyoudou-kun… I saw the size of your crotch is…" Kiryuu chided in with her lewd expression, which only made things worse for Issei.

"I'll be in the washroom! Later!" Issei immediately got up and ran out from the karaoke room, leaving the others with their questions unanswered.

"Suspicious…" was all Koneko commented after Issei left the room.

Outside of the room, Issei made sure that nobody was following him, and he took another look at his cell-phone again. Unknown to Issei, day by day he got more and more interested of women's body, especially if it involved his master and girls from his group. However, Issei always tried his best to hold down his teenage hormone and keep himself together. Having named as a pervert would be bad enough for him, and he was sure as hell did not want to imagine what his father would comment about it.

But again in the end, Issei still chose to save the sexy picture of his master, as well as his queen into his memory card and continued his stride to the washroom to cool off his head.

When Issei got out from the washroom, he found Yuuto was sitting on the nearby chair outside their booked room. Raising his eyebrows, Issei approached the knight.

"'Sup, Kiba?"

"Ise-kun", Yuuto nodded at Issei.

"Why are you outside? Did something happen there?" Issei asked as he looked at the room's door.

Yuuto seemed to think for a moment before he simply shrugged.

"Yes, you can say that something did happen."

Issei took a seat next to the knight and he released a deep sigh as his body leaned forward and he rested his arms on his lap.

"Something's been bothering you, correct?" Yuuto asked.

Issei took a glance at the knight who was looking at him.

"Nah, everything's fine. Just tired…" Issei waved off.

"You know, I've been meaning to give you my gratitude", Yuuto's next words made Issei looked up at the knight. "Thank you", Yuuto said bowing his head slightly.

"Don't mind about it, everyone had forgiven you, after all", Issei replied with a smile. "We're a team, remember? Don't forget, Kiba. If you got yourself in a deep trouble, just shout out and I, and everyone else will rush to aid you. And in return… I'll expect the same thing from you, okay?" Issei said with a playful grin.

"Ise-kun…"

"Oi, oi… What's with those tears? You're a man! Man up!" Issei sent few jabs on Yuuto's shoulder. The knight simply chuckled as he wiped his tears away.

After they laughed together for few moments, they fell again into comfortable silence.

"So, mind telling me what's bothering you?"

Issei glanced again at Yuuto, whom kept his eyes at the blank space before him.

"I told you I'm fine, didn't I?"

"Well… It's up to you, I don't even know if I can help. But I'm more than happy to listen, you know?" Yuuto glanced back at Issei.

The two boys stared at each other for a moment, until Issei let out a sigh.

"Well, I guess… I'm just so exhausting in such a short time…."

"Is this about your father?" Yuuto raised one of his eyebrows.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Everyone else in the club are aware, you know. After all, your reunion with him didn't end with a good impression."

Issei sighed again at the fact. "Imagine, Kiba…" he started.

"You're asleep for 3 days, you woke up, and at the end of that same day, you already felt as if your life had been drained out of you?"

Issei recalled back the events he went through ever since his father came home. There surely were one or two events that Issei would rather forget.

"Whoa, that must be hard…" Yuuto commented in understanding.

"You have no idea, my friend…" Issei shook his head in resignation.

"…So? How are things with your father now?"

"Well, for now he helps my mom with house chores, watches over the house, there's still nothing notable, actually", Issei shrugged. "Although his attitude pisses me off…" Issei clenched his fist at the part.

"But still…" Yuuto interjected. "Isn't it good to have your family whole again?"

"Of course it's good! I mean, my mom's so ecstatic about it."

"Well, are you?"

Issei blinked and he turned to see Yuuto was looking right into his eyes.

"Are you happy that your father came home?"

Issei pondered for a moment, his head darted around, and he finally ran his hand through his hair as his face gained a faint shade of red.

"Well…" Issei covered the lower half of his face. "I'm… happy, kind of…"

At this point, Yuuto blinked as he just saw an unexpected side of his friend. He usually found Issei to be rather collected, but seeing him flustered was really new to him.

"Still, though!" Issei said again. "Everything just happened so sudden! I'd been planning to set a trip to find him, and suddenly he just fell down from the sky in front of you? Who could've seen that coming!?" Issei complained.

"And another thing, knocking your daylights out for 3 days is definitely not something you'll expect from your long-lost relative."

Yuuto's mouth opened in 'o' shape before he nodded.

"You… have a point there, actually", then Yuuto giggled, receiving a look from Issei. "Anyway, with all things being said and done, you just have to take your time, right?"

Issei raised his eyebrows as Yuuto placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I… might not know anything about your circumstances, since I don't have a parent. But I guess because of that, I'm going to say this; your father has returned here. You should cherish him while you still can."

Issei looked away in contemplation. "Well… I guess I can give it a shot… It's just that… He kind of annoys me in more ways than one…"

Yuuto laughed lightly at Issei's words. "Hahaha, like I said, take your time. In fact, if you ever need help, I got your back. Everyone from the club are also willing to help too."

Issei could not help but snort at Yuuto's encouragement. "You know, Asia just told me about the same thing yesterday", Issei raised up his fist, which Yuuto responded in kind before they bumped them together. "Thanks, Kiba."

"No, it's the least I can do after what you've done for me."

Then both of them laughed again for a moment before they decided to join the others back in the karaoke.

X

It was later in evening, the sky had dyed in orange shade as the sun began to set.

"Did you have fun, Asia?" Issei said as he and Asia side by side to their home.

Asia was still wearing the gothic-lolita outfit that Kiryuu bought for her, which Issei still found really cute on her. Both of them were holding a shopping bag with souvenirs and clothes.

"Yes, today was so much fun, Ise-san!" Asia replied cheerfully. "Um… Are you alright, now? You seemed a bit down earlier…" then Asia's face turned bitter.

"Yeah, I'm fine now, Asia…" Issei said as he caressed Asia's head, much to the girl's pleasure. "Ah, ojou-sama!"

Right on cue, Issei and Asia saw Rias who was holding a small shopping bag, presumably a swimsuit that she picked out earlier.

"Ise, Asia. Are you guys done with your hang-out today?"

"Yes! Ise and I were having so much fun with Kiba-san, Koneko-chan and everyone else! We also bought bunch of things!" Asia gestured her shopping bag.

"Ufufu, glad that you're having fun. Let's go home now, shall we?" Rias started to walk, prompting the other two to follow her. The three walked with Issei between the two girls.

On the way, Rias leaned in and whisper to Issei's ears. "Wait until I show you my swimsuit…" Rias said with sensual tone, which made Issei swallowed a lump with flushed face.

The rest of the way went normally. Asia asked Issei about his flushed face, Issei denied nervously, etc. By the time they finished chatting, they had already arrived at Hyoudou residence.

"Come on in, I'm actually starving for dinner", Issei went inside the house followed by the girls.

Once inside, Issei put off his shoes and he quickly strode to the living room.

"Mom, I'm ho-!"

Issei's greeting was died down at the sight that would forever remain at the depth of his mind. He dropped his shopping bag to the floor, colours were drained from his skin, his eyes shot up open, and his jaw dropped to the floor. He wanted to scream, to yell, but his throat felt so dry all of a sudden as there was no voice coming out.

Even Ddraig in Issei's mind could not help but being shocked as well.

_**[Holy crap…]**_

Saitama was sitting on the couch, with his wife straddling on his lap. A trail of saliva could be seen between their mouths as Haruka's flushed face was only few centimeters away from her husband's. The Hyoudou matriarch's blouse was already half opened revealing her shoulders, her usual ponytail hair had been undone, and her hands were about to rip open Saitama's T-shirt. In summary, it was a very compromising position.

Rias and Asia who wondered about what happened had differing reactions when they came upon the sight of dishevelled state of the married couple. Both of their faces flushed red immediately as Rias quickly covered Asia's eyes to see more, though it was already too late for that.

"Oh, dear… It seems we took our time too long…" Haruka simply giggled with almost no sign of remorse or shame on her face.

"Dammit, woman. This is why I told you it's a bad idea!" Saitama said with exasperated tone as he leaned back in resignation. Even all of this was too tiresome for a man of Saitama's calibre.

Rias only let out a deep sigh at the parents antic, Asia's body was trembling as she tried her best not to cry in panic by putting her hands on her mouth, while Issei was still pointing his trembling finger and looked around between the girls and his parents, his eyes still shot open and his mouth was moving incoherently, his voice died in his throat, and cold sweat was pouring down on his face.

"Uh… Ah…. Haa….."

After muttering in despair, Issei finally could only do one thing at such occasion: shamelessly collapsed to the floor and passed out, again.

"Ise/Ise-san!"

Later that night, for the sake of Issei's sanity, everyone in the house agreed to make the boy believes that everything he saw earlier was nothing but a nasty dream. Even Ddraig, who was not directly a part of the conversation decided to keep quiet as well.

_To be continued…_

**And… done! Please tell me what you think of this interlude. No flame, please. I'm begging you. Ahsoei, over and out! m(_ _)m**


	15. The Treaty (I)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello again, my dear readers! (^_^) It's been hectic days for me as my university is nearing its end of semester, but I shall preserve and write whenever I can! Without further ado, here's the opening for Kuoh Treaty arc! **

**Chapter 14: The Treaty (I) – Uprising**

Several days had past, and one morning Issei just woke up in his bed with his arms wrapping around Asia's almost naked body, as she only wore a pair of underwear. Issei's body froze up at the proximity he had with the former Holy Priestess, and he swallowed a lump along with his nervousness. Fortunately for him, the girl in question was still sleeping soundly, with an expression as if she was having a wonderful dream. The boy pulled his arms away carefully from Asia without waking her up, and once he made sure that his arms were no longer around her anymore, he sighed, only to be reminded again of another denizen whom ended up on the same bed with him last night.

Sweats started to form on his forehead, with his eyes widened in fear he carefully turned his head around to see his master's face who was really not amused. Rias however, quickly regained her composure and smiled lightly at her pawn.

"Good morning, Ise."

"Uh… Yeah… Good morning, ojou-sama…" Issei replied with nervous smile. "Um… This is…" Issei tried to explain about his current situation with the other blonde girl.

"Shh… Let's not wake her up, okay? You have to do your morning training, right?" Rias whispered, receiving an affirming nod from her pawn.

The two of them got out of bed carefully without making too much noise. After days of seduction, temptation and mental training, Issei finally managed to get used to the view of his nude master. As long as his master or other girls would not do anything too daring, Issei could just wave it off like everyday occurrence.

Rias was actually upset that her pawn did not end up embracing her like the last time when she moved into Hyoudou Residence. However, having a fit over things like this would only ruin her chance to be alone with the boy who she ended up falling for. Rias used to be the one to watch over Issei's morning training by herself, until Asia started to get used to wake up early to join the morning session as well, saying that she did not want to be left out like always. This time, while Rias did not really like to see Asia in Issei's arms for the whole night, there was a bright side. Having embraced by the person you like, you became more comfortable, thus slept more heavily.

As long as Rias remained collected and knew how to play her cards, she would be able to have more time with Issei alone, eventually leading her to have more of his attention. After all, all is fair in war and love.

However, things would never go as you wanted. Just when Rias thought that she finally could have Issei for herself for that morning, they were met with a sight of three familiar people, clad in jerseys like their own, were waiting outside of the house. The said people were a girl with blue hair, a boy with blonde hair and handsome face, and the other was a little girl with short white hair.

"Good morning, Rias-buchou, Hyoudou Issei."

"Good morning, buchou, Ise-kun."

"Good morning, buchou, Ise-senpai."

Xenovia, Kiba Yuuto, and Toujou Koneko sent their morning greetings.

Issei blinked at the three. "Uh… Good morning, guys. What are you all doing here?"

Looking at her knights and rook's attire, Rias inwardly sighed in disappointment as she had a hunch what the three were implying.

_(Scene Break)_

"So you've been doing this since childhood? No wonder you've already pretty strong when you joined us",

Yuuto, along with Koneko and Xenovia, was running behind Issei whom also was running ahead with a giant boulder mounted by Rias strapped on his back.

"Yeah, the fruits of this training really came in handy", Issei said with a grin.

"But this kind of training is so simple…" Koneko commented.

"It never hurts to go back to basics, Koneko", Xenovia quipped in. "In fact, most of sports activities, even martial arts start from running, building up your stamina is vital, after all."

"But still, I guess with our devil-hood this kind of training would be too easy", Issei pondered. "So let's take the detour to train more over that hill, shall we? I remember there's a clearing that we can use", Issei said pointing at a hill at the outskirts of the town.

Rias on the other hand, only sat on the boulder on Issei's back while making a troubled expression. Rias actually admired her knights and rook's will to get stronger, but she could not help but felt disappointed that the three ended up interrupting her quality time alone with her pawn.

"_Just when I got a chance to be alone with him…"_

Everyone nodded in agreement, while Rias only sighed slightly. Issei glanced at Yuuto who tampered with his cell-phone while running.

"Kiba, what are you doing?"

Yuuto put his cell-phone back to his pocket and looked back at Issei.

"Ah, actually I also invited Akeno-san earlier, and she said she will catch up with us after preparing some treats. I just texted her the venue of our training."

"And she's coming too…"

Issei took a glance upwards to his master, feeling that he heard something.

"Ojou-sama? Did you say something?"

"No, nothing", Rias denied with a small huff. "And is it just me, or you're getting slower? If you're training you shouldn't slacking off like this. Go faster!" Rias vented a bit of her frustration.

"Y-yeah!" Issei picked up his speed as he was surprised at his master's sudden outburst.

Yuuto, Xenovia and Koneko, who were oblivious, picked up their pace as well to keep up with Issei.

_(Scene Break)_

The venue of the morning training, a wide clearing of grass in the middle of forest region of the town, and the training/spar between Issei, Yuuto, Xenovia and Koneko in summary: The former beat down the latter three almost mercilessly. While the past fights and battles had made them stronger, but the difference was still too distinctive. Koneko might not had too much growth, but she still grown stronger since the battle with Kokabiel. Yuuto had gained his own Balance Breaker, Xenovia was trying to get more feeling of her Durandal, but Issei's power had leapt even further than them. The pawn could tell that the knights and the rook had gotten stronger, given that Issei had to step up his game compared during their spar in the training camp, but Issei still managed to defeat both of them, either on one on one even in 3 vs 1 without too much effort. In the end, Issei acted as a mentor for the three while Rias only stood on the side-line as a supervisor.

Akeno came later on, clad in jerseys like the other three, with a picnic basket and a thermos in her hands. The queen ended up having Rias as her sparring partner, and sometimes each of the devils will switch their partners to measure each other growth over past few days.

In the end, Issei was still the strongest overall compared with the others. The others had indeed gotten stronger, but the same goes to him. Exhausted, everyone sat together under a tree at the edge of the clearing.

"Everyone had gotten stronger."

Issei said as he wiped off his sweat. Everyone else had worked out quite a sweat, but Issei was the only one who looked the least exhausted compared to the others.

"Thanks", Yuuto said while trying to regain his own breath. "But we're still so far from you."

"Nothing betrays hard work, Kiba", Issei replied, with Xenovia and Koneko nodded in agreement. "Someday you guys will be able to beat me, but I won't make it easy for you, either", he finished with a grin.

The others smiled back at Issei's words. Then Akeno decided to bring up the refreshments. However, suddenly Issei felt someone else arrived at their place. Turning his eyes towards another edge of the clearing, a man with a bald head, clad in plain white T-shirt and a jersey pants came out from the trees with a girl with blonde hair sitting on his shoulder. The girl was wearing her own set of jerseys and bringing a thermos bottle.

"You…" Issei widened his eyes for a second before narrowed them at the sight of the man. His voice sounded annoyed rather than surprised for a second.

However, before Issei could have finished, Xenovia beat him first when she set her eyes on the blonde girl who jumped down from the man's shoulder.

"Asia! Saitama-dono!"

The others stood up at the Saitama's arrival with Asia, with Akeno had somewhat conflicted expression, but she quickly replaced it with neutral one before anyone could notice.

"Thank you very much, Saitama-san", Asia bowed down politely to Saitama, whom nodded in reply before she turned towards Issei and the rest of the gang.

"You're so mean, Ise-san! Buchou-san too… Leaving me alone in the house…" Asia said with teary-eyes.

The girl approached the group rather hastily, with Saitama followed with slower pace behind her. After few quick greeting and apology with her, Issei's eyes laid on Saitama while Asia conversed with the others and offering the thermos that contained barley tea. For some reasons, Issei still felt somewhat annoyed when he saw his father.

Saitama only looked back at Issei with his poker-face expression.

"…What?"

"Nothing…"

Issei huffed as he looked away.

Before the situation could have gone any further; Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko walked up passed Issei towards Saitama. Koneko, however, appeared to be on the edge when she followed Akeno and Yuuto from behind.

"Good morning", Akeno was the one to take the initiative as she mustered the best smile she could get. Fortunately, her expression was enough to be called pleasant.

"We haven't known each other properly before, have we? My name is Himejima Akeno, a devil, and your son's senpai from Kuoh Academy. It's nice to meet you, Saitama-san."

Then Yuuto and Koneko also gave a light bow and introduced themselves.

"I'm Kiba Yuuto, Ise-kun's friend, also a devil. It's a pleasure to meet you, Saitama-san."

"… Toujou Koneko… Nice to meet you…"

As a matter of fact, Koneko almost stuttered and was sweating a bit more than before, there was also a hint of fear in her voice. However, she did well on putting up a polite and fearless front.

"Yeah, nice to meet ya all." Saitama returned the courtesy with a nod before he turned to Akeno.

"Yes?" Akeno asked with a small tilt of her head, noticing Saitama's eyes on her.

"No… It's just that I've heard your name somewhere before…" Saitama rubbed his chin. Few seconds later, he put his fist on top of his palm.

"Ah, I remember now. So you're Baraqiel's girl, right?"

Akeno flinched at the word, her hands clutching together so tight for a second, her lips twitched downward as she tried to control her emotion.

"… Yes, I'm… His daughter", Akeno said as neutrally as she could muster.

She wanted to at least thank him properly for saving her in the past, but hearing Issei's story about him reminded her of bad memories about a certain man.

Issei noticed the change on his senpai's face, while the others seemed troubled about what to make out of the current mood.

"How did you know Akeno-san's father?" Issei asked, as the boy also had a slight curiosity about his father's acquaintance.

"Well… We've been drinking buddies ever since we first met at Azazel's place", Saitama replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah, about that. How did you know someone like Azazel in the first place?" Issei pointed out.

Saitama rolled his eyes before replying.

"Basically… He treated me dinner back in somewhere in China… Was it Shanghai? Beijing…? Anyway, we've been keeping in touch ever since."

"And what were you doing at… Ugh, you know what? I don't care anymore", Issei shook his head and held his hands up in resignation.

"But still, an errand boy? You've been a Grigori's errand boy all this time?" Issei asked again.

"Who said I'm an errand boy?" Saitama denied. "I'd rather to be called a Jack of All Trades! Well, most of the jobs came from Azazel, though…"

"That's basically what an errand boy is!" Issei retorted harshly.

"Well, this errand boy had been working hard for your sorry little ass! And for your information, I used to be a hero, you know? Helping people is part of my job!"

"Ha! Hero!? Then what's your stage-name? The Caped Baldy? The Bald Errand Boy!?"

"Why you…!" At this point, Issei and Saitama were casually glaring at each other and clashing their foreheads together.

The quarrel between Issei and Saitama somehow managed to levitate the heavy atmosphere as the others started to smile awkwardly and giggled.

"Now, now…" Rias decided to be the peacemaker. "The sun is starting to get higher and we don't want to be late for school, do we? Let's have breakfast and go back."

The others nodded their heads in compliance, except Issei. When everyone were preparing to eat, Issei only stared at Saitama again, which the latter noticed by staring back.

"Ah Saitama-san, would you like to…"

Whatever Asia was about to say was cut-off when the girl noticed another tension between father and son.

"Say, dad…" Issei asked in neutral tone. "Wanna spar before we eat?"

"Ise!" Rias said in slight reprimanding tone.

"It's alright, ojou-sama", Issei glanced at his master before turning back to his father, whom raised an eyebrow, presumably at how Issei addressed Rias. "Whoever drew the first hit wins."

Others turned their gazes at Saitama who seemed to regard his son's challenge coolly. The wind blew between them, and after few moments of thinking and looking at Issei's eyes, Saitama released a small sigh and rubbed his head.

"Fine."

The others' eyes wide opened with few gasps, while Issei's body tensed and tightened his fists.

"But just one hit, okay?" Saitama said as he walked more towards the centre of the clearing, followed by Issei.

As father and son stood facing each other again, the others were reminded of the outcome of the previous stand-off. Rias and Asia could only hope that things would not go as bad as the last time. The others only silenced once again as the match began to unfold.

Issei, Boosted Gear at hand, and Saitama only stood on their position for a minute, and when a nearby bird flew from a tree, the sound of flapping wings was the cue that the match had begun.

**[Boost!]**

Issei immediately vanished from the spot, leaving a small crater from the force of his legs.

"Ise-kun went full speed right away!" Yuuto muttered in comment.

The others also impressed that Issei had moved even faster than during training earlier. Issei as a matter of fact however, could not afford to go all out since he did not want to deal any more collateral damage, so he had to refrain himself from using his Scale Mail or some of his more destructive attacks. And since the rule only said about first hit, Issei decided to keep moving while looking for opening.

**[Boost!]**

Another 10 seconds had past, but it felt much longer for everyone as Issei kept moving around Saitama at high speed while the latter simply stood his ground. Even after another 10 seconds, Issei with his further boosted speed and strength still maintained his actions without attempting any attack whatsoever.

"_What the hell's with this guy?"_ Issei started to feel frustrated. _"All he's doing is standing there… But I can't find any opening!"_

Some of the spectators swallowed a lump in nervousness, waiting for any party to make another move.

Tempted by the urge to attack, Issei finally made a decision to do something bold: charged straight from Saitama's left side. However, when Issei had almost closed the distance…

"Okay, kid. You're gonna be late for school if this keeps up", Saitama suddenly said and turned his head to look straight at Issei's direction.

Issei's eyes shot open in surprise.

"_What-! He's been following my movement all this time!?"_ Issei reflexively skid on the ground to stop, but the distance was already closed enough for Saitama to launch his left jab.

Not being able to stop completely, Issei clicked his tongue and chose to jump over to dodge. However, just when Issei reached a certain height from his jump, Saitama's fist managed to make a contact at Issei's lower region.

THUD!

Saitama had reduced a great deal of power in his fist so his son would not pass out like last time. After all, being berated by his wife was bad enough for him. But still, his punch this time was still strong enough to make Issei's eyes shot open and made a pained expression.

That morning, a cry of pain and agony echoed through out the hill, startling the birds to fly away from the forest.

X

"Dear, it would be unpleasant if Ise were not able to give me a grandchild…"

Haruka said with a smile that seemed to be too sweet, considering a dark aura surrounding him as she sat on the dining room chair with Saitama across her, sitting with his head hung low.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I'll reflect on my actions…" Saitama said with the sincerest tone he could muster.

However, in his mind, Saitama contemplating about how things turned out to be like this. He admitted that he was the one who had done the hit, but in the end, when your son was the one who started it all, what could he do or expect at such circumstances? But still, from experience Saitama had learned from living with his wife, the best course of action now is to never go against Hyoudou Haruka, especially if things were not in your favour from the start.

Meanwhile, Issei and devils from Occult Research Club were having breakfast together living room, since the table in dining room was not big enough to accommodate the guests who decided to come along since they were also worried of Issei's condition after his 'vital' was hit by Saitama. Issei and Yuuto chose to sit on the carpet set while the girls took a seat on the couches, with breakfast served on the table.

Issei, sat with crossed legs, was having a pack of ice resting exactly on his crotch, the area where Saitama accidentally struck him. While the boy glad that both of them were still there and intact, the pain still remained and Asia's Twilight Healing could not do much about the pain.

"So… How is it? Are those still there?" Yuuto asked Issei as he ate his portion of breakfast.

Issei moved the icepack away and rubbed the cloth of his pants that covers his 'jewels'.

"Yeah, fortunately they're still attached well", Issei replied with relieved tone.

The girls only giggled in awkwardness. Since they were girls, they could not really fathom what kind of pain Issei was going through. They only knew that it hurt a lot.

"Oh, Rias-chan!"

The girl in question turned her head to Hyoudou matriarch, whose face was beaming.

"Thank you so much for the contact you gave me the other day! He is such a wonderful child!"

"Fufufu, glad for him to be of service… Please don't hesitate to contact him whenever you're in need, okay?" Rias replied with a pleasant, satisfied smile.

Seeing the interactions between two women, Issei became intrigued.

"Ojou-sama? What are you talking about with mom?" Issei asked.

"Ah, do you remember about my other bishop?"

Issei nodded and the others who were considered as new in the peerage were paying attention as well.

"Your mother once told me that she tends to get lonely at home, so I decided to recommend my bishop to be her talking partner. My bishop was kind of shy, but he has been doing excellent jobs through his computer, and he didn't seem to have much problem on socializing though internet…" the Gremory king explained.

"And his blog forum is so cute! I really had a good time talking with him", Haruka chipped in.

"Right, come to think of it… This is the first time that there's another bishop besides Asia here", Xenovia voiced her thoughts.

"And speaking of, when will you going to introduce him to us?" Issei added his two cents.

"I know that I've said that I'll introduce you to him... But unfortunately, it's not the time yet. So can you wait a little longer, please?" Rias replied with an apologetic look.

Issei, Asia and Xenovia looked at each other, but then they shrugged as they chose to obey for now.

_(Scene Break)_

"Well, we'll be going ahead. We'll see you all again at school",

Rias, who already clad in her school uniform along with Issei and Asia, spoke to the others who wanted to make a quick visit to their homes to prepare themselves.

They turned to see Saitama and Haruka who were sending them off.

"We'll see you later, Haruka-san, Saitama-san!" Asia said with a bow.

Haruka only giggled with her hand covering her mouth.

"Ufufu, Asia-chan… I told you to call us father and mother, didn't I?"

"I-I'm sorry! …Father and… mother…" Asia said meekly with flushed face.

Haruka giggled even more, while Saitama let out a faint smile while sighing through his nose, as he extended his hand to ruffle on Asia's head, much to the girl's embarrassment.

However, Issei on the other hand was showing a slight anxious face.

"Ise? What's wrong?" Haruka turned to her son.

"Well, it's just…" Issei rubbed the back of his neck. "You two won't do anything funny while we're away… Right?"

Those who knew about 'that' day flinched at the question. Ever since Issei had caught his parents in action, the boy seemed to react at the idea whenever his parents would be alone in the house.

Sometimes, Rias and Asia saw Issei being hesitant whenever Issei was about to step into the living room. The boy would carefully take a peek first, then he would unconsciously let out a relieved sigh if nothing out of ordinary was happening. They managed to convince Issei that what he saw 'that' day was nothing but a nightmare, but the effect on Issei's mind was so strong that it left a mark.

However, Haruka only replied with an innocent smiling face at her son's question.

"Oh, what are you so worried about, Ise? We get along well and we'll be fine. Isn't that right, dear?"

Haruka turned to her husband, who was giving her a deadpanned look.

"_Did she even learn anything?"_ was what went through Saitama's head.

For some reasons, Saitama felt that what happened that day would happen again sooner or later.

The others, who were intrigued at Issei's question, sent Rias and Asia questioning looks, which was replied by a light shake of the head from Rias, asking not to speak anything, and flushing face from Asia.

"Well… If you say so", Issei said after sending one last sceptical look. "Then, we're leaving."

The others also sent their farewells as Haruka and Saitama sent them off. Even after the kids had gone far enough, Saitama and Haruka remained standing at their position.

Saitama could feel Haruka was sending her 'that' look. As if reading her thoughts, Saitama spoke in advance.

"Err… Haruka, can you stop giving me that look? I felt bad enough for Ise as it is…"

"Oh, whatever you're talking about?" Haruka turned around, but she tiptoed a bit and she whispered to Saitama's ear.

"I know that you love it…"

Then she strode inside the house. Saitama only grumbled with a sigh as he ran his hand through his face. With his wife teasing him much like this, he always wondered why he ended up living with this kind of woman.

"Well, if you're asking me like that. I guess I'll just introduce you to Gya-chan. Come on, dear", Haruka motioned her husband to follow her into the house.

Saitama only furrowed an eyebrow before he followed his wife into the house.

"Gya-chan?"

X

On that late afternoon, Issei was heading towards his client's house by jumping and running around the buildings. The boy actually could have used teleportation, but he decided to take the scenic route. Old habits became hard to die after a while.

However, while maintaining his pace and balance as he leapt to the air, Issei's thoughts were somewhere else as the boy sometimes gazed into the distance.

_**[Mind to share something with me?]**_

Issei blinked at the voice from his Sacred Gear then he shook his head lightly and put on a faint smile.

"_No, it's nothing… I'm fine."_

_**[I didn't ask you if you're fine or not. I only asked if you have something to share with me. So… What's up?]**_

Issei only let out a sigh at Ddraig's reasoning.

"_Well, only some mundane stuff. No biggie."_

_**[And this mundane stuff happens to be your old man?]**_

…

_**[I'll take that silence as a 'yes']**_

Issei grimaced as a faint flush adorned his face.

_**[Come on, you can tell me what's going on. It's not like I can tell anyone else even if I wanted to]**_

Issei gave the dragon's words a thought for a moment while his body still perfectly maintained its balance and speed from his instinct and reflex alone, then Issei sighed.

"_Well… He's back. And even until today, I still feel… uneasy…"_

_**[Oh? How so?]**_

"_I mean, how long will he stay? Is he coming home for good? Is he going to leave again? You saw what he is capable of… I'm totally out of his league. If he were to leave again, who knows how long it'd take for me to catch up with him?"_

Ddraig remained silent at Issei's dilemma for a minute, taking in what his host was pointing at.

_**[You know, your father is actually the type of man who doesn't get bound in one place]**_

Issei raised his eyebrows at what Ddraig just said.

_**[I'm serious. Strong beings just don't settle down. They take breaks sometimes, but eventually, they will keep moving from place to place to find more new places or people to fight, to destroy, or to protect. And your old man's case is most likely the latter]**_

Issei remained silent this time, taking in the dragon's words.

_**[I've seen some of my past hosts going through similar situations like yours, partner. And what I can tell you now is that you should just come to terms and have faith in him]**_

"… _Faith?"_

_**[You heard me. I mean, he returned to you in the end, didn't he? If he didn't care about you or your mother at all, he should've just be gone right after he knocked you out that time]**_

Issei could not help but chuckled in agreement that Ddraig had a point.

"_Heh… You know, Ddraig? At this point I won't be surprised if you're actually my long lost father all this time."_

_**[Kukukuku… As much as I'd like to admonish you for that… Thanks, partner] **_Ddraig replied_**. [Actually, here's another thing. Why don't you just convince him to stay?]**_

"… _And how am I supposed to do that?"_

At the question, Ddraig put on a teasing smirk.

_**[For starters, why don't you start being honest with yourself and just say right to his face that you missed him and want him to stay?]**_

Issei flabbergasted at Ddraig's suggestion as he skidded on the ground to stop his trek.

"W-w-w-what are you saying!? Rather, even if it's you, why am I talking about my privacy this much? And in the beginning, ever since that night, my new goal now is to become stronger so I can give him a payback!"

Due to his emotional state, Issei ended up barking at his left arm with blushing face.

_**[Again, let's be honest, partner… Ever since I've awakened inside your body-]**_

"…_Can we talk about this later?"_ Issei suddenly regained his cool and interrupted, wanting to say something.

However, the dragon kept on pressing.

_**[I've noticed from time to time when you went pass other children playing together with their fathers in a park-]**_

"_Ddraig, really-!" _Issei tried to relay his point but the dragon pushed through to the point of annoying.

_**[-And you were looking at them with longing and slightly envious look. Face it, partner, you've been longing to spend more time with your father, even now]**_

"_Ddraig…"_

_**[Just admit it]**_

"_Ddraig."_

_**[Admit it!]**_

"_Ddraig…!"_

_**[ADMIT IT!]**_

"DDRAIG!"

**[WHAT!?]**

"… We're here", Issei said as he was looking at the same mansion where he dealt with his last client.

Ddraig blinked twice and he finally noticed that Issei had indeed arrived at the destination.

_**[…Oh]**_

At the same time, a random mother with her son passed nearby Issei and the child was pointing at teen with curious looks.

"Mom, mom… That guy just shouted to his left arm…"

The mother only hushed her son up and told him not to look, as she quickly pulled her son away from the scene.

Issei's eyes twitched in annoyance and he only shook his head in resignation as he felt that his mind had exhausted already.

After a minute, Issei finally regained his composure and he walked towards the large doors of the mansion. However, Ddraig interrupted him again when Issei was about to knock on the door.

_**[Just for the record, this is far from over]**_

Issei only rolled his eyes at what Ddraig was implying. He proceed to knock the door with him announcing his introduction like last time, and stood there to wait for the door to be opened, followed by a feminine voice.

"Yes, who is it...?"

Moments later, the door opened and revealing a woman in a victorian-style maid outfit, complete with the white apron and head piece. However, Issei's eyes narrowed at the woman's face, whom widened her eyes in fear as soon as she recognised the boy's face. The maid wanted to shut the door, but her body had frozen in fear as she kept trembling at the sight of Issei.

Issei glared at the terrified maid who opened the door until he closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

"Well, can you lead me to your master…" Issei opened his eyes again at the familiar face of a fallen angel. "…Raynare?"

X

Issei was walking through the mansion's hallway, following Raynare towards the room where the 'master' was supposed to be waiting for him. The maid was terribly scared to look behind her, while the boy looked calm on the outside, Raynare could not help but to be on her edge. Ever since that night in the abandoned church, the fallen would react every time she heard the word 'dragon'. The word reminded her of the one she angered that night, and after she suffered that humiliation and despair, her wings had been reduced into one wing only, causing her to be pulled back from the front lines.

Fallen angels, just like angels in Heaven, had their worth and power being determined from the number of wings they possess. The more wings an angel possess, the higher standing and status he/she held among their peers. Having only a pair of wings was the lowest position one could have, and Raynare, having one of her only two wings ripped off by Issei that night had put her in the lowest position anyone could imagine in the Grigori's hierarchy.

Fortunately for her, Azazel was merciful enough not to toss her aside, even he decided to pick her as his personal aide to deal with small paperwork and his personal maid during his stay in the human world.

Issei on the other hand, while remained calm, he could not help but feel angry at the sight of his ex-girlfriend. His first girlfriend had toyed with his feelings, after all. Indeed, the boy was yet in love while he dated her, but he did everything he could to gain her affection. Knowing that the fallen was only putting up a cute act all along, every guy in his shoes would've had their hearts broken. Additionally, she also had killed Asia, but in the end, Issei chose to stay civil and finished his business as soon as possible with the master whose identity he had an idea of.

"My master is beyond this door. He's attending another guest apparently, but he has been expecting you to come as well."

After what it seemed to be forever, Issei finally stopped as Raynare gestured the two doors before him. The fallen stepped aside and bowed down respectfully, making a path for Issei.

The boy took a glance at his ex, then he immediately pushed the doors open and stepped in, only to twitch his eyes when he saw his previous client was sitting on the floor with an awfully familiar man. Both of them were sitting facing each other with game portable at hand.

"Damn it, Saitama! Why did you never tell me about this secret lair!? This place is a bloody gold mine!" Issei's client, garbed in his green yukata was squealing in excitement as he looked intently at the game before him.

"I know, I know", the man now identified as Saitama replied with calmer tone. The man was wearing a yellow polo shirt and brown trousers.

"I really owe that kid one. If I never made a contract with him I would've definitely passed these bonuses."

Issei remained on his spot, watching the two adults playing games together, until the door behind him was shut close. Then, he let out a breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"…What the hell are you doing here, dad?"

The adults(?) turned their heads and the man in green Yukata was the one to stand up first.

"Yo, devil-kun! Thanks again for coming… Actually, can I call you Sekiryuutei?"

Issei only snorted a bit at the gesture.

"Nah, just call me Issei… Azazel, I presume?" Issei asked with a quirked eyebrow.

As if on cue, six pairs of jet-black crow wings sprout out from the man's back.

"So you finally figured it out?"

Issei shrugged. "I've already felt something was off about this place ever since the first time I came here. But my suspicion was confirmed just now when I met your 'maid' earlier. You know that she and I had a little history, right?"

Azazel only snorted in return and Saitama only raised his eyebrows at the word 'history' from his son. Issei then tilted his head to take a look at his father again.

"And you", Issei pointed out. "Again, what are you doing here?"

Saitama blinked, then he held out his game portable and waved it awkwardly.

"Uh… MonHun?"

"No, no. Seriously, what the fuck are you doing, lounging around with the governor of fallen angels?"

Azazel simply laughed to ease up the tension.

"Hahaha, your dad here is just here to update me about the incident with Kokabiel before, since I'm his employer in a way. He's also here as my gamming buddy from time to time, isn't that right, Saitama?"

Saitama, while he did not deny it, he did not show it. Instead he only shrugged, followed by a nod.

"Speaking of that incident, how did it end up? What happened on your side after that battle?" Issei asked.

"I'll talk to you about about it later. For now, I need to use a bathroom. Why don't you talk with your old man while I'm away? I'll send your ex-girlfriend to give you something to drink. Water for you just like last time, correct?" Azazel strode off towards the door.

"Wait, hold on..." Saitama jerked slightly on his seat. "His _what_?"

Issei only looked dryly at Saitama's interference, while Azazel only chuckled in amusement, resulting a glare from Issei.

"Just ask your kid here, Saitama… Well, I'll be back in a moment", Azazel finally went out from the room.

For a minute Issei only stood on his spot while Saitama remained seated on his previous position. Then the door opened, revealing a nervous Raynare holding a tray with a glass and a jar of water.

"U-um…" Raynare fidgeted, trying to look anywhere but Issei's eyes. "I-I brought your drinks…"

Issei let out another sigh. If he were to deal with all this crap, he would want to have his body relaxed while he could.

"Just put it over there…" Issei gestured coldly as he moved towards a sitting spot not far from his father.

Raynare quickly did as Issei said when the boy sat down, after putting the tray of drinks on the spot Issei pointed at, the fallen gave a quick bow and left the room in haste.

Another silence filled out the room as father and son waited for Azazel to return from his business. Without the other knowing, both of them were actually trying their darnest to break the ice, but nothing came to mind.

"_Come on, me… It's been a progress since that dinner… You need to say something, don't you?"_ Saitama thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Issei inwardly was as nervous as his father.

"_Come on… think! It's not that I want to talk with him or anything, but this silence is killing me! There must be a thing or two worth mentioning!"_

After another moment that felt like forever, Saitama finally started to talk.

"Uh… It's a nice weather out there, isn't it?"

Issei only looked dryly at how cliché his father started a topic.

_**[Hey, at least that's a start. Just say yes!]**_

"Y-… Yeah…" Issei looked away as he followed Ddraig's lead.

Then another silence fell upon them.

"So…" Saitama began again after few minutes, "That's your ex, huh? She's actually a fine gal, if I say so myself…" Saitama trailed off as he remembered Raynare's appearance. "She seemed terrified of you. What did you do?"

Issei narrowed his eyes as bad memories started to come up to his mind.

"That's none of your business, pops…" Issei shot back after a moment.

_**[Damn, way to go to kill a conversation, partner…]**_

"_Shut up, Ddraig"_

"Well, I guess it's not…" Saitama replied as he looked away awkwardly.

Silence fell upon them once again. Few minutes later, it was Issei who spoke up.

"Say, dad…" Issei trailed off. "Why… Why did you leave back then?"

Saitama remained stoic, if there was any expression from such question, the man was hiding it well. Looking at Saitama's unchanging expression for a minute, Issei pushed on.

"Answer me!"

However, just when Saitama opened his mouth to answer, Azazel returned to the room.

"Heya, sorry for the wait", Azazel walked towards the two before he stopped for a second. "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

Issei only deadpanned at the fallen, while Saitama himself only raised from his seat as if on cue.

"Well, I guess I'll take my leave. I got to do some shopping for Haruka, anyway." Saitama walked towards the door. "I'll see you later, Azazel", Saitama said as he walked pass the fallen.

"Yeah, I'll give you a call if something came up", Azazel replied as he patted Saitama's shoulder in friendly manner. "Raynare!"

At the call, the maid immediately appeared.

"Can you show the way out to our guest?"

"As you wish, Azazel-sama." The maid replied with a curt bow. "Saitama-san... This way, please…" Raynare gestured and Saitama followed her.

"Wait!"

Saitama halted just when he was at the door. He turned his head a bit to see that his son just stopped him.

"You still haven't answered my question." Issei said as he stood up from his seat.

Saitama only turned his head back and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly before he replied.

"I… simply left for my own selfishness."

Then Saitama left as the door shut. Issei only stayed silent with wide eyes before he narrowed them, his clenched fist and jaw tightened when he took in his father's answer.

X

For Raynare, the trip to the front entrance was as silent as when she was guiding Issei. Although not as bad as earlier, the fallen still had a certain extent of wariness when she was walking in front of the father of the man she afraid of.

"So… I heard you used to date my son."

Raynare flinched at the sudden words from the man behind her. A sweat trickled down her temple, as she tried to remain composed.

"Y-yes, I did…"

Behind those words, Raynare wished that she could walk faster so she could send Saitama off sooner. At the beginning, she used to have a low opinion about humans, but she could not help but feel pressurized under the strange atmosphere that came out from the man known as Saitama, the father of current Sekiryuutei. If she had to describe the atmosphere around Saitama, she could only feel the atmosphere as calm, yet deadly. As if her life could end at any moments of notice.

As they had already half way towards the front entrance, Saitama spoke again.

"How did he treat you? I hope both of you had a good time together."

At this question, Raynare swallowed a lump as she tightened her grip on her apron. The fallen was trying her best to push back the memory where a dragon slaughtered her comrades and tore off one of her wings.

"I-it was a pleasant one. Your son is a good man…"

Raynare felt slightly proud of herself for being able to come up with that answer. After all, it was true that she and Issei had gone on a decent date. Finally much to the fallen's relief, they finally arrived at the front door. She swiftly opened the door for Saitama to go through.

"Well, good to hear that…" Saitama trailed off as he walked pass the entrance before he stopped. "But still, tread lightly around him from now on, okay?" Saitama said as he looked at Raynare.

The fallen angel maid flinched once again at the word. Despite the neutrality in Saitama's tone, Raynare could not help but to take those words as a warning, as she saw that Saitama's expression became sharp, unlike the plain expression he showed earlier.

Without saying anything back, the fallen simply gave a polite bow and Saitama finally walked away. As soon as Saitama's figure was out of sight, Raynare quickly shut the door and her legs gave in. She collapsed onto the floor and she released a breath that she had been holding for who knows how long. Sweats finally poured down freely from her head, her body was trembling from fear, and the poor woman had to force down the content of her stomach to rise up to her throat. She had finally realised that she just set off not just one dangerous man, but a dangerous pair of father and son.

In the end, it took a few minutes for her to found a new strength in her legs before she returned to her duties.

X

Azazel only looked back and forth at the atmosphere. Even a seasoned leader of fallen angels was not sure what to make out of the situation. However, he had a guess of what just transpired during his absence.

"Okay, seeing that whatever you talked about with your dad did not end well, do you want to talk another time? I'm totally fine with that." Azazel chose to be considerate for now.

"Nah, I'm fine. Let's get to business", Issei said after a small sigh as he returned to his seat, followed by Azazel sitting in front of him.

"First of all…" Azazel immediately began. "I'd like to apologize about four of my subordinates."

It took few seconds for Issei to know what the fallen angel governor was implying before he replied.

"Oh, err… It's already in the past, but… I thought you're gonna be more upset about me killing your subordinates, not to mention I made one of them being crippled."

Azazel only waved his hand in dismissive manner.

"Those folks were aware of the risk once they decided to act without my permission, and it can be said that they're acting against my first orders. My orders to them are only to keep an eye on Sacred Gear wielders and contact me if they were awakened, not some crap like extracting them for my sake or anything like that. But again, I'm kind of glad that you spared one of them."

At Azazel's last sentence, Issei only scoffed.

"Actually, considering that she had broken my heart both figuratively and almost literally, as well as hurting Asia, I'd say that even death is too good for her."

Azazel snorted in return. "Well, look at her now. She's really scared of you. It's gonna take a while for her other wing and her pride to grow back after what happened", Azazel looked away at the distance, as if he could see the figure of Raynare at the other side of the mansion.

"Anyway, going back to your question earlier…" Azazel returned his gaze at Issei. "I was planning to talk about it during the peace conference, so I won't tell you now. But I can assure you that he's been taken care of."

Issei nodded in return, then he looked up again. "So there will be a meeting, after all?"

X

"This is completely outrageous!"

Rias slammed her desk as she shouted. Apparently, when Issei returned to the clubroom and reported his findings, the devils especially his master did not take it very well.

"I know that there is going to be a meeting between leaders of devils, fallen angels, and angels, but to think that the Governor of fallen angels intruding our territory and interfering with our business…!"

According to Azazel, as Issei recalled, it had been decided few days earlier that due to the stunts Kokabiel had pulled, the relations between the three factions had been affected to a certain extent. As a result, the leading members of each faction would gather together and discuss the future.

The devils from Occult Research Club and Student Council would have to join, as well as giving a detailed report, since they were involved during the incident. It was said that the exorcist who was sent during the incident to give their testimony as well. That meant that Irina would also come to the conference.

"And to top it off, to try and lay a hand on my cute Ise, the price is death!" Rias added with furious tone.

"P-please calm down, buchou… it's not like he meant any harm in the first place. I'm totally fine…"

True, having someone like Azazel to make a contact with devils as a client was not a joking matter, no matter how mischievous Azazel known to be.

But strangely (or not) enough, Rias' family were not bothered when they got a hold of it.

"And Saitama-san… He didn't even bother to do anything when his son was called into such dangerous place…" Rias continued on, as if she was not listening to Issei.

At the complaint, Issei's mind was reminded again at the time when he was about to left Azazel's mansion.

_(Flashback)_

"Well, if that's all then I'm leaving", Issei said as he rose up from his seat. "Ah, don't need to show me the way out. I'll manage."

Or rather, Issei was not in mood to spend more time with his ex-girlfriend. Besides, he had come to the place once, so he was familiar if it was just looking for the front door.

"If you say so. Besides, I think Raynare would be too scared to show you the way out, anyway. So thanks for coming", Azazel replied.

However, when Issei was about to go pass the door, Azazel stopped him as the fallen remembered about something else.

"Ah, one more thing, Issei-kun…"

Issei stopped and turned his head around.

"About your father… There's never been a day where he didn't think about you and your mother. So I suggest give some thought about it."

_(End of flashback)_

Thanks to the words Azazel spoke of, Issei furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he felt that his daddy issue just got more complicated. However, suddenly a hand was placed on his shoulders.

"No need to worry, Ise-kun…"

It was Yuuto. "While there's a possibility that Azazel will try to get his hands on you, since he is well known for his fascination for Sacred Gears, especially something like your Boosted Gear, I'm assure you it's going to be alright…"

It seemed that Yuuto misunderstood the meaning behind Issei's frowning face.

"Because I will protect you."

The knight said those words with eyes that as if he was afraid of loosing the pawn. The latter only blinked at the former's words and expression; while Issei appreciated the concern, he could not help but feel that the knight was creeping him out, but he chose not to say it out loud.

"_Err… What's with those eyes? I mean, it's completely normal to worry over a comrade, right? It's not that he's swinging the other way or anything…"_ As Issei thought in his mind, he suddenly remembered about the recent BL doujin about him and Yuuto being distributed among the girls in the academy.

"_Hahaha, he's not swinging the other way, right? Those disgusting books are merely out of fantasy, right? Hahaha, no way! No way we're into that kind of relationship, we're just good friends, no more, no less! Ahaha, hahahaha…" _

Issei tried his best to convince himself in his mind about the knight. But his body instinctively took a step back, resulting a confused look from Yuuto.

"Back to things with Azazel…" Rias chided in. "I wish to investigate more about what he's plotting, but we don't have much intel about Grigori's side. That governor is way too slippery…" the Gremory heiress contemplated about her next move.

"Azazel has always been like that, Rias."

Suddenly a new voice came in, followed by two figures appeared from a teleportation magic circle in the room. At the sight of the guests, almost everyone immediately bowed down to their knees. Issei however, remained wide-eyed first as he took in the two guests entering the room.

"_It's…!"_ Issei's eyes widened even more as he finally recognised the man with red crimson hair, handsome face, charismatic aura, and a maid with twin-braided silver hair standing beside him.

"_IT'S THE FRIGGIN' MAOOU!"_

_To be continued…_

**And there you have it! What do you think of this chapter? Was Saitama OOC? How did I write Issei and the others? I thought to make Saitama and Issei's conversation at Azazel's place to be more angsty, but I concluded that it just won't work out. And what do you think of Raynare's appearance? I've been thinking to make Raynare appear again in this story, but I ended up putting her in more 'somewhere in the middle' position between taking her out or keep her in the fray. Please review! And no flames! Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	16. The Treaty (II)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello again, my dear readers! 300+ follows and favourites, I want to thank all of you for your support all these times! And before we start, I just want to tell you something.**

**One of the reviewers/readers asked me if Haruka's appearance was referenced from another franchise. The answer is no, I actually did not think much of her appearance in the first place. I simply described her pretty much the same as Issei's mother in canon, only to be looked younger, cuter, and slightly sexier. Basically, a MILF (sorry). **

**And so, without further ado, here is the next chapter! m(_ _)m **

**Chapter 15: The Treaty (II) - The Visit, Swimming Pool and Encounter.**

"_IT'S THE MAOOU!"_

Issei cried in his mind as his eyes widened at the sight of the Crimson Satan, clad in a formal business suit of human world, with his queen still clad in her usual maid uniform, by his side. After eyeing the Satan for few seconds, he quickly followed the others to kneel as well. As he dropped his head, he sneaked a peek and caught Xenovia at the corner of his eye, the girl was still standing in confusion.

"O-O-O-Onii-sama!"

Rias stood up as she stuttered at her brother in surprise.

"Azazel maybe mischievous and a prankster, but he's nothing like Kokabiel. Although it seems that he has arrived earlier than the planned date."

The Crimson Satan, Sirzechs Lucifer continued to voice his opinion about the Fallen Angel Governor. The Devil King looked around at the kneeling figures, then he softly spoke.

"Please relax, I came for private business today."

Everyone reluctantly obeyed and stood up, then Sirzechs looked around the room, and he addressed his little sister again. "Say, little sister… This room seems like a murder scenery. I wonder how it is possible for this place to be full of magic circles even though young girls gather here", he said with bitter smile.

Issei looked around, inwardly nodded, but he also thought that given the name of the club, it was not unheard of to have something that emphasize the name of the club, then again, he also agreed at the same time that the magic circle drawings were a bit too much for high-school students.

Rias ignored her brother's remark, then she asked after hesitating for a second.

"Onii-sama, w-why are you here?" such question was natural, there was definitely something going on if a ruler of the underworld suddenly showed up in the human world.

Sirzechs on the other hand, simply handed over an unfilled printed form. "What are you saying? Classroom visits are coming soon, right? I am also thinking to participate. By all means I want to see my little sister working hard in studies from up close."

Issei's eyebrows raised up slightly as he remembered that the classroom visits would be held up soon. He recalled his mother's excited expression when she got a hold of it. Ever since Haruka got new 'daughters', the idea of visiting the school and observing her children in class excited her even more.

But then, Issei's eyes widened at one revelation. Classroom visits, parents and guardians are welcome to visit the school… Issei held down an urge to smack his forehead as he finally remembered that his father would come as well, in normal circumstances. But on the other hand, given his father's personality, there was a chance that his father might just wave it off and chose to laze around in the house. The boy could not and did not want to imagine what would happen if his father suddenly appeared in school after never showing up for many years. All he could do was pray to whatever god, deity or divine force for the best possible outcome.

Meanwhile, Rias looked troubled from the news, as if she did not expect such event to happen at all. Then she turned towards Grayfia, who remained silent during the entire conversation.

"I don't know how you found out, but I assume it was you who told onii-sama, Grayfia?"

Grayfia sent back the look with one that slightly sharper, then she replied as she glanced towards Issei, "As much as it displeased me that you kept such thing from me and Sirzechs-sama, but it was Saitama-sama who informed Sirzechs-sama about the school's visit."

When Saitama was mentioned, everyone turned towards Issei who blinked at his father's name.

"Eh?"

Sirzechs chuckled in amusement. "That's mean of you, Ria-tan… If it's not for Saitama-kun, I would've surely missed to watch your growth at school…"

"Indeed", Grayfia said with a sigh. "I even had to double-check with one of the school staffs to get another submission form for the class visit. It is unbecoming of you to keep something like this from your own family, ojou-sama."

For a moment, Issei blinked at the nickname of his master by Sirzechs, however…

"Wh-… How did he contact you from human world to the underworld? Rather, what's exactly your relations with Saitama-san?" Rias, ignoring the nickname, asked with somewhat incredulous face.

Sirzechs simply took out a cell-phone and showed a screen that said:

_From: Hyoudou Saitama_

_To: Sirzechs Lucifer_

_By the way, Sirzehcs… Are you gonna come to the school's visit this year?_

"We've been… What is it called in human society… E-mail buddies…?" Sirzechs tilted his head slightly. "…For quite some time now. This message just came out during our last chat few days ago. I honestly almost forgot about the event myself."

Every one from ORC could not help but sweat-drop at the idea of a human being an 'E-mail buddy' with the devil king. Even Issei inwardly sighed at the news, thinking that his father really knew many kinds of people and remembering that it was probably the devil king himself who gave out that embarrassing recording from the last rating game. At this rate, he believed that it would not surprise him if his father somewhat had wider connections in the supernatural than he had been originally aware of.

"A-anyway, isn't onii-sama the Maou? To leave your job and come here! The Maou can't treat a single devil in a special way!" Rias complained.

"It doesn't matter", Sirzechs replied. "Even if my Maou duties are hard, even if I have to take a day off from my work, I wanted to participate in my little sister's class visit. Don't worry, father will come over as well."

At this point, Rias only sighed in defeat. Issei on the other hand, raised an eyebrow as he realised that he never met Rias' family aside from Sirzechs. He also wondered when he noticed the troubled look on his master's face regarding the classroom visit.

"Besides", Sirzechs added again. "This is my work as well, Rias. Actually, I thought about conducting the conference between the three factions in this school. I came to inspect the meeting place."

Issei and the others were shocked at the information. Having three major powers of supernatural to gather at a place like a school of Kuoh Academy is no joking matter. Even Rias could not believe what she heard.

"…Here? Really?"

Sirzechs nodded in affirmation. "Yes. This school somehow seems to have fate tied to it. My little sister, you, the legendary Sekiryuutei, the holy-demonic sword user, the holy sword Durandal's wielder and Maou Serafall Leviathan's little sister are attached to this place, Kokabiel, Hakuryuukou and even Saitama-kun also involved in a battle in this place. This is a phenomenon you can't label as coincidence. Strong powers keep mixing in, like wave motion. I believe the person accelerating this wave motion is…" Sirzechs then glanced towards one particular boy. "Hyoudou Issei-kun-the Sekiryuutei."

Under the glance of the Crimson Satan, Issei could not help but feel nervous. In addition, the boy was somewhat doubtful of himself, was it really him who acted as the catalyst for everything that happened? Ddraig had told him before that the strong was the one to attract others, but if he was talking about strength and power, should not it be, strangely enough, his father who fit the criteria more? Wasn't it possible that it was actually Saitama himself who attracted everything towards the academy, ever since that night?

In the end, it was a voice of one girl who interrupted his musing as the said girl took a step forward and spoke up to the Satan, attracting everyone's attention.

"Are you the Maou? Nice to meet you, I am the one called Xenovia." The girl introduced herself with firm, yet polite tone.

Sirzechs smiled in return. "Good day to you, Xenovia. I am Sirzechs Lucifer. I got the report from Rias. The holy sword wielder of Durandal got reincarnated as a devil, and not to mention becoming my sister's family… Truth be told, I was doubting my ears when I heard it the first time."

"I also didn't think that I would become a devil. To be reincarnated into the side I kept on killing, even if I say so myself, I sometimes regret it and that it was quite a bold move. …Yeah, that's it. Why did I become a devil? Desperation? However, at that time, truthfully, anything was fine… But, was it really fine to be a devil?" Xenovia replied while smiling ironically.

Despite the boldness, the new female knight of Gremory tends to regret her decision later on, making her unpredictable sometimes.

Sirzechs simply laughed in amusement. "Hahaha, it's great that my little sister's family has a lot of interesting people. Xenovia, since you were just reincarnated you won't understand your own way but I want you to support the Gremory household as Rias' family. I'll be counting on you."

At the request, Xenovia placed her hand on her chest and bowed like a knight. "If I am asked by the Legendary Maou written in the Bible to do it, then I'll have no choice but to do so. I don't know how much I'll be able to do, but allow me to do whatever I can in my capability."

"Thanks." Sirzechs replied with a smile, satisfied with Xenovia's answer. His smile was as charming as his little sister, making Xenovia blushed.

"Now then, shall we talk somewhere else?" Sirzechs wrapped up the conversation. "Even though I came to the human world, it's already night time. Would there be any lodging institution still open right now?"

Issei mulled over about what the Satan said. There were definitely several hotels or inns that would still open to receive guests, but he felt bad to make someone like Sirzechs to look for a place to sleep at this hour. He pondered if one of his friends to take the initiative, but he tossed aside the idea, because he also felt kind of bad to let his friends to take the fall. Finally, as much as his instinct was rather against the idea, there was only one thing for him to do.

"Um… If that's the case, Lucifer-sama…" Issei raised up his hand. "If you don't mind…"

X

"Hoo… So this is where Saitama-kun lives…" Sirzechs said commenting at the Hyoudou residence.

At the moment, Issei, Rias, Asia, Sirzechs and Grayfia were standing in front of Issei's house. It was Issei's suggestion to have the devil king and his queen to spend the night in his house. While Rias was also against the idea, her brother on the other hand was rather glad, saying that he would like to catch up with his E-mail buddy during his stay in the human world.

"Yes, I'm sorry if it's doesn't suit your taste…" Issei said sheepishly as he led the guests pass the front gate.

"No, no, it's fine." Sirzechs waved his hand with a smile on his face. "I like this place. We're the ones intruding after all", Sirzechs said applying the phrase 'beggars can't be choosers'.

Everyone went through the door into the house, and Issei shouted as he put off his shoes. "We're home!"

A voice came out in reply, followed by a figure of a woman with brown hair.

"Welcome home…" then the woman noticed Sirzechs and Grayfia in the group. "Oh my, we have guests."

"Haruka, who is it?" another voice came out, followed by a man with bald head. The man raised his eyebrows at the sight of the guests. "Sirzechs? Grayfia?"

"How are you, Saitama-kun?"

_(Scene break)_

"Thank you very much for taking care of my husband…"

Haruka bowed her head as she sat with her husband, and her son and Asia sat between them. On the living room couch across them, Sirzechs was sitting with his little sister beside him, while Grayfia was standing behind him on standby. Rias apparently was a bit miffed as she pouted at Issei and Asia sitting next to each other with jealous look. She also sent Saitama a slightly angry look for a second, presumably for him telling her brother about the school visit.

As a matter of fact, Rias had done quite a length to make sure that her brother would not come for her school visit. Her past experience reminded her how much her brother had embarrassed her in front of her peers by calling her with such childish name, distorting an image she had built up as a 'mature lady'. The girl had bothered to ask the student council not to let any of her family to find out, hid her forms from her brother, Grayfia, as well as the rest of her family, but she missed that the father of her beloved person had some sort of connection to her brother. By the time she had realised it, her brother had already made a contact with Saitama.

She was angry with Saitama for ruining her effort, but she found her anger to be unjustified in the end. She finally just surrendered to fate and hoped that things would not go as bad as the previous year.

"No, no, the pleasure is mine. Your husband is a good man and a good friend", Sirzechs replied with a light wave of his hand. "On the other hand, I am relieved that my sister wasn't causing you any trouble."

"No way, Sirzechs-san! Rias-chan is a wonderful girl. In fact, I think that she's way too good for my son here!" Haruka replied back with jovial smile as she ruffled Issei's hair, much to the boy's chagrin. "By the way, the maid over there…" Haruka turned to glance at Grayfia.

"Oh, yes. She's Grayfia, my wife." Sirzechs introduced the woman behind him.

Issei and Asia were surprised at the new information, save for Rias and Saitama. Haruka only covered her surprise smile with her hand. Grayfia, however, did not take the introduction too kindly as she pinched Sirzech's cheek while maintaining her expressionless face.

"How do you do. I'm the maid, Grayfia. I apologize for my master speaking such boring jokes."

"It huwts, it huwts, Grayfia…"

Sirzechs was teary-eyed, albeit his smile still present, as he begged for Grayfia to let go of his cheek. The maid simply remained her iron-grip on her master's cheek while Rias covered her blushing face from embarrassment.

Issei and Asia only smiled awkwardly at the exchange, while Saitama only smiled plainly and his wife only giggled at the spectacle.

"Of course, if you say so, Grayfia-san…" Haruka said after giggling with a gleam in her eyes that said 'I know more than you let out'.

Grayfia noticed the anomaly from the Hyoudou matriarch, but Grayfia decided to leave it alone. Saitama on the other hand, only jerked ever so slightly on his seat.

"It's no use to hide it, Grayfia… Haruka here is just too damn good on reading people…"

At Saitama's remarks, Grayfia's eyes widened ever so slightly as she gazed towards Haruka, who simply smiled back. In response, Grayfia only closed her eyes, let out a small breath through her nose as her lips twitched upward and she finally stopped her pinching on Sirzechs' cheek. Sirzechs who heard the earlier exchange rubbed his red cheek as he turned towards Haruka.

"Hahaha, Saitama-kun had told me before that you have a set of keen eyes, but I never thought that you can read through Grayfia as well…" the Satan said in amusement.

"Surely you jest, Sirzechs-san… I simply recognised something similar from Grayfia-san here…" Haruka denied.

Rias and the other kids looked somewhat awed at Haruka's insightfulness and Sirzechs and Grayfia seemed intrigued.

"Oh? Which is…?"

Haruka's eyes gleamed as she glanced again at Grayfia. "She has eyes of a loving wife, that's all." She finished as her smile grew a tad wider.

Grayfia had to supress her face from blushing as she closed her eyes to focus. Sirzechs only giggled in amusement, Saitama remained indifferent while Issei and the two girls had their mouths let out a silent 'oh' in amazement.

"Fufufu… You really have keen eyes for a human… I assume you are aware of who… No, what we are?" Sirzechs ask again with unchanging tone.

At the question, the kids could not help but looked around as they suddenly became nervous, while the adults seemed unfazed.

"Perhaps… But I don't intend to pry", was all Haruka said in return.

At the answer, Sirzechs almost laughed out loud from amusement. "Hahahaha, Saitama-kun really found himself a fine woman."

The kids had their respect and admiration for the Hyoudou matriarch increased by folds, even Grayfia could not help but smile.

"Ise-san… Your mother is amazing…" Asia whispered to the boy next to her.

"Yeah… I get what you mean, Asia…"

Then Sirzechs spoke up again. "I almost forgot, Saitama-kun. Millicas wanted to send his regards to you."

"Is that so? Then tell him I said hello too." Saitama replied after blinking. "Speaking of, how's the kid doing?"

"He's been doing well. Millicas will be delighted when he sees you again", Sirzechs said as he chuckled. Grayfia only smiled at the conversation.

"Millicas… By any chance, could he be…" Haruka asked in curiosity, before Sirzechs answered.

"Yes, he's our son. Here's the picture." Sirzechs said as he showed a picture of a cute young boy with short crimson hair and a pair of blue-green eyes. "See? Isn't he cute?" Sirzechs said with pride.

Haruka, Issei and Asia stared at the picture and the girls' faces lit up in red colour as they thought how cute the boy was. Issei also learned that the demon lord already had a child. Of course, he also took a note that Grayfia is the mother.

"Indeed, he's so adorable, Sirzechs-san!" Haruka giggled before she proceeded again. "By the way, are you going to attend the class visit as well?"

"Why, yes. I have taken a break from work, so I thought I could use this chance to see my little sister's school and also how she looks in class. On the day of the visit, my father should be coming as well."

"Oh, so your father is coming too, huh?" Saitama asked.

"Father helped in the establishment of Kuou Academy, like me, it seems this was a good chance for him to come visit as well. Although frankly speaking I think he just wanted to see Rias's face."

"Wait, hang on", Saitama interrupted as he held up a hand. "Doesn't that mean that your father owns the school or something? Seriously?"

"Yeah, did I ever tell you?" Sirzechs raised an eyebrow.

"No! You didn't tell me anything about it." Saitama replied in somewhat playful yet incredulous tone.

Sirzechs only shrugged in return. "Well, let's make it even between us, shall we? Since you never told me that you have your own family…"

"Hey, it's not like you ever asked… Well, the same goes for me, though." Saitama replied as he corrected himself, resulting another laugh.

Issei, Rias and Asia could not help but dumbfounded to see a demon lord and a human talking so casually with each other like old friends. It was also quite interesting for Issei and Asia to see the ruler of the underworld to be friendlier than they imagined.

X

After the fun conversation, it was the time for everyone to retire for the night. Saitama and Haruka had gone first to their own bedroom after sending their goodnights, of course with a slight hitch when Saitama tried to make another progress with his son.

"No funny business at night, Ise. At least keep it down when you're at it." Saitama tried to use 'teasing method'.

"Shut up, dad!" Which ended up in failure as his son shot back with slightly harsh tone.

Saitama, who sighed, and Haruka proceeded towards their room on the first floor. Haruka herself smiled at Saitama's initiative to make more progress with her son. The two parents shout their goodnights once again to their son on the second floor.

"Goodnight, Ise!" Haruka said from downstairs.

"Goodnight" Saitama also chided in.

"Goodnight, mom!" was the only reply came from upstairs. Only the reply towards the mother, no reply for the father in particular.

"Next time, dear… Next time." Haruka said in encouragement as she started to walk to her room with her husband.

"Yeah, I guess…" Saitama followed beside her. Then, Saitama turned around as he approached the stairs again. "I think he didn't hear me just now… Goodnight, Ise!" Saitama tried once again.

"…Goodnight, mom!"

Only to be replied in the same way, as if his existence was completely dismissed.

Haruka could not help feel amused yet slightly disappointed. The others upstairs were most likely feeling the same thing as well about the exchange. Saitama himself only clicked his tongue at the treatment as he left.

After making sure that his parents had gone inside their bedrooms, Issei left the stairs and proceed towards Rias, Asia, Sirzechs and Grayfia, who appeared to be talking about the sleeping arrangements.

"No-No way… I can't sleep together with Ise?"

Rias asked with disbelief tone as she, Asia, Issei, Sirzechs and Grayfia were standing in front of Issei's room.

"I want to talk with him a bit while being on the bed. Sorry, Rias, but just for tonight lend me Hyoudou Issei-kun."

While being terribly nervous, Issei did not particularly mind to share his room with the Crimson Satan, since a spare futon had been prepared. Rias on the other hand, since she used to sleep on the same bed with her pawn every night, was saddened that she would not be able to sleep with him that night.

Seeing his master's expression, Issei could not help but to compare her expression with the one of the girl who just got her stuffed doll or hugging doll got taken away. He honestly thought it was cute. According to Akeno, as far as he recalled from the other day, Rias had grown significantly dependent towards Issei, saying that he was really cute to her. The boy appreciated the thought, but cute? Issei did not think that the term 'cute' suits him.

However, having the two girls sleeping with him had also become a routine to him, to the point that he felt something was miss if he did not feel the girls' presences when he was asleep. Even Rias claimed that she would die if she were not to sleep on the same bed with Issei, and Asia also claimed that she would get upset if she did not have Issei by her side. These claims made the boy wondered, were those girls really serious? Sure it was nothing that bad, right? …Right?

Then again, having to sleep without the two girls might be a good change of pace. It's not that Issei mind having the two girls on his bed, but recently, Matsuda complained about Issei had Asia's scent on his body, and for the rest of the day, Issei was forced to deal and avoid interrogations from his friends, with the latter believing that Issei had graduated from virginity with Rias or Asia, or both, much to his chagrin.

_**[Don't be like that, partner. You should show some more guts when there's a girl throwing herself to you. At this rate, you'll end up as the Red Virgin Emperor instead of Red Dragon Emperor]**_

Ddraig commented in slightly teasing manner, making Issei twitched in irritation.

"_Shut the fuck up, Ddraig."_

Suddenly, Issei was pulled into a hug by his master.

"Ise…" Rias muttered as she embraced her pawn lovingly.

Issei's face was flushing at the warmth of his master's body. His arms instinctively raised up slowly to return the hug.

"Can you sleep alone? Are you alright with me not being beside you? I am not alright, though. Just by you not being beside me…"

At Rias' voice, Issei's face softened as he tried to consider his master's feelings. However, Rias was immediately pulled away by Grayfia.

"Ojou-sama, we should go back to our room. I will be sharing the same with yours, after all." Then she turned to her master. "Well then, Sirzechs-sama, good night."

Rias reluctantly obeyed and Asia also followed after she sent her own goodnight.

"Ah, Um, Ise-san, good night. I also think it's unfortunate but tonight I'll sleep in my room. I hope you sleep well", the girl said with her smile remained on her face.

Issei felt bad when he stared the girls started to walk away just like that. Consequences be damned, he decided to take an action.

"Ah, wait a sec." Issei said as the girls paused on their tracks and turned to him.

He pulled both Rias and Asia and put his arms around them and pressed his head on theirs. As their foreheads were interlining with each other, with their heads leaning against each other, the girls' faces were flushed at the proximity. Even Rias was tempted to close the distance between her lips and Issei's.

"I… don't know what to do when it comes to this stuff…" Issei looked straight into the girls' eyes. "But let's hold it for tonight, okay?" Issei smiled.

The girls finally smiled in return as they felt and memorized the warmth they shared through their heads. It was not perverted in the slightest, yet it was also intimate in a way. Somewhat this contact made the girls felt better.

"Thank you, Ise… I feel better now…" Rias said as the three broke off.

"Yes, I feel better as well! Goodnight, Ise-san!" Asia said with brighter smile than earlier.

"Yeah. Goodnight, you two", Issei sent his own piece as the girls finally left to their rooms, leaving Sirzechs and Issei alone.

"Well, shall we go inside?" Sirzechs said after a moment of silence.

"Oh, r-right", Issei said as he and the Satan went inside the room.

Later that night, a nervous Issei was lying on his bed while Sirzechs took the spare futon on the floor. This sleeping position was somewhat wrong in Issei's mind.

"U-um… Lucifer-sama…" Issei asked, only to be interjected by Sirzechs before he could say more.

"Ah, please don't be too formal around me. You're a part of my sister's family, aren't you? So in a way you're also a part of my family as well."

"Then… Sirzechs-sama…" Issei changed the way he addressed the Maou. After a silence that signed that he could continue on, Issei said again.

"Are you sure you don't want to take my bed instead? You're a Maou, after all. I don't mind sleeping on the floor."

Hearing Issei's concern, Sirzechs only chuckled in amusement while he appreciated the thought.

"Haha, I actually prefer this much more than any other royal treatment I receive in the underworld."

"Really?" Issei asked as he turned his head slightly on his pillow.

"Yes. Nobody ever treated me as a normal guest over there. They usually treated me with extravagant gifts and feasts for me. I like this style better. It makes me feel much more peaceful."

"I see…" Issei said after hearing Sirzechs' explanation. The boy could somewhat relate Sirzechs to Rias, since the girl also prefer to be treated as a normal girl rather than a heiress.

"Hyoudou Issei-kun... I'll leave my little sister, Rias to you. Please take care of her." Sirzechs suddenly said out of the blue.

Issei blinked at the sudden request, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Of course… I'm Rias Gremory-sama's pawn, after all."

At Issei's answer, Sirzechs nodded and smiled in content.

"So…" Sirzechs then started another topic. "I heard you met up with Azazel."

"…Yes." Issei replied as he recalled his meeting with Azazel earlier.

"Did he do or say anything to you?" Sirzechs asked again.

"…Well, he just wanted to meet up again on another time."

At Issei's reply, Sirzechs only huffed in understanding.

"Hm, figures. Azazel is not crazy enough to anger your father by doing something funny to you."

Issei blinked again at Sirzechs' statement regarding Saitama. Did he really heard that his father… cared?

However, Sirzechs interrupted his musings.

"And speaking of, how are things going between you and Saitama-kun?"

Issei went silent for a moment.

"…It's good. Nothing's wrong." Issei replied.

Sirzehcs however, noticed something behind Issei's tone. "Is that so? You didn't seem fond of him from your last exchange earlier."

At that statement, Issei went silent once again. Feeling the disturbance, Sirzechs decided to take the next step.

"Hyoudou Issei-kun… Actually, is it all right for me to call you Ise-kun like my little sister does?"

Issei immediately replied, "Y-yes, of course! It's an honour!"

"Then, Ise-kun. What do you think of Saitama-kun, after never meeting him for so long?"

Issei pondered for a while, then he spoke up. "Um, before I said more… Can I ask for permission to speak freely?"

"I told you no need to be too formal with me, Ise-kun. So… Yes, by all means."

Then Issei took a deep breath before he spoke more.

"Honestly, I don't know." Issei said as he stared to the ceiling. "During my childhood, life was a bit hard at first without dad around. But since he sent us money every month, we managed to get by. However…" Issei's eyes narrowed as he looked through a memory. "It's not that I hate him, I was too young back there to know anything about hating someone, including him. But I couldn't help but to feel angry."

At this point, Sirzechs raised an eyebrow as Issei asked again. "Sorry, Sirzechs-sama… But can I rant a bit?" Issei looked at Sirzechs, who only nodded back in understanding as the boy carried on.

"Sometimes, at night… I saw my mom crying alone, as if she was missing someone so bad that it hurts." Issei clenched his fist. "But every time I approached her, she immediately straightened up and put a smile on her face. Seeing her putting up a front despite what she felt back made me worry so much, that time I didn't know what's hitting her." Issei ended with a chuckle in irony.

Sirzechs also looked up at the ceiling, taking in Issei's story. "Your mother… She is a strong woman. Saitama-kun and you are fortunate to have her around." The Crimson Satan commented.

Issei nodded in agreement. "Indeed, she is." The opinion about his mother actually managed to lighten up his mood. "Perhaps the reason I can't hate my dad whole-heartedly is because my mom has convinced me that he still cares about us… But I was still quite angry at him, though." Issei then remembered the day when he asked his mother about his father's disappearance.

"Anyway, I think everything started when I was 10 years old. I asked my mom about my dad, and after I found out that my dad just simply disappeared back then, I decided to get stronger and find him, so I can bring him home… Well, my dad also left a note actually."

"Hm? A note? What does it say?" Sirzechs asked in curiosity.

Issei only shrugged lightly. "Well, it's basically a training regimen for me if I really want to get stronger. As I followed the instruction, after around one and a half year…" Issei then glanced at his left arm. "I met Ddraig."

"Hoo… So you have awakened your Sacred Gear at such young age? Impressive…" Sirzechs commented in understanding.

"Thank you." Issei appreciated first before continuing. "Well, the rest seven years after were spent by living normally while I kept training myself to get stronger, as well as formulating a plan for what to do when I set out to search for my dad. Then I met your sister, as well as my master, and what happened after that… I guess you already know." Issei said and he finally arrived at the part where everything… kind of changed.

"I thought everything would go just fine. Until suddenly that guy just fell from the sky during our fight with Kokabiel…" Issei said as he grimaced at the memory.

"Ah… I actually have heard of that one. If I'm not mistaken, your father just stopped a legion of fallen angel army from invading the human world, correct? I'm somehow not surprised at that." Sirzechs commented.

"Yeah, he did. But…" Issei's face turned sour when he recalled his father's expression that day. "The look on his face… When he finally met his son whom he left for last fifteen years… It was as if he didn't feel guilty about it." Issei started to feel agitated again at this point. "I mean, he'd been leaving without any notice for years, and when we reunited he still had a time to fool around! As if he didn't care! How could I not angry at that!?" Issei shouted before he realised that he just lashed out before a devil king.

"Err… Forgive me for my rudeness." Issei said sheepishly and nervously.

"Fufufu... It's alright, I understand you were upset. Luckily I've casted a sound-proof spell on the walls earlier in case something like this happened, so your voice won't leak out." Sirzechs said in understanding while he thought.

"_Saitama-kun… Reconciling with your son might be tougher than you thought…"_

"So? How did the reunion turn out?" Sirzechs asked again.

Issei felt reluctant to answer at first, as he scratched his slightly flushed cheek and his eyes darting around nervously before he finally replied.

"Well… I err… I punched him."

Sirzechs had to snort at that answer. "Really?"

"Yeah, right in the face."

"Then? What happened after that?" Sirzechs asked again after he stifled a laugh.

"He punched me back."

At the reply, Sirzechs who had also tasted Saitama's fist during their first meeting could not help but cringe.

"Ouch, were you okay there?"

"Well…" Issei rolled his eyes. "His punch put me to sleep for three days straight. After that, every day became so exhausting for me ever since he came home all of sudden."

"Okay…." Sirzechs tried to sympathize and very amused at the same time. "Does Azazel know about this?"

"Now that you mentioned it… During our meeting earlier, I remembered he was trying to hold down his laugh for good three minutes when he found out."

Issei said, as he could not help but sweat-drop (again) at the sight of fallen angel governor doubling over to contain his almost-bursting laugh.

"Well, that's enough about me. Sorry for taking your time away, Sirzechs-sama…" Issei apologized as he put an end of his story.

"No, no. In fact, I'm happy that you talked to me like a normal person." Sirzechs said in content. "Well, back to my question. Ise-kun, are you happy now that your father has returned home?"

After telling his story, or rather ranting, Issei felt somewhat his heart became lighter at the question. His lips twitched upwards as he replied.

"Yeah… I am…" But he immediately blushed again. "W-well, I mean… my mom was so happy when he came home, so… of course I'll be happy as well when she finally smiles for real and our family became whole again! I-I-It's not that I care if he came home by himself or anything! I-I would have dragged him home sooner or later, anyway…"

Sirzechs only blinked before he snorted in amusement at the sudden change of attitude. _"Saitama-kun… You really have an interesting family… And making up with your son will be very tough, indeed…"_

"Thanks for sharing, Ise-kun…" Sirzechs said whole-heartedly. "You know what, I think it would be only fair if I share my own story about Saitama-kun as well." Sirzechs added his piece.

"Wha- No! Please, you're probably tired from your trip here. You should get some rest." Issei said, trying to refuse politely.

"Nonsense!" the devil king chastised. "I'm used to not sleeping for work, and I'm pretty sure that I can stay up late for a chit-chat during a sleepover with a fellow man."

Sirzechs said with excited tone. "I've been wanting to do something like this, you know? So, Ise-kun… Do you want to know how I met your father?"

At this question, Issei's curiosity started to perk up. But he chose to hold it in for the sake of common courtesy (or so he claimed).

"Uh… No, I appreciate the offer, but-"

"Come on, no need to be shy now…" Sirzechs interrupted with somewhat playful tone.

Finally, Issei gave in. "W-well… If you don't mind then, please do."

"Hmm, let's see…" Sirzechs started to think where he should begin. "It happened several years ago, I was taking a break from work by visiting Shanghai…"

X

It was a day after Sirzechs and Grayfia's visit. Due to the talk with Sirzechs and lack of sleep, Issei ended up skipping his morning training, much to everyone' disappointment. However, despite the lack of rest, Sirzechs looked satisfied in the morning while Issei did not show too much fatigue with occasional yawns.

Currently, Issei, Rias, Asia, Saitama, Sirzechs and Grayfia were about to depart at the front of Hyoudou Residence. Saitama took the liberty to show Sirzechs and Grayfia around the town, saying that it was an investigation on the area of the peace conference, but it was more likely to be a simple sightseeing. Despite the day-off, Issei and the rest of Occult Research Club had to go to school to clean up the swimming pool, as been decided by both Rias and Sona from student council.

When the adults and the kids were about to part ways, Issei was staring at his father, who was wearing the same outfit during his visit to Azazel's house, with less hostility than usual, as he recalled Sirzechs' story from that night.

_(Flashback)_

"Wow…" Issei said in astonishment and disbelief after hearing the story. "Is that for real?"

"Yes, I almost couldn't believe it myself", Sirzechs nodded. "Even with my full power, I didn't stand a chance against him."

Issei let out a dry laugh. "Hahaha… Catching up to him will be much, much more to do than I thought…" Issei muttered as he ran his hand on his face, lamenting the huge gap between him and his father.

_**[Kukuku… A human outclassed a devil, the strongest devil king, to add? Interesting…] **_

Ddraig commented from inside the Boosted Gear. The dragon actually felt nervous, but at the same time he also felt excited.

"No need to be so down, Ise-kun…" Sirzechs said. "Do you know, during our entire conversation, your dad once told me that you'll surpass him one day?"

At this information, Issei had to jerk up from his bed with his eyes wide.

"Really?"

"Yes, you bet. And Saitama-kun still believes in you even now."

_(End of Flashback)_

From the story Sirzechs shared with him, Issei somewhat could see his father in SLIGHTLY better light, by his opinion.

Saitama who noticed his son was staring at him, looked back before he walked towards Sirzechs and Grayfia.

"What?"

Issei huffed as he looked away. "Nothing. Just make sure to behave yourself around Sirzechs-sama."

Saitama remained impassive at first, then he faintly smiled as he reached out his hand towards his son's head… Only to see Issei's head leaning backwards, as if trying to avoid Saitama's out stretched hand.

"What are you doing?" Issei asked with incredulous expression.

Saitama only blinked before he pulled his hand back and turned around to take his leave. "I'll see you later, Ise."

"_That kid is like Haruka sometimes…"_

Saitama thought as he walked away towards Sirzechs and Grayfia. Issei on the other hand simply stood on his position without saying anything in return.

As Sirzechs, Grayfia and Saitama began their trip around the town, Sirzechs put his hand on Saitama's shoulder and gave a friendly squeeze.

"It's okay, Saitama-kun. Your son is just entering his rebellious phase. I'm sure he'll open up to you soon enough." Sirzechs said with reassuring smile.

"Err… Thanks."

Saitama replied uncertainly while Grayfia only smiled ever so slightly. Saitama really had a lot of work to do with his son.

Meanwhile, Issei was ruffling through his hair as he walked towards the school with Rias, Asia and Xenovia, who they met along the way. While Asia and Xenovia were talking about mundane school stuffs, as well as about how Xenovia had been faring in her new living place, Issei's mind went back towards the earlier exchange with his father.

"_Did he just about to…?"_ Issei thought as he recalled Saitama stretching out his hand.

"You should have just let him pat your head, Ise."

Suddenly a voice interrupted his thoughts and Issei turned his head to find that the words were coming from his master, who was walking right beside him.

"O-ojou-sama…!? What are you talking about?" Issei said in surprise and embarrassment.

_**[I second that]**_ Ddraig commented about Rias' words.

"_Shut up, Ddraig!"_

"Saitama may not be the best father around, but since he's trying to make it up to you, shouldn't you open up to him a bit?" Rias advised.

"Well…" Issei darted around in contemplation. "I… I'll see what I can do." Issei finished with faint red tint on his cheeks.

Rias giggled at the reply. At least her pawn's daddy issue was not as severe as he queen's, and Issei's reaction about the said issue was somewhat adorable to her taste.

"Fufufu, you're so cute, you know that, Ise?" Rias said as she hugged her pawn from behind. "My sweet, cute Ise…" Rias muttered lovingly as she brushed her face against Issei's hair.

Issei's cheeks got even hotter at the contact with his master. "O-ojou-sama… Please stop it, it's hard to walk like this…" Issei tried to pry his master off.

Meanwhile, Asia and Xenovia, who took a glance at Rias and Issei's antics, showed different reactions. Asia got teary eyes from jealousy, as she approached the two and pulled Issei's cheek, much to the boy's chagrin, while Xenovia only gave a calculative look, muttering something about conquering and difficulty.

X

At school, everyone from Occult Research Club, save for Xenovia were gathering at the school's swimming pool. Cleaning the murky water from the pool was not difficult. It took some time, but the steps were simple enough to do. By middle of the day, the pool was as good as new and everyone was allowed to be the first to enjoy the water as much as they wanted.

Issei, clad with only in his swimming trunks, was looking at the now clean water as he did simple warm-ups. Until a feminine voice called out to him…

"Ise~"

The boy turned around towards the source of the voice, only to have his eyes bulging out at the sight of his master. In a nutshell, Rias was wearing a very sexy and provocative two-piece swimsuit with white and red motive. Her swimsuit left her skin, curves, and part of her breasts for the world, or in this case, Issei, to see.

"How do I look?" Rias asked as she took a pose.

In that short moment, Issei swallowed a lump. His face suddenly got hot as blood started to rush to his brain. He did not understand, he already got used to see Rias naked on daily basis, so why did his mind go haywire when his master was wearing a swimsuit? Besides, it was not like the first time for Issei to see a woman in a swimsuit. So why did such a sight caused him to get aroused?

_**[Partner, I heard that the art of girl's body in a swimsuit is similar to the art of panties under a girl's skirt. Just like it was more exciting if you can't see the panties entirely, it's also more exciting when you can't see the nudity under that swimsuit!]**_ Ddraig explained in his mindscape.

How the heavenly dragon learned something like that, Issei did not want to know.

He was doing his best not to kept staring at Rias' visible assets, but he found himself could not look away. At that same moment, he had three options: 1. Praise her swimsuits, 2. Praise her body, her looks as a whole, or 3. No idea. He wished he could have had more options, but nothing came to mind.

"_Screw this, just go with it."_ Issei shook his head. "Y-you look stunning, buchou!" Issei blurted out.

Rias only giggled as she satisfied with Issei's reaction. Then, another voice came out, followed by a figure of a girl with black hair.

"My, my, buchou… You sure are fired up wanting to show your looks to Ise-kun…." Akeno showed up with her own swimsuit then she turned towards Issei. "By the way, Ise-kun… How do I look?" the queen asked as she stroke a pose as well.

At this point, Issei had to cover his nose to prevent any blood escaping. Never thought in his life that women in swimsuits had such power over his mind. If Rias' swimsuit fit her body perfectly, Akeno's swimsuit was more like a crime, scandalous. Akeno's red-blue swimsuit was even more revealing than Rias, in given the queen's humongous breasts and hourglass curves, the swimsuit was pressing against her flesh, making her look even more sexier and erotic in her own right.

"It-it's awesome, Akeno-san!" Issei blurted out again. The queen also giggled in satisfaction.

"I-Ise-san!"

Issei then turned around after hearing his name being called again. When his eyes caught the sight of Asia, he found himself frozen.

"W-while I heard that boys prefer swimsuit that shows more skin, I just can't do it! I ended up wearing this one! I'm sorry if you don't like it!" the girl said timidly in her swimsuit.

Asia was wearing a school swimsuit. If Issei was amazed by the sight of Rias and Akeno, Asia's appearance made him more like captivated as the boy's heart skipped a beat.

"_W-what is this?"_ Issei thought in his mind. He clutched his chest where his heart was placed as he stared at Asia in school swimsuit. _"I've seen a lot of girls in school swimsuit during P.E last year, but what is this feeling? Why the hell am I feeling like this in the first place!? It's-! It's just too much!"_

While it was true that school swimsuits did not show much skin, Issei found himself could not imagine that Asia would be better with other swimsuits, her timid behaviour only added to the depth.

_**[Hmm… I guess the saying 'beauty is simplicity' holds some truth, after all…]**_

Ignoring the dragon's comment, Issei moved his mouth incoherently as he tried to find an appropriate comment. But the sight of Asia in her swimsuit only made him nervous for some reasons.

"I-it's fine…" Issei managed to let out few words. "You look great…" Issei said with his face fuming.

Asia only replied with a sheepish giggle and a happy smile on her blushing face. Finally, it was Koneko's turn.

"Ise-senpai…" the rook said in stoic tone.

Koneko was wearing a school swimsuit like Asia. But the sight of a loli in a swimsuit almost made Issei wanted to jump and hugged the little girl like a doll. The good thing was that Issei finally managed to control himself.

"Yeah. You looked cute, Koneko-chan." Issei said with his thumb out.

Koneko only smiled as she looked away in embarrassment. Yuuto also showed up with a pair of black swimming briefs, and strangely, the knight asked Issei's opinion of his swimwear. Issei only stared and he simply said that the knight looked fine in it. And what was more disturbing was, that Yuuto smiled sheepishly in return at the comment.

"By the way, where's Xenovia?" Issei asked as he looked around, only to not seeing any sign of the blue haired girl.

"Um, Xenovia seemed to have trouble to put her first swimsuit, so she said that she will catch up later", Asia replied, followed by understanding nod from Issei.

"Ise", Issei then turned towards Rias who just called him again. "Sorry, but can I ask you a favour?"

_(Scene break)_

"Okay, that's right. 1, 2, 1, 2."

Inside the pool, Issei was holding at Koneko's hand as the girl was pedalling her feet in the water. Apparently the girl did not know how to swim, so Rias asked Issei to teach her.

As Koneko took small breaths in between as her face went in and out from the water, and she pedalled her feet in the water, Issei thought it was cute to see his junior to be working so hard.

Asia could not swim either, so she was waiting for her turn to have the swimming lesson as she cheered for the white haired girl from the side. The other three, however, were swimming leisurely at the other side of the pool.

"Fuwa-" Koneko took another breath. "I'm sorry for making you help me out, senpai…" the girl said apologetically.

Issei only smiled kindly in return. "It's fine, Koneko-chan. Helping you out to learn how to swim is fun. I'm glad that I can teach you."

Issei then felt that his back touched the edge of the pool, marking that they had reached the end. Naturally, Koneko's body collided with him, making Issei had to caught Koneko in his arms.

The rook's reaction was to slightly blush as she smiled faintly at the contact. She felt the boy's hands on her body were soft, yet firm.

"Ise-senpai… You really are gentle with girls", said the girl.

Issei only blinked at the comment, and he patted Koneko's head. "Hehe… Thanks, I simply imitated what my mom did to me before." Issei said, resulting a curious look from Koneko.

"Ise-senpai, your mom taught you how to swim, before?"

"Yeah, when I was still in grade-school. Actually, I dare say that the way she taught me was like the way I'm teaching you right now." Issei smiled at the memory.

Little Issei was kicking his legs in the water as his mother held his tiny hands gently and led him practice swimming across the pool.

"Anyway, if you ever need another swimming lesson, just find me and I'll teach you whenever. How does it sound?"

Koneko only smiled back as she nodded. Then Issei lifted Koneko up outside the pool, and he turned to Asia, who had already approached them.

"Alright. Asia, it's your turn now. Are you ready?"

Asia nodded in affirmation. "Yes, I'll be under your care."

_(Scene break)_

After the swimming lesson, Issei, Asia and Koneko were resting on the vinyl sheet by the poolside. Asia who was not that good at exercise had been exhausted after learning how to swim, and the bishop was now sleeping under the parasol that shielded her body from the sun.

Koneko took her sweet time by reading a book, while Issei only relaxed himself as he gazed at the scene in front of him. It seemed Rias and Akeno was about to go out from the pool, while Yuuto chose to remain floating leisurely on the water. Looking back at the two great ladies in their swimsuits, Issei finally managed to control his mind to a tolerable level. Then, as Issei took a glance at the cute look of Asia's sleeping face, a red bat flew towards him and landed on his shoulder.

Issei recognised the animal. It was Rias' familiar, and the girl seemed to send her own familiar to convey a message. As the Issei tilted his head slightly towards the bat so it could go closer to his ears, Issei's eyes widened slightly and he took a look at Rias who was resting on the other side, her body was lying on her front on her vinyl sheet with a parasol set up as well. Her top was undone, leaving her bare back for the world to see.

Swallowing a small lump, Issei walked over to his master and took a deep breath, preparing his heart for whatever Rias was about to order.

"Ah, Ise…" Rias said once Issei was by her side. "Can you apply this oil on my back? Devils won't get sunburned, but sunlight still our natural enemy, after all…"

Issei blinked at the fact as he took a quick look at the bottle of oil Rias handed him. While the oil seemed like any other oil he had seen before, Rias said that it was special beauty oil from the underworld. Shrugging the oil issue itself, Issei looked down at the smooth skin on Rias' back, and he swallowed another lump. At such white, beautiful skin, Issei almost stretched his hand to ran his fingers across the skin, only for the boy to shake his head and took another breath to calm himself.

"_Focus, Ise… Focus on your task…"_ Issei reminded himself.

The boy poured the oil on his hands, rubbed his hands together and he carefully ran his oil-applied hands across Rias' back. Issei was surprisingly skilful in applying the oil, as he put enough pressure on his hands to make it as comfortable as possible for his master. Rias herself let out a small moan of pleasure at the contact.

"Mmmh… I didn't expect you to be this good…" Rias said as she enjoyed the feeling on her back. "Have you done this before?"

"Yes, I have." Issei replied, resulting a look from his master. "With my mom, though." Somehow Rias found herself sighed in relief. "There's one time where she took me to the beach just the two of us and she made me applying oil on her back. What I'm doing now is only what she commented to be good, that's all", Issei explained.

Rias suddenly became jealous for a second, she then started to think that she should bring Issei alone to the beach sometime. Then, after she felt that her back had received enough oil, she smiled naughtily as she thought of an idea. Time to step up her game.

"Say, Ise…" Rias asked in sultry tone. "There's one place you haven't reached yet, you know? Please go down a bit further..."

Issei blinked at the request, his eyes then trailed along her back, following Rias' direction and finally landed on her rear. Issei immediately blushed.

"A-a-are you sure about this, buchou?" Issei asked in bewilderment. Even he never went that far with his mother before.

"Yes", Rias confirmed without hesitation. "And after that, will you do the front as well?" This time, she got up and showed her breasts as well.

Issei swallowed yet another lump that day. His rationality kept urging him to stay focus, while his instinct urged him to give in to his desire.

_**[Just keep calm and enjoy it, partner]**_

And Ddraig's snickering did not help his case at all. However, before Issei could come up with any answer in his mind, another voice came out behind him.

"Ise-kun~… would you apply oil on me as well?"

At the same time, something soft and elastic was pressed on Issei's back. Issei turned and caught black locks in his sight. It was Akeno's face that appeared over the boy's shoulder.

Startled, Issei felt the softness on his back was caused by direct skin contact, not that he had ever felt it in particular before. Which means Akeno was topless, and her tips were pressing hard against him. Issei's mind almost snapped at the contact, he was well aware that Akeno's assets were bigger than Rias, which only made the case even worse for his favour.

"It's unfair if it's just buchou, you know?" Akeno said as she played Issei's ear with her mouth.

Displeased by the interruption, Rias pointed her finger at her queen as her expression became that of irritation.

"Hold it, Akeno! Do you know that my oiling isn't over yet? A-and also, what did I tell you about tempting my Ise like that!?"

However, Akeno only replied by moving her face and rubbed her cheek against Issei's, who was still trying to get a hold of the situation. "Hey, Ise-kun… Buchou is being scary. I normally run around and get tired out, so I just want to release the built up thing in my cute junior..."

Akeno then returned to bite Issei's ear playfully, making Issei became more confused and Rias' glare became even fiercer. Issei wanted to stop and just run away, but the strange feeling he had during the entire fiasco making him somewhat wanted to stay longer. Issei wondered what was happening to him.

Meanwhile, Rias' quarrel with Akeno got even more heated as Issei was contemplating about himself.

"Ise-kun really is cute. Buchou, won't you give him to me? In the future, when I am standing under Buchou's orders alone, I want to take this boy along with me, after all."

"No! That boy is mine! I definitely won't give him to you!"

"There's no other boy as wonderfully cute as him… Then, it's alright for me to be affectionate to him with erotic ways occasionally, right?"

"That's prohibited! I don't want the Ise of right now to know any girls other than me. W-Well, if it's Asia then it can't be helped but….. But, if the partner is you, Ise will really become a beast!"

"Ara ara, that's an extreme way of saying it. Don't you think that boys are best when they're beasts? While Buchou is hesitating….Ise's chastity, I'll—"

"I won't give him! That isn't a joke!"

Issei could only remain frozen as he watched the girls' quarrelling over him.

"_Seriously, do I have any say in this!?"_

_**[That's the quirk of being powerful, partner. I remember some of my previous hosts had been caught in this kind of situation as well. What I can suggest to you now is just sit back, relax, and enjoy the catfight]**_

"_You're not helping at all, you stupid dragon!"_

There had been numerous times when Issei was caught in a situation where Issei would loose himself to his carnal desire towards Rias and Asia. However, Asia's timid and shy behaviour making it easier for him to regain control, and there was also an understanding side of Rias to be more moderate in her advances.

However, in this situation… Two great ladies, almost buck naked, one of them was hugging him while teasing him physically… Issei felt that if he did not do something he would arrive at the point of no return, and he was not prepared for it. Hence, his mind finally could not take it anymore when Akeno decided to ask one question to him.

"Say, Ise-kun… Have you done it with buchou? Have you done anything to her breasts, yet? Or will you rather do me here…?"

Just as Issei's face was steaming with red, Rias' patient eventually had reached its limits.

"That's it! Now you've done it. Have you forgotten that you're my servant, as well?!" Rias burst out some of her magic power over her body.

"My, my, it's troublesome when you become like this… I say bring it on…" Akeno replied with her signature smile, while her body was letting out her own demonic power in a form of sparks and thunder.

"Now, now, you two-!"

BOOM!

Just when Issei was about to placate the two ladies, both of them had already launched their signature attacks as explosions from power of destruction and demonic thunder filled the air and the area nearby the pool. Issei barely had enough time to avoid the line of fire.

"Whoa, shit!" Issei quickly took a dive inside the pool and swam away to safety.

Issei soon resurfaced his head only from the water to see Rias and Akeno were already flying around with their respective magic attacks being fired at each other. Yuuto soon joined by his side as well, since the knight was in the water as well. As both of them stared at the unfolding confrontation, they occasionally had to dive under the water to avoid stray bullets from respective girls.

"Um, Ise-kun… What's going on?" Yuuto asked as he gazed at the catfight.

Meanwhile, Rias and Akeno were still throwing their magic at each other.

"I won't give you Ise… You vulgar priestess of thunder!"

"Isn't it fine to be affectionate…? O, crimson virgin princess"

"Aren't you a virgin yourself!?"

"Oh my, if you're going to say that, I'll have Ise-kun take my virginity right now."

"No! Ise said he would take my virginity!"

At the girls' squabbles, Yuuto turned his gaze to Issei, who was covering his face in embarrassment. The pawn started to regret even more about what he spouted during the rating game against Phenex.

"How could those girls say something about their virginity so easily…?" Issei muttered.

"Well? What do we do now?" Yuuto asked beside him.

Snapping out from his own muttering, Issei looked at Koneko, who was covering the still-sleeping Asia's ears. Then he turned to the knight again.

"For now, let's get out of here."

Yuuto nodded, and the boys started to proceed towards Koneko and still-sleeping Asia. When Koneko was approached by the boys, she nodded in acknowledgement.

"I feel bad if Asia-senpai were to wake up from the noises", Koneko said.

Issei only nodded in appreciation. "Yeah. Sorry about that, Koneko-chan. Let's get out of here first, okay?"

Without another word, the three devils quietly carried the still-sleeping bishop and swiftly left the pool towards the changing room while Rias and Akeno still busy quarrelling each other.

Upon arrival at the changing room, the three met Xenovia, who just finished wearing her swimsuit.

"Sorry, it's the first time for me wearing swimsuit so it took a while-" Then Xenovia noticed the disturbance. "Um… What's going on, Koneko, Kiba, Hyoudou Issei? Why's Asia sleeping? And the outside sounds a bit noisy?" the girl asked as she tilted her head to look at the scene at the pool.

Issei only scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well… Sorry, Xenovia. I guess it's not a good idea to go out there right now."

"Buchou and Akeno-senpai are fighting over Ise-senpai's virginity", Koneko answered bluntly, resulting a blush from the pawn.

"Hmm… I see. So it gets even harder for me now…" Xenovia muttered to herself.

Ignoring Xenovia's mumbling, Issei and the others suddenly heard a smashing and cracking sound. Upon taking a look at the pool again, they saw that Rias and Akeno's fight started to cause more collateral damage on the pool.

"In the first place Akeno, you hated men! Why of all people did you only take interest in Ise?!"

"If you say it like that, even you Rias have no interest in men, you said they all looked the same to you!"

"Ise is special! He's cute!"

"Even for me Ise-kun is cute! I finally met a boy of whom I felt like this, so it should be fine to pass Ise-kun to me for just a bit and let me understand men!"

Seeing that the battle got more heated, Issei decided that he had to do something.

"At this rate the pool's gonna get ruined. Sorry, Xenovia… Can you look after Asia for a minute?" Issei asked to Xenovia as he handed Asia over to the female knight, whom nodded in affirmation as she held Asia's body gently.

Then Issei turned to Yuuto and Koneko. "Um… Sorry guys, but can you lend me a hand here?"

Koneko and Yuuto glanced at each other for a moment before replying.

"Well… Though it's basically you who are responsible…" Koneko began, then Yuuto continued.

"But I guess it's true that the pool is going to get destroyed again if we let this go on."

"Thanks. But don't worry. I'll do the work, so you guys just have to stand behind me as back up just in case", Issei said as he prepared to go forward, followed by Koneko and Yuuto from behind.

Just when the three had gone to placate their fighting king and queen, Asia finally woke up.

"Munya…" Asia yawned as she rubbed her sleepy eyes. "Mm… Eh? Xenovia-san? What happened? Where are Ise-san and the others?" Asia said as she looked around her surroundings.

X

"Stupid Akeno… Stupid Ise…" Rias huffed as she walked home together with her pawn and bishop in the late afternoon.

"Yes, yes… I'm sorry, ojou-sama…" Issei apologised beside her, while Asia only laughed sheepishly, not sure of what to do.

"You should have refused her from the start." Rias kept complaining.

"Okay… Though it will be difficult, I'll do something about it." Issei said in admittance as he tried to placate his master as much as possible.

It took good fifteen minutes for Issei (mostly), Yuuto and Koneko to be able to stop Rias and Akeno from destroying the entire pool. As the result, while the damage that had been done could be fixed by magic, the feud between Rias and Akeno ended unsettled as the queen somewhat had a satisfied smirk on her face, while Rias ended up with cranky mood.

Issei let out a deep sighed as his mind recapped the whole day. He felt that his inner desire towards women started to awaken when he recalled the stunt Rias and Akeno had pulled on him, and stopping the fight between the two was actually the most exhausting part. At this point Issei hoped that he would not have to face more trouble again at home, given that Sirzechs and Grayfia were staying in his house as well.

When Issei thought about it again, since the return of his father, recent days had been so tiring for him. He wondered if his exhaustion had been his father's fault all along? He began to conclude that it would make sense if his father was to blame.

"_Meh, I'll think about it later…"_ Issei dismissed the thought as he just wanted to get home, sit back, relax and replenish his stamina for the next day to come.

Speaking of next day, Issei's eyes twitched again as the boy remembered that the class visit was actually the next day.

"We're home…"

Upon arriving at home, the three entered the house and Issei let out a quite tired greeting. As he stepped towards the living room as usual, the boy paused again as his instinct from the other day kicked in. Fortunately, it seemed that whatever weighed his mind had gradually faded as the boy finally dismissed his paranoia. He took another step as he finally got inside the living room, only to found himself frozen again.

Before him, Saitama was sitting on the couch with his back turned on him, it seemed that the man was simply sitting on the couch while watching the television shows. However, what froze Issei was the sight where Haruka's head was positioned.

"Hey, Haruka… Just let me take them off first!"

"Shh… Just a bit more…"

It would have been fine if Saitama and Haruka were only sitting side by side, but Issei's eyes saw that Haruka's head was positioned and moving around Saitama's crotch.

"_What the hell are they doing? How could this happen? After that overwhelming notions of girls wanting me to pop their cherries, and now this? Did I do something terribly wrong? Does the world or universe despise me, or something? What did I do to deserve this?" _

All of these thoughts were swirling around Issei's mind right before the boy's eyes went white and his body unceremoniously collapsed to the floor once again.

_**[Sheesh…. What a gutless host I have here]**_

Ddraig groaned as Issei passed out again.

BRUGH!

"Ise/Ise-san!"

The parents immediately stood up from their spot when they heard the noise. They turned and saw Rias and Asia were tending Issei who was unconscious on the floor. The red hair then turned to look at the parents with slightly wary eyes.

"Um… Father, mother… What were you possibly doing earlier?"

Saitama was about to say something about being called 'father', but with his wife by his side, it would be wise if he kept his mouth shut for the moment.

"Well, Haruka was just trying to fix a hole in my pants, see?" Saitama showed a slightly damaged fabric on his pants around his thigh. It had been knitted, but there were still some traces of being torn off.

"I told her that knitting while my pants still on was dangerous, but Haruka insisted to be real quick…" Saitama pointed at his wife.

"O hush, dear…" Haruka chastised. "I've seen much bigger blades and other sharp objects had failed to even hurt you. Sure this tiny needle won't even tickle, will it?"

Rias and Asia sighed in both relief and exasperation, then Rias asked again as she looked around, as if she was looking for someone.

"By the way, where's my brother?"

"About that, Sirzechs and Grayfia chose to stay in a hotel this time, so they won't stay here tonight. They said they will meet you again at school." Saitama replied.

"Shame, they're always welcome to stay here, you know…" Haruka said in slightly regretful tone. "By the way, how's Ise?"

Asia replied after went through a quick check on Issei. "He's fine. It seems that he's just unconscious like last time…"

"Well, we should take him upstairs for now. Dear, if you would?" Haruka turned to Saitama, who wordlessly bent down and picked his knocked-out son up on to his shoulder.

X

Everything went normal as usual at the beginning when the day of class visit finally arrived. Issei woke up in the morning as usual, his morning training with everyone else save for Saitama went without a hitch nor trouble, and breakfast went pass without any major events.

And since Rias wanted to make a quick visit to Sirzechs and Grayfia, and Asia wanted to go to check on Xenovia, Issei was walking alone on his way to school. As per school schedule had stated, his father and mother would come for the class visit at the later time of the day.

The boy could not recall much of what happened yesterday. According to Rias and the others in the house, Issei tripped his feet when he got home and he hit his head pretty hard. The boy however, was not entirely convinced at the testimony.

"Was that really what happened?" Issei pondered. However, whenever he tried to dig further inside his memory, his body suddenly shuddered and the boy ceased his thinking immediately.

_**[You know, partner… Keep fainting like yesterday is starting to be kind of stupid, after all…]**_ Ddraig spoke in Issei's mind.

"_U-uh… Yeah, I guess so… But why did I collapse again?"_

_**[Beats me] **_Ddraig still chose not to disclose of what really happened. _**[This is my only advice. Just get over the fact that your old man and your mom are friggin' married already]**_

"_Uh… Okay….?"_ Issei replied uncertainly. Ddraig in return only shook his head and sighed again.

Suddenly, the dragon sensed a strong presence and Issei noticed the change as well. As he realised that he had arrived at the school's gate, he saw someone was standing in front of him as if that someone had been expecting him to come.

It was a young man around Issei's age. His face was handsome with dark silver hair and ice blue eyes that as if to be rimmed with a light ultramarine. The man was wearing a dark green V-neck shirt with a high-collared black leather jacket over it. He was also wearing burgundy jeans with a silver chain drooping down over them and black leather chaps with three bands encircling his right calf, and wears black shoes with black buckles.

Judging from the man's appearance, his instinct, and Ddraig's reaction. Issei had an idea of who the person was, but decided not to jump to conclusions. Both strangers and Issei were staring at each other without a word. As people around strangely ignoring their presences and kept walking normally.

"…It's a good school." The stranger finally spoke up, just when finally there were no more people around.

"Yeah, more or less." Issei replied with calm tone and impassive face.

The two fell into another silence once again, as if they wanted to read each other more.

"Vanishing Dragon?" Issei decided to bite. Somehow his word was more like a statement rather than a question.

The silver haired man raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Ho…? So you can tell?" The man said as he was slightly impressed.

Issei shrugged. "Well, it's like… Your appearance is like giving all white dude vibe kind of thing, you know…"

_**[Holy shit, is it just me or you sounded racist just now?]**_

"_Hush, Ddraig."_

The man only closed his eyes and snorted in return. "Hmph, your answer was kind of expected since you're his son…"

"But you are right", the man opened his eyes and saw right into Issei's. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Vali, the current _Hakuryuukou_ (White Dragon Emperor), Vanishing Dragon. This is the second time we meet, Welsh Dragon, the _Sekiryuutei_ (Red Dragon Emperor), Hyoudou Issei…"

_To be continued…._

**And done! What do you think? Regarding my notes at the beginning, I believe that Haruka should have a quirk or two to be Saitama's wife, so I decided to make her to be insightful and has keen eyes for reading through people, what do you guys say? And one more thing, should I give Ascalon to Issei or Yuuto? Please review! No flame please! Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	17. The Treaty (III)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Enjoy! Please read and review! m(_ _)m**

**Chapter 16: The Treaty (III) – Class Observation and Cowardly Vampire**

The wind blew, as two young men were standing and facing each other in front of Kuoh Academy. One with dark silver hair had sharp gazes and confident smirk on his face, while the one with brown hair had calm, impassive expression while his gazes were as sharp as the other. The two maintained their positions for few minutes and another wind blew between them, until the one with brown hair finally took a step forward towards the other man before him.

The Hakuryuukou, Vali's smirk widened ever so slightly in anticipation as he was looking forward of what his supposed-to-be rival was about to do, only for the said rival to nod his head when he was right beside him.

"Well then, have a good day."

Hyoudou Issei simply sent his goodbye and walked passed him. Vali's smirk disappeared immediately as his eyes were twitching at the unexpected development. Issei suddenly felt someone was placing a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Vali was grabbing the said shoulder with a scowl on his face. At the contact, Issei only raised his eyebrows.

"Err… Is there something else you need?"

Vali's eyes twitched again at the casual question. "Yes. Don't you have anything more to say when you finally met your destined rival or something?" the Hakuryuukou asked as calmly as he could.

Issei rolled his eyes around, scratched his cheek, looked around and ran his hand through his hair until he finally looked at Vali again with an answer.

"Well, not really. I just know that we're supposed to fight each other one day, right?" Issei said casually before his eyebrows furrowing. "Wait, don't tell me that you want to fight here and now…"

Vali's smirk returned a bit to his face. "That's the point. What if I begin to do something like…"

Whatever Vali was about to say was interrupted by the sound of steel ringing around. At the time Issei and Vali heard the sound, the latter found two pieces of enchanted steel were pressed against his neck, courtesy of Yuuto's holy-demonic sword and Xenovia's Durandal. The two knights were standing at Vali's both side with their respective swords and their glares pointed at the Hakuryuukou.

"I don't know what you plan to do, but don't you think your joke has already gone too far?"

"I can't let you start your rival showdown with the Sekiryuutei here, Hakuryuukou."

Both of the knights spoke successively with their swords kept pointing on the target. However, the said target did not even move from his spot as he simply removed his hand from Issei's shoulder and addressed the knights calmly.

"I would stop if I were you. Your hands are shaking, after all."

Indeed, as the host of Vanishing Dragon said, Yuuto and Xenovia's hands were shaking. While grasping the holy demonic sword and holy sword that could be considered tremendous tightly, their expressions were stiffening.

Issei, who was aware of the depth of current situation and the expressions of his friends, simply held out a hand in calming manner.

"Kiba, Xenovia, it's fine… Just put them down, 'kay?" Issei said calmly, but the knights were still hesitant of what to do.

"It's fine to boast." Vali chided. "Not knowing the difference between your opponent's strength is strong evidence. Between you and me, there is a decisive difference in power. You who couldn't win against the likes of Kokabiel won't be able to win against me", he said to the knights.

Issei was also well aware that Vali was strong. The former did not feel any hostility from the latter's body, yet the latter's aura was pouring out and filled with confidence and power to back it up. While a fight in the beginning of the day was the last thing Issei wanted, in the end he prepared himself for the worst to happen. Once again Issei tried to address his comrades.

"Guys… Really, I'll be fine."

Few seconds later, Yuuto and Xenovia lowered their swords, but they did not dismiss their weapons as they moved to Issei's side.

"Hakuryuukou, what's the meaning of this?" Suddenly a new voice came out.

Issei and Vali turned their sights towards Rias Gremory who had arrived at the scene as well along with Asia, Akeno and Koneko in tow. While the bishop looked troubled and nervous, the other two were ready to engage in combat.

Rias addressed the Hakuryuukou while maintaining her regal expression. "You who have ties with Azazel and fallen angels, to make more contact with my servants than required is-!"

Before Rias could have finished, Vali interrupted back. "Relax. I didn't come here to pick a fight. My only aim now is to see the place I visited before and my rival here."

Then Vali turned to Issei again. "Tell me, Hyoudou Issei. What rank do you think your strength is in this world?"

Issei only darted his eyes around as he thought for a second before he replied. "Hmm… Don't know, don't care." He said with a shrug.

Then Vali only snorted before continued on. "Given your heritage as the son of that-"

"Wait, stop." Issei interrupted with his hand holding up. "Hold up a sec…" he then took out his cell-phone and his eyes took a look at the screen before he addressed his rival again.

"Look. I'm sorry, but it's almost time for class and we can't afford ourselves to be late. So whatever you want to say, can you sum it up in one short and simple sentence of 10 words or less?"

The others only sweat-dropped at what Issei said, save for Vali who had his eyes twitching for a couple of times, his fists were clenched as his body was slightly trembling and he mustered all of his power to calm himself. For some reason, such reply from the Sekiryuutei was not that unexpected.

Finally, Vali only took another deep breath before he spoke again. "You are really… Whatever, I will take my leave now", the man said with a sigh as he turned his heels around and looked towards Rias. His face was showing that his mood had been completely ruined.

"Rias Gremory, you should put more effort in raising him. And I'll see you again, Hyoudou Issei…" Vali finished after he sent one last look towards the Sekiryuutei.

After Vali finally vanished from sight, everyone else slumped in relief. Actually the tension had been diminished greatly after Issei's interruption. Issei himself remained cool as he turned and proceeded towards the school building.

"Well… Let's go, everyone." Issei said casually to his friends.

The others blinked first before they finally joined him while having their respective amused reactions. Asia was only sighing in relief as she was the first to quickly catch up with Issei, while the others either snorted, or chuckled at the exchange between two hosts of heavenly dragons.

"I'm so glad that you're fine, Ise-san…." Asia said as Issei only smiled back and pat her head gently.

"My, my… What a way to chase the Hakuryuukou away… You never ceased to make a scene, Ise-kun…" Akeno chipped in as well, while Yuuto and Koneko only nodded in agreement.

"Good grief… Really, what should I do about you, Ise?" Rias commented as she shook her head.

Issei only laughed sheepishly at the comments.

"(Sigh)… Saitama-dono really passed that one to you, Hyoudou Issei", Xenovia chipped in after a sigh, as she walked slightly behind Issei.

"Ah, Xenovia. Can you stop being so formal? We're already comrades, after all… So just call me by my first name." Issei replied.

"Well then, Ise. I have a favour to ask you." Xenovia said as she closing in and leaned her head towards Issei's ears. Issei's eyes widened ever so slightly as the girl was whispering something, but he nodded nonetheless.

X

Earlier, Xenovia whispered to Issei that she wanted to talk to Issei for a minute before the class started. She promised that it would not take long so Issei decided to hear her out as he and Xenovia were alone at the empty lot besides the school building.

"Okay, I don't want to be rude, but class is about to start soon. What is it, Xenovia?"

Xenovia closed her eyes for a second before she looked straight into the boy's eyes.

"I will go straight to the point. Ise, will you make children with me?" Xenovia said with a straight face.

Silence fell between the two as Issei's face remained impassive. Then, he blinked once, twice and his eyebrows furrowed when he tilted his head to the side. 

"…What?" was the only thing Issei could say in reply.

"Like I said, I'd like to make a child with you, since I'm a devil now, Rias-buchou said that I can fulfil my dreams, as she said that devils possess greed, fulfil greed, award greed, and desire greed after all…"

Issei stared right to Xenovia's eyes, hoping that he could find any sign of joking or anything that he could use to refuse Xenovia's request. But unfortunately, he found nothing. Xenovia herself did not appear to finish talking.

"Having children is a woman's happiness, which I have thrown away when I became an exorcist. But now… I'm free, and I'm free to wish to have strong children. Seeing you to possess a dragon aura and being descendant of a man on Saitama-dono's calibre, I'm sure that-"

"Xenovia!" Issei ended up rising up his voice.

Fortunately, Xenovia somewhat understand his implication. "Ah… Forgive me. Give me a moment to sum up my story in a 10-words sentence…" Xenovia said as she put her hand on her chin with thinking expression.

"No, no… That's not the point. You already have, actually." Issei shook his head. "Are you aware of what you're asking?"

"I am", Xenovia replied, unwavering. "My wish now that I've become a devil is to give birth to a strong child. And you don't need to worry, when the time comes, I'll be the one to take care of the child." Xenovia said, pumping her chest with her fist.

Issei's mouth only gaped wordlessly as he was gobsmacked by Xenovia's reasoning.

"I heard that devils are still suffering low child-birth. So I don't think it would be that easy for us to make a baby… So, I'd say if we were to have intercourse everyday, we probably will make it by the end of our high-school year…"

Finally, Issei could not take it anymore and decide to interrupt.

"Okay, okay, okay. I got it, Xenovia…" Issei said as the girl stopped and looked at him expectantly. "But this is just wrong in more ways than one."

Xenovia's face was that of disappointment. Her eyes were downcast as if she was hurt. "Why…? Do you find me not attractive?"

At Xenovia's look, Issei felt really bad of himself. He racked his brain to find an acceptable answer before the class started.

"No, no! You're attractive and I mean it! But-" Issei replied first before sighing. "I mean, I don't want to… 'make babies' with you while there's nothing really happening between us… We're comrades, yes. But that's exactly why I can't just do it with you…" Issei tried to explain.

Xenovia did not reply as she mulled over Issei's explanation. Then she looked to Issei again. "Then Ise… That means I just have to pursue you first, right?" Xenovia said with her straight face.

"H-huh? Well… That sounds about it…" Issei replied while the boy did not like where the things would lead up to.

"I see. With buchou and Asia around you, it would be a difficult path for me, but I won't give up yet." Xenovia said with new-found resolve.

"A-anyway", Issei finally wanted to end the conversation immediately. "The teacher will be in the class any second now. Let's hurry!" Issei said as he started to dash to the building, followed by Xenovia.

"Ah! Wait for me!"

_(Scene Break)_

Issei and Xenovia managed to land on their seats right when the teacher came into the class. Currently the homeroom had ended and the class went to a small chatter when the teacher had left.

"(Sigh)… Soon our parents will come over to watch our progress in classroom…" Matsuda said as he plopped down to his desk.

Asia was talking with Kiryuu and some of the girls while Issei only sighed in exasperation as he was waiting for the moment where his _parents_ would come to school.

"Say, Ise." Motohama asked. "Is your mom gonna come again?" the boy with glasses asked in expectation.

Issei only shot a dry look at his friend. His mother had come to the school visit last year, and during that year almost all of the boys were ogling at her due to her youthful looks. "Yeah…" Issei replied. "She and my dad will come-!" Issei immediately realized his blunder as he clamped his mouth shut. Of course however, it had been too late.

"Wait, did you say your dad will come as well?" Motohama closed in, as well as Matsuda. "Has your dad finally come home?"

Issei wished that he could go back in time and punched himself in the face. Few droplets of cold sweats were rolling down his face as he stared at his two friends who were peering over him. Seeing that there was no more point to lie, Issei only sighed in defeat.

"…Yeah, he's home now. He's also gonna come here together with my mom."

Kiryuu and Asia, who were sitting not far away, overheard the boys' conversation.

"Ho? What was that I heard? Hyoudou's dad is coming home?" the girl with glasses asked with a glint in her eyes before she turned to Asia. "Hey, hey, Asia… Is it true that Hyoudou's dad is coming here?"

"Yes, Ise-san's father had come home for quite some time now." The blonde replied.

"Hee…" Kiryuu sneered mischievously. "I'm looking forward to see what Hyoudou's dad look like…" Matsuda and Motohama only nodded in agreement with smirks on their faces.

Issei could only swallowed a lump from wariness.

Meanwhile, parents were starting to flood inside the academy, fathers and mothers were walking side by side to see their children's progress in the classroom. However, one particular pair caught their eyes. Students and parents alike who attended the school visit during the previous year recognized the woman with brown locks.

"Hey, that's Hyoudou's mother, isn't it?"

"Uwaah… She still looks young as ever…"

"I wonder how she looks after her skin…"

However, more murmurs were heard when people's eyes landed on the bald man whose arm was being hugged by the woman in topic. Haruka was clinging on her husband's arm with happy expression on her face. Both of them were wearing formal attire for the school visit, with Saitama's tie was loosened, since the man felt that the accessory was suffocating him. Let alone the tie, the bald man did not like the idea of wearing a suit in the first place. But in the end, he simply chose to behave himself and suck it up for the rest of the day.

"Say, who's that guy? Is that her husband?"

"Eh? Doesn't that mean he's Hyoudou's father? They don't look related at all…"

"Look at how shiny his head is…"

"But I thought Hyoudou's dad ran away from home?"

"I heard that Hyoudou's parents had a divorce…"

"I thought he died…"

"Maybe she had moved on and married him? I mean, look at how close they are…"

Some others agreed on that. "Yeah… They look like newly-weds… No, more like love-sick man and woman who just became a couple recently?"

Under his poker face, Saitama's heightened sense was able to hear all the gossips and rumours that were flying around him and his wife, and he felt so awkward about it. But he could not say anything in defence, since this was his first time to attend his own son's school visit after disappear for fifteen years. Haruka on the other hand, either she heard the murmurs or not, she simply smiled happily as she kept hugging her husband's arm as they were walking towards their son's designated classroom.

X

The classroom began with English subject… Without English lesson. The teacher said something about wanting to try something different due to parents were visiting the school, so instead of English lesson, the students were given PVC clays and were told to make anything they desire. The parents were standing at the back of the classroom, watching their children.

"Asia-chan! Keep going!"

From the parent's corner, Haruka was shouting cheerfully with Saitama holding a video camera beside her. Asia turned back, smiled to the parents and happily returned to her task.

"Look, look, dear! Isn't she so cute?" Haruka tugging Saitama's sleeves as Saitama simply replied with 'yes, yes' while kept recording with the video camera.

While feeling relieved that his parents were not focusing on him, Issei also glad that Asia could experience having family cheering for her. The girl had lived too long in solitude under the church's care and definitely appreciated some normalcy with normal family. Well, normal is no longer a correct term for Hyoudou household.

Meanwhile, the students took a glance every once in a while at the bald man who stuck out like a sore thumb among their parents. Matsuda, Motohama and Kiryuu were blanched at the sight of Saitama.

"_The one who's standing beside Haruka-san… That's Hyoudou's dad?"_ Kiryuu sweat-dropped.

"_Whoa, they don't look related at all…"_ Motohama thought.

"_His head is even smoother than mine…"_ Matsuda commented as he stared at Saitama's head.

However, that moment of silence was broken when suddenly a familiar voice was heard from Saitama's jacket.

"**RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME! RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME!"**

Every head turned towards Saitama who were slightly surprised as he quickly rummaged inside his jacket and took out his cell-phone that was letting out the voice.

"Dear! I thought you have turned off your phone!" Haruka chastised her husband.

"Right, right…" Saitama quickly punched few buttons and he addressed everyone with his usual plain face. "Um… Sorry about that, everyone." He said while rubbing his nodding head.

Xenovia was looking with surprised expression at Saitama before she recognised the recorded voice and turned to the owner of the said voice.

Asia was blushing as she let out a whine when she heard of Issei's 'proclamation', while Issei himself was frozen at the voice, before he robotically turned his head towards his parents with horror on his face.

The rest of the student put their various incredulous expressions as they also looked at Saitama.

"Did that voice just…!?"

"R-Rias onee-sama!?"

"H-h-her virginity was claimed by someone?!"

"Why did that voice come out from him!? Isn't he Hyoudou's dad?"

"But come to think of it, that voice belongs to…"

Then everyone's heads turned to Issei, whose face was deathly pale, sweating bullets, his eyes were widened, and his mouth was gaping like a fish.

_(Scene Break)_

"…What?"

That was the only thing that Rias could say when she met with Asia, Issei and his parents during the lunch break. When the heiress, accompanied by her queen, came out from her class towards the second year classrooms, all students were giving Issei glares of death, hatred, and damnation while sending her looks of sadness, anguish and pity before they ran away sobbing to themselves.

Here she was, in the hallway, standing with Akeno trying her best not to laugh as she doubled over holding her side with one hand and the other covering her mouth, and her body was shaking from supressing a laugh. Rias eyes were twitching while her face was blushing from embarrassment when she got a hold of what happened in her bishop and pawn's class.

Speaking of the bishop and pawn, the former was trying her best to comfort the latter, who was burying his face in his hands. And gloomy aura was surrounding his head.

Xenovia herself was not with them, saying that she would join some of the girls, as well as trying to prevent them to storm towards Issei and the others with numerous questions.

Saitama himself felt rather guilty as his wife was standing beside him. Haruka's expression was displeased.

"Seriously, dear… I told you should've turned off your cell!" Although she was displeased for a wrong reason, Haruka said that as she was smacking Saitama around.

"Hey, (smack) stop, (smack) stop it! (Smack) Alright, alright! (Smack) I get it!" Saitama said feeling annoyed by his wife's smacking. "Geez, your hands like getting harder day by day…"

"Um, mother… I think you got the wrong point here. " Rias calmly retorted the Hyoudou matriarch, then her expression changed when she turned to Saitama. "You just used that stupid recording as your ringtone?"

"Well… There's an explanation for that…" Saitama scratched his cheek.

"You just used that recording as your ringtone!" Rias pressed on.

"O-okay, okay! I've deleted that recording, see?" Saitama tried to placate the angry girl by showing his cell-phone.

Convinced enough, Rias released a tired sigh as she turned to Issei.

"It's alright, Ise." Rias tried to comfort her pawn. "You did nothing wrong, after all." Rias finished as she sent one last glare towards Saitama.

Issei brought his hands down, revealing his face with dead-fish eyes. He released a tired sigh as he said, "I'm so sorry about this, buchou…" with his aura remained gloomy.

Saitama felt that at least he needed to say something to Issei. "Um, Ise…" He stretched out his hand towards his son.

"Hmph!" Only for Issei himself to turn his face away from Saitama and let out a loud huff scornfully.

Saitama only sighed as he lowered his arm. _"It's no use, huh…"_ The man thought in resignation.

He then glanced to Rias. "Rias-chan, where's your brother and father? Didn't they come as well?"

Rias glanced towards Saitama rather begrudgingly, but answered nonetheless. "Onii-sama and my father want to look around the school first before joining me again."

"Ah, Ise-kun and everyone." Suddenly a new voice was heard and everyone turned their heads to see Yuuto was approaching them. "I saw everyone was in an uproar along the way here, what's going on?"

At the knight's question, Issei only sighed again as he held up one hand. "Kiba…" he said as he tried desperately to forget what happened in his class earlier, even only for a moment. "Please, don't ask… Just… don't ask."

"…Okay…?"

Yuuto hesitantly replied. The knight glanced towards the others who pretty much gestured the same thing as Issei earlier, with Saitama only turned away with guilty look on his face.

"Oh, actually… There's another thing going on in the gym building."

At least there was something that could serve as a distraction. As everyone turned to look at Yuuto with curiosity, the knight explained that there was a magical girl photography event being held. At the explanation, everyone else, safe for Saitama and Haruka who wanted to take another quick look around, immediately started their trip towards the gym.

X

"What in the…?"

Flashes and snapping sounds kept going off as a crowd of people were using their cameras to photograph something on the stage inside the gym building. That something is a beautiful girl with long, black hair tied into twin tails and violet eyes. Her body was like a child, yet her breasts were big enough to be considered as an adult. She appeared to wear a costume of an anime character. Issei honestly could not remember the name since he thought it was too long, but he clearly remembered that the character was from the magical girl anime he watched with Morisawa and Mil-tan.

Rias on the other hand, gasped as she was clearly surprised at the sight while Akeno and Yuuto only smiled knowingly giggled in amusement. Issei and Asia only wondered who the cosplayer was.

"Hey, hey! Disperse, disperse! Today's the day for displaying classes to the public! Don't make a ruckus at this kind of place!"

A familiar voice boomed out as the owner of the said voice stepped forward and the crowd reluctantly obeyed and walked out from the building. After confirming that there was no more people with camera on hand, Saji, the pawn of Sona Sitri as well as student council secretary proceed to address the girl in costume.

"You too, please don't wear that kind of costume." Then something else clicked on Saji's mind. "Wait, could you be a parent, perhaps? Even if that's the case, you know there's a dress code according to the place." Saji scratched his head. "This is troublesome..."

Despite Saji's warning, the girl in costume pressed on as she put on another cute pose. "Eh…? But this is my uniform…"

Saji started to feel frustrated as he grounded his teeth, then as soon as he noticed Rias' presence along with her peerage, he nodded his head in greeting. "Oh, Rias-senpai. I just finished guiding Maou-sama and your father around the school."

Then another person, followed by two men with red hair entered the building. "Saji, haven't I told you to settle things concisely…" Sona said in reprimanding tone but soon stopped speaking when she got the sight of the girl in costume, the said girl in costume also immediately leaped towards the student council president when their eyes met.

"Sona-chan! Found you~"

Issei, Asia and Saji could not help but blanched at the sight of the student council president being hugged by a cosplayer.

"Um, buchou…" Issei asked his master while his eyes kept staring at the sight before him. "Does Sona-kaichou know this person?"

Before Rias replied to Issei, Sirzechs who came in together with Sona called out to the cosplayer. "Ah, Serafall… Glad that you came here as well…"

"Sirzechs-chan~!" the girl called as Serafall returned the greeting by waving her 'magical wand', which she had brought all along.

"It's Leviathan-sama." Rias finally answered her pawn. "Serafall Leviathan-sama, one of the Four Great Satan as well as Sona's elder sister."

Issei blinked once at the answer, then blinked again, then his eyes widened as his jaw dropped. _"So it's another friggin' Maou!?"_

Whatever Issei expected the Leviathan to be, it was definitely not a beautiful girl who was willing to put on a cute cosplay while doing cute poses. Rias finally stepped forward to greet the devil king.

"Serafall-sama, it's been a while." Rias bowed politely.

Serafall herself turned to the red head and replied in a rather laid-back manner. "Oh my, Rias-chan~ It's been a long time~ Have you been doing well?"

Rias was somewhat troubled at the cute tone the Leviathan used towards her, but she kept her posture. "Y-Yes. Thanks to you. Did you come today for Sona's class visit?"

"Yeah! That's really mean of you and Sona-chan! How could you keep this from us? If it's not for Sirzechs-chan here I would've been devastated for missing the day and attack the Heaven out of grief~!"

Issei could not help but flinched. As much as interesting it sounded to see the Leviathan launching an attack towards Heaven, Issei was more afraid of what kind of damage would be done if such thing ever occurred. But then, Rias' command snapped him back to reality.

"Ise, go greet her." At her command, Issei shook his head slightly and stepped forward.

"How do you do. I'm Hyoudou Issei, Rias Gremory-sama's pawn. It's a pleasure to meet you, Leviathan-sama." Issei said introducing himself flawlessly.

Serafall's eyes widened for a second when she heard Issei's surname. "Ooh…? So you are his son…"

Everyone, safe for Sirzechs and the older man behind him, raised their eyebrows when they noticed that for a second, Serafall's tone was definitely not cheerful like earlier. However, that cheerfulness immediately returned.

"Well, nice to meet you too~ I'm Serafall Leviathan, please call me Levi-tan~" Serafall said as she turned sideways and made a peace sign. "Hey, hey, Sirzechs-chan, is this boy the rumoured Dragon-kun?" She turned to Sirzechs.

"Yes, indeed the person in which the Welsh Dragon resides, the current Sekiryuutei, Hyoudou Issei-kun." The Lucifer replied without being offended a bit about how Serafall addressed him.

Finally, the man who came in together with Sirzechs and Sona made his presence known as he stepped forward. He was a middle-aged looking man with long crimson red hair that was tied as a loose ponytail with a black hairband. He had bright teal eyes just like his two children, Sirzechs and Rias Gremory. He also had a short and red beard or stubble and wore a casual white suit.

"Are you Hyoudou Issei-kun? I'm Rias' father, it's nice to meet you", the man addressed Issei, whom quickly straightened up again.

"Ah, yes. I am Hyoudou Issei, nice to meet you, too. Your daughter and my master has been taking care of me." The boy bowed politely.

Seemingly content with the boy's manner, Lord Gremory turned to Serafall. "By the way, Serafall-dono… That's quite a novel uniform you're wearing." The man said as he measured up Serafall's outfit. "While it's not bad, are you sure that it's fine for a Maou to wear such attire?"

"My, uncle Gremory, you don't know? This is the fashion of this country, you know?"

As Sirzechs, Serafall and Lord Gremory were conversing casually to each other, Issei felt…

"Seems surreal, doesn't it?"

Issei turned his head towards his master, who was smiling apologetically and as if reading Issei's thought from his gaze alone regarding the three individuals. "As much as I don't want to say this, but the Four Great Satans are really amenable during private times, even to a severe extent."

Issei only snorted as he smiled and looked back at the scene where Serafall was talking to Sona. The latter's face was beet red as her sister kept closing into her face. ""Sona-chan, what's wrong? Your face is completely red, you know?" Serafall asked with worried tone, but then she cheered up again. "Since it's the long awaited reunion with your onee-sama, me, I think it would be better if you were a bit more happy? 'Onee-sama!' 'So-tan!', calling like that and embracing each other in a yuri way, that sort of development is fine with me as well, Onee-chan!" Serafall said happily while gesturing with her body.

Issei could not help but sweat-drop at the Leviathan's attitude. Sona on the other hand, tried to compose her self as she took a deep breath before speaking. "O-Onee-sama… This is my school and I am entrusted with the job of the student council president here… No matter how close relatives we are, Onee-sama's behaviour is, too much… I can't approve of that sort of outfit." Sona said rather groggily as she appraised her sister's magical girl outfit.

Serafall's face turned to shocked expression like a baby whose candy was taken away. "Eh~ No way, Sona-chan! If I am told that by Sona-chan, your Onee-chan will be sad! Sona-chan doesn't know that her onee-chan is admired as the Magical girl! Since with the glittering stick, I erase angels and fallen angels~." Serafall brandished her 'magical wand'.

"Onee-sama, please be prudent!" Sona scolded her sister. "If my onee-sama, the Maou glitters, then this small country would be destroyed many times over!"

It was the main reason why Sona did not call for her elder sister during Kokabiel's siege on Kuoh Academy. If Serafall ever found out that Sona was in danger of Fallen Angels, it would not be surprising if the Leviathan were to declare another war. That was why Sirzechs Lucifer was the one to be summoned instead of Serafall Leviathan. Issei did not know anything since he was not present during the last briefing before the final battle with Kokabiel, but Issei could tell that the Leviathan was powerful enough to destroy the entire nation if she were to 'glitter'.

Finally, thanks to Serafall's antics and non-stopping pestering, Sona's state of mind had reached its limit. "Uuh… I can't take it anymore!" Sona's calm composure broke down as she cried out with teary eyes and she proceeded to run away from the gym.

"Ah, wait! Sona-chan-!"

Serafall's cry was stopped when Sona bumped into someone just when she was at the door's mouth. "Ah, I'm sorry!" Sona quickly apologized to the person she ran to, only for her eyes to widened in realization at the familiar face.

"Nah, it's my bad…" the owner of the voice who bumped Sona was a bald man with his wife beside him. His eyes blinked as he thought that the bespectacled girl was somewhat familiar, but he could not remember who it was.

"Well, well…" suddenly, Serafall's voice was heard, but what made everyone intrigued was the tone she used. "If it isn't Saitama-chan..." Despite the friendly way Serafall addressed the man, her tone was rather hostile and her smile was more like a sneer.

Saitama's eyes twitched ever so slightly when he recognised the Leviathan_. "Geh, another pain in the ass shows up…"_

Everyone in the room, safe for Sirzehcs and Lord Gremory, raised their eyebrows that the bald man was acquainted with another devil king. Issei in particular, only furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of his father, presumably still upset about earlier.

"…Onee-sama, do you know him?" Sona asked after she looked around between Serafall and Saitama.

"Yes, I do, Sona-chan." Serafall replied instantly. "Sona-chan, can you move away from him?" she asked her little sister with her smile (sneer) on her face.

Sona did not know what was going on, but she obeyed nonetheless and she stepped aside as Serafall made her way towards Saitama. The man himself only stared at Serafall and took quick glances toward everyone else in the gym. Sirzehcs, Lord Gremory, and Haruka simply watched with curious gaze.

"Yo…" Saitama nonchalantly greeted the Leviathan. "It's been a while…. Sera…"

"Can you not address me so casually?" Serafall retorted as she crossed her arms under her breasts. "Rather, you actually forgot my name, didn't you?" she asked with accusing glare as she pointed her 'magic wand' at the man.

"What? No, no, no, no." Saitama shook his head briefly. "Of course I remember your name, why would I forget your name? Of course I still remember." Saitama said as his eyes darted around.

"Hooh? If you say so, then what's my name?" Serafall asked with challenging look as she put one of her hands on her hips.

Saitama remained silent and calm for a minute. _"Hmm….. Dammit, what was it again? Sera… Sera…. Serafoul? Seraphim?"_

As a matter of fact, Saitama did forget the Leviathan's name as he flinched and his eyes looking around at the people, hoping for some sort of miracle to occur. Sona, Saji and Rias' group started to look curious as they also stared at Saitama, with Issei's stare was rather deadpanned, as if he had expected something.

"Well?" Serafall asked. "I'm waiting."

Being pressed on by the Leviathan, Saitama glanced at Sirzechs and Lord Gremory, with the former mouthed something to him. Saitama blinked at the motion, then he looked back to the devil king, who was doing her best to stay patient.

"Serafall…." Saitama tried to make his answer as firm as possible.

The Leviathan eyed him for a second, then she turned her head to see Sirzechs and Lord Gremory, who tried to look away with innocent expression. Serafall stared at her fellow devil king for a moment until she huffed. "Fine… I guess I'll let you off for now."

Sona was quite perplexed at her sister's sudden change of attitude. There were only handful amount of people who could aggravate the cheerful devil king this far. What kind of history did they share, was what running in Sona's mind. However, she soon remembered that she still had to do something else.

Then much to everyone's surprise, Serafall's cheerful attitude returned back with vengeance when she noticed the woman beside Saitama. "Oh, are you Saitama-chan's wife? Nice to meet you! I'm Serafall Leviathan, please call me Levi-tan!" the Leviathan bowed politely.

What was more surprising was Haruka did not seem bothered by it. "Fufufu, so cute and polite… Nice to meet you, Levi-tan… My name is Hyoudou Haruka. It seems that I have to apologize for the troubles my husband gave you in the past…" the woman said with the same polite bow.

"No, no~" Serafall denied. "Those troubles were also fun in its own way, so I'm totally fine with it." She said as she waved her hand. "Now, back to-!" Then her eyes widened as her little sister had vanished from her previous spot.

"Geez, Saitama-chan! Thanks to you, Sona-chan got away!" Serafall's complained with childish pout. Then she proceeded to give a chase. "I'll see you all later! You too, Haru-nyan!" Serafall said her farewells to the others before she started running off.

Saitama furrowed his eyebrows as he turned to his wife. "Did she just call you 'Haru-nyan'?"

"Fufufu, I don't mind at all. It's nice to have someone calling me like that once in a while…" Haruka replied with a slightly smug smile.

Then, Saitama and Haruka stepped inside to greet the others. "So, how's your day goin'?" Then he turned and nodded to Sirzechs and Lord Gremory. "Sirzechs, old man Gremory."

Issei was the one to interrupt first by lifting up his finger. "Wait, how did you…" Then he closed his eyes as he paused, then he held up both of his arms with look of resignation as he shook his head. "You know what? I'm not gonna ask. I don't care anymore."

The others only showed their respective amused reactions. But apparently, one person was quite curious. "Well… I kind of do, actually." All heads turned to Saji, who lifted up his hand. "If I may ask, Saitama-san… How did you know Leviathan-sama?" the student council secretary asked politely.

The student council secretary was well aware that Saitama was at least powerful enough to take on an invading legion of fallen angel army by himself during the battle with Kokabiel. He also had seen how the older man easily knocked out the Red Dragon Emperor, whom he deemed to be already strong enough, in just one hit. However, seeing the man to be acquainted with not one, but two devil kings out of the four, Saji could not help but want to know more, even just a little bit.

Yuuto also raised up his hand. "I'm also curious about that, if you don't mind."

After the two boys stated their enquiries, everybody had gotten curious as well. Saitama contemplated for a bit, he rubbed his head and finally came with an answer. "It's gonna be long if I told you here. But long story-short, Sirzechs there introduced her to me, we disagreed with each other and ended up destroying one small island around…" Saitama paused before he turned to the Lucifer. "Say, Sirzechs. Was it around Pacific or Atlantic?"

The Crimson Satan thought for a while before replying, "It's actually around Arctic Ocean, and it's not on the map."

Everyone including Saitama blinked at Sirzechs' answer. "Well, it's Arctic, then." The bald man simply corrected his story before.

Everyone, safe for Haruka, and especially Issei, were gobsmacked at Saitama's short story. "Eeeeehh!?" Saji was the one with the loudest reaction. "Y-you challenged Maou Leviathan-sama to a duel? Are you crazy!?" Saji yelled at Saitama.

"Geez, dear… You're not supposed to hit such a cute girl like Levi-tan!" Haruka chastised her husband as she smacked his arm.

"Um, ma'am? That's not the point, actually…" Saji retorted. He never imagined a human would ever challenge a devil king and survived to tell the tale after going through so much destruction. That being said if what Saitama had told was true.

"Look, I told you it's a long story. Besides, aren't you kids still have classes later after this?" Saitama decided to change the topic.

"R-right!" Saji finally remembered something. "I should go to kaichou to help her deal with Leviathan-sama. Excuse me then, Lucifer-sama, Lord Gremory, everyone." Saji bowed his head to everyone and quickly left the gym.

After Saji left, Saitama finally returned to address Rias' family. "Well then, Sirzechs, old-man Gremory. How's Rias-chan's class?"

And the day went on.

X

**(RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME! RIAS GREMORY-SAMA'S VIRGINITY BELONGS TO ME!)**

"Ahahahahahahahaha!"

In Hyoudou's residence, the parents were sitting in the living room. Foods and drinks were served on the table, while the kids were sitting on the dining table, watching their respective parents looking at the video recording on the television. However, Issei, Rias and Asia were burying their faces in their hands again out of embarrassment, praying for the session of the night to end as quickly as possible, while the parents, safe for Grayfia and Saitama, were roaring in laughter. Even Rias mumbled something about being thrown into the lowest level of purgatory that she had never seen before.

When they returned home to watch the recording of their respective children together, Sirzechs and Lord Gremory had the audacity to ask Saitama and Haruka of why they were reluctant to show their recording of Issei and Asia. Much to Issei's chagrin, Saitama had the audacity to show the recording of _that_ incident, saying that there was no point for lying. What made Issei even more baffled, was the fact that Sirzechs and Lord Gremory were far from being disturbed about the whole scene.

"…H-Hyoudou Issei-kun…" Lord Gremory called out after he calmed himself down from laughing.

Issei lifted his face up from his arms, only to see Lord Gremory and Sirzechs' smiling faces as both of them were giving him thumbs-up along with his parents in unison.

"Good job!"

"No, no, no!" Issei finally snapped as he fell on fours to the floor. "Please be upset with me! At least pretend to look like it! My conscience's feeling is already bad enough as it is!" Issei whined as comical tears started to flow from his eyes while the girls only whimpered with flushed faces.

The parents, safe for Grayfia and Saitama again, only replied with another laughter and giggles as they returned to the television. Saitama in fact, while he was sorry for the incident, he did not regret to safe Issei's 'proclamation' in his cell-phone. He made a mental note to ask for another recording from Sirzechs later.

Currently they were watching the video of Rias' class. Despite still having 'mental break-down', Issei could not help but think that the flustered Rias in front of camera to be cute in his eyes. "Please look! Our Ria-tan is raising her hand and answering the teacher's question!" Sirzechs pointed out in high tension, resulting Rias' face to blush even more than before.

"I can't take it anymore! Onii-sama, you idiot!" Rias finally snapped as she slammed the dining table as she stood up, then she proceeded to run away from the living room.

The parents only giggled at Rias' antics, noting her reactions as 'cute'. Grayfia only sighed and proceeded to smack her king's head with a paper-fan. Issei who was barely holding it, decided to chase after his master. "Uh… I'll go after her…" Issei said as he nodded to everyone in the living room before he left as well.

_(Scene Break)_

Issei found his master was sitting by hugging her knees in front of his room. Seeing that the floor was rather cold at night, Issei offered his hand. "Ojou-sama? Would you like to come to my room, instead?"

Rias nodded without any words and took her pawn's hand. The said pawn somewhat found his master as a normal girl instead of the master he had known thus far. When they entered the room, Issei guided his master to the bed and Rias immediately jumped on it and lied upside down. Issei simply took a seat at the edge of the bed beside his master.

After a moment of silence, Issei decided to break the ice. "It's good that our families are getting along with each other, isn't it?"

Rias did not reply, and Issei decided to keep the conversation going on. "I… I guess I have to apologize about my dad…"

Rias peeked from her pillow towards Issei, who simply gazing to the space before him. "I should've made sure that he deleted that recording…" the pawn turned to his master with sheepish look as he scratched his cheek.

"It's alright Ise…" Finally Rias replied. "I told you it's not your fault. And I also think that it's good that our families get along with each other…" She finally got up from her lying position and sat up beside her pawn.

"Say Ise…" Rias started another topic, her pawn only hummed with tilted head. "Are you happy to have met me? Because I am." Rias continued. "After many things we have gone through together, I just found myself can't live without you, you know?"

Issei blinked at Rias' question, then without hesitation he smiled. "Of course I am." His reply resulted Rias to look at him expectantly. "I'm happy to have met you, along with the others from the club."

Rias was somewhat slightly peeved at her pawn's words, but Issei continued on. "Those days I spent with you and the others was very fun, and I'd love to have those days keep going on…" Then his eyes went resolute. "That's why I'll be stronger so I can protect those days… Protecting you as well…"

Seeing her pawn's resolute face, Rias simply raised her arms and wrapped them around Issei's neck. Then she slowly shortened their face's distance until their lips met each other. Issei's eyes went wide for a second, but as if through instinct, Issei closed his eyes and returned the kiss as the two remained at their position for few seconds.

When their lips parted away, both of their faces were flustered. And without knowing why, Issei suddenly leaned in and initiated another kiss. This time, the kiss was much deeper, Issei's hand was caressing Rias' cheek and the other was on her waist, pulling her closer, as the boy took in every sensation of the girl's scent, taste and everything into his memory. Rias herself moved her hands from Issei's neck to the back of his head, and she used her tongue to access Issei's mouth, which the boy granted, and both of them starting to hungrily, yet slowly explore each other's mouth with their tongues as soft moans and groans started to escape their lips. Issei's hand also started moving between Rias cheek to her waist, shoulder, and back to her cheek again as things started to heat up between them.

Their lips finally parted again and the two were panting to regain more air to breath and both of them were sweating. Issei was, for the lack of better word, feeling strange. He knew that his master was a beautiful and charming girl who he swore his loyalty to. When she comforted him after fiasco with rogue fallen angels, his admiration for her only increased by folds. During fiasco with Phenex clan, as well as the battle with Kokabiel, the idea of having her fighting alone and got hurt worried him like anybody's business. And that one particular night when Rias gave him her first kiss, Issei had thought that his master was more beautiful than usual.

However, at this moment, perhaps it was because of the atmosphere or because of the kiss, Issei found Rias Gremory to be even more beautiful than he had ever imagined. The two remained staring at each other's eyes for a moment, and when they were about to close their distance again, suddenly they caught something, or rather, someone within their line of sight and they turned their heads toward the door. When their eyes recognized two male figures standing at the doorstep, both of them froze as Saitama and Sirzechs were leaning against the doorframe and looking at them with surprised and amused expression.

After staring at the two frozen teenagers, Sirzechs and Saitama looked to each other and began speaking in succession.

"Um… Well, it seems…" Sirzechs said awkwardly, his arms gesturing towards Issei and Rias.

"Yeah, I know." Saitama also replied with the same awkward tone. "Uh… Should we like…?"

"Yeah… Yeah, we should. Let's give them like… 20 minutes, perhaps?"

"….Nah, let's give them 30. The night is still young, after all." Then Saitama turned towards the teens again. "Well, kids… Sorry to interrupt. Carry on…" Saitama said as he was going to close the door.

"Wait! Wait!" Issei shouted out with blushing face as he shot up from the bed with his hand stretched out. Rias herself was hiding under the blankets with steam coming out from her head. "Well… I-I-I'm sorry, but this is… You know… What I mean is…"

Then Saitama interrupted with both of his hands held up in understanding. "It's okay, it's okay. Just calm down, kid…" Saitama said with soft tone. "We're completely understand, you two are in that age, after all. Righ, Sirzechs?" Saitama turned to Sirzechs, who only nodded in agreement. "Look, just enjoy yourself, take your time, we'll come back later." Then Saitama thought up for a moment before resuming. "Actually, you know what? Give me a second, I'll get you guys some condoms from my room." Saitama prepared himself to leave.

"I told you it's not like that!" Issei yelled again in desperation, this time Rias also joined in as she shot out from her hiding spot. "Y-yes! W-w-we're just…" Rias said stuttering as her eyes were darting around left and right.

Finally Sirzechs stepped in as he giggled. "Alright, alright, you two… We're just pulling your legs here…" the Satan said in calming manner.

"We are?" Saitama blinked to Sirzechs. After receiving odd looks from everyone else, Saitama quickly recomposed himself. "I mean, of course we are! We're just kidding here." Saitama said with his poker face. Then, after another moment had passed, Saitama patted Sirzechs' shoulder. "Well then, I'll leave the rest to you." Saitama said awkwardly before he left the scene.

Sirzechs only chuckled at the entire spectacle before he returned to address his sister and her pawn. "I'm not going to judge how you two spend time together, but keep it between yourselves, okay?" Both Rias and Issei only nodded furiously.

"Right." Sirzechs nodded in content. "Moving on… Rias, can we talk about your other bishop?"

X

Next day after school, after Issei had spent the day by receiving hateful glares from male and female classmates alike, the Occult Research Club was gathering in front of the door that was wrapped by yellow tape with writings 'keep out' all over. That day, after talking with Sirzehcs, Rias finally was going to introduce her other bishop to the new members: Issei, Asia and Xenovia. Apparently, the other bishop was a mystery club member for a long time. He existed before Issei became a devil, but due to various circumstances, Rias had to keep him hidden in the old school building. According to the conversation, it appeared that the bishop's ability was regarded as dangerous, and because Rias was not able to completely control him with her own powers, the bishop was ordered to be sealed by the higher-ups.

Hearing the story made Issei curious to see what kind of bishop and the power he possesses to be treated in such a way. Sirzechs explained last night that Rias might be strong enough to control the bishop this time, so all higher-ups including the Four Great Satan had agreed to release him.

"The boy is over here." Rias gestured towards the sealed door. "All day, that bishop lives here. For the time being, his powers are loosened deep in the night, and if it's just in the old building, he can exit the room, but the kid inside refuses to do that." Rias finished with somewhat solemn tone.

Then, Rias knocked the door, extended her arm and began to tamper with the magic-imbued sealing tape. From her explanation Issei deduced that the bishop was something like a _hikikomori_ (shut-in). After the magic within the tape had seemingly been removed, Yuuto and Akeno started to help their master to remove the sealing itself.

"Oh, by the way…" Akeno said out of the blue as she worked to remove the sealing tape. "The boy here has actually earned the most contracts among us servants." The queen informed, resulting Issei, Asia and Xenovia's eyes to widen. As if knowing the confusion behind her three junior's expression, Akeno explained further. "Through a computer, the kid takes special contracts from humans. Frankly, it's a person who doesn't want to meet us. Those types of people negotiate in a different way, and make relations differently. They solve things through the computer. In the dealings through computers, amongst the new devil servants, this kid grabs enough numbers like those of a superior rank."

Issei, Asia and Xenovia only gave out silent praises as their expressions were that of astonishment. _"A cyber devil…. That actually sounds pretty cool…"_ Issei thought.

"Alright, I'm opening the door…" Rias said after the final seal had been removed from the door. And when the girl opened the door, an outrageously high scream was emitted from inside the dark room.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

While Issei, Asia and Xenovia were taken by surprise from the scream, Rias and Akeno on the other hand, only sighed as the two great ladies entered the room. "Good day to you. It's nice to see you all energetic."

"W-W-Whyyyyyyyy?" the high-pitched voice from inside the room replied. Issei suspected the voice to be belonged to a middle-schooler, but despite his master hinted that the bishop is a boy, the voice was rather girly in Issei's ears.

"My, my, the seal got removed, you know? You are able to go out now. Let's all go out together, shall we?" Akeno persuaded with gentle voice. However, her persuasion was shot down again by the same high-pitched scream.

"Noooooooooooooooooo! This place is gooooooooooood! I don't want to go outside! I don't want to meet peopleeeeeee!"

Issei could not help but sweat-drop at the rejection. _"Damn, that's one hell of serious case of shut-in we have here…"_ Issei thought as he sent glances to Asia and Xenovia, who also had confused looks on their faces. On the other hand, Yuuto and Koneko seemed to understand the situation as well, as the knight only smiled bitterly and Koneko let out a sigh.

Having his curious got the best of him, Issei finally took a step forward, peeked in, and walked inside to take a better look around the room. The curtains were tightly shut close, making the light rather dim. The room was decorated in an unexpectedly cute manner, making it like a girl's room. Stuffed dolls were present here and there as well. What Issei raised his eyebrows, was a coffin that was placed in one corner of the room. The boy approached further, following Rias and Akeno who had got into the deeper interior of the room. When Issei got a better look around, he finally saw a cute girl with noble looks, golden hair and pinkish-violet eyes who looked like a doll. The girl was sitting down on the floor, with a pose that looked as if wanting to escape from Rias and Akeno as her body was trembling.

"A girl foreigner?" Issei voiced his thoughts. For some reason Issei found a similar trait between this new girl and Asia. Was it the blonde hair and foreign traits? Issei did not really care about it.

Hearing her pawn's question, Rias turned her head to him with sheepish smile. "Appearance-wise, this kid looks like a girl but without a doubt he is a boy."

Issei blinked at his master's input, then he turned towards the aforementioned 'boy' and looked more intently. To be honest, Issei thought that the kid's appearance was too cute to be a boy. Not to mention, how the room was decorated only reinforce the girly vibe from the child.

"He has a hobby of dressing in female clothes." Akeno said another information to Issei. Issei's mind then clicked as he took in the child's appearance again. A cross-dresser was not unheard of, but Issei still found it hard to believe such a cute child to be a boy.

Decided to confirm his two senior's information, Issei approached the child and kneeled down to eyes level in front of the said bishop. When the androgynous looking child found Issei was peering on him, his eyes widened in fear and his body trembled even more. "Oooohh… I see now. Now that you mentioned it, he does have Adam's Apple on his neck." Issei said in recognition.

However, the now confirmed boy had reached his mental limit as he let out a loud yelp as he covered his head in fear. "Eeeeeeeeeeek! I'm sorry! I'm sorry for being a guuuuuy!"

His sudden outburst and apology took Issei by surprise again. "Whoa, whoa! Relax, we're not gonna do anything to you!" Issei stepped back and held up his hands in peace.

"Gya-kun has always been like that, Ise-senpai…" Koneko said as she also entered the room.

"Including wearing a girl's clothes on daily basis?" Issei asked back, and the rook only nodded. "Okay… Why are you wearing girl's clothes in the first place?" Issei turned back to the cross-dresser.

"B-B-B-Because girl's clothes are super cute…." The kid replied timidly. Issei only blinked at the simple answer.

"Okay…" Issei rolled his eyes and turned to his master. "Buchou, perhaps we can move on to introduction, now?"

Rias blinked at nodded. "Right." Then she cleared her throat. "Gasper, these are new servants who came while you were here. The pawn, Hyoudou Issei; The knight, Xenovia; and like you, the Bishop, Asia." Rias gestured towards her new servants, and the others who were mentioned gave the boy, who was known as Gasper, their respective pleasantries and greetings. "And everyone, this boy is Gasper Vladi. He's my bishop. For the time being, he's Kuou Academy's 1st year. Also, before being reincarnated he was half human, half vampire."

"Eeeeek, the members increased by a lot!" the boy yelped again. Issei was not sure if the reply was either out of surprise or fear, which was kind of rude to him. However, the boy was interested about the fact that Gasper is a human-vampire hybrid. Rather, it was the first time for Issei to see a real-life vampire.

"A vampire…?" It seemed that Asia was a bit startled about Gasper's nature. Xenovia had encountered vampires in the past, but it was the first time for her to see a hybrid as she only hummed in curiosity.

Rias then kneeled down to Gasper's level, and spoke in gentle tone. "Gasper, please… Can we go out? Okay? It's all right for you not to be sealed any more, you know?"

However, Gasper only let out another cry. "Noooooooo! For me the outside world is impossibleeeeeeee! I am scared! I am scared of the outside! In any case, even if I go outside it would only cause trouble for otherssssss!"

Issei only scoffed as he blinked at Gasper's another outburst. _"Okay… Something must be done about this."_ Issei considered the weight of the situation. Time for some tough love. "Come on, kid. Buchou told you to go outside-" Issei then grabbed Gasper's arms in attempt to pull him away.

"Eeeeeek!" along with the scream, Issei suddenly found that Gasper was no longer in front of him, but instead the bishop was already shaking at another corner of the room.

"What in the…?" Issei felt incredulous_. "A high-speed movement? No… If that's the case, I should've sensed something when he broke away from my grip…"_ Issei thought. Asia and Xenovia were also thinking about the same thing regarding the mysterious phenomenon, but the others only letting out sighs as if they knew what actually happened.

"Don't get angry! Don't get angry! Please don't hit meeeeeeeee!" Gasper shouted out again. Now Issei got confused even more.

Akeno noticed the confusion, and she explained. "That kid possesses a sacred gear that when he's excited, the time of everything in his field of vision can be stopped for a fixed interval of time."

Issei looked at Akeno with shocked eyes, then turned to look at Gasper again. _"So he just stopped the time earlier and ran away to that corner?"_

"Because he can't control his sacred gear, by the orders of the Archduke and Sirzechs Lucifer-sama, he was sealed." Akeno explained further. Issei understood now, the reason why Gasper was sealed. The power to stop time was definitely no-joke.

"Then…" Issei moved on to his next question. "What Sacred Gear is it? Is it on par with a Longinus like my Boosted Gear?"

Rias shook her head. "Apparently, from what I heard, while it has such fearsome ability, it's not a Longinus. That's just how powerful Longinus class are." Rias concluded. "Gasper's Sacred Gear is known as Forbidden Balor View."

"Huh… To be able to stop time… Its power is a rule-breaker like my Boosted Gear… and perhaps Vanishing Dragon's Divine Dividing as well…" Issei commented. "However… Thinking back that he's your bishop, buchou… How did you reincarnate such a powerful servant with one bishop piece?" Issei asked to Rias.

"It's a mutation piece." Yuuto fed in the information.

"Mutation? Like mine?" Issei raised his eyebrows.

"Well, unlike your case where your regular pieces mutated by themselves, I, along with other high-class devils was given one random mutation piece for creating our own peerage. I possessed a mutation bishop from the start, and I used it on Gasper." Rias explained before her expression went solemn again. "But the problem here is Gasper's ability…"

"…What do you mean?"

"He possess a rare ability and it seems his Sacred Gear's power increases when he's unconscious. Maybe because of that, every day his power is increasing…." Then Rias' face turned serious. "From the previous conversation we can say, in the future, there's a possibility he may attain balance breaker."

Issei also gave a contemplative look. "Someone who can't control his time-stopping ability, and his power was going to reach its peak… This is troubling, indeed…"

"It's a critical situation, Ise…" Rias commented. "However, because my evaluation was accepted, it seems I was judged that I may be able to control Gasper now by the people that evaluated me. Perhaps it was because Ise and Yuuto, who are a part of my peerage, have attained Balance Breaker."

Issei shrugged, conceded with his master's point. Gasper's issue had to be addressed sooner or later, after all.

"…Uh, e-e-even though I don't want you to talk about me…..." Gasper's timid voice was heard from a big cardboard box. It seemed that the shut-in bishop had taken refugee in there. As Issei kicked it lightly on a whim, another shout was heard from it. "Eeeeeeeek!" Issei only sighed at the weigh of the issue about Gasper.

"Judging by ability, maybe he would be next after Akeno." Rias analysed. "Even though I say half vampire, he's from a pure-blooded vampire family with a good lineage, and has a powerful Sacred Gear because of his human half. He's well endowed with the abilities of vampires, and he excels in human magic wielded by wizards as well. If not so, then he probably wouldn't have been made a bishop with just one evil piece." Issei only nodded in agreement.

"I just want to make sure…" Issei raised another question, "I heard that vampires are weak against the sun. Is he gonna be fine?"

"He may dislike it, but given his status as a Dhamphir, he has an ability known as Day walker which can move in the day, so there's no problem." Rias nodded at the question.

When Issei nodded at the thought that the vampire would have a chance to experience daily life, another cry was heard from inside cardboard box. "No! I am fine inside this cardboard box! The air and light of the outside are a natural enemy to meeeee! Please let me remain a boy who lives in a cardboard boooooox!"

Issei only ran a hand through his face. It appeared to him that Gasper's case of being a shut-in was much more severe than he thought. "Oh, one more thing." Issei remembered something. "What about blood? He's a vampire, so does he need to drink some?"

"Since he's a half vampire, he doesn't thirst for blood as often. If you supply the blood for him once every 10 days then there's no problem. Though it seems he originally didn't like drinking blood." Rias explained.

As if to confirm Rias' answer, another scream was heard. "I hate blooooood! I hate fish tooooooo! I hate liver as welllllll!"

Again, Issei was blown away by the severity of Gasper's issue as he face-palmed. No, scratch issue, it was a crisis, and a terrible one.

"…A good-for-nothing vampire." Koneko expectedly spoke those words with no mercy, resulting another whine and cry from Gasper.

"_This is gonna be a long day…"_ Issei thought in his mind.

_(Scene Break)_

Per Rias's request, since she, Akeno and Yuuto had to go for final arrangement of the meeting between leaders of Three Factions, as well as to inform more details to Sirzechs about Yuuto's holy-demonic sword, Issei and the others were entrusted to train Gasper and to cure his shut-in problem.

Long story short, from the afternoon until evening, Gasper was forced to run around while being chased by the Durandal-wielding Xenovia, as well as being bullied by Koneko who was forcing garlic onto him, with Xenovia reasoned that healthy spirit start from healthy bodies. On the yard nearby the old school building, Issei and Asia were currently watching from side lines as Gasper was still running away from Xenovia and Koneko, the knight was still holding Durandal while Koneko was still holding the garlic in her hand.

"Nooooooo! Koneko-chan is bullying meeeeeee! And please stop chasing me while swinging the Durandaaaaaaal!" Gasper cried as he ran for his dear life. While his two chasers kept running after him with expressions that hinted they were enjoying the poor boy.

While Issei was still not sure what to make out of the situation, Asia was rather sad and regretful regarding Gasper. Prior the meeting with Gasper, Asia had been ecstatic about meeting her fellow bishop, and when she found that the fellow bishop was a human hater in a way, she could not do anything about it. As they were watching the training, or rather, one-sided curb - stomping, a voice interrupted them.

"Hoo…. They're really at it." Issei and Asia turned to see Saji Genshirou approached them.

"'Sup, Saji?" Issei greeted back, followed with Asia giving a nod.

"Yo, Hyoudou." Saji waved his hand. "I heard that there was a shut-in servant whose ban had been lifted, so I wanna take a look."

"Well, he's over there." Issei pointed at the 'vampire hunt'. "The one's being chased by Xenovia. That's our bishop."

"Xenovia-san, huh…" Saji saw the female knight swinging her holy sword around. "Whoa, she's really swinging that Durandal heartily. Isn't that kind of bad? Wait a minute…" Saji got a better look on Gasper. "It's a girl! A cute blonde-haired girl!" Saji seemed so happy at the prospect of meeting another pretty girl.

"Sorry about this, bub…" Issei only sighed as he told Saji the bitter truth. "But that's a guy you're ogling at." Saji only gave a blank look with quick 'Eh?' and Issei continued. "That's a guy cross–dressing as a girl."

And Saji immediately dropped on his fours as he felt dejected and heart-broken. When looking at the boy again, Issei noticed that Saji was wearing a jersey, his arms were covered with army cotton gloves while there was also a small shovel for flower bed.

"Say Saji…" Issei asked, returning Saji from his stupor. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, it's orders from kaichou since a week ago…" Saji regained his bearing. "I have to maintain the flower bed. Since Maou-sama and other important figures are going to come here, it's the duty of us Student Council to make the school look beautiful and presentable." He finished with his chest puffed and proud look on his face.

Issei and Asia could not help but smile at that. However, Issei suddenly sensed a presence was watching over them. He scouted the surroundings for a second before he took a step forward. "Wait here, guys…"

"Ise-san?"

"Hyoudou?"

Issei did not turn back to Asia and Saji as he kept walking towards Gasper, Xenovia and Koneko who also stopped their vampire hu… I mean, training.

"What is it, Ise?"

"Ise-senpai?"

Issei went to Koneko. "Sorry, Koneko-chan. Can you give me that garlic?" Issei asked as his eyes were looking at a certain direction. Koneko blinked, but she gave the garlic without a word.

"Hup!"

After tossing the garlic lightly on his hand, Issei then threw the garlic like throwing a ball towards the mass of leaf on a nearby tree with a speed comparable with a bullet.

WHOOSH!

THUD! *ZA-ZA BRUGH! 

The sound of garlic hitting its intended target behind the bushes followed with the sound of something, or rather, someone fell from the tree and that someone let out a small whine. "Ouch…."

Everyone was immediately on their edge when they saw a man clad in a green yukata, with golden bangs on his hair and a goatee. Xenovia readied her holy sword at the newcomer, Gasper squeaked and hid behind a tree, Koneko assumed fighting stance, and Asia quickly ran to hide behind Issei's back, while Saji readied his own Sacred Gear.

"Dammit, Sekiryuutei..." Azazel said rubbing his head as he slowly stood up. "Did you just throw that garlic at me? Didn't your parents teach you not to waste food?"

Everyone sweat-dropped at the fact that Issei just _threw_ a garlic of all things at the governor of fallen angels. Koneko inwardly agreed about the wasting food part. Issei only shrugged at Azazel's complains as he addressed the fallen angel back. "And didn't your parents teach you not to spy on people, Azazel?"

"Touche." Azazel shot back with wry smile.

"Hy-Hyoudou, by Azazel you mean-!" Saji stuttered from fear when he heard the name.

"Yeah, the governor of Grigori and the rest of fallen angels. He's also one of my regular clients." Issei said as he introduced Azazel to everyone. Seeing Azazel's bitter smile, the pawn did not feel any bloodlust or bad intent, but he chose to keep his guard up for good measure.

"Relax, you low-class devils…" Azazel said calmly. "With exception of that Sekiryuutei, you bunch of kids should have known that you wouldn't win against me, right? I don't plan to fight here anyway, so… Can you lot thaw your postures? I just came for a visit and to see the holy-demonic sword wielder…"

Nobody relaxed, especially when they heard that Azazel wanted to see one of their comrades. They just could not bring themselves to trust the fallen.

"Sorry to inform you, but Kiba's not here." Issei replied with the same manner as Azazel. "So can you just go and bug my old man, instead?"

"Already did." Azazel said before sighing. "Well, this is boring if the holy-demonic user isn't present…" Azazel then moved to approach the devils and he saw that everyone still tensed. "Seriously, kiddos… Even though you weren't able to win against Kokabiel, there's no way you can win against me." Then Azazel turned to Gasper. "Anyway, the vampire over there!"

Gasper let out a panicked yelped before Azazel went on. "You're the possessor of the Forbidden Balor View, right? If you can't use it properly, then it will become a thing that causes harm to others. As a support type Sacred Gear, if you can supplement the deficient aspects, it should be fine but….. Now that I mention it, the research of sacred gears by devils didn't progress much. If you invoke it via the 5 senses, if the sacred gear's owner's capacity is insufficient then, it will move naturally, and it will be extremely dangerous." Azazel said as he peered into Gasper's face, or rather, his eyes. And then, with a face of interest, Azazel then turned towards Saji, who also shocked and flinched at the fallen angel governor.

"Is that Absorption Line? If you're practising, try using it. Connect it to this vampire, if he invokes it while you're absorbing the sacred gear's excess, it would probably run less wildly."

Saji only showed a complex reaction and he looked at his Sacred Gear. "M-My Sacred Gear, it can suck the power of the opponents Sacred Gear as well? I thought it simply absorbs the opponents power and weakens them….."

Azazel only looked rather exasperated at Saji's obliviousness. "You see, it's because of this, that recently the sacred gear owners don't try to know the power of their sacred gears well enough. The Absorption Line holds the power of one of the legendary five dragon kings, the Prison dragon, Vritra. Well, this was found out thanks to recent research. That thing can connect to any object, and can scatter that power. If it's a short time, it's possible to separate the line from the owner's side, and connect it to some other person or object."

"The-, then, the line on my side…. For example, I can connect it to Hyoudou or some other person? And then the power will flow into Hyoudou?"

"Yeah, if you grow, the number of the lines will also increase…" Azazel confirmed with a nod. "If you do that, the output of absorption will increase many times as well."

"_As expected of someone who is engrossed in Sacred Gear research…"_ Issei thought after he learned something new about Vritra Sacred Gear.

"There's a faster way to improve the vampire's Sacred Gear, you know…" Azazel said with a gleam on his eyes. "By letting him drinking the blood of the host of the Sekiryuutei. Vampires gain power through blood consumption. The better quality of the blood, the more power they will gain."

Issei blinked at the suggestion, but considering Gasper's earlier declaration about his dislikes towards blood, that idea was shot down.

"Well, do the rest yourselves." Azazel said turning away. However, he stopped on his track and looked back. "Ah, one more thing. I'm sorry about Vali, the Hakuryuukou for making contact with you on his own accord." Azazel then snickered. "And when he returned to me, he seemed rather pissed-off. What did you do to him, Issei-kun?"

At Azazel's question, everyone, safe for Saji and Gasper, sweat-dropped inwardly as they recalled the meeting between two hosts the Heavenly Dragons. Issei himself only rolled his eyes before he shrugged in indifference. "Dunno. He just came to greet us then he left." Then Issei asked another question. "What about you, though? Won't you apologise for coming in contact with me repeatedly without informing me about your identity?"

"…Well, that's my hobby, so I won't apologise." Azazel showed a mischievous smile as he finally left the place.

Everyone slowly relaxed after Azazel's presence had completely gone. Then Saji sighed and moved first. "Well, shall we continue then?" Saji proposed. "For now, I'll use my Sacred Gear on that newbie over there. In that state, let's try using his sacred gear and practice. In exchange for that, next time, I will have you help me out with the flower bed."

Everyone nodded at Saji's suggestion, and the training went on until night.

X

That night, Issei, Rias and Asia returned back to their home. It was late, and when the three came inside the house, Saitama, clad in pyjamas, was found sitting in the living room watching late night television shows.

"Ah, welcome back." Saitama said from the couch.

Issei only looked around before turned to his father again. "Where's mom?"

"Already asleep. I'm here to make sure you kids got home alright." Saitama raised from his seat and turned off the television.

The kids proceeded to the bedroom and sent their goodnights (still except Issei) to Saitama. "Oh, another thing." Saitama stopped the kids before going to bed. "I heard you're releasing Gya-chan. How's he doing?"

It took a second for everyone to figure out who Saitama was implying. Not bothering to ask how the man knew about Gasper's case, Rias answered with bitter smile. "There's still quite a lot to work on." Then she and her pawn and bishop left, leaving Saitama only nodded and entered his own room.

X

Next day after school, the Occult Research Club was going to start their club activities again, as well as to continue with Gasper's training. What awaited them when they opened the door to Gasper's chamber was the sight of the shy bishop, sitting in front of television with a game console, playing an RPG game. However, what surprised them was the bald man who was sitting beside him.

"Alright, Saitama-san…. We had use your last life, so make it count this time, okay?" while there was a timid tone in Gasper's voice, he spoke more confidently compared the other day.

"Okay, okay…" Saitama breathed out as he was engrossed into the game he was playing. "Damn, this boss was really hard! What kind of twisted soul made this game!?"

The rest of Occult Research Club only remained silent with blank expression as they watched the two playing game together.

"Noooo! Wait, wait, waaaaiit!" now Gasper's voice was devoid of any fear. "The boss' HP isn't low enough!" Even the supposedly shy bishop was standing and fearlessly shaking Saitama's body. After few more minutes, the bishop burst out, "There! Mow them down!"

"ORAH!" Saitama cried out as he started to push combinations of buttons on the controller stick.

The screen flashed out 'LEVEL COMPLETE' then both Saitama and Gasper shouted out from their seats. "WOOHOO!" Saitama even gave Gasper a high-five with both hands as they both danced a bit and cried victory cheers.

Now things had become really weird for the spectators as some eyes were twitching in shock and disbelief.

"_WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"_

_To be continued…_

**And… done! What do you guys think? Please don't be too harsh on me. Until next time. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	18. The Treaty (IV)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**YES! 400+ hits! Thank you very much again for the supports you readers have been giving me! I'm now pumped up as fresh ideas and inspirations kept flowing into me, thus I managed to finish writing this chapter within a week! Without further ado, here's the next chapter of the treaty arc! R&amp;R and enjoy!**

**Chapter 17: The Treaty (IV) – Of Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels**

Saitama was bored that day.

In the morning, Saitama did not join his son's daily training so he assumed that the training went on without any major disturbance. Even the breakfast went by uneventfully, while Issei still had not opened up to him. And ever since the class observation day, one could say that his respect towards him had plummeted even more as the boy did not bother to call him 'dad' and simply called him by either his name or simply 'old man' or 'pops'. Not that he minded, but that just showed that Saitama had screwed up big time.

In Rias and Asia's case, the former was no longer angry with Saitama regarding the incident during the class visit, while the latter simply being the sweet girl as usual. After the kids had gone to school, the rest of the morning was spent with his wife who was simply…. Being her self as she jovially made few possible attempts to get her hands inside his pants, and after lunchtime, Haruka had to go to meet with her neighbourhood associates. Saitama was left alone in the living room, watching random shows in television.

"(Sigh)…. What to do, what to do…" Saitama muttered as he stared at the ceiling. He had considered visiting Azazel, but he soon dismissed the idea since he thought that Azazel might be busy for the upcoming conference. He fiddled with his cell-phone to chat with Sirzechs, but it seemed that he was busy as well.

Saitama sighed again from boredom and he finally changed his clothes into a simple T-shirt and loose jeans and decided to take a walk outside. After making sure that he had locked the doors and windows, he left his house and walked towards the more crowded district of the town. As he saw people spending time and doing their own things, Saitama's mind was brought back to the days of his homeland.

"_Usually something was bound to happen around this time… Like a monster suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wrecking havoc."_ Saitama looked around his surroundings. However, nothing much happened. Aside from occasional delinquents scaring off other people to mind their own business, some guys hitting on chicks, everything was quite peaceful in this new world.

Actually, there were couple of monsters lurking around. The example was stray devils that Sirzechs once explained to him. However, since they were only active during night when there were almost no people around, humans were rather ignorant about those monsters' existence. In fact, those other monsters, devils or not, were doing their best not to reveal themselves to public's eyes. Something about maintaining their 'give and take' relationships with humans, at least most of supernatural factions and pantheons believe that non-hostile relationship with humans to be beneficial. Even if there were some rogues blatantly attacking people around and caused chaos, the ones in charge would take immediate measures to make sure that humans and common people would not remember of those rogues.

Overall, it was actually rather boring to him, not that different with the world where he came from. Instead of bluntly letting people know about the existence of these 'monsters', people were kept ignorant of their existence. Well, in exceptions of those who made contracts with the devils, as Sirzechs once explained again, those 'monsters' exist only as far as people's imaginations, stories, and urban legends. Prior his journey leaving his family behind fifteen years ago, Saitama only ran into some of stray devils, which did not pose any challenge at all. Well, there was one time Saitama experienced something akin to 'spirited away', but that is a story for another time.

Looking back, all those heroes business about ranks, association, and factions never mattered to him. In fact, Saitama once thought that he did not want to be that kind of hero when he began his official heroic debut for the first time. All those anti-climactic fights were for the sake of raising one's name and status rather than actually being a HERO. He did have those he could call friends, but that was irrelevant. When he arrived in this world, he found things were far more intriguing. Those monsters and supernatural factions and pantheons were definitely stronger than most of those from his homeland, he even gained a family, a loving wife, people who were actually worth fighting for, and more people who actually acknowledged him for who he is. Saitama wondered, could he finally become a hero he once wanted to be? He sure saw a glimpse of hope in this world. Not that he no longer missed his old friends, but at this point, the only path for him was to keep moving forward.

He walked around again until he found himself standing in front of Kuoh academy. He stared at the school for a minute, and he walked away. However, he suddenly stopped after few steps. He turned to look at the building again, and he looked around to see if there was any people around. Feeling that having fun would not hurt once in a while, Saitama walked around the school's side and he quickly jumped over the school's wall. As he landed on the school ground, Saitama quickly ran towards the trees to avoid from being seen by the groundskeeper and other school's staffs. Then he saw on the sports ground, students were taking their P.E. lesson. _"Ah… Those were those days…"_ Saitama felt nostalgic at the scene as his mind trailed off to the days when he was just a mundane student.

Seeing that going to the main building was not an option, Saitama kept circling the ground inside the trees. Finally, he found another building that looked significantly older and smaller than the main building earlier. Since Saitama did not want to just leave empty-handed, he decided to challenge his luck by exploring the old school building instead. As he stepped inside the building, Saitama took a look of his surroundings. The woods were old, but had been maintained well enough to be usable. It was a two-stories building, and the man decided to explore the whole floors. He strode into the old classrooms, took a seat on one of the desk, and he pretended that he was a high-school student again as he stared at the board in front of him. Truly, going to school and sitting in the classroom like this had brought back quite memories to him.

Saitama then went to the unused staff-room, walked through the now empty room as he recalled the moments when he was summoned by the teachers whenever he got into trouble. He left the staff-room, and he continued his adventure towards the room at the end of the hallway. Unknown to him, it was actually the room of Occult Research Club.

He opened the door and he looked inside the room that was designed in old Victorian-style. He walked towards one huge desk and found few piles of papers that had been written in some language that the man could not understand. He skimmed the writings on the papers before he finally left them alone. Then he spotted few piles of flyers at the corner of the room and some snacks and assortments of sweets served on the table. At first, Saitama thought that the papers were just things that had been left and forgotten, but a fresh sweets and cookies in an old school building?

Now Saitama was sure that someone was still using the particular room in the old building, perhaps for after-school activities? Feeling that he could have few deserts after lunch, Saitama decided took a bite from the snacks. "A little bit is fine, right?" Saitama muttered to himself as he found that the sweets were rather delicious to his taste. In the end, Saitama ended up treating himself almost half of them. He even brewed some tea for him to drink after he found some tea-leaves in the cupboard. Feeling enough, Saitama laid down on one of the couches before he felt that he needed to use the toilet.

Few minutes later after Saitama relieving himself, the man found himself in a tight spot: the stall he used was out of paper.

"Crap…." Saitama stared at the empty roller. Trapped in an old building, he had his pants down, and nobody around to ask for (considering the building felt empty when he came in); even during his younger days as a hero, he never got caught in such predicament. _"No… Stay calm, Saitama…"_ the man thought to himself. _"This is a restroom. There are still other stalls besides this one! The probability for those other stalls to run out of toilet paper…. Approaches astronomical figure!"_ Saitama concluded. _"…There most definitely has to be some of it, somewhere!"_ then Saitama decided to boldly go out from his stall with his pants still down in order to look for additional toilet paper. However, when he opened the door, his eyes blinked when they were met with a pair of pinkish-violet eyes.

"…Eh?"

Lo and behold, in front of Saitama was a figure of a girl around 15-16 years old, she had a platinum blonde hair and clad in Kuoh academy girl uniform. The two remained silent for a second, then Saitama's face went pale as he realized the situation he just got himself into. "W-w-well… You know, t-there's an explanation for this."

Saitama wanted to pull up his pants to cover his modesty, but at the same time, he could not afford to get the crap on his pants as well. When the 'girl's' eyes fell on Saitama's nether region, 'her' face started to gain a healthy shade of red and tears started to well up in 'her' eyes.

"W-wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Saitama, with now sweating face, tried his darnest to placate the now trembling 'girl'. "I-I'm sorry, but please don't scream! I'm begging you! I'm just looking for more toilet paper because my stall was-!"

After few seconds of trembling as her mind had been overwhelmed, the 'girl' responded Saitama's plea by fainting to the floor. Seeing the fainting child, Saitama only sighed in relief and exasperation, as he finally focused back on wiping clean his dirty ass. "Oh, thank goodness there is some paper over here", Saitama said as he found some spare papers inside the stall next to his previous one.

_(Scene Break)_

Gasper's mind started to slowly return to the realm of consciousness as he felt that someone was carrying his body and laid him on a soft surface. Recent days had been tough for him.

After years and days of comfortable solitude, his safe-heaven had suddenly been broken open by his master, who told him that he needed to start dealing with the outside world, that terrified him to no end. While strangers also terrified him, at least the new members of the club were not bad person, despite one of them was mercilessly swinging a large holy sword at him as a form of training. However, this day, when he was enjoying his solitude again in his safe-heaven, he suddenly felt a presence in the clubroom, and a human to add. He felt scared at first, choosing to stay hidden until the intruder had done whatever business he had and go away. But after few minutes, he finally felt that he had to use the restroom. While he did not like the idea of leaving his room, he really had to go, and since the presence was no longer in the clubroom, Gasper assumed that the person had left, and he could quickly just go to finish his business and returned back to his safe-heaven. However, just when he had finished with his business and was about to return, the stall in front of him suddenly got open and a bald man appeared, with his parts were revealed for the world to see, causing his brain to go haywire.

And now, in the clubroom, when Gasper finally came to, that familiar bald man was peering over him. "Oh, you're awake." And Gasper snapped.

"EEEEEEEKK!" the dhampir's eyes glowed with power as he let out a terrified yelp and he quickly jumped behind the sofa to hide himself. The man would be frozen and Gasper would have enough time to run away, or that was what supposed to happen normally.

"Whoa, whoa! I'm sorry, okay?" the man simply took a step back with his arms held up.

Gasper blinked at the sight. He knew that his Forbidden Balor View was activated and the man was definitely exposed to his eyes, yet instead of being frozen, the man kept moving as if the time around him remained moving accordingly. Having seen lot of people got frozen by his time-stopping ability for the most of his life, Gasper could not help but feel intrigued. "Y-…You can move…?" he asked timidly from behind the couch.

Saitama only raised his eyebrows, confused of the question. "Well… Of course I can move. Why do you ask?" the man asked as he did not feel any difference. Well, he saw the child's eyes were glowing unnaturally but that was all. "Look, I'm sorry for trespassing and scaring you. I'll just take my leave now, okay? You didn't see anyone coming here, got it?"

Now the bald man had completely and miraculously grabbed Gasper's interest. For all his life, most people aside from Gremory clan had been scorning him because of his Sacred Gear. People from his past had left him as soon as they learned that he had been freezing them accidentally in a fit of panic, yet the man before him did not stop moving after being exposed to his power. Gasper now wanted to know him better, to know him more, he did not want to loose someone who might be able to stay as his friend.

Just when Saitama had turned around and about to leave, Gasper shot from the couch he was lying on. "Wait!" When Saitama turned to look back to him, Gasper fiddled his fingers. He wanted to know more about the man who could withstand his power, someone who might be able to remain his friend if he ever became one, but his fear of outside world kept him from speaking clearly. "U-u-um…. I-I… Please… W-what I mean is…" Gasper's eyes were darting left and right as he tried to find the coherent words. Finally, he simply broke down into tears as he apologizing. "Fueeee! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Saitama was blanched at the sudden break down. He was shocked for a second before he immediately kneeled down to the crying 'girl' while unsure of what to do. "Hey, hey, come on now… " Saitama tried to calm her(?) down. "I'm the one who should apologize, y'know?" Saitama awkwardly patted 'her' head.

It took a good one hour for Gasper to finally cease his crying and the two of them to clear up everything that had transpired. Saitama was relieved that Gasper, who surprisingly for him was a boy cross-dressing as a girl, was willing not to rat him out. As they took seats in the clubroom (Gasper in his cardboard box), Saitama and Gasper found themselves to be comfortable enough as they conversed with each other.

"Wait… Saitama…. Saitama-san?" Gasper recognised the name when they introduced themselves to each other. "So it's really you?"

"Nice to finally meet you, Gya-chan." Saitama simply replied. "Though I'm a bit surprised that you have a hobby like this." Saitama implied at Gasper's outfit.

"Uuuu…. I'm sorry…" Gasper whined again. Saitama himself could not help but smile.

"You shouldn't apologize too much, you know." Saitama said, receiving a look from Gasper. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to be in class? What are you doing alone here?"

At the question, Gasper only looked down, with his feared and ashamed expression. "Well, I guess you don't have to answer." Then Saitama looked around again before he started up another topic. "Well… Anyway, I'm bored. Say Gya-chan…." Saitama addressed the shut-in again. "The game that you gave me advice before… Do you have it?"

Gasper only blinked at Saitama's question, after contemplating for few minutes, Gasper decided to try to make another friend, a friend that would probably not be harmed by his powers. "Well…. I only have the previous instalment… Would you like to play, Saitama-san?"

X

When everyone from Occult Research Club entered their clubroom, they realized that someone had trespassed. Rias noticed that the paperwork on her desk had signs that someone had touched them as their positions had somewhat changed.

Much to Akeno's bewilderment, that someone also used up the tea-leaves she had been keeping for special occasions, and now she had to replenish those rather costly tea-leaves. Not to mention, when she checked the tea-pot that the intruder used to serve the tea, the drink was brewed rather poorly much to her taste.

Koneko, being completely territorial when it comes to her snacks, was agitated when she found that the intruder had eaten quite a portion of her sweets that she had kept for the club activity. Nobody touches her snack, unless she had given the permission to do so.

At first everyone thought it was Gasper, and while they were happy that Gasper wanted to step out from his room, they found it unlikely for him to thoughtlessly brew Akeno's special tea-leaves, and most of all, to eat Koneko's snack without the girl's permission. Nonetheless, the team decided to at least check on the cross-dressing boy.

Here they were, standing at the doorstep of Gasper's chamber, looking at the unfolding events in front of them. And each of them showed their respective reactions. Rias could not believe, after many years of her attempt to make her bishop to open up to her more, someone else had done it before her.

Akeno was a bit peeved, though she did not show it, that the bald man had the audacity to use her special tea-leaves without her permission, and she was contemplating whether to sue him or not.

Koneko was rather angry, but when she found out that it was undoubtedly Saitama who ate her snacks, she contemplated her options again. Ever since the man made his appearance, Koneko's instinct labelled him as simply 'dangerous' in more ways than one and for various reasons. If possible, Koneko would prefer to stay away from him as much as she could.

Yuuto was impressed. He had no idea what Saitama did, but whatever it was, it sure made Gasper to come out from his former shell. Seeing the bishop having so much fun without any hint of fear like that was a great improvement.

Xenovia's respect and admiration towards Saitama had increased even more. Indeed, being a mentor of someone else was not her forte, but she saw Saitama had managed to conquer another vampire once again. _"I expect no less from Saitama-dono!"_ Xenovia thought with absolute certainty as she nodded in approval.

Asia, being a sweet girl she is, simply smiled in joy as she saw Gasper and Saitama was getting along so well. While Issei could only twitched his eyes as his brain could not really make out of the situation.

When Saitama and Gasper finally stopped cheering upon their game completion, the two finally noticed that the rest of Occult Research Club was standing and watching them. While they were Gasper's friends, the odd looks they gave made Gasper yelped in fear and quickly hid behind Saitama's body. Only then Saitama remembered that he actually just trespassed private property. Looking at the gazes pointed at him, Saitama tried his best to explain. "Hey there, kids… Well, you see…" But no right words came to his mind. Thus, Saitama started with most obvious statement when he did something wrong. "I'm sorry", he said with his head bowed. "I just wanted to hang out and I ran into Gya-chan here."

The others blinked at the apology, then it was Rias who first replied. "Actually, why don't we sit down first in the clubroom? Then we can figure out where to start." The girl said rubbing her temple.

_(Scene Break)_

Everyone was sitting in the clubroom, with Saitama sitting on one couch, surrounded by everyone else on their respective seats, sans Gasper who chose to remain in his cardboard box on the floor beside Saitama. It appeared that the shut-in had become quite comfortable by the man's side. In addition, while Gasper still wanted to remain in his box, he was willing to open the lid, letting him to directly face the others without any cover.

Rias sighed as she opened her previously closed-eyes as she came with a decision. "I should've reported you to Sona or the teachers for trespassing the school grounds…" then Rias' glanced at the cupboard and the plate of snacks on the table. "As well as taking our tea-leaves and Koneko's snacks without permission…" then her gaze fell to Gasper, who unconsciously jerked her body closer to Saitama. "But seeing at what you've done to Gasper, I guess I have to let this slide."

Saitama felt relieved while he did not show it on his face. The others were also agreed, albeit kind of begrudgingly. The others also agreed, since they also cared very much about Gasper and happy for the progress the boy had made that day.

"U-um…" suddenly a meek voice was heard. Everyone turned with another surprised gaze that Gasper had shown another progress by daring to speak up. The boy usually chose to remain quiet for most of the time, after all. Gasper flinched at the gazes for a second, and when he turned to see Saitama's small smile, as if encouraging him to go on, Gasper found another courage to speak. "Buchou, please don't blame Saitama-san too much…" Gasper started. "Saitama-san is one of my regulars… He's willing to listen to my story during our past conversations…"

Saitama raised his eyebrows as he felt a tinge of guilt in his heart. As he darted his gazes here and there, he just remembered that he actually barely knew anything about him. As the matter of fact, since the past conversation was done through computer and online chat, Saitama simply skim Gasper's chat, not taking in the boy's story entirely, and only replied with simple 'yes, yes' and 'I understand' or 'I see' answers, and somewhat managed to ask questions that happened to be coherent with the flow of the conversation, thus creating the current bond with the shy dhampir. However, he knew better than ruining the meaning that Gasper tried to imply right now.

"…And this is the first time I have a friend that is not affected by my powers! Please let me meet up with him from here on!" Gasper pleaded while burying his head into his knees as he remained curled in his box.

Seeing their shy junior displayed such courage after years of solitude and hiding from outside world, the rest could not help but smiled. Saitama found himself patting the boy's head and the latter felt himself rather nice from the touch.

"…(Sigh), I guess I really owe you one, Saitama-san…" Rias said after sighing contently. Saitama had always wanted to say something about being called father. Since he actually still had something about having Rias and Asia pitted together with his son. But at this point, the man might as well just let the girl do as she pleases and address the issue later. "Thank you for helping Gasper. I'll talk it out with Sona so you can see him after school period. But I won't make any guarantees." Rias informed. Seeing the effects of the bald man on her bishop, Rias would not mind to bend a rule or two.

"I admit you've done a good job, old man." Issei snorted. "Thanks…" Saitama blinked at the gratitude before he stood up and walked over to pat Issei's head. At the contact, the boy's face flushed and he quickly slapped off his father's hand. "Okay, okay, stop that!"

Everyone laughed at the scene of Issei's flustered face. Then the boy quickly raised up. "Alright, Gya-suke! It's time for another training session, don't you think?"

While being taken aback by his new nickname for a second, Gasper glanced to Saitama first, and the man simply jerked his head forward as if telling Gasper to go for it. Then, the boy's face went slightly more resolute. "Y-yes! I'll do my best! See you later, Saitama-san!" Gasper stood up and he strode out from the clubroom with Issei.

"Break a leg, kid…" Saitama said sending the boys off.

Soon, the others also followed leaving the room to help with the training, leaving Rias, Akeno and Saitama in the clubroom. After being served by a cup of tea by her queen, Rias looked up from her paperwork. "Akeno, why don't you go to supervise their training? I'll catch up soon enough."

"If you say so, buchou." Akeno obeyed and she left the room after giving a quick nod to Saitama, who was still sitting in the clubroom.

_(Scene Break)_

Meanwhile, Issei, Gasper and the rest of ORC were on their way towards the gym with the dhampir following behind the pawn. "Um… Ise-senpai." Gasper called out to his upper-class man, causing the latter to hum and look at him. "P-Please…. Uh… Please don't be too hard on Saitama-san."

The request raised Issei's eyebrows. "Sorry for not recognizing you at the beginning… You and Saitama-san don't really look alike…" Gasper apologized sheepishly.

Issei only snorted at the apology and comment. "It's fine, Gya-suke… I got that a lot." Issei ruffled Gasper's hair friendly and turned his gaze to the front again. "Well, how do you feel now?"

"B-Better", was what Gasper said in return. "Having someone like Saitama-san who can accept me for what I am… Makes me think that the outside world might not be as bad as I thought…" Gasper said with a smile.

"It'll only get better." Gasper looked up to see Issei was grinning. "Not only that old man, but we will always accept you as part of family! Even if you have bizarre powers, we will help you handling it in one way or another! Just leave it to me, to us!"

Gasper could not help but giggle at the encouragement. "Ise-senpai… Come to think of it, your way of patting me earlier was like Saitama-san…" Gasper held his head. "Your father really is a good person… O-Of course you're all good persons as well!" Gasper addressed the rest of others. Issei in particular, felt his face was flushed slightly.

"Oh? Is that a blush I see, Ise-kun?" Yuuto decided to jump in. "Looking back, isn't it nice to have your head being patted by Saitama-san earlier?"

At the knights' sudden teasing, Issei held down the blood from rising to his face as he snapped his head and sent a glare to the bishounen.

"I'm glad for you, Ise-san."

"Indeed, being patted by Saitama-dono should be a sign of blessing by his own strength and power."

"Ise-senpai finally got a bit closer to Saitama-san…"

Apparently Asia, Xenovia and Koneko also jumped into the conversation with their own remarks. Issei's blush deepened ever so slightly.

_**[Come on, brat… Just admit that it felt nice… Having a bit father and son moment back there…]**_ Ddraig snickered in Issei's mind.

"W-well… He just caught me off-guard!" Issei retorted. "I-I'm not that happy from a simple contact like that, you hear me?" Issei looked away as he kept focusing to the front. Everyone, even Ddraig ended up giggling and laughing at Issei's antics.

Even Gasper could not help but rather shocked at the sudden development. _"Ise-senpai was kind of cute for a second there…"_ the boy did not dare to say it out loud.

"Tsundere-senpai…"

"Hm? Did you say something, Koneko-chan?"

"No, nothing."

_(Scene Break)_

While finishing the rest of her work, Rias took a glance from her desk at Saitama who simply looked around at the drawings on the walls, floors and ceilings of the clubroom.

"Um… Saitama-san Shouldn't you join them? Gasper might be more comfortable with you around."

Rias suggested. In actuality, the girl just felt nervous from the man's presence before her and she could not really focus on her work. Saitama only stared at her before he returned to see the intricate drawings.

"Ah, yeah… I'll do that in a second." Saitama replied. Then after few seconds, the man started another talk. "Say, Rias-chan…" the man called and the girl glanced up while she took a sip of her tea. "Are you really that smitten with my son?"

Saitama's sudden question caused Rias to spit-take her tea and almost ruined her paperwork. Luckily, the girl managed to look side-ways so the tea did not spill on the desk. She coughed a bit and quickly shot up with flushed face. "W-w-what are you asking out of the blue!?" Being a girl like a teenage girl, despite the daring move she used to Issei on the other night, Rias still felt awkward when talking about her feelings with another person.

"Well… I mean just look at it." Saitama tried to explain. "I get about Asia-chan, I heard of her story, and I actually kind of like her and totally fine having her to stay in the house. But you actually get out of your way to stay under the same roof as him? That's quite a stretch, you know? Not to mention the stun you pulled on him during the other night."

At the mention of that particular night, Rias' blush deepened. "Can you please forget about that night…?" the girl honestly had no idea what possessed her that time.

"It's alright. Like I said, I completely understand. You kids are in that age, after all." Saitama reasoned, receiving another glare from the redhead. "Well, back to the point. I'm actually wondering about that since I heard from your brother that you had been scouting him since his first year."

At this Rias paused, motioning Saitama to continue. "I get that you probably needed time to evaluate him, but I think it's kind of strange that you only came to him when he got himself gunned-down by a fallen angel? I mean, I'm grateful that you saved him, but can you just call him to your club and asked him right there and then?" Saitama explained his reasoning. What Saitama said next made Rias slightly trembled.

"It's like, you deliberately let him summoned you if he ever found himself in peril, so he would owe you a huge favour, and you can gain his loyalty… That kind of thing…." Saitama finished with thoughtful look, seemingly missed Rias' trembling. "Well, I wish!" Saitama waved his hand, immediately dismissed his theory like a joke. "There's no way you'd ever pull off something like that." Saitama said with a snort. Rias only remained silent at Saitama's sudden change of mood. "Well, I'll be going to let you finish your work and check on the kids. See ya later!" Saitama walked to the door.

"Oh, another thing." However, before Rias could have a moment of her self, Saitama stopped at the doorstep and addressed her again. "It's actually for the… perhaps other girls as well, but…." Saitama seemed to think of correct words. "Haruka might be more than happy to give you and probably other girls her blessing, but I'm not as lenient as her." Saitama said with his smiling expression rather sharper than usual. "If you girls really want my blessing over Ise, you'd better work hard to earn it." Then Saitama proceeded again to leave. "Well, that's all. See ya!"

When the door was slammed shut, Rias leaned back on her chair. She closed her eyes as she had been reminded of her wrongdoing upon the one she had fallen for, as Saitama's words earlier almost felt like a slap on her face. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves down. _"It's okay… Everything will be fine…" _Rias told her self in her mind. She might had wronged her pawn, but she was now working hard to make up for it. She kept telling her self in due time, all those things in the past would be simply a mere past. But at the same time, she could not help but worried: what would happen if he were ever to learn about it?

Knowing that being pessimistic was the least thing that could help her, Rias slapped her face with both of her hands to snap out of it and returned to her paperwork.

X

The training with Gasper that day went smoother as Gasper made a significant progress with his Sacred Gear. The dhampir still shy and timid, but at least he showed more confidence when he was talking with his friends from the club. That evening after the training with Gasper had ended, Saitama got a call from his wife to do some more shopping to re-stock their food and Issei coincidentally got a text from his mother to help his father's shopping on his way home. As if noticing about Hyoudou matriarch's intention, Rias and Asia decided to go home first, saying that they wanted help out the mother at home.

At the moment, Issei and Saitama were walking across the shopping district with each of them carrying bundles of shopping bags. "Just so you know, I'm doing this because mom told me to." Issei said out of nowhere.

Saitama only glanced at his son, because it was already the fifth time Issei said those very same words. "Yes, Ise. I got it." he dryly replied.

The shopping had gone quite eventful, apparently. Due to their different life style, with Saitama prefer to buy simply more affordable things, and Issei prefer to match the quality over the price, the two ended up bickering and arguing which brand or product to buy whenever they stopped at a stand and shop. They tried to decide by coin-toss, but when Issei found that Saitama rigged the coin, the two bickered again for couple more minutes before they finally decided through rock-paper-scissors. There were some instances that due to the noise they created from their bickering, they almost got kicked out by the local security guards.

Overall, it was a strange shopping experience for both of father and son as they proceeded. "Is there anything else on the list?" Saitama asked his son.

Issei checked upon the list from the E-mail he got from his mother, after few seconds looking through the screen of his cell-phone, the boy put his gadget back to his pocket. "Nah, that should be all. Let's go back." As father and son kept walking across the townsfolk, suddenly they were met with quite a peculiar sight.

It was a woman with an extremely beautiful face, her hair was blonde and curly, her figure was voluptuous and could be said as the body of the most beautiful woman. The said woman was wearing a white long-sleeved dress that rather resembled to a clerical robe and was looking around with troubled expression. Most people could not look away from such a beauty and started whispering if the woman was a celebrity or perhaps a princess or nobility from a foreign country. The people kept staring, but could not bring themselves to approach the woman due to her strong aura. Even Issei, who was mesmerized by such a sight, noticed something akin to golden dust was coming out from the woman.

If Ddraig were to have a human-shaped mouth, the dragon would have whistled at the spectacle. _**[Damn… That's some holy aura leaking from her being… Be careful, partner]**_ Ddraig also noticed the woman's aura and warned his host, who simply nodding in acknowledgement.

However, among the crowds there were always some scumbags who would like to try their luck to lay their hands on such a beauty. Two people stepped forward, their get-up was something akin to someone who would occasionally hit on some women here and there and someone who was involved in some shady business. Issei and Saitama blinked as the two people spoke to the troubled beautiful woman in a friendly manner. The woman seemed hesitant at first, but when the two men ushered her to follow her, the woman slowly complied.

Issei and Saitama could tell immediately that the two men's actions and notions were screaming no-good, and the woman was obviously rather naïve for her self to easily trust such shady people. Another thing that Saitama learned upon coming to this new world, that when it comes to deal with normal human stragglers, his fist rarely solved anything. This kind of situation required his wits to do the thing before he resorted to his punch. However, before Saitama could pull anything off, his son had already beaten him to the punch.

Issei quickly approached the two men and the woman and waved his hand. "Ah, there you are, onee-chan!" Issei said with innocent smile as he grabbed the woman's hand. "Geez, that's why I'm telling you not to walk too far on your own when you're first time coming here! Come on, father is waiting for us!" Issei pointed at his father and he then addressed the shocked two men. "Oh, thanks a lot for looking after my cousin here, please excuse us!" Issei quickly walked off with the woman in tow, leaving the two dumbfounded men behind.

The woman was completely confused at the rapid events, her eyes widened as she noticed something from the brown-haired boy coming to her, but she did not resist nonetheless. When they arrived at the dumbfounded Saitama, Issei glared at his father as if trying to relay a message, since they were still within the sight of the two shady people. Fortunately, Saitama quickly caught on as he played along. "Come on, kids! Mom is waiting with dinner!" Saitama gently grabbed the woman's back and they quickly left the scene.

Once they were far enough, they stopped as the woman finally addressed them. "Um… Excuse me?" but Issei cut her off.

"I'm sorry." The boy apologized as he bowed down, resulting the woman to blink. "I know you're confused but we assure you that we don't mean you any harm."

"Yeah. What the hell, kid?" Saitama asked sarcastically. "'Onee-chan'? What were you thinking, seriously?"

"Oh, please…" Issei shot back. "I can tell that you know what's gonna happen if the lady here were to follow those two guys. Just get on with it!"

"U-um…. I don't know what's going on, but…" the woman brought their attention again, and Saitama spoke up.

"Oh, right. Sorry again about earlier." Saitama held up his hand. "I'm Saitama, and this is my son Ise." Saitama gestured to him and his son, who nodded in introduction. "It's just… Trust me, you won't like whatever those two guys were planning on you earlier."

"Well… Then, I guess I should thank you." The woman said as she bowed in gratitude. _"Ise…. Saitama…. Sound familiar…. Where did I hear those names from?"_

Gabriel thought to herself.

Issei only sighed softly at the woman's naivety. "You shouldn't trust people that easily, um…." Issei realized that he did not know the woman's name.

"Ah, forgive me. Please call me Gabriel, it's a pleasure to meet you." The woman introduced herself.

Issei raised an eyebrow at the name_. "Strange…. A beautiful woman with holy aura with the name Gabriel… Seems ring a bell…"_ but Issei continued on. "Nice to meet you too. By the way, Gabriel-san… You seemed troubled before those guys approached you. May I ask what happened?"

Inside Issei's mind, Ddraig wanted to say something, but he decided to play a little prank by kept quiet in expectations as he snickered silently.

"Yes! Oh, this is terrible… I came to this town for sightseeing with my escort, but we got separated along the way, and I had no idea where to go!" suddenly Gabriel's eyes got teary and her expression turned panic.

"So you're searching for someone… If that's the case, we'll just take you to the police station." Saitama concluded as he walked off. Issei nodded to Gabriel and the two followed in tow.

"Thank God I met with you two gentlemen…" Gabriel said on the way. "I really had no idea what to do back then…" she smiled in such sincerity that it was blinding to look at.

"Say, Gabriel…" Saitama said nonchalantly. "What's the person's look like, the escort you're looking for right now?"

Gabriel put up a thinking pose as she kept walking. "Hmm… My escort is a pretty girl with a long chestnut hair in twin-tails. She is such a kind soul and has a devoted heart in doing her task. It's my own unbecoming to lost her when she was doing her best to guide me around the town…" Gabriel finished with rather solemn tone.

Issei and Saitama blinked at the description, putting aside the heart part, the face description sounded familiar to them. They chose not to think too much about it and they kept proceeding towards the nearest police station. When they arrived at their destination, they saw a familiar sight at the front of the office.

"Yes, yes! She is the most beautiful existence, about yay tall, her hair is blonde and curly, and possesses one of the kindest, most pure hearts that surpasses even the purity of the heaven itself! O Lord, please give me strength! If anything were to happen to Gabriel-sama, how will I face Michael-sama later?"

A police officer was talking with a young girl that matched Gabriel's description in clergy robe with black tight body suit underneath. The former was a bit overwhelmed by the latter who was actually whining, crying and praying while speaking, giving the former a hard time in deciphering what the girl was trying to say. Issei and Saitama were the first to recognize the girl, then the boy turned to the beauty behind. "Um, Gabriel-san? Perhaps that is the escort you're looking for?" Issei pointed at the girl known as Shidou Irina, one of Church's exorcists.

"Yes, she is! Thank goodness!" Gabriel beamed and ecstatically ran towards the girl. "Irina-san!"

The said girl turned around and her face lit up in happiness and relief. "Gabriel-sama! Oh, thank goodness you're alright!" the girl said as she suddenly pulled into Gabriel's embrace.

"It was so scaryyyyyy!" Gabriel suddenly bawled like a child. "I thought I've lost you foreveeer! If it's not for those two, I would've… I would've… FUEEEE!" the woman then cried like there was no tomorrow.

"Yes, yes, it's alright now… And the blame is on me, Gabriel-sama!" Irina patting the woman's back, then she noticed about what Gabriel mentioned earlier and she broke off from the hug. "Um, Gabriel-sama? By 'those two' you mean…?"

"Oh, that's right!" Gabriel immediately ceased her crying and she turned to gesture at Issei and Saitama who were standing in front of them. "These two gentlemen, Ise-san and Saitama-san have helped me here!"

Issei simply smiled while Saitama maintained his poker face as they greeted the girl.

"Good to see you again, Irina-chan."

"'Sup?"

"Ise-kun!? Saitama-san!?" Irina was flabbergasted as she turned her gaze around her childhood friend, her crush's father, and her escort priority. "You three met? You two and Gabriel-sama?"

Issei swallowed at the mention of 'Gabriel-sama'. _"She really is an upper-echelon from the Church… No, the Heaven itself."_ The boy got a gist of the woman's identity, but he found himself to be too scared to admit it.

"Irina-san, do you know these two?" Gabriel asked, then after few seconds, her mind suddenly clicked on a memory. "Of course! I remember now!" She shouted as she finally recognized the name. "You are Hyoudou Issei, Irina-san's old friend as well as the Sekiryuutei of this generation and the devil of Gremory clan!" She pointed at Issei before turning to Saitama. "And you are Hyoudou Saitama, the man who rescued Irina-san and Xenovia-san in the past and Ise-san's father!"

Saitama only blinked at the outburst. "Wait, you know me?" Saitama asked Gabriel before he immediately turned to irina. "Irina, who is she anyway?"

Irina straightened up her posture and cleared her throat. "Ise-kun, Saitama-san… Let me introduce you to one of the Four Great Seraph, guardians of the Throne of Heaven, Archangel Michael-sama's younger sister, Gabriel-sama." The woman in question simply nodded with her beautiful smile and her holy aura present for the world to see.

Issei's worry had been confirmed as a sweat rolled down on his temple. _"Not just an upper-echelon, she is also a friggin' Archangel!?"_ Issei then quickly bowed in apology. "Please forgive me for my irreverence earlier, Gabriel-dono…" Whether enemies or allies, it was only right to show a proper respect towards a powerful individual. In his mind, Ddraig was trying not to laugh in amusement.

"It's alright, Ise-san. It's been a while I met such a kind devil like yourself…" Gabriel replied with gentle smile. "I also apologize for troubling you and your father earlier. Once again, thank you very much for your help." Gabriel bowed again in gratitude.

"No, no! You don't have to do that!" then Issei turned to his father. "Hey, old man! Be polite and say something too!"

"….Huh?"

_(Scene Break)_

After some explanations and apologies from Issei for his irreverence, the four were walking away from the police station since they happened to go the same direction towards their respective homes.

"So you and Irina came here to inspect the location for the conference, huh?" Saitama said in rather casual tone with one of the Four Seraph of Heaven. However, the said Seraphim did not mind his tone. After all, Gabriel felt more comfortable to be treated casually.

The four were now walking together with Saitama besides Gabriel following Issei and Irina ahead of them. The two teens were talking to catch up with each other's lives. Gabriel herself had been very pleasant since they left the police station, acting as if nothing had happened and her cheerful and humble attitude was so infectious that it was rather hard for Saitama and especially Issei to be tense and serious despite the fact that the woman was a legendary figure from the Bible.

"Yes. As one of the leaders who will attend the peace conference, as well as Michael onii-sama's younger sister, I feel that it is my obligation to at least take a look at the venue in advance, just to be safe." Gabriel replied as she kept gazing at the two childhood friends chatting with each other.

"Your son is a good man."

Saitama raised an eyebrow as Gabriel suddenly said out of the blue. "Even if he's a devil?"

Gabriel closed her eyes and shook her head lightly. "It doesn't matter what your son is, a person's character is defined through actions, not appearance. Otherwise, forget about alliance, the meeting between three opposing powers would have never occurred in the first place." Gabriel then set her eyes specifically on Issei. "But still, I can tell that your son has a good heart despite his devil-hood. Truly, the new age is about to come, where angels, fallen angels and devils can finally be allies to each other."

Saitama snorted at the notion, resulting Gabriel to give an odd look. "Sorry, sorry." Saitama gave a quick apology. "It's just…. Back in my old home, the thought of your kind making peace with your arch-nemeses was nothing but a pipe dream."

"But it's going to happen now." Gabriel replied. "Don't you think your son had a hand in this development?"

At the Seraphim's question, Saitama pondered for a while before replying. "Hm… Let's see… He made a contact with a fallen angel, become a member of group of devils, he made friends of someone from the Church as well… Is that what you think?" Saitama asked about his conclusion.

"It's all just speculations in the end… And perhaps you also played a part in this development…" Gabriel wrote her own conclusion. "Anyway, I sensed that you and your son were rather…. Awkward. Is there anything I can help with? Since you helped me earlier and all."

"Nah, don't sweat it." Saitama waved off. "But that you mentioned it… In a nutshell, he hates my guts now." The man sighed.

"Hm… Is that so?" Gabriel sounded to disagree. "Indeed that I saw your relationship with him is still in working, but it's definitely not a hatred that I sensed from your son." Gabriel said with certainty and she turned to see Saitama who was raising his eyebrows. "Trust me in this. As long as you don't give up, everything will be fine." Gabriel finished with a wink.

_(With Issei and Irina)_

"So… You're still sticking with the Church in the end?" Issei asked to Irina.

"Yeah, I've talked with Michael-sama…" Irina replied. "It's just as you said back there, Ise-kun…. The Lord might be no more, but the things He wished to protect are still here. There are still so many things that are worth fighting for. And I wish to fight by the Heaven's side." Irina said. "Shame, though. I still wish that Xenovia would still remain by Heaven's side… But who am I to dictate her way of life?" the girl finished with a sheepish smile. "Speaking of, how is she?"

"She's doing fine, but she's kind of worried about facing you again." Issei replied. "She fears that you two might end up as enemies in the future."

"Geez, that Xenovia… It's not that I hate her." Irina retorted. "But I'm glad that she is doing well."

When the two took a glance behind them, they saw both Saitama and Gabriel were conversing rather casually. "Seriously, that old man… How can he act so laid-back in front of Gabriel-dono?"

Irina only giggled at Issei's remark. "Fufufu, they're just being themselves, I think. After all, Gabriel-sama is fond to have casual conversation with other people…. Speaking of, how are things with you and Saitama-san? Since the last time he…" Irina slightly grimaced at the memory. "Knocked you out pretty hard. Were you okay there?"

Issei only let out a breath before replying. "It's as you can see now. I'm fine." Issei held up his fist. "Things were… moving on with him."

Irina blinked at Issei's reply before a smile crept up to her face. "I guess so. Seeing that you're shopping together with him means that everything's fine, right?"

The two fell into another comfortable silence for a second before they began to talk casually again.

_(Back to Saitama and Gabriel)_

"Actually, I also remember your name being mentioned in one of Irina-san and Xenovia-san's reports." Gabriel said. "Now that I see you myself in person, I, and on onii-sama's behalf, are indebted to you for rescuing one of our members…"

"Nah, it's fine…" Saitama simply waved it off. "I just happened to run into them, that's all."

Gabriel simply giggled at Saitama's laid-back attitude before she moved on. "So… I heard that you're working for Azazel."

"Well, kind of…" Saitama shrugged. "Being a hero, I'm doing all sorts of odd jobs, and Azazel happened to be my regular clients. If you folks from the kingdom up-high want my help, just contact me and I'll see what I can do for you."

"A hero, is it? Then I'll consider your kind offer." Gabriel replied sincerely. "Tell me, Saitama-san. Are you going to attend the conference? Considering your involvement with our affairs so far."

"I did get invited by Azazel, but he said that I don't really have to come." Saitama said. "But in the end, I guess I want to see how things are gonna go from here." Saitama replied as he gazed into the distance and Gabriel only nodded.

Finally, the moment arrived that the four had to part ways. Gabriel and Irina had to go to their own lodgings while Saitama and Issei proceeded to their home. When the father and son were now alone, Issei turned to his father. "Hey, Saitama…" Issei asked. "I overheard your conversation with Gabriel-dono earlier. Are you really going to attend the Meeting of Three Factions?"

Saitama rolled his eyes as he thought for a second. "Yeah, I guess I'll go. I'm already involved too deep, after all." Saitama shrugged.

Issei only hummed as the two proceeded to the Hyoudou residence.

X

It was a weekend. There was no school and no club activities, since Rias and Sona wished to focus on preparing the school ground for the upcoming Peace Conference, so the rest of the peerage was allowed to have a day-off. Currently Issei, Saitama and surprisingly Gasper were hanging out in Hyoudou Residence. The dhampir wanted to play more with Saitama, but since the school was having a mass cleaning-up for the Peace Conference, Gasper was very reluctant of going outside of the school. So Saitama volunteered himself to carry Gasper inside the cardboard box all the way from the academy. Asia are going out with Xenovia and the girls from the class, Yuuto said he was to have a meeting with some important figures at Akeno's house together with Rias, thus leaving the three male playing a video game together in the living room, since Haruka had to go for her part-time job.

"Okay, according from the walkthrough guide here, you're supposed to take the right turn at the first crossroad, go left at the second, and go back again at the third…" Gasper explained as he had a laptop on his lap.

Apparently they were playing a horror-fantasy-adventure game where the protagonist had to go through several mind-bending mazes littered with various beasts and monsters.

"Wha-what do you mean go back!? That makes no sense!" Saitama complained as he was holding the controller.

"Shut up! Gya-suke is the man here!" Issei admonished as he watched at the television screen. The boy was rather reluctant to play with his father, but considering Gasper's social life, the boy thought that he could at least just watch. But in the end, it was enjoyable for him.

Most of games in Hyoudou residence belonged to Issei. Since he used to play all alone during Saitama's absence, almost all of his games were single-player ones. Thus they came up with the formation during the game: Saitama who wanted to try to complete the game, Gasper who acted as the back-seat overlord, and Issei simply watched, since the boy had played once before. Then when a hideous-looking monster suddenly popped out of nowhere in the game, all hell broke loose as the boys started to panic and scream in shock.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"AAAHHHH! HOLY SHIT!"

"OMG! RUN FOR IT! RUN FOR IT!"

"NO, NO, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK!"

The boys yelled out different instructions followed by various screaming and panicking since the monster completely caught their guard-off, not to mention the appearance was hideous enough to spook them off.

"FUCK IT, JUST RUN! YOU'RE DYING!"

"EEEEEEEEKK! RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN!"

"HOW DO I RUN? HOW DO I RUN!?"

"R2! HOLD R2! HOLD R2 TO RUN!"

"I'M TRYING, I'M TRYING, I'M TRYING! OMG, WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"Wha- YOU'RE HOLDING L2! I SAID HOLD R2, YOU FUCKER!"

"Wait, stop! You're safe now, you can stop running!"

As their main character was no longer in danger, all the males were breathing heavily while Gasper was hiding behind the couch and only sneaked a peek to see what was going on in the game. After few moments of silence, the males suddenly broke down with laughter.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Indeed, it was very fun for all of them in the end.

_(Scene break)_

Issei let out a breath as he returned to the living room with a blanket in hand as Saitama and Gasper were taking a nap on the couch from all exhaustion and excitement earlier. As he stared at the sleeping males, he pondered, since when his life had gotten into this point. He was still peeved at his father and had not gotten used to his father around, but he was just having fun with his father and his junior just few hours ago.

_**[It's fun, isn't it? Having fun with your dad…]**_ Ddraig snickered as he put in his two-cents.

Issei only replied by letting out another sigh, he ruffled his own hair, he laid the blanket over the sleeping bodies and he finally turned off the television.

"_Well…. I guess I'll just make myself some drinks…"_ Issei thought when he heard someone was ringing his doorbell.

"Yes?" He opened the door and he found Akeno, clad in a white blouse and knee-length black skirt, was standing in front of him with her smile present. "Akeno-san?"

"Good afternoon, Ise-kun."

Issei looked around Akeno a bit, as if expecting another person. And as if reading his mind, Akeno filled him in. "Buchou had to attend another preparation for the meeting, I came here to share some persimmons I picked from my house garden. Can I come in?"

Issei blinked at a bag of persimmons in Akeno's hand, then he quickly gave a way. "Oh, I see… Well, come in then! And let me help you with those…" Issei smiled as he volunteered himself to bring in the gift.

As the two entered the room, Akeno spotted Saitama and Gasper who were sleeping soundly in the living room. "Is your mother at home? Where's Asia-chan?" Akeno asked as she took a quick look around.

"Mom is going for her part time work. Asia is hanging out with Xenovia and some other friends. Those two were resting, so…" Issei looked at his father and Gasper. "It's just you and me now. Do you mind if we take these to my room? I'll prepare some tea as well."

As if seeing an opportunity, Akeno smiled as she nodded. "Alright then, if you don't mind. I'll help myself to your room."

"It's the room at the end of the hallway on the second floor. I'll catch up with some drinks."

_(Scene break)_

"I see… So Kiba got himself a holy sword from Archangel Michael? What's its name again?" Issei asked as he was sitting in front of a small table with a plate of persimmons and few cups of tea on it.

"Holy sword Ascalon, the dragon slayer of Saint George. Michael-sama gave that sword to Yuuto-kun, as a sign of the soon coming alliance between devils and angels. He even modified the holy sword so devils like Yuuto-kun can wield it without any drawbacks."

Unknown to Issei, the Ascalon was originally to be handed to him instead of Yuuto, but after taking few things into consideration, the decision finally went for the knight, but Akeno believed Issei did not need to know about it as she took a sip of her tea. "Mm… while your tea-brewing skill can use some improvement, the tea is not bad. Who taught you to brew tea like this?" Akeno asked in curiosity.

"Thank you." Issei said in response. "Well, you can say that my mom only taught me the basics, I only picked up the rest along the way. I don't do this stuff often, after all…" Then Issei's eyes landed on the plate of fruits. "Oh, and thanks again for the persimmons, Akeno-san. Really appreciated." Issei finished as he took a bite on the fruit.

"Fufufu…. I'm glad that you like it, Ise-kun…" Akeno replied as she blushed slightly.

The two began to talk about casual stuff and they enjoyed every moment of it, and when they fell into a comfortable silence, Akeno suddenly spoke after few moments. "Say, Ise-kun…" the gleam in her eyes changed. "What do you think of Saitama-san… Your father?"

Issei blinked at the sudden question. He looked down as he was contemplating. Then he looked up. "Well, to be honest…. I'm not really sure myself." He replied with sheepish smile, receiving a look from Akeno who did not expect such answer. "I mean, he left me and mom for fifteen years to our own device, then he suddenly appeared from the sky when I have trained myself so hard to look for him, and he knocked me out for three days. I'd say that everything has been rather overwhelming…"

Akeno nodded in understanding and sympathy as Issei went on. "Honestly, my whole life before meeting you guys from the club was rather…. Boring." Issei said as Akeno remained listening intently. "But everything changed when I met with you guys, with Rias-buchou as well…" Issei's smile crept up to his face. "My life suddenly changed to be more… exciting, I think? But the point is, I'm really happy that I've met you guys, and I didn't and won't regret any of it."

What Issei said also made Akeno felt warmth in her heart as she smiled sincerely as well. "But when that guy came…" Saitama came to picture as Issei spoke up again. "I suddenly felt myself wanted to look forward for tomorrow… My drive to surpass him also grew even stronger…" Issei clenched his fist and as if a fire had been lit up in his eyes.

"So…. You're happy about him coming home?" Akeno tried to make a conclusion. What came out in return made Akeno blinked in amusement.

Issei's face suddenly flushed slightly as his gaze darted around. "Um… Kind of… Well, I'm just saying that life has been busier ever since he came home, so… yeah! I-I just want to be stronger so I can put him in his place. I don't think that he even felt the punch I gave him that time…" Issei recalled their first reunion. "Well, there you have it! I-it's not that I particularly care if he's coming home or anything!"

At Issei's reaction, Akeno had to supress herself not to laugh out loud. She giggled for a good minute before she looked up. "You really are fortunate, Ise-kun…" Akeno wiped away the tears in her eyes from the laughing. _"And so cute as well…"_

"Well, I won't push it too much, though…" Issei retorted. "Akeno-san… Can I ask you a question this time?" Issei took turns to ask the girl something that had been in his mind for sometime.

"Sure, ask away."

"Are you really the daughter of a fallen angel?" Issei hesitantly asked as he knew the question was a sensitive one.

Akeno blinked as her expression went rigid. "…So you knew about it?" Akeno replied as her gaze went down to the floor.

"Well, I only caught the name during the fight with Kokabiel, Ddraig feed me the basic info, then I just put the two and two together until that morning when my old man mentioned it to you." Issei asked as he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Yes, that's right…" Akeno confirmed. "I was originally born from the union between a fallen angel leader, Baraqiel and a human woman. My mother was a daughter of a certain shrine of this country. I heard that on a certain day, my mother saved Barakiel who had collapsed from injuries and from the fate of that day, I was born."

Akeno stood up and she took off her blouse enough to reveal her bare shoulders and back. Then a pair of wings was unfurled. However, Issei raised his eyebrows as he saw that while her right wing was that of a devil, her left wing was covered with black feathers.

"These wings of mine… The wings of both devil's and fallen angel's…" Akeno reached out and grabbed her fallen angel wing, her eyes were full of resentment as she gazed at the said wing. "I've always hated these… These dirty wings. I was so happy that I met Rias and became a devil, thinking that I could get rid of them. But instead, I ended up like this…. Being a freak…"

"Stop."

Before Akeno could continue any further in her self-derision, a pair of hands gently clasped both of her wings and her hand that was grabbing it. Akeno looked up and she saw Issei was standing right before her with his expression serious.

"Please stop it, Akeno-san." Issei said with gentle, yet firm tone. "I won't let you keep saying those sad words."

Akeno blinked at her junior with surprised expression. "W-why? It was fallen angels that roped you into this mess. They killed you, they also killed Asia as well…. Don't you hate them? Fallen angels?"

Issei only sighed in return and he pulled Akeno into a hug in order to comfort her. "First of all, that fallen angel didn't kill me. Her attack sure hurt like hell, but I was still pretty much alive when I reincarnated." The boy pointed out and he broke off the hug himself. "And secondly, they are _them_ and you are _you_, that's all that matters. Even if I do hate fallen angels, why should I hate you? All you've done was being helpful to me during my first days as a devil, how can I hate you for that? You are no one else but Himejima Akeno, one of the most popular girls in the Kuoh Academy. You're Akeno-senpai, the vice president of the Occult Research Club who loves teasing and bullying people, as well as one of women I admire so much. So stop lamenting about yourself and hold your head high!" Issei said with outmost conviction in his eyes before he trailed to her wings. "Besides… These wings of yours, I won't call them ugly. I honestly don't really know if those wings being beautiful and all, but I definitely won't call them dirty or ugly." Then Issei finished with a wide smile. "So have more confidence in yourself, Akeno-san."

The girl fell silent for a second and Issei found his senior's body was shaking. Before Issei could have gone panic of what he had done, Akeno suddenly lunged to him and pushed him hard onto the bed as she buried her face into her chest.

"A-Akeno-san?" when Issei wanted to ask of what happened, Akeno, who was now lying on top of him, looked up and the boy saw the girl was smiling radiantly with tears running down from her eyes.

Akeno crawled up and drew her face closer to Issei's flustered face and she whispered to his ears. "Ise-kun…" Issei was not sure how to reply, but Akeno pulled her face away and stared right into his eyes. "With killing words like that… What choice do I have but to go serious on you?"

Issei blinked several times as he was now lost about what was going on. He meant his words from earlier, but Akeno's vague words were rather confusing for him. "Err… Akeno-san? I'm-…"

"Akeno." The girl immediately cut him off. "Just this once, please call me by my name alone."

"….Akeno…?" Issei responded hesitantly.

"Yes!" the girl cheered triumphantly. "You've said it! Now I can really go all out!" Akeno once again enveloped Issei into another hug while they were still lying on the bed.

"_Seriously, the hell is happening?"_ Issei furiously racked his brain for possible explanations.

"Ise-kun…" Akeno's voice got his attention again. "I won't mind being the third."

Issei blinked again. "…Third?"

"Yes, third position. I will keep pursuing you and spoil you more even with that position." Akeno said with affectionate smile.

"_Okay, she really lost me here. What's that about third position? And what happened with the first and second? Ddraig, any ideas of what the fuck is happening?"_ Issei thought as he simply stared back at Akeno.

_**[Go figure it out yourself]**_ Ddraig replied dryly. _**[You dense motherfucker…]**_

"_Oi, what was that!?"_

Then, Issei noticed that Akeno's eyes were drawing closer to him as she grabbed his hands firmly. Just when the distance between their faces was getting closer by seconds, the door to Issei's room suddenly flung open, revealing a man with bald head.

"Ah, there you are-!"

Everything seemed to stop when Saitama's eyes made contact with Issei's and Akeno's wide eyes. Seeing the girl was on top of his son, Saitama rubbed his head awkwardly while maintaining his poker face. "Um…. Sorry to interrupt. I don't know you're having a guest." Then Saitama turned to leave. "Well, carry on… Oh, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone especially Rias or Asia-chan about this." Then Saitama turned to Akeno, whose expression was scowling upon seeing him. "I'll talk it out with your dad if he ever finds out about this, so…. Enjoy yourselves." Saitama finished as he proceeded to close the door and peek out his head one last time before leaving. "One more thing, I thought that this thing might happen again, so I've put some condoms under your pillow, have fun you two."

"No, wait!" the extremely flustered Issei cried out as he struggled to break free from Akeno. "It's nothing like that! You're not interrupting anything! Please don't leave us here! I SAID WAIT, DAMMIT!" Issei finally broke free and chased after his father.

Unknown to Issei, Akeno silently clicked her tongue as she was left behind in Issei's bedroom, but soon her scowl was replaced by more determined smile. Then she looked over the pillow, lifted it up and her eyes widened slightly at what she found under the pillow. "Oh my, there really are some of them."

X

The day of the Peace Conference had finally arrived as the sky was filled with armies of angels, fallen angels and devils floating on the school's perimeter. After making sure that Gasper would not be left bored in the clubroom, with Koneko stayed behind to look after him, the rest of Occult Research Club plus Saitama started their trek towards the conference room at the main school building. Issei had informed Rias beforehand about his father, though at first Rias somewhat reluctant about the idea of a human getting involved with Three Factions affair, she could not say anything if one of the leaders had allowed him to join. Besides, Saitama did have an involvement during the feud about Excalibur swords with Kokabiel.

"Um… Saitama-san?" Rias asked with a sweat-drop as she led her peerage across the hall. "Are you really going to wear that outfit?" the girl asked as she stared at Saitama's yellow hero uniform.

Saitama only looked down at his uniform before he simply shrugged. "Well, Azazel told me to wear something I'm most comfortable in while inside a hostile environment, so I chose to wear this."

The rest of the group only sighed at Saitama's reasoning, sans Xenovia who nodded in understanding. "I see…. There's no telling what would happen at the meeting between leaders of three powers. It is indeed important to prepare yourself for anything… As expected of Saitama-dono, you never leave anything to chance!"

Everyone could only give an awkward smile at Xenovia's logic and her over-estimation on Saitama. Issei himself only groaned inwardly as he had already given up to make any comments.

"Say, Kiba." Issei then asked the knight while the group was on their way. "I heard you got yourself a holy sword. Can you show it to me later?"

"Fufufu, I'd be glad to. Perhaps I can use this new sword against you in our next training session?"

Issei only snickered at Yuuto's playful challenge. "Don't get yourself carried away, bub. It won't be that easy even if you have a dragon slayer."

The trip to the conference room went rather on relaxed pace with Issei casually talked and interacted with everyone, along with occasional jabs with his father. When the group finally arrived at the front of the room, Rias knocked the door three times before opening.

"Excuse us."

The door opened and the group let themselves in and they were met with a gorgeous and pompous looking table. There were already people sitting around it, the leaders of the three factions. At the heavy atmosphere from the leaders, everyone sans Saitama tensed, even Asia grabbed the end of Issei's clothes as she felt uneasy. The boy lightly clasped her hand with his in order to ease her.

On the Heaven's side, two figures with each of them possessing twelve wings shining in gold were present. One of them was the Archangel Gabriel clad in her formal robe and attire. The other one was a handsome-looking man with long blonde hair and green eyes, clad in the similar attire with Gabriel. Issei assumed that the man was the Archangel Michael, the current leader of Heaven. Behind the two Archangels was Irina sitting on her designated seat as their guards, the girl waved her hand in greeting when her eyes made contact with Issei, Xenovia and Asia, who also returned the gesture.

On the Grigori's side, Azazel was sitting on his designated chair with his 12 wings unfurled. He raised his hand and smirk in friendly manner towards Issei and the boy only gave him a dry look. Behind the Governor, sitting on a chair was a young man with dark silver hair, the Hakuryuukou Vali, who smirked at the sight of Issei, and his eyes narrowed when he saw Saitama.

On the devil's side, Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan, with Grayfia and Sona Sitri with her peerage stationed behind them. "This is my younger sister and her family, they are the ones who stopped Kokabiel when he attacked this town." The Crimson Satan introduced his little sister, who bowed together with her peerage towards the other VIP guests.

"Wait, hang on a sec." Before the other guests could return the greetings, Serafall suddenly interrupted as her light expression from earlier suddenly turned sour. "What the hell are you doing here?" Serafall pointed at Saitama, who maintained his poker face as he entered the room. "And what is that you're wearing? This is an important meeting!"

Some of the others were inwardly agreed with Serafall, though some of them were also a bit surprised at the usually cheerful and friendly Leviathan's sudden hostility at the man. Saitama himself only stared plainly at Serafall. "Says the one who wore a magical-girl costume during the formal parents observation day. And Azazel was the one to invite me here." The man replied with a huff.

"This is this and that was that!" Serafall shot up from her seat. "And Azazel-chan, what were you thinking bringing that cue ball along?" the Leviathan turned to the fallen angel governor while pointing at Saitama, whose eyes twitched at Serafall's mention of his head.

"I also concede with my sister." Sona also raised from her seat. "I don't mean to be rude. I'm aware of Saitama-san's exploit during Kokabiel's invasion, but put Leviathan-sama's differences with him aside, is it really alright to let him join the meeting of three factions? Saitama-san is technically an outsider."

"Now, now. Calm down, you ladies…" Azazel waved his arm. "You can say that I invited him as an overseer in case of anything happens during the meeting. And as for you Serafall, you should have known better than most people that the dude over there can take on all of us alone if he wants to."

The rest of the guests, minus the leaders and Vali, widened their eyes at Azazel's statement. They turned their eyes on Saitama, who had been claimed to be powerful enough to fight on equal terms with the leaders of Three Powers. Serafall's scowl deepened ever so slightly, but in the end she only let out a huff and returned to her sitting position with her arms folded in annoyance. Sona herself looked doubtful and unbelieving for a second before she returned to her seat as well.

Then, Michael stood up from his seat. "If Azazel has already invited Saitama-kun here, then we shall let him to join the discussion as well." Then the Archangel turned to the bald man. "I heard that you helped my younger sister, as well as Irina and Xenovia in the past. For that, you have my thanks." Michael bowed his head lightly.

"Ah, don't mention it." Saitama simply waved his hand. "And about your sister, it was my son here who made the first move." The man pointed his thumb to his son.

Michael then moved his gaze to Issei and he addressed the boy. "So you are the Sekiryuutei, Hyoudou Issei-kun. Thank you for aiding my younger sister."

"A-ah…. It's my pleasure, Michael-dono." Issei nervously replied.

"So you really came." This time, Gabriel stood up. "It's good to see you again, Ise-san… Saitama-san."

Issei only bowed politely as Saitama replied in a rather too casual manner. "Yeah. Hello again, Gabriel." Saitama's lack of manner once again surprised the guests in the room, while Gabriel simply smiled back before returned to sit with her brother.

"Hoo? I see that you two are already getting so chummy with each other?" Serafall asked with sarcastic tone and a sneer on her face.

"Fufufu, Serafall-san… Saitama-san and I have met and talked during the other day, after all." Gabriel simply replied good-naturedly while Saitama only sent Serafall an odd look.

As if had failed to find her expectation, Serafall only scowled deeper and groaned into her hands. "Good grief… Now there are two of them…"

While the escorts were wondering about the circumstances regarding Serafall, Saitama and Gabriel, those who understood like Sirzechs, Azazel and Michael only silently giggled in amusement.

Few minutes later, Grayfia had showed Rias' peerage their seats, which was next to Sona Sitri's peerage behind the devil kings, and Saitama, who was appointed to be an 'overseer', to one remaining seat around the table facing the other leaders.

After confirming that everyone was accounted for, Sirzechs finally spoke up. "Now that everyone is here. Shall we begin the discussion?"

The Peace Conference between the Heaven, Grigori and Underworld had begun in Kuoh Academy.

**Whew, finally done! This chapter was quite hard to write, especially during the scenes with Gasper and Gabriel. And after few considerations, I finally settled to give Ascalon to Kiba Yuuto instead of Hyoudou Issei. So, what do you guys think of this chapter and the characters? Please don't be too harsh on me. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	19. The Treaty (V)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**A/N:**

**My word…. 500 followers! Again, you readers have my deepest gratitude m(_ _)m. Honestly, this chapter is much harder to write than I had anticipated. At first I planned to divide this story into two parts, but then I found each part would be too short to my taste if I did so, so I decided to compile everything into this monster of chapter. **

**Some of the readers mentioned that Saitama was too OOC in this story, but I beg to differ. While I still try my best to retain his laid-back and sort-of ignorant personality, I can't ignore the fact that over 20 years had past in his life, and Saitama had become older and made a family of his own, so it would make no sense if Saitama did not get any mature at all.**

**That's all I have to say. Now, without further ado, here's the climax of Kuoh Treaty arc! R&amp;R!**

**Chapter 18: The Treaty (V) – Clash of The Dragons **

_(Flashback, Unknown Location)_

"What? So you're already done here?"

Vali, who just dismissed his Balance Breaker a second ago, turned his head towards Saitama who just stepped over what it seemed to be a corpse of something rather inhuman. The Hakuryuukou only scoffed as he was merely standing amongst the aftermath of something akin to chaos of battlefield.

"What are you doing here, Saitama?" the younger male asked as he scanned around his handiwork.

"When I said that I was bored, Azazel decided to send me checking up on you…" Saitama also scanned the destruction around him. "Though it seems everything is pretty much done here."

Vali snorted at the man. "Now you know what I felt whenever Azazel sent me to check up on you during a mission."

"Well, I don't really care about that…" Saitama looked around and he saw several figures were walking towards them. "… Friends of yours?" Saitama pointed at the figures.

Vali's gaze landed on the approaching strangers and he addressed them casually. "Ah… Good work, you guys."

"Vali-chin~!"

"G-good work to you too, Vali-sama!"

"Vali, who is this man? And a human to boot?"

"Kahahaha! You never hold back as usual, Hakuryuukou! By the way, who's the baldy… Wait, is he the one you mentioned before, who had been trashing you around?"

"Yes, Bikou… He's the guy…" Seeing that a bitter memory had been triggered, Vali only sighed as he quickly moved on to another subject. "Saitama, this is the group I recently made and these are my comrades…"

_(End of Flashback)_

X

Everyone had taken their sitting positions as the Peace Conference commenced. Sirzechs Lucifer was the one to take the first initiative. "Now that everyone has arrived, I'll say the preconditions for the meeting. The people present here acknowledge the most important event and forbidden subject, i.e. The Non-existence of Biblical God."

At Lucifer's briefing, every guest's face tensed up, as the Conference that would determine the fate between Three Factions from the Bible of Judeo-Christian religion.

As Sirzechs looked around and saw that everyone seemed to acknowledge the information, he proceeded. "Then, acknowledging that, let's continue the conversation-"

"Can I have some tea over here?"

It was not unheard of that during a formal meeting or conference, one of the attendants would like to have some refreshments to ease up their nervousness, but it was still rather unusual for someone to immediately request for a drink at the beginning of the said meeting. Every eyes turned to Saitama who suddenly spoke up with his poker face expression. The guests were showing various reactions: Sona Sitri and her peerage were kind of dumbstruck at the laid-back attitude that the man showed during such an important meeting, while Rias Gremory and her peerage plus Irina were either sighing in exasperation or smiled uncomfortably as they had more understanding of Saitama's personality.

The VIPs and Vali were taking it better than the rest. The Archangels, Azazel and Sirzechs were only smiling good-naturedly as Grayfia dutifully provided the bald man his cup of tea. Vali only closed his eyes while showing an unreadable smile and Serafall let out a breath as she rolled her eyes while shaking her head at the man's antics.

Then Michael picked up where Sirzechs left off. "Then moving on…"

The conference went on as the leaders discussed about their past history and their mutual agreement about the pointless-ness of their bad history. Even so, as the atmosphere in the room was getting heavier with the presence of powerful individuals inside, Rias had unconsciously reached out her hand towards Issei's out of nervousness. Issei glanced at Rias' nervous expression for a moment before he gently clasped his hand with hers in understanding.

The conference moved on as the leaders would like to hear the report and testimony from Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri regarding the fiasco about Excalibur swords and Kokabiel. During the entire session, Issei caught Saitama was quietly playing a Gameboy under the table instead of paying attention, causing the boy to roll his eyes and inwardly sighed to himself.

"-That is all. The report that I, Rias Gremory and the household devils over there experienced." Rias said as she concluded her report.

"I, Sona Sitri testify that her testimony is truthful." Sona conceded with Rias.

The leaders expressed their gratitude and appreciation.

"Good work, you may return to your seats."

"Thank you, Rias-chan~ Sona-tan~" the Leviathan winked, resulting Sona's eyes to twitch before she returned to her seat.

"What you've done was no small feat." Gabriel voiced her opinion before she turned to Saitama. "And thank you for helping as well, Saitama-san."

"Yeah, no problem." The said man only glanced at the Seraph before he returned to his Gameboy. At this point, everyone had noticed his antics but decided to keep quiet about it.

Then the Leader of Heaven turned his head to Azazel. "Now then, Azazel. After hearing this report, I want to hear the opinion of the Governor of the fallen angels."

"I apologize for his actions. While Kokabiel was an old comrade and one of leaders of Grigori, he acted independently without my knowledge. I was actually waiting for him to make a move in order to uncover his schemes…" Azazel remained relaxed as he explained. "Well, I also sent the Hakuryuukou here to take care of the situation. Though in the end the Sekiryuutei managed to get things under control. I even sent Saitama there to take care of Kokabiel's back-up army. Kokabiel himself had been sentenced with eternal imprisonment inside the Ice of Cocytus afterwards, so he won't come out anymore. Everything had been written in that reported earlier, right? So it should be fine now."

"Putting aside the poor explanation, I heard that you personally not wanting to make anything big occur against us. Is that true?" Michael asked in return.

"Yep, I don't have any interest in wars. Although Kokabiel wasn't thrilled with that idea when I announced the cease-fire."

"Then allow me to ask you one thing." Sirzechs took the turn to speak up. "Azazel, why have you been gathering Sacred Gear owners for the past decades? At first I thought you were gathering humans, and attempting to augment your battle potential. I even anticipated you to wage war against heaven or us but…"

Michael put in his two-cents, "Yes, no matter how much time passed, you didn't wage a war against us. When I heard you got hold of the Vanishing Dragon, I was enveloped by a strong wariness." Then the Archangel turned to glance at Saitama, who only blinked in return. "And looking back to the report earlier, you even employed someone on Saitama-kun's calibre…."

"Nah, Saitama only did me a favour. He doesn't really take sides, you know. That's why I appointed him as this meeting's overseer." Azazel then smiled bitterly. "And seriously, it's all for the sake of my Sacred Gear research. If that's the case, should I send a part of the research materials to you as well? Even if I did research, I wouldn't wage a war against you or anything. I don't have any interest in war at this late of an hour. I am perfectly satisfied with the world right now." Then he pointed at Saitama. "Not to mention, if I were to do something funny, the dude there would have done me in before I started anything. I even have strongly ordered my subordinates, 'Don't interfere with the human world's politics', you know? I have no intention of intervening in religion either, nor to influence the business of the devils…. Damn, is my trust in the 3 factions the least?" Azazel complained about his predicament.

The other leaders showed their disagreement in an instant.

"That's true"

"Spot on~!"

"That's right."

"I'm afraid so."

Then Azazel turned to someone who he hoped to be his last saving grace. "Hey, Saitama… We are buddies, aren't we? Can you say something about the good ol' me?"

Saitama only sent him a dry look. "Well, if you ask me… I actually thought that you looked rather shady during the first time we met. Not to mention you did con me few times in the past…"

"Why you, traitor…."

The atmosphere seemed to lighten up from the interaction between Azazel and Saitama.

"Tch, fine then. Nobody's siding with me here…" Azazel clicked his tongue as he pecked at his ears. "Why don't we just have peace already? Not the cease-fire crap, but real peace. Isn't that the purpose of this meeting in the first place?"

That was something unexpected for the rest of the guests in the room. However, the leaders seemed to differ. "Yes, I also planned to propose peace to the Devil's side and Grigori. Even if we continue the relationship of the 3 factions like before, then it will become damaging to the world right now. I, the leader of the angels say it since the original cause of the war, our God and devil kings have been annihilated." Michael voiced his agreement.

"Wow, I didn't see that coming from you, Michael. Since you're all about our Father before." Azazel commented his amusement.

"… I've lost so many things in the war. However, there's no helping seeking for things that aren't present. It is our duty to guide humans. We members of the Seraph have the same opinion that the most important thing is to watch over the children of God from now on as well, and to guide them."

Sirzechs also voiced his agreement. "The same thing goes for us devils. With our original kings had gone, we have to move on to continue our species' existence. If we do another war, our race will be destroyed."

"True, If we do another war, the 3 factions will definitely be mutually destroyed. And then, it will affect the human world as well, and the world will end. A war is the last thing we need now." Azazel followed as he nodded. "Besides, do you think a world without Biblical God is wrong? Do you think a world without God would decay? I am sorry to say, but that isn't the case. Me and you as well are both healthily living like this." Then Azazel spread out his arms and said with clear voice, "The world moves around even without a God."

The room went silent at the words until Sirzechs decided to break the ice. "I see… Now then, the discussion has considerably been solved in a good direction, let's hear the opinion from the people whose power can influence over the world; the two heavenly dragons, as well as Saitama-kun." Sirzechs looked at the aforementioned three respectively.

"Saitama-kun, you may start first."

At the mention of his name, Saitama blinked first before he looked around and scratched his cheek. "Well…. For starters, I want to ask a thing or two to… Err… that handsome, shining guy with halo over there…." Saitama pointed at the Archangel Michael.

Everyone sighed again at Saitama's antics as Azazel simply reminded the bald man again. "He's Michael."

"Right, Michael. Is it okay I ask you something?"

"I'll do my best to answer your question, Saitama-kun." Michael replied sincerely as the angel did not seem to be troubled at all from Saitama's manners.

Saitama took impassive glances at the Gremory group, particularly at his son and the blonde girl beside him, before he turned back to the Archangel with unreadable expression. "Why did you exile Asia-chan?"

The others, especially Issei, widened their eyes at Saitama's unexpected question. Asia herself suddenly put her hand on her chest as her eyes shifted down. Some of them also wondered of what the man was thinking about. Michael himself only remained silent for a second before he replied.

"I can only apologize for that… After our Father had been annihilated, only the system that remains to govern divine protection, mercy and miracles. This system was, if I explain it simply, the system to perform the miracles and blessings that Father did. Our Father made the system and He used it to bring about miracles above ground. To bring about the effect of holy things like exorcism, crosses and other holy artefacts; these too are the system's powers."

"So…" Saitama actually listened and connected the dots. "What you're saying is, after the God died, there are some trouble in the system you mentioned?"

Michael only nodded at Saitama's question. "Yes. Even with my power and other Seraph to start up the system to operate again, the divine protection and blessings to the believers are not complete. It's unfortunate, but those who can be granted salvation are now limited."

Issei followed as he put the two and two together. "And because of that… You have to keep away those people related to the church who could possibly cause an influence on the system, like Asia, who possess Twilight Healing that can heal both devils and fallen angels as well, and possibly other Sacred Gear users… Is that what you want to say?"

Michael nodded again at Issei's hypothesis. "Yes. If there is a person who can heal Devils and Fallen Angels present within the followers, it will influence the faith of the ones around her. The source of us living in heaven is the faith of believers. Because of that, Twilight healing is a forbidden sacred gear that can cause an influence on the system. And also, as an example of influence on the system…-"

Xenovia interrupted the Archangel. "The people who know about the non-existence of God… Am I correct?"

"Yes. That's correct, Xenovia. Even loosing you hurt us dearly, the truth about God's death itself has a huge impact on the system that maintained our existence as well. Forgive me, but there was no other way but to make you and Asia Argento into heretics." Michael concluded as he bowed his head towards the two former members of the church – now devils.

Saitama only nodded as he took in Michael's reasoning. To be honest, Issei did not expect that his father, of all people, to address the question regarding the former Holy Maiden. Perhaps his father was not really as bad as he thought, after all; was what Issei had in mind. The boy himself only sighed as he did not intend to speak any further. If the person who created the system in the first place, as well as understanding the system's inner working, had perished in the first place; then it could not be helped if someone else, no matter how close that someone to the original creator, could not entirely manage the system as good as the original. At least the current one in charge was willing to apologize for the error.

After being taken aback by the Archangel's apology, Xenovia good-naturedly shook her head and smiled. "No, Michael-sama, please don't apologize. Even like this, till I reached this age I was brought up by the church. I somehow felt it was a bit irrational, but if you know the reason then there's nothing such as asking why."

Michael could not help but felt guilty himself. "But… it is our crime that you reincarnated as a devil…"

"It's alright… There may be some regrets, but the parts that had been sealed from my life in the church are now brilliantly colouring my life. I have no regrets, and never will about having a new life as a devil."

Asia also conceded with Xenovia. "Michael-sama, I also feel that I am happy. Since I now have a lot of important people, and I also have met and talked with the Michael-sama who I admired, that enough is an honour!" the girl said with beaming expression.

Both Issei and Michael felt relieved at the two girl's response. "I am very grateful for your forgiving hearts. Then I'll leave the Durandal to you, Xenovia. Since it's the family of the Sirzechs' sister then I am at ease that it won't be used by those who do as they please." The Archangel spoke his decision.

"Speaking of, I also want to apologize about what my subordinates had done to you." Azazel interjected as he was looking at Asia.

Then Issei narrowed his eyes at the Fallen Angel Governor. "That's right. One of your subordinates killed Asia. And if I thought about it again, you indirectly caused all of this to happen…" The boy started to accuse the fallen.

"Ise."

Suddenly a stern voice was heard from Saitama, who was staring at his son with a rather firm gaze. It was such an odd sight, Saitama of all people was taking initiative to admonish his son's small outburst, as the atmosphere suddenly got somewhat heavier. Issei himself only glared back at his father.

"Calm down, Ise…" Rias warned her pawn and the boy only huffed lightly as he closed his eyes to back off.

Seeing that he had a chance to talk again, Azazel went on. "It's true we Fallen Angels are eliminating those Sacred Gear users who may cause harm to us. As an organisation, it's obvious right? Sensing that a person may become a threat in the future, then if we know about it beforehand, you'll want to eliminate him. And because of that you died. The reason is, a human like you, not to mention when we found that you are flesh and blood of someone like Saitama here, could have run wild with the power of the Sekiryuutei plus the power you might inherit from your father, and have a bad effect on us or the world in the long run."

"And thus, I ended up becoming a devil." Issei concluded as he opened up his hands. His tone sounded somewhat ironic.

"And do you regret it?" Azazel asked. "Having bat wings, devils and all."

"Of course not." Issei snorted. "I mean, look around me. Thanks to my reincarnation, I can meet these guys." Issei turned to his friends, who blinked at his answer before smiling in return.

"Indeed. When you joined my sister's peerage, you ended up helping her family a lot." Sirzechs interjected. "And also, your father ended up coming home, right? If I recalled, Saitama-kun wanted to rush back home when he got a hold of your situation. If you remained human, your reunion with him would've been delayed." Sirzechs ended with a knowing smile along with the other leaders.

Issei himself only blinked at Sirzechs opinion before sending a look to his father, who simply shrugged in return.

"Even so," Azazel added. "It's too late for me to apologize now, so in return, I'll think of something of paying my debt to you somehow. Now then, going back to the main question. Saitama, what do you want to do about the world in the end?"

"Well... I think I'm fine with the world as it is. Besides, considering what I do for living, it's my job to preserve the world peace, right?"

Listening at Saitama's simple and somewhat expected reason, the leaders only gave a content smile while Serafall only sneered, "A hero, eh? That kind of job solely belongs to Magical Girls like me!" Serafall ended up with a small outburst.

"Wait, are you still hung up on that? Really?" Saitama only groaned as he sent a dry look at the Leviathan.

"Come on, Serafall… Now's not really the time." Sirzechs reminded his fellow king.

"But, Sirzechs-chan~!" Serafall whined in return.

The other guests only sighed yet again at the Leviathan and Saitama's antics, while at the same time, they were even more curious about what the two had gone through in the past.

"Well, moving on to Sekiryuutei there." Azazel moved the topic towards Issei. "What do you have in mind?"

Issei went silent for a second. "Well… I prefer peace, of course. I'm already content with my friends and life style here. And besides…" Issei then rubbed the back of his head as he averted his gaze to random direction. "To be honest, with the world stay peaceful, I can focus training myself to catch up with that guy over there…"

At Issei's answer, Saitama's lips twitched upward ever so slightly while all the leaders gave a knowing smile. The others from Rias' peerage also smiled contentedly at the boy's honesty.

"Then, what about you, Vali? As the Hakuryuukou?" Azazel turned to his escort.

"I'm fine with anything as long as I can fight strong people." The teen simply replied.

"Then I guess there's nothing to worry about. If you simply want to fight a strong guy, our baldy here would be more than happy to play with you. Right, Saitama?" Azazel replied and grinned to Saitama.

"Don't just decide things on your own!"

Saitama shot back when he suddenly felt _something_ washed over the entire room. He blinked at the small sensation and he looked around the ceiling before he turned to the other leaders.

"Um… Guys? Is it just me, or you also felt…. Guys?" Saitama asked around and found the other guests, including his own son were literally frozen on their spot. "….Kids? Everyone?" Saitama waved his arms at the unmoving students.

Issei blinked at his father's question and he realized that most of the other guests, sans the leaders and Grayfia had been frozen on their position. It also appeared that Rias, Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina and Vali were also the ones who remained unaffected as well.

As the boy immediately looked around and he gave a sigh as he recognized the abnormality.

"Oh, shit…"

"Well, this is troubling…" Azazel spoke as his expression turned serious, he also had extended his arm upward as he casted a barrier surrounding the conference room.

Sirzechs, Serafall and the Archangels had stood up and extended their arms as well to reinforce the barrier. Issei dutifully manifested his Boosted Gear and aimed the gauntlet towards the barrier.

**[Transfer!]**

While with only one boost, Issei's additional reinforcement was enough to make the barrier lasted much longer than originally intended. The leaders nodded their heads in silent gratitude before they returned their attention to the issue at hand. Saitama then moved from his seat as he attempted to look around the situation.

"Can anybody tell me what's going on?" Saitama asked to nobody in particular as he waved his hand in front of Asia's frozen face in wonder.

"It's Gasper…." Rias replied. "And this scale of power… It feels like Balance Breaker."

"Seriously?" Saitama blinked at Rias. "That kid can actually do something like this?" Saitama then proceeded to poke Asia's head until Issei had to usher him away.

"It seems that only those with irregular powers and enough power to withstand the Forbidden Balor View. And…" Rias then trailed towards her hand that remained within Issei's clasp. "It also seems that you protected me again, Ise…" Rias concluded as she sent a grateful smile at her pawn.

"Kiba, Irina and I have our swords." Xenovia quipped in as Durandal manifested on her hand. The same goes for Yuuto's holy-demonic sword and Irina's Excalibur Mimic.

Issei returned the smile to his master before he addressed back the issue. "But why did Gasper's power activated now of all times?"

"Why don't you take a look outside?" Vali replied. Then the Gremory group who could move and Saitama took a look outside the windows.

A flash of light suddenly appeared, forcing the spectators to close their eyes. What they saw outside was, an army of people in black robes wielding ceremonial staffs were attacking the vulnerable soldiers of Three Factions as their bodies were frozen from the Forbidden Balor View's influence.

"Azazel, what's exactly going on?" Issei then asked the Fallen Angel.

"I was planning to address the issue after the alliance was made, but I guess I have to brief you guys now. Simply put, we're under terrorist attack." Azazel's answer received looks from the others who could move, sans Vali. "And looks like these magicians are also capable of using devil magic as well… I'd say each of them possesses the power of a mid-class devil."

"Magicians?" Issei raised his eyebrows. "So… Are they still humans?"

"Yes, they sure are humans." Azazel lectured. "And only humans that can be categorized as magicians."

Serafall on the other hand pouted cutely. "Geez, who do they think they are!? I'm the Magical Girl here! I already have my hands full enough dealing with that poor excuse of that so-called hero!"

The others wanted to make a retort at the Leviathan's remarks, but they decided to focus more at the crises at hand.

"And those magicians somehow found a way to force Gasper-kun to activate his Balance Breaker…." Sirzechs concluded.

"This is bad, the power is increasing by the minute. If this keeps on, even we might be stuck in time, and it will not do for all of us here." Michael picked up the Satan's conclusion.

Rias on the other hand, was trembling in rage. "Gasper has been made into a terrorist weapon at the old school building…Just where did they get information on my servant…Moreover, for them to use his power to go after this important meeting…! Never have I been so insulted like this!"

"Wait, doesn't that mean that Koneko is in danger as well?" Yuuto interjected. The others' eyes widened in realization as well that Koneko was also left behind to watch over Gasper.

"…Well, what are we waiting for? Any ideas?" Issei goaded on.

"Um…" Everyone turned to see Irina who raised up her hand. "Where's Saitama-san?"

The others blinked, and when everyone looked around, the bald man was nowhere to be seen. However, they also found one of the windowsills had been opened.

Serafall was the one to make a comment. "Heh, he's probably got a cold feet and decided to scram." The Leviathan half-joked.

Of course, some of others who knew the bald man better, did not believe that the man would have just escaped for his own safety. Before Sirzechs could have said anything else about Saitama's disappearance, his cell-phone suddenly rang and the Crimson Satan took a look at it, only to see a message from the man in question.

_From: Hyoudou Saitama_

_To: Sirzechs Lucifer_

_Going to check on Gya-chan. Be back soon._

Sirzechs looked up from his cell-phone to see Azazel was holding his cell-phone as well, as the two leaders made eye contact, they reached a mutual understanding and both of them let out good-natured sighs in unison. Issei and the others, who noticed the leaders' antics, needed few seconds to figure out what was going on.

Issei was the first to figure it out. "He just left to save Gasper and Koneko-chan, didn't he?" he asked with dry look. The leaders only nodded in return. "Alone?" And the leaders nodded again.

Then everyone else let out sighs in unison as well, while Serafall pouted further and Vali simply snorted in amusement.

"I swear, that old man…!" Issei grumbled as he walked towards the window, planning to go after his father.

"Hold it right there, Sekiryuutei-kun." Azazel stopped Issei on his tracks before the Fallen Governor turned to address the others. "Now that it had come down to this, I'd say we'll leave this matter to him, however…" Azazel then turned to Vali as well. "We can't just sit here while the guy steals the thunder on his own, can we? Vali, why don't you go with Sekiryuutei here to keep those magicians busy? The Two Heavenly Dragons fighting side-by-side against common enemy, it sure will be a spectacular sight ever since the Great War, no?"

At Azazel's proposal, everyone gave skeptical looks towards the aforementioned two. Issei's expression remained indifferent while Vali's expression was rather unreadable. However, Issei was the one to give a reaction as he simply sighed.

"Well… not that I mind, but are you sure about him?" Issei pointed his thumb at the silver-haired teen.

Vali only snorted again. "I guess it's fine by me. What about you, Albion?" Vali asked and his Divine Dividing manifested on his back.

**{I don't really mind about it. Didn't we state it on the other day? It's just a matter of time until the time we fight again. Isn't that right, red one?}**

Confirming to the Vanishing Dragon's words, Issei's Boosted Gear manifested on its host's left arm.

**[Yeah, you can count on it. Working together with the white one sounds interesting from time to time]**

Then it was settled, Issei and Vali walked towards the windowsills to prepare themselves for the upcoming battle. The former sent one last cautious look towards the latter, which was replied by a small grin, before Vali returned to gaze at the battlefield in front of him.

"Ise."

Issei's musing however, was interrupted by the voice of his master. "Yes, buchou?"

Rias stared at her pawn for a second before she gave her command. "Please be careful out there. The whole school-ground is an enemy territory."

Issei caught the meaning of his master's last words. "…As you wish, _milady_." Issei replied with a smile and he silently promoted himself into a Queen, and the promotion instantly enhanced his strength and reserves even further, before his body was enveloped by red light, along with Vali with white light.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

**{VANISHING DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!}**

Both teens were clad in draconic armour and immediately flew out of the window towards the enemy forces in the sky. Soon, red and white streaks followed by flashes and sounds of explosion were littering the sky as the Two Heavenly Dragons were obliterating the invading army. The spectators from conference room only looked with eyes filled with amazement.

"Amazing…"

"Are these the power of the Two Heavenly Dragons?"

"Whew, now that they're at it, let's address another issue." Azazel then picked out a bracelet from his pocket. "Just in case, in the end someone had to put this on the dhampir kid to supress his Sacred Gear power, otherwise his Forbidden Balor View might act up again at even more inconvenient time. So, who's up for the job? After all, we leaders have to stay maintaining this barrier to prevent collateral damage."

Rias was the one who immediately stepped forward. "I'll go. Gasper is my servant, it's my responsibility to rescue him."

Sirzechs stared at his little sister for a second before letting out good-natured giggles. "Fufufu… I guess I should've seen it coming from you. However…" Sirzechs gestured towards outside. "Our usual teleportation spell had been jammed, thus we can't get out of here. Having you walking towards the old school building across the battlefield was very risky. How will you do that?"

Rias contemplated for a minute before she came up with an idea. "The old school building… My base's clubroom has a remaining unused "rook" piece being safe kept within it."

"I see… Castling, huh…" Sirzechs nodded in understanding. "Since they would usually expect us to go take him back, this could catch the opponent off-guard. They'll anticipate some kind of trick."

Since The Evil Pieces system was referenced from the game of chess, the move 'Castling' could be applied when a king had an unused rook piece for the former to swap place with the latter.

"Alright. But I still can't just let you go alone. At least pick someone to accompany you." The Satan advised his little sister.

Rias then turned to one of her knights after giving another thought. "Yuuto, if you would?"

The young man straightened himself, like a knight who responded to his king's call. "Yes, buchou!" then the male knight turned to Sirzechs Lucifer.

"Kiba Yuuto-kun… I'll leave my sister in your care."

Yuuto replied with another knight-like bow. "Yes, sir. I shall see to it, Lucifer-sama." Then Yuuto and Rias walked towards Grayfia, who was preparing their gateway for Castling.

"Xenovia." Sirzechs then turned to Rias' other knight. "Will you lend us your power to fend off the magicians outside?"

"Yes! It will be an honour, Lucifer-sama!" Xenovia accepted without hesitation.

"Irina, you should help as well." Michael ordered his escort.

"Yes, please leave it to me, Michael-sama!" Irina proudly replied.

"I pray for your safety out there, Irina-san, Xenovia-san too." Gabriel gave her 'blessing' towards the former Exorcist duo, albeit Xenovia ended up with a light headache from the 'blessing'.

"Then, we're heading out! Let's go, Xenovia!" Irina declared while Xenovia turned one last time towards her master, who nodded in approval.

"Yeah!" then the two sword-wielders bolted out of the room.

While the leaders remained in the room while Rias and Yuuto were still on standby until Grayfia finished the preparation, Sirzechs addressed Azazel again. "Azazel, continuing the talk from before, what are you trying to do by collecting Sacred Gears? You've been collecting Longinus owners too, right?"

"Yes, I have. But don't worry." Azazel replied. "I'm not collecting those stuffs to wage war against you nor starting any war. Those are for preparations."

"Preparations….?" Gabriel wondered. "Preparations for what, exactly?"

Azazel simply pointed his thumb outside. "Against the ones behind this attack… The Khaos Brigade."

"….Khaos Brigade?"

The leaders only furrowed their eyebrows at Azazel's answer, and the latter explained. "I only confirmed the organisation's name and background recently, but my Vice Governor Shemhazai has also had his eye on this suspiciously acting group from before that. It's said that they're gathering dangerous members from all three big powers. Some Sacred Gear-possessing humans who have attained Balance Breaker also seem to be included. I've also confirmed a number of Longinus possessors among them."

"An organization with such members… What is their goal?" Michael enquired.

"It's pretty simple. As the name suggests, their goal is to cause destruction and mayhem." Azazel replied with a shrug. "Apparently, those terrorists are not fond of this whole idea of world peace. They're ill-natured to the extreme. Their leaders is-!"

"The Dragon God of Infinity, Ophis the Ouroboros."

Before Azazel could have said anything more, a voice was heard, followed by another magic circle appeared. Sirzechs and Serafall who recognized the insignia on the circle had their eyes widened.

"I see. So you've come! The mastermind this time—!" then Sirzechs clicked his tongue before turning to his queen. "Grayfia, transfer Rias and Yuuto-kun quickly!"

"Yes!" Grayfia, who fortunately had just finished the preparation at the time, immediately urged Rias and her knight to a small magic circle at the corner of the room. "Ojou-sama, I wish you the fortunes of battle."

Rias could not do anything else when she heard Grayfia's parting words. "W-Wait, Grayfia!? Onii-sama!" Rias could not see what happened afterwards since she and Yuuto was already transferred out from the room.

X

"Whew…"

The sound of running water was heard as Saitama let out a breath while he waited his bladder to finish emptying the residual water out of his system. After Saitama had felt enough, he proceeded to re-dress his self but he found it slightly difficult to re-zip his pants.

"_Maybe I should ask Azazel to re-adjust the zipper again later…"_

Saitama pressed the flush button but no water ran inside the urinal, even after the man pushed the button couple of more times. And as he suspected, the water in the basin did not run as well.

"_And I should ask Sirzechs to fix the water system in this old-school building as well…"_

Saitama went out from the restroom back to the hallway which was littered by numerous body of magicians on the floor, some of them were unfortunate enough to be stuck on the walls and the ceilings, there were some unfortunate others who got launched outside the building, given the state of the hallway where holes and cracks could be seen on the interior of the building.

Continuing his trek towards the clubroom, Saitama encountered another individual when he set his foot on the upper level of the building. The said individual was a middle-aged man with rather tall body, significantly bulkier than the magicians he dealt with before and right behind him was the clubroom door.

"I see that you have made your way through my comrades by your sheer strength… Impressive." The magician sneered. "It appears that you possess a touki that is strong enough to resist our magic. However, we have made a preparation in case of someone like you appeared!"

The magician then took off his robe, revealing his large, muscular body. "I am one of the few who has been training not only our magical knowledge, but also our physical strength! I have trained my body long enough to be appointed as one of the close-combat specialist! Your path shall end here!" The magician showed all of his bulging muscles before charging right towards Saitama.

_(Scene Break)_

Meanwhile, inside the clubroom, where Gasper and Koneko (unconscious) were being held captive by a group of magicians, suddenly a magic circle belonged to the house of Gremory appeared in the centre of the room. The circle glowed, revealing Rias and Yuuto inside the room.

The magicians did not take their arrival very well. "Wha-! Impossible, they've transferred here!"

"Damn devils!"

Gasper's eyes widened at the arrival of his master and comrades. "B-buchou! Kiba-senpai!"

"Gasper! I'm so glad that you're safe!" Rias donned a relief expression once she confirmed her bishop's safety.

"Are you alright, Gasper-kun? How's Koneko?" Yuuto asked as he readied his demonic sword.

"…Koneko-chan… She got hurt from trying to protect me…" Gasper's eyes went teary. "I-I think she's just unconscious, but it's still because of me…" then tears started to flow. "Buchou, Kiba-senpai…. It's better if I die… Please, please just kille me… Because of these eyes, I can't make friends with anyone…I'm only a bother…and a coward…"

"Don't be stupid." Gasper looked at his master again who was donning a kind smile on her face. "I won't abandon you, you know? When I transferred you into my family, I said it, right? That now that you've been reborn, you will live for me, and also find a way of life that can satisfy you."

"But I just couldn't find it. For me, who just causes trouble…to have value in living is…" Gasper trailed-off as he shook his head, tears still flowing on his cheek.

"You're a part of us, a part of the family, Gasper-kun…" Yuuto decided to try to get his master's point across. "We won't abandon you easily like that. Even though it was finally possible for you to be free!"

However, before Gasper could have replied anything in return, suddenly a female magician struck his face and sneered as she held Gasper by hair. "You people are so stupid. It's foolish how you treat such a dangerous half vampire normally. It's just as the old Maou faction says. The Gremory family are as dumb as they are deeply affectionate and overflowing with power." The magician assessed with contemptuous look.

"You should have just brain-washed this half-vampire in order to effectively use him as a tool. If you had made his Sacred Gear run out of control while throwing this child into the territory of the opposing fallen angels, he might even have taken out one of their leaders as well. So why? Do you seriously intend to treat a servant as a close friend?"

Rias' narrowed her eyes while Yuuto tightened his grip on his sword at the magician's treatment towards Gasper.

"Hmph, whatever." The magician shrugged then she gestured her comrades as she took a gal to step forward with her staves pointed towards the devils. Her comrade also pointed a knife at Gasper's throat. "Let's see how you two will fare against our superior number. Ah, make a move and this child dies. Let's have some fun…"

However, while the magician was charging her spell towards Rias and Yuuto, the magician happened to stand right at the direction of the clubroom door, and suddenly, the door busted out and something huge slammed into the unsuspecting female magicians, causing her to crash to the corner of the room.

WHAM! CRASH!

Everyone blinked at the spectacle and they turned their heads to see that the female magician was out-cold with a knocked-out, bulky man on top of her. There was also a smoke emitting from a fist-mark on the man's abdomen. Then everyone snapped their heads towards the now-ruined clubroom entrance, revealing a bald man in yellow suit waltzed inside the clubroom. The said man stepped in and he looked around until his eyes laid on the devils in the room.

"Oh, you guys are here." The man greeted.

Everyone was stunned at the man's entry for good couple of seconds. Yuuto, who had been trained for battlefield awareness during his early days as a knight, was the one to snap out of his daze as he quickly used the opportunity to use his enhanced speed to dispatch the opposing magicians inside the room.

SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING! SCHLING!

The stunned magicians barely had any moment to react as their bodies tasted Yuuto's demonic sword and collapsed to the floor with spurt of blood. Automatically, the spell that was restraining Gasper and Koneko dissipated then Saitama quickly grabbed the former from falling to the floor.

"You okay, kid?" Saitama asked the dhampir.

"Saitama-san…" Gasper stared back with teary eyes. "Uuh…. I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

At Gasper's sobbing, Saitama only ruffled the former's hair, effectively ceased the dhampir's crying for a bit. "Come on, Gasper. I thought we've already been through about this."

"Did you forget what I am?" Saitama asked as he stared right into Gasper's eyes. "Make troubles as much as you want. Everyone around you, your friends, your family, they will definitely stay and keep up with you. All the way, all the time." Then he turned towards Rias who was already approaching them, while Yuuto attended to Koneko. "Right, Rias-chan?"

Rias nodded in appreciation towards Saitama before turning to her bishop. "He's right, Gasper. We'll never let you go, I promise you that." Then she pulled Gasper into a hug.

Gasper then gave a weak smile as his expression turned into relief. Then Saitama turned to Yuuto, who nodded approvingly, while Koneko was starting to regain her consciousness. "Thanks for the work, err…." Saitama tried to remember Yuuto's name, but to no avail. "Kibou Yasuto…. No, no. Kubi- No, that's not right." Saitama closed his eyes in contemplation before he snapped them open. "Right! Kirigaya Kazuto!" Saitama drew his conclusion.

Rias face-faulted at Saitama's faulty memory, Gasper gave an awkward giggles, Koneko only gave Saitama a dry look while Yuuto gave a strained smile. "It's Kiba Yuuto."

"Right, Sorry 'bout that." Then Saitama turned to Koneko. "Are you okay over there, err… Who was it again…. Neko? Kaneko? Err…. Right, Kaneki!" Saitama pointed out.

Now things started to get annoying for Koneko, Rias and Yuuto as Saitama kept mistaking people's names. However, before anyone could have made any retort about Saitama's mispronouncing her name, a sultry voice suddenly filled the room.

"It's Shirone, nya~"

Koneko's eyes widened as she recognized the voice. Before Rias, Gasper, Yuuto nor Saitama could have reacted, suddenly a ghostly figure of a woman wearing black kimono appeared behind Saitama and seductively wrapped her arms around the man's shoulder, followed with a foreign magic circle under Saitama's feet and soon the man and the woman started to disappear into the bright light from the magic circle. Saitama only blinked as he saw his body was being transferred somewhere else.

"…Eh?"

"Teleportation…? Saitama-san!" Rias was too late in recognizing the spell as Saitama's lower and upper body had disappeared from sight.

Koneko's eyes were wide in horror as her eyes made contact with the woman in black's hazel, cat-like eyes. "We will meet again, baby sister - nya~" the woman muttered softly before she completely disappeared with Saitama, leaving the devils behind in the clubroom.

_(Scene Break)_

Saitama suddenly found himself in the middle of a forest. He scanned his surroundings, and despite the night hours he could tell that he was definitely no longer in Kuoh Town. He picked up his cell-phone to make contact with either Sirzechs or Azazel, however, the screen showed an image of empty battery before it blacked out. Saitama pressed his phone's button few more times, only to have no response at all.

"_I should've charged the battery earlier…"_ Saitama thought to himself as he sighed. _"Oh, well."_

Then he put back his cell-phone turned around to see three figures were standing not far from him. The figures were; a voluptuous woman wearing a black kimono with cat-like features, a young man with short hair wearing an ancient Chinese armour, and a young noble-looking man wearing a formal business suit with a sword attached on his hips. The three were smiling as they addressed the bald man.

"Sai~tama-chin~!"

"It has been a while, Saitama-dono."

"We meet again, hero! What's up!"

At the greetings, Saitama only stared at the three people in front of him before he tilted his head. "Err… Who are you people again?"

X

Issei just finished taking down another mob of angry magicians. So far, the magicians did not pose any problem to him as his Scale Mail protected him from whatever the magicians had thrown to his person. He remained floating on the sky as he looked around the battlefield around him again. On the other side, Issei could spot Vali, who was flying his way through the army of mages while firing shots of his pure magical reserves. Unlike Issei who utilized more of his enhanced strength and speed by Boosted Gear, Vali was more versed in using his Sacred Gear's ability and magical reserves. While Vali had numerous magical and long-ranged techniques, Issei's signature technique by far was only his Dragon Shot.

**[Hmm… Not only gifted with high physical strength and speed, the host of the White One seems to have better mastery over his magical reserves and Sacred Gear. He outclassed you in a way, partner. Tread carefully around him] **

Issei nodded inwardly at Ddraig's input. Then, Issei spotted on the ground that Xenovia and Irina were working side by side on fendin-off a good number of invading magicians with their respective swords. It made him wonder what his master and Yuuto were doing, but he put the question aside for later when Issei took a look at the conference room, because another battle was taking place.

X

Above the sky, not too far from the conference room, two figures were floating. One was Azazel, with his 12 wings carrying him to the sky, facing a tall bespectacled woman with a voluptuous figure.

She had tan skin with long brown hair tied into a bun with a headset and blue-grey eyes. She wore a dress that was extremely low-cut and had a high slit on it which exposed a large portion of her breasts. Meet Katerea Leviathan, the descendant of the original Leviathan, one of the leaders during underworld's civil war who supported the Old Satan Faction.

Much to everyone's shock, Katerea revealed that the Old Satan Faction had decided to join the Khaos Brigade, with Ouroboros Dragon as the leader of the organization, or rather, as the figurehead for the sake of recruiting people around for greater goal. Everyone went wary as they were aware that Ophis, the Ouroboros was hailed as the strongest existence, a dragon whose power far surpassed even the two heavenly dragons, which were said to be on par with a God and Satan alike.

When she was asked of her motive, or rather, her faction's motive, the woman blabbered something about reforming the underworld and its laws into a world that is worth of their old Satan's ideology, much to Azazel's disappointment. In addition, as the descendant of the original Leviathan, Katerea despised Serafall very much due to the latter taking the throne of a devil king. Seeing that the woman's goal was too cliché for Azazel's taste, as well as the woman did not have any intention to surrender, the Grigori governor volunteered himself to fight Katerea.

"So, descendant of the former Maou Leviathan. One of the Monsters of the End... Not a bad opponent. Katerea Leviathan, are you dressed up for a bout of Armageddon with me?" Azazel declared his challenge with fearless expression.

"I've been wishing to do so, Governor of Fallen Angels…" Katerea answered the challenge as she held up her stave.

And the battle between a fallen angel and a devil began as power of unholy light and darkness clashed with each other. As the two opposing leaders were fighting, Xenovia and Irina would fight the magicians to buy more time for Grayfia analysing transfer spell-jamming by the magicians, while the leaders would maintain and strengthening the barrier on the academy.

The said two swordswomen were busy fighting some stray magicians who were smart enough not to stand in the way of Two Heavenly Dragons.

_(Scene Break)_

On the sky above academy grounds, the fight between Azazel and Katerea went on as both of them were attacking and defending intensely. Roaring sound was heard followed by dazzling light, as unholy light spears collided with Katerea's devil magic. As shockwaves and other after-effects from the two's attacks were damaging the schoolyards, the school building preserved thanks to the leaders' protective barrier.

While Azazel had no difficulty to overpower Katerea with his light-based attacks, the latter was faring herself quite well against the former thanks to her magic versatility. Feeling cornered, Katerea took out a small bottle from her breast and she swallowed the content, which happened to be a small black snake-like creature.

Suddenly, her magic power swelled up and her ominous aura spiked up. Generally, her power was now comparable to the devil kings of current generation. Thanks to the bottle content as well, Katerea could parry Azazel's spears of light with a simple wave of her right hand. For them, it was the start of another round.

Meanwhile, Rias, Yuuto, Koneko and Gasper managed to return to the conference room as Grayfia had finished to reclaim their transfer spell.

"I understand, so Saitama-kun had been taken away by unknown enemy reinforcement?" Sirzechs confirmed after Rias filled him in about what had transpired during her mission rescuing Gasper. He had tried to contact Saitama through magic and cell-phone alike, but he got no response.

Koneko on the other hand, was trying her best to hide her nervousness as she recognized the figure that was responsible for Saitama's disappearance.

"It appears to be so. Onii-sama, I'm going to help my servants as well. Please look after Gasper." Rias requested her brother.

"Understood. Be careful out there."

Rias nodded to her brother, then she proceeded with her rook and knight to support Xenovia and Irina in fending-off the enemy forces.

Back to Azazel's fight with Katerea, the former was caught himself off-guard at the sudden spike of power from the latter.

"…Tch, this sudden power-up of yours… That thing you swallowed earlier… Is that a snake?" Then Azazel found the answer by himself. "I see… Ophis' power, huh?"

Katerea chuckled before replying. "Yes, he who is the dragon that possesses infinite power. For the sake of the world's reformation, I borrowed a little of his power. Thanks to that I can fight against you. There's even a chance that I can beat Sirzechs and Michael. They're such foolish Governors. So are you."

"Meh, I won't deny it." Azazel merely shrugged. "I myself can't do jack-shit without Shemhazai, since I'm just a Sacred Gear enthusiast. But you know, do you really think to the extent that Sirzechs and Michael are idiots? At least they're far superior than someone mediocre like you."

At Azazel's mockery, Katerea's face twisted in anger. "Inconceivable! Very well, I'll deal the finishing blow right here and now. I will destroy you, the Governor of the fallen angels, as the first step of the creation of a new world!"

"Then allow me to use my trump card as well." Azazel then took out a golden dagger with a purple jewel at the end of the handle from his suit. "Let me present you one of my inventions. Thanks to the 'bug' the God and Maou left behind inside the Sacred Gear system after their deaths, I finally created this baby here." Then the jewel of the dagger shone in purple light.

"Balance Break!"

X

Even with Rias, Yuuto and Koneko joined into the fray, the Gremory group was still outnumbered. The magicians were individually easy to be taken care of, but their numbers kept coming from the massive teleportation magic circle on the sky. When a group of magicians were to strike from Rias' blind spot…

**[BOOST!]**

A red blur appeared and suddenly the magicians were blown away and falling to the ground after the voice was heard. Soon, the other magicians were also dropping to the ground after the said red blur moved across them.

"Buchou, everyone! Are you guys alright?" Issei asked as he dismissed his helmet.

Everyone seemed to be as if a burden had been lifted up from their shoulders as they finally had a chance to have a breather. "Yes, we're fine…. Thanks, Ise."

Issei then looked around before he turned to his master again. "Buchou, where's the old man?"

Rias, Yuuto and Koneko had their expressions gone bitter before answering. "I'm sorry… Saitama-san… He's been kidnapped by unknown enemy."

Issei seemed indifferent for a second before he simply let out a sigh. "….I see… He should be fine, then. Let's focus on this side, shall we?"

Everyone was kind of half-expecting Issei's reaction. "Aren't you worried?" Rias asked curiously with her eyebrows raised.

"Pssh… If he could take on an army of fallen angels by himself, I don't see why we should worry over him being kidnapped. He will manage by his own." However, before anyone could have said anything, Issei immediately raised his right arm. "Heads up!" then he fired his dragon shot towards an incoming enemy, returning everyone's attention back to the battlefield.

"Wow, you really mowed them good…" Irina commented as she scanned her surroundings, the enemy remained at large, but the numbers were significantly less than before.

However, much to everyone's grief, not only the enemy, the number allied forces of three factions had been reduced greatly due to Gasper's power. If it were not for the interference of the two heavenly dragons, the Three Factions army would have been obliterated by now.

Just before everyone could have mused any further, Issei and the others sensed a spike of power as the Boosted Gear's gem glowed all of sudden. When everyone turned heads towards the source, they saw two figures. One was a woman in sorcerer-like garment, while the other was a figure clad in golden draconian armour.

"Is that… A Sacred Gear? And in Balance Breaker state too?" Rias mused, then her question was answered by Ddraig from Issei's Boosted Gear.

**[It's dragon's signature, and a familiar one… One of Five Great Dragon Kings, Fafnir…]**

"Fafnir… Like Tiamat… And like Vritra in Saji's Sacred Gear?" Issei asked.

**[It seems so… But somehow that Balance Breaker felt off compared with other Sacred Gears in general… Not to mention, I didn't know that Fafnir had been sealed]**

Meanwhile, Katerea stared wide-eyed at Azazel's said trump-card. "That armour…. Is that a dragon-based Sacred Gear?"

"Yeah, I just sealed the Gigantis Dragon, Fafnir in this artificial Sacred Gear. I copied it from the Sacred Gears of the Two Heavenly Dragons: the Welsh Dragon and Vanishing Dragon. I've yet to see if it succeeded or not." Azazel spoke from behind his faceplate. "I call this Downfall Dragon Spear: Downfall Dragon Another Armour."

Seeing that her opponent's power was not to be taken light of, Katerea prepared her attack again as Azazel pointed his two-pronged spear of light. "Well, Katerea Leviathan…. Let's start round three."

_(Scene Break)_

Meanwhile, Gasper who remained in the conference room with the leaders gazed upon the battlefield. "T-this is all my fault…. Rias-buchou… Saitama-san…" the boy muttered as he blamed himself for causing the development.

Then Gasper closed his teary eyes as he recalled his past conversations with Saitama.

"_Saitama-san… Can I become strong like you?"_

"_Hm? What brought this on?"_

"_It's just… You're strong, you know so many people…. You also could withstand my ability… While I'm just a failure who can't even control m own power… And I'm also just a coward who can't even face people properly…" Gasper explained with down-casted gaze. _

_Saitama stared for a second before he let out a small sigh. "You know, Gasper…" Saitama said with a tone that made Gasper turned to look at him in curiosity. "It's not really about whether you can do it or not. But it's more like if you want to do it or not. Say, what do you think of Rias-chan and others from the club?"_

"_T-they're nice and kind people who never stop putting up with me… I… I feel so useless now that I didn't make any progress as they hope…"_

"_Then isn't that fine?" Saitama patted Gasper's head. "You're young, Gasper…. So just take your time. Those small steps you made every day, are proof enough that you're not weak, that you're a man…"_

Then Gasper's eyes glowed with power, causing Rias, Issei and the others to turn their attention at the dhampir's signature. Rias who immediately understood what her bishop was about to do had her expression gone worried. "No, Gasper! Stop it!" Rias cried in worry. "Onii-sama, please stop Gasper!" Rias pleaded as she was about to head back towards the room.

However, Sirzechs did not do anything as he simply stared at Gasper, as if the Satan was expecting something to happen.

"I am… I am…" Gasper muttered as he gathered his resolve and he took off the bracelet that had been supressing his power. "I AM A MAN!"

Gasper's eyes shone brightly and the next second, the frozen time moved again and the others who were frozen regained their movements. The large transfer spell used by the magicians had been cancelled as well. It was the same time when Azazel managed to draw blood from Katerea with a solid hit of his spear, the latter was brought down to her knees as the ground behind her was also split from the shockwave of Azazel's attack.

"Whew, that dhampir really has done it now. Now our force can retaliate." Azazel scanned his surroundings and he missed that Katerea still had a fight within her.

"THIS ISN'T OVER!" Katerea then changed her arms into tentacle-like appendages and wrapped them around Azazel's left arm. "Even if I'm going to fall here, at least I'm going to take you with me!"

Azazel recognized the energy signature coming out from the female devil's body. "Hmm? Self-destruct spell? So you'll deal great damage to me with self-sacrifice resolution. It's a tawdry way of thinking, but the result is an enormous reason." The Governor commented without any hint of fear in his tone.

Meanwhile, the others who were frozen at the beginning began to look around in confusion at the sudden turn of development.

"E-eh!?"

"My, my…"

"W-what happened?"

When Serafall spotted that her little sister had regained her movement along with the others, the former rushed towards the latter and enveloped Sona in a big hug, causing the latter to blush heavily. "Welcome back, Sona-chan!"

"O-O-Onee-sama!?" the Sitri heiress stuttered.

Issei on the battlefield only grinned at the situation. "Nicely done, Gya-suke!" the boy shouted with his thumb out.

Gasper was breathing heavily while smiling at the compliment. Then, when his body collapsed from exhaustion, Asia quickly caught his body before making contact with the floor.

"Ise-san, Buchou-san! What's going on? And where's Saitama-san?" Asia asked in bewilderment.

Feeling that she had gained some hope, Rias smiled confidently. "Everyone! I don't have time to explain, but I need your power to repel these people!" she gave her command with her wings unfurled.

The soldiers of the Three Factions were confused when they saw their comrades had fallen from attacks that seemingly came out of nowhere, but the leaders had quickly calmed them down and issued orders to retaliate against enemies as well. Soon, the enemies were now facing the might of the remaining allied forces of Three Factions altogether.

The others looked at each other for a moment, and they nodded resolutely as everyone from Gremory and Sitri peerage immediately joined to the battlefield to battle the magicians. Issei himself re-equip his helmet and returned to the sky to take out the remaining enemy forces.

"Let's rock!"

_(Scene Break)_

Meanwhile, Azazel was trying to cut off Katerea's arms turned to tentacles in order to remove them from his left arm, but the latter's arms seemed to retain no damage whatsoever. "It's no use!" Katerea laughed fearlessly. "That tentacle is a special-make that absorbed my life force. It will not break!"

Azazel remained silent for a second before he shrugged and cut his immobile left arm with his weapon, resulting Katerea to widen her eyes. "Wha-! Y-you cut off your own arm!?"

However, before Katerea could have reacted more, Azazel had already thrown his dragon spear piercing the devil's abdomen. "That's the least I can give for your effort. You can have that one arm." Then Katerea's body blew up in dome of light, her body vanished together with Azazel's discarded left arm.

After making sure that the enemy before him had been annihilated, Azazel released his armour and quickly apply some spell on the stump on his left arm to stop the bleeding. He observed the purple jewel of his artificial Sacred Gear before clicking his tongue. "Tch. I guess this is the limit of an artificial Sacred Gear. There's still much room for improvement, but… Oh well, as long as the core jewel is safe, I can remake it again. I'll have you keep me company a little while longer, Gigantis Dragon Fafnir…." Azazel finished with a light kiss on the jewel.

Then, he observed around the battlefield again to see that it would only take another minute or two for the entire enemy forces to be wiped out. The Governor failed to notice the incoming attack from his blind spot.

As Issei deemed that he could leave the remaining enemies to the allied forces, the boy noticed a white blur was heading towards the defenceless Azazel with high speed. The latter immediately found himself getting knocked to the ground with such a great force. As the crater was created upon impact, the Governor of Grigori slowly climbed out from the crater and everyone turned to see Vali in his Divine Dividing Scale Mail was floating on the sky.

"Heh… Now this is rather unexpected. What brought this on, Vali?" Azazel looked at his assailant.

"Vali?" Issei, dismissing his faceplate again, was a bit surprised at the revelation along with the others.

Rias then furrowed her eyebrows. "I see… So you're the one who leaked the information about the meeting of Three Factions, as well as Gasper's Forbidden Balor View."

"Indeed, I am. As you can see that I was also the one who prepared the path to get inside the meeting venue. Though I didn't expect to have the dhampir to forcefully cancel the magician's transfer spell." Vali took a glance at the now exhausted Gasper. "But I guess he's now too exhausted to use his power again."

"Care to explain your whole motive? Knowing that Saitama is attending the meeting as well, I'm rather surprised you still dare to join these crooks and pull out this stunt." Azazel enquired.

"Don't lump me together with them." Vali scowled inside his helmet. "I, along with some of my friends, are only hired to help out Khaos Brigade to attack this conference. And also, I assure you that Saitama won't be here for a while."

"And? Your motive?" Michael pressed on.

Vali only smirked and turned his attention to his supposed to be rival. "Him."

"Me?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows.

"Even I will have more time to fight against your father, I don't think that it will be enough. What I want is to fight eternally with various kinds of opponents, and going along with this idea of peace will only hold me back from what I want… And it is really boring." Vali explained. "And right now, I want to fight you, the Sekiryuutei, as well as the man who inherits that man's blood." Vali pointed out.

"I see… I suppose that I should've expected that kind of thinking coming from you…" Azazel nodded in understanding. "And here I thought you ganged up with Old Satan Faction because you couldn't get your hands on the throne as well."

"Eh?" Everyone else blinked at Azazel's claim before they turned to Vali again with expression full of questions.

"Let me introduce myself again. My true name is Vali Lucifer."

Everyone's eyes widened followed by few gasps from the other audiences. Then Vali continued while growing four pair of black devil wings from his back. "I'm a descendent of the previous generation's Maou Lucifer who died during the Great War. However, I'm a child of mixed blood born from a father who was the old Maou's grandson and a human mother. I obtained the Vanishing Dragon's Sacred Gear thanks to my human-half. It was just by chance…. However, I, who is a true blood relative of Lucifer and is also the Vanishing Dragon, was born. If there really is such a thing as fate and miracles, I may be that…" Then Vali snorted. "Well, just kidding."

The others got even more astonished at the revelation while Azazel confirmed with a wry smirk. "Of course… You might be one of some ridiculous existences in this world. With that kind of heritage, he'll become the strongest Hakuryuukou of among those I knew in the past and present, and probably the future as well."

"Then again, how about you, Hyoudou Issei?" Vali asked. "When I found that your father gave birth to my destined rival, I was looking forward what kind of Sekiryuutei would be born from a man like Saitama. Indeed, despite being a human reincarnated to devil, you've proven yourself to be fairly strong, showing that you have a potential to be the strongest Sekiryuutei to date, However…" Vali frowned. "I was disappointed that you didn't finish Kokabiel that day. I don't know either you're not strong enough or you're too soft back then, but what Kokabiel said in the end had given me some insights…"

_You are nothing more than a cub that can't even bear its fangs and claws… Shackled in a cage like little animal you are…_

Issei frowned at the words the Angel of Stars said before he succumbed to the injuries the former put on the latter. Then Vali's speech got his attention again.

"Perhaps it's just that you don't have enough drive to draw out your full potential… Even during my past fights with Saitama, that man never once took me seriously, no matter what I threw at him…" Vali's smirk turned bitter at the memory.

Vali's smirk then turned to a grin. "Your mother is a normal human, no? I found that she's just a full-time housewife who occasionally takes part-time jobs as well. If I kill her, perhaps you'll have enough drive to be a powerful avenger? That should be interesting. Then, after I defeat you, perhaps I'll gain more power, enough to take on your father as well. And I guess he'd take me more seriously after I'm done with his family…"

CRASH!

However, all of sudden everyone saw a red blur flew across the distance and the Hakuryuukou felt something had smashed into his abdomen, shattering a good portion his armour and threw him backwards in the process. Vali coughed as he felt the air from his lungs was forcefully taken out, he regenerated his Scale Mail and saw Issei was floating in front of him, his fist was stretched out and a smoke could be seen from his knuckle.

"Are you stupid?"

Everyone only blinked rather incredulously from Issei's rather laid back response. However, the others could sense a hint of anger in Sekiryuutei's tone. "You can't go on killing people around just to liven up your boredom, not even office ladies would think of that."

Vali only grinned in excitement despite Issei's remarks, then he flared out his aura. "In any case, that punch of yours really got me hyped up now. So, what do you say, Hyoudou Issei? Shall we fulfil the destiny of Two Heavenly Dragons here and now?"

"… Like I care about destiny and all. I'm here just to stop you from running amok." Issei replied while equipping his faceplate again.

Everyone else wanted to help Issei to fend off the Strongest Hakuryuukou, but at the same time, they were well aware that by doing so, they would only end up getting in the way of the two dragon emperors.

"Ise…" Rias muttered her pawn's name in worried tone, and as if on that cue, the two figures in dragon armour launched towards each other with their Longinus activated.

**{Divide!}**

**[Boost!]**

X

Meanwhile, Saitama was watching the whole fiasco from the location where he had been brought too through some kind of far-sight magic as the space in front of him had been distorted and revealing the scene that took place at Kuoh Academy as if it was a television.

The corner of his lips twitched upward when he witnessed Gasper's display of courage, and he was not that surprised when Vali was revealed to be the traitor of the Three Factions. He remained indifferent when the said traitor was about to fight with his own son.

"Are you sure about this, Saitama-dono?" a voice came from Saitama's side. The voice belonged to a man with glasses and clad in business suit.

"Arthur." Saitama addressed the one who questioned him.

Meet Arthur Pendragon, a member of the team Vali had created beforehand. He is a descendant of King Arthur, as well as a descendant of the witch Morgan le Fay.

"I know your son is not weak, but are you sure to pit Vali against the Sekiryuutei?" the man identified as Arthur asked sceptically. "After all, you had been spending quite some time in training the current Hakuryuukou…"

"Nah, can't say that I trained him." Saitama dismissed the fact. "Most of the lesson had been taken care of by Azazel, I simply helped him as his sparring partner."

"And thanks to you, Vali had become even stronger than ever." Arthur commented as he looked at the scene showed by the far-sight magic.

"By the way…" Saitama looked around. "I didn't see your little sister this time. Where is she?" the man asked the blonde man.

"Le Fay is currently looking after our base." Arthur replied. "Oh, she's also sending you her regards." Saitama only nodded in acknowledgement before returning to the magic screen.

" You sure are calm when your son is in a tight spot like that - nya, Saitama-chin." This time, the young woman who 'kidnapped' him in the first place spoke up.

Meet Kuroka, a Nekomata. She was a beautiful and attractive young woman with a voluptuous figure, long black hair with split bangs, and hazel gold eyes with cat-like pupils. Her attire consisted of a black kimono, a yellow _obi,_ a set of golden beads, and an ornately detailed headband. The kimono featured a red interior and it was open at her shoulders, giving view to her enormously large breasts. A pair of black cat ears and two black tails could be seen on her body, signifying her race.

"I was expecting you're going to ask us to send you back so you can stop them or probably help your boy there, nya." The woman said like a cat.

"It's probably no use, Kuroka." Saitama replied to the woman who was identified as Kuroka. "I heard that those two are destined to fight each other sooner or later, right? So, instead of prolonging the inevitable, I guess they can just duke it out and get it over with…"

"Kahahahaha! You sure one harsh father, Saitama! If your comrade found out that you're simply hanging with us, I wonder what they'll do to you…" another male voice was heard.

"And I also wonder what your gramps will do to you when he found you here, Bikou…" Saitama replied with dry tone.

Meet Bikou, another member of Vali team. He is a monkey youkai descended from the Monkey King Sun Wu Kong. He was dressed n ancient Chinese armour that was used during the Three Kingdoms period.

"Come on, now… That old geezer always knows that I'm doing this kind of jobs every now and then! Lighten up! Here, have a banana." Bikou patted Saitama's back before handing the man the yellow fruit.

"Oh, thanks." Saitama gladly accepted the fruit as he peeled the skin off and grabbed a bite before returning to watch.

"By the way, Saitama-chin…" Kuroka took her turn to speak. "I see that you've met with my baby sister, nya?"

Saitama blinked as he swallowed his banana, and he turned to the woman. "…You have a sister?"

Kuroka's eye twitched in slight irritation. "So you weren't listening that time, nya…." The nekomata grumbled as she decided to leave the topic for another time.

"Moving back to the situation at hand…" Arthur spoke up. "Saitama-dono, despite what you have said about the Two Heavenly Dragons, what will you do if Vali ended up killing your son?"

Saitama only huffed as he swallowed his banana. "Let me tell you this…" Saitama's lips twitched to a faint smirk. "Ise won't die that easily. That's all." Saitama said with his eyes were staring at Arthur's.

"I know that the Sekiryuute-chin is quite strong, but Vali-chin had been trained by you, as well as the strongest Hakuryuukou to date, you know?" Kuroka stated. "What makes you so confident, nya?"

"Why, it's because-"

However, Saitama's answer, along with the conversation were interrupted by Bikou. "Uh, guys…?" the monkey youkai called out as he warily looked around. "Is this also part of the plan?"

"Huh?"

When the rest of others turned their heads, they blinked at the sight of a massive, dark green magic circle with dragon insignia on it. Appearing slowly from the magic circle, a giant figure of western dragon with dark green scales covering its body and a pair of silver eyes.

"The Dragon Gate?" Arthur muttered with incredulous tone.

An ear-splitting roar was heard as the dragon arrived at the scene.

**GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

"That colour of the dragon gate… No friggin' way!" Bikou's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Legendary dragon, The Crime Force Dragon, Grendel…" Arthur said in grim tone as he readied his sword.

"Nya!? I thought that broken dragon is dead from long ago!" Kuroka complained as she prepared herself for battle.

Saitama on the other hand, remained indifferent as he eyed the giant reptile. _"A dragon? Broken? Looking at it again, it looked kind of different from those folks…."_ Saitama mused.

Indeed, the dragon was standing on its hind legs like a human. In a way, one could say that the dragon was more like a giant with features of a dragon.

Upon arrival, the dragon that was identified as Grendel, opened his jaw filled with sharp fangs and let out a thunderous laugh. **"Guhahahahaha! It's been a while since going through the Dragon Gate! Hnn…?"** Grendel then scanned his surroundings. **"What do we have here? Two youkais and two humans… Where's this strong enemy I've been told about!? I've been itching to fight some powerful opponents!"**

Saitama only calmly addressed his current companions while pointing at the dragon. "Is that… A friend of yours?"

"Hardly." Arthur sarcastically replied as he grimaced. "To be precise, that dragon was supposed to be dead long time ago."

"So…. He's an undead?"

"No… And that's the ridiculous part, nya." Kuroka explained. "His aura was pretty much that of a living being. Someone had revived an Evil Dragon, somehow…"

Bikou only remained silent as he cautiously kept his eyes on the dragon. Having unexpected development such as this could make things more exciting, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. While the group, sans Saitama, had never met the real life Grendel before, the moment they laid their eyes at the Crime Force Dragon, they could easily tell that the creature was nothing but powerful. Not to mention Grendel's class as an Evil Dragon had put them further on their edges.

Evil Dragons, also called as Broken Dragons, are stated to be the most vicious and brutal of all dragons, all being dangerous battle maniacs that want to destroy everything including themselves. Grendel in particular, was also known as one of dragons with toughest scales to break.

Even from the looks alone, the three of Vali team could see the overwhelming aura and killing intent that was radiating from Grendel's being. The dragon would be a formidable opponent, even with the power of everyone combined. However, Saitama on the other hand simply walked towards the Evil Dragon, much to everyone's surprise. Grendel's expression turned into a glee as soon as his eyes landed upon the bald man.

"**Hooh!?"** Grendel seemed astonished as he pointed his clawed finger at Saitama. **"You! You over there! You're the strongest around, aren't you!? I can tell from the way you're carrying yourself! That aura and that kind of confidence is definitely no bluff! Guhahahahahaha!"** Grendel laughed in anticipation.

Everyone else eyed warily at Saitama who did not show any sign of fear. In fact, the way Saitama walked was more like the one who was walking in a park instead of battlefield. "Yeah, yeah…" Again, to everyone's surprise, Saitama was pecking his ear as he glanced back at the far-sight screen, which was still active before returning back to the dragon. "Look, we're getting to the good part here. So let's just get this over and done with, okay?"

Bikou, Kuroka, and Arthur were not sure whether to worry for Saitama's attitude or to expect Saitama's response from a mile away. They were rather fond, or at least did not hate Saitama as a person, despite they only knew him for a short time; while at the same time, they were also curious of how Saitama would fare against an Evil Dragon on Grendel's calibre.

Grendel maintained his grin while a hint of irritation could be detected from his reply**. "Straight to the point, eh? Not bad! There is the strong me, and there is the strong you! What else should we do but fight to the death? Come at me, then!"**

Then with another roar, Grendel prepared to fight as he flexed his claws and cracked his fingers. While the other three prepared themselves for the worst, Saitama remained impassive as he clenched his fist, as he saw the giant reptile lounged towards him.

X

At the sky above Kuoh Academy, white and red streaks were flying and twirling across the sky as the two streaks clashed every seconds and during those clashes, the two would exchange blows to each other. The spectators could feel the waves from the sheer force of their clashes even they had distanced themselves quite far. In the fight itself, Issei and Vali managed to land a solid hit on each other, while both of them were also desperately trying to get an upper hand through the ability of their Sacred Gears.

Vali just managed to land his punch on Issei's chest-plate, shattering some parts of the red armour and Issei immediately regained his bearing and solidly hit Vali's jaw, shattering the Hakuryuukou's helmet as they quickly separated again. As they were floating and facing each other, both combatants' faces had seen better days as their breathings were stating to get heavy. However, Vali only grin in excitement and Issei found himself returning the courtesy.

The two immediately flew again across the sky, with spectators only saw red and white blurs tried to overwhelm each other. Vali kept halving Issei's power by his Divine Dividing, while Issei tried to keep up by doubling his power with his Boosted Gear. However, since they had started to use their ability at the same time, the two ended up in stalemate, none of them managed to gain an upper hand.

During the exchange however, Issei managed to notice few things. Whenever they clashed and exchanged blows, as well as kept trying to overpower each other with their respective Longinus, Vali would always be the one to take the initiative to gain distance. While Issei was more versed in close combat thanks to his strength, Vali was not a pushover either. Not to mention Vali also had more variety in his devil magic, allowing him to give Issei a hard time whenever they were separated.

In Issei's opinion, Vali would have a chance to gain an upper hand if he maintained his position during their clashes, so why would the half-devil bother to gain distance, only to shower the Sekiryuutei with barrage of magical attacks, which the latter could take most of its brunt with his armour?

Issei's eyes then widened as he recalled Ddraig's lecture about Vanishing Dragon. Divine Dividing took the form of wings of light, which also served as power storage whenever the user absorbed half of the opponent's power. However, excessive absorption would cause Divine Dividing wings to go overdrive and stop its function, and the user would have to expel some of his stored magic until the wings would have an empty space to be able to half the opponent again.

From this information, the Sekiryuutei got himself an idea as well as a gamble. Wrong timing would lead to the Hakuryuukou to have an upper hand over him, so Issei would have to be careful. As they kept exchanging blows during another clash session, Issei noticed Vali's wings were almost reaching their limits and the latter was preparing to fly away. Then, boosting his power once again, Issei stretched his arm towards Vali's light-wings and Boosted Gear's jewel glowed.

**[Transfer!]**

Then, the jewels on Vali's Divine Dividing scale mail started to glow brightly before they died down altogether, like a light bulb suffering a power-failure. That meant that the Divine Dividing had stopped its function until Vali managed to let out his excessed power.

**{What a thing! Vali, regain your posture at once!} **

Albion warned his host in panic tone. Vali himself was having hard time to regulate his now overflowing reserves.

"_Chance!"_ Issei did not waste anytime as he started relentlessly throwing combos of punches and blows towards Vali. "HAAH!"

Issei's attacks managed to shatter a good portion of Vali's Scale Mail as well as damaging Vali's body, enough to force the half-devil to spit a good amount of blood. The latter clicked his tongue as he did his best to defend against his enemy's onslaught. However, unknown to Issei, Vali managed to gain control over his reserves as the Hakuryuukou quickly regenerated his armour and stretched out his arm to use a new move.

**{Half Dimension!}**

Issei's eyes widened as he suddenly felt his body and the surrounding space were forcefully being distorted, and his body was enveloped in explosions of his surroundings.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Issei grunted in pain as he took the brunt of Vali's new attack. Unlike the dividing from earlier, the boy felt that Vali's move was trying to half his physical body as well.

Vali, however, only laughed in joy as he kept his eyes on Issei who was regenerating his badly damaged armour. "Hahaha, amazing! You managed to force me to use this move against you! As expected of my rival!"

Half Dimension. It is an ability of Divine Dividing that unlike the regular dividing, Half Dimension halves the size of objects and living beings around the user. The explosions around Issei earlier was caused by the space distortion of Half Dimension, of course the boy was strong enough to resist the actual effect of the said move.

Vali immediately took flight again as he began to divide Issei's power again, with the latter was a step too late in regaining his posture, causing Vali to gain a slightly upper hand. Issei himself also began to chase after Vali, as the sky was littered again with red and white streaks of light manoeuvring and clashing against each other. However, as the time went by, Issei started to get desperate to keep up with Vali's power, in addition that Vali kept using his Half Dimension on him, causing Issei's armour to get more damage.

The Sekiryuutei considered using his Dragon Shot to widen his range attack, but he dismissed the idea as he was aware that Vali could just easily divide his signature move until it was weak enough to be parried. Issei needed to find a new plan to turn the tables, fast. As Issei and Vali kept flying and striking each other around, the former spotted one of Divine Dividing's jewels laid on the ground, and he got something in his mind.

"…Say, Ddraig. The Sacred Gear responds to feelings and evolves, right?" Issei asked the dragon in his mindscape.

**[Yeah, that's right, but…Why?]**

"Because I just got another idea…" Issei quickly rotated and snatched the Divine Dividing jewel from the sky and proceeded back to the sky. "Here's the deal…"

Vali also stopped moving as he kept starring at his opponent in wonder and curiosity, then after Issei had explained his plan to the Welsh Dragon, the said dragon then laughed in amusement and excitement.

**[Ku… KUHAHAHAHAHA! Interesting! If it's you, you might be able to pull it off! However, that plan of yours is going to hurt you like hell! Do you have the resolve?]**

"Well, it's not like I have much choice! So are you with me or not?"

**[Hahahaha! Very well, you're the man, after all! If you have the resolve then I'll make one for myself too! Let's show them what we're made of, partner! No, Hyoudou Issei!]**

"What do you intend to do, Hyoudou Issei?" Vali finally asked.

Issei simply revealed the blue jewel of Divine Dividing and a grin was adorning his expressioin. "Vali Lucifer, and Vanishing Dragon Albion! I'll be taking your power!" Then Issei smashed the blue jewel into the back of his right back into pieces, shattering his Boosted Gear's jewel in the process as the blue jewel's fragments made their way through inside the red gauntlet.

Then, a silver aura sprang forth from Issei's right hand and wrapped around the right side of his body, then immediately, Issei's body was overcome by imaginable pain.

"UOOOOOOOGGHH!"

Issei's cry of pain was heard across the battlefield, as Rias' peerage and the others became worried of their comrade's well being. Azazel, however, had his eyes glinted in interest at the development.

Vali on the other hand, had his eyes widened at Issei's unexpected move. "You-! You're trying to assimilate my power into your own!?"

**{What a reckless thing to do… Ddraig, we are existences that oppose each other. That is nothing more than an act of self-destruction. Do you intend to annihilate yourself by doing such a thing?}**

**[GUOOOOOOOOOOOOH!]**

At Albion's impassive comment, Ddraig simply roared in agony as he was also suffering from the rebound of his opposing power. However, the red dragon managed to let out his own remarks as he withstood the pain.

**[Albion! You're as inflexible as always! Over countless eons, we've lodged in hosts and continued to fight each other! It's a repeat of the same thing each and every time!]**

**{That is correct, Ddraig. Such is our destiny. Even if our hosts are fundamentally different, the way we fight never changes at all. You raise power while I steal power. The side that skilfully uses its Sacred Gear deals the finishing blow and it ends until new hosts are chosen. This is how it always has been, and always will be}**

**[Exactly. However, after meeting with my new host, Hyoudou Issei, I've learned one thing: Anything is possible through sheer will!]**

"HAAAAA!" Issei kept roaring in defiance as his reserves were drained to supplement the assimilation process. "COME OOOOOOOOON!" With the last cry, the pain in his body ended abruptly and Issei's right hand was enveloped in bright white light.

**[VANISHING DRAGON POWER IS TAKEN!]**

Issei let out a breath of relief and he looked up to see his right arm was now clad in white gauntlet with blue jewels instead of his usual red gauntlet with green jewels. At the sight, Issei only chuckled.

"Heheheh… So it worked. Let's call it Dividing Gear."

Vali and his inner dragon was shocked at the result, with Albion to be the first one to comment.

**{Impossible! Such a thing is impossible!}**

"Why not?" Issei replied. "The chance was incredibly slim, but it's possible in the end. After all, Kiba had managed to achieve his Balance Breaker by fusing holy and demonic element together. This phenomenon was probably thanks to the absence of the Biblical God. Didn't Azazel mention this, that there are bugs and errors in this world's system, Sacred Gears included? I simply used it for my advantage, that's all."

**{…So you mean you nudged the imperfections of the "Sacred Gear program" and achieved this? No, but such a thing is…Even if you think of that, to actually do it is just foolish. No one knows what will happen with the fusion of opposing powers. When that is something concerning dragons, whose strength and power can even rival gods alike… You might die, you know? No, it would be natural for you to die…}**

"I know, right? I thought at first I'm gonna die, but it worked in the end, so who cares?" Issei dryly replied as well as conceding with Albion's point.

Ddraig sighed at his host's words. **[Yeah, you're one crazy son of a bitch, you know that? If it's not for your large reserves from your past trainings, you'd have ended up using your lifespan instead]**

Issei did not reply this time as he only looked up again at Vali, who was now grinning in excitement and amusement for obvious reasons. Without another word, much to Vali's surprises, Issei was already right in front of him.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

And the Sekiryuutei launched numerous combos of hits and punches towards Vali, shattering his armour and damaging his body in the process. Vali immediately retaliated as he quickly activated his dividing power to keep up while regenerating his armour, but Issei quickly put his newfound ability into use.

**[Divide!]**

On cue, Vali's power decreased sharply. "How does it feel to taste your own power, huh!?" Issei yelled as he kept pressing on his assault.

Vali started to get cornered as he was overwhelmed by Issei's boost as well as his own dividing power. As Issei wanted to finish things up, he boosted further his power and charged his magical reserves into his left hand and he shot it out directly at Vali.

"DRAGON SHOT!"

The red beam hit Vali square in his chest-plate, forcing him to be thrown a good distance away. When the attack had stopped, Vali was seen remained floating while he still could regenerate his severely damaged Scale Mail. More wounds and blood were visible on his person, as Vali felt that some of his bones might be broken, but the Hakuryuukou's eyes did not loose their fighting spirit. In fact, his fighting spirit only burned more.

"Fufufu… Fuhahahahaha!" Vali suddenly laughed. "Ah, this is just too fun! I know now, that I can't go half-hearted against you! Albion, let's use that!"

**{…. Normally I will forbid you to use that move, but I admit that the current Hyoudou Issei is too strong for you to take on with just the regular Scale Mail. Very well, I shall allow it this time}**

"Perfect! Behold, Hyoudou Issei! I shall show you the pinnacle of White Dragon Emperor's power!" then the jewels on Vali's Scale Mail began to glow with power as his body was emitting tremendous aura.

Small, bluish white orbs of light started to emerge from the Scale Mail's jewels, and voices of cry of numerous people could be heard from those orbs as Vali began to speak.

"I, who is about to awaken…."

**{He will be blasted away!} {Yes, he will certainly be blasted away!}**

Issei on the other hand, simply furrowed his eyebrows at Vali's chanting, as well as the strange voices coming out from Divine Dividing jewels. That voices were mixture of human's voices, ranging from male to female and young to old. Ddraig however, was freaking out all of a sudden as he warned his host.

**[Oh, shit…. Partner! Stop him now! Don't let him finish!]**

Issei blinked at the Welsh Dragon's sudden change of demeanour, however he decided to follow Ddraig's words as he immediately charged at the Hakuryuukou. However, as if finding a new strength, Vali quickly dodged and flew up to avoid more of Issei's attacks. While evading, Vali resumed his chanting as his power kept spiking up.

"…Am the Heavenly Dragon who has taken the principles of supremacy from God."

**{The Dream ends!} {And the Illusions begins!}**

Issei started to get an ominous feeling as his instinct began telling him to stop whatever Vali was doing at the moment. The boy could sense that Vali was preparing something while solely keeping up his evasion while his power grew stronger by passing seconds. The two kept flying with high velocity across the sky and caught in a game of cat and mouse.

"I envy the 'Infinite' and pursue the 'Dream'."

**{Everything!} **

At this rate Issei clicked his tongue as he proceeded to charge his dragon shot one more time.

"I shall become the White Dragon of Supremacy…"

**{Yes, give us everything!}**

As Issei was still charging his attack, Vali recalled his previous conversation with Saitama in the past.

"_Vali… I heard from Azazel that you're bound to fight Ise sooner or later. And when the time comes, can you give him everything you got?"_

_Vali's eyebrows furrowed sceptically at Saitama's request. "Hey, now… Are you sure to ask something like that from me, regarding your own son?" Vali then smirked. "So is it alright for me to kill him, then?"_

_Saitama in return only snorted as he turned to Vali with surprisingly a SMIRK of his own. "Don't get ahead of yourself, now. This is my son we're talking about, y'know."_

Vali's grin grew wider in anticipation as Issei launched his signature attack on him.

"DRAGON SHOT!"

"_Saitama, you should be proud…"_ Vali mused as he saw the large red beam made its way towards him. _"My rival… Is truly your son!"_

"**AND I SHALL TAKE YOU TO THE LIMITS OF WHITE PARADISE!"**

**{JUGGERNAUT DRIVE!}**

Vali's voice at the last line was merged with other foreign voices from the jewels, followed by Albion's voice across the entire field. Then, Vali's body was enveloped in blinding white light at the same time Issei's dragon shot made contact.

Dust and smoked were flying around from the explosion upon collision, and Issei felt that he had been too late. All he could do at the moment was hoping that his Dragon Shot was able to deal some damage. However, his hope was short-lived.

CRASH!

"Gahk….!" Issei spat a mouthful amount of blood as something akin to a white meteor suddenly slammed into his abdomen, shattering his Scale Mail and broke his ribs in the process.

He fell on his back to the ground with a loud thud, as the said ground caved in from the force of Issei's fall. When the boy regained his senses as he tried his best to withstand the raging pain on his body, his eyes widened at the sight of Vali's appearance.

X

Back to the conference room, most of the spectators were at loss of words at the clash of Two Heavenly Dragons. After seeing two streaks of red and white flying and twirling around on the sky for a while, they were shocked at Issei's dangerous gamble on assimilating Vanishing Dragon's power into his own, then after Issei seemed to have an upper hand, the Hakuryuukou's power suddenly spiked up as he chanted several lines followed by ominous voices coming out from the air around him, then a blinding white light enveloped their visions just on time Issei's Dragon Shot made contact with him.

When the view cleared up, they were surprised at the devastation caused on the area as well as Vali's change. The first change was his now tremendous aura and power that could rival the leaders as his armour was shining so bright that everyone was having hard time looking at him. The said armour had significantly changed as well, with its size became slightly bigger and claws had grown on its greaves, arms and feet. The helmet was altered as well with fangs adorning its mouth. Horns could be seen sprouting from the jewels as well as the wings of light. To sum it all, Vali's Scale Mail's appearance had become much more draconic.

"W-what in the…!?" Rias gasped at the new sight and the oppressing atmosphere of the White Dragon Emperor.

"Damn…. He's really done it now…" Azazel muttered as he smirked humourlessly. "I guess the Sekiryuutei was strong enough to force Vali to activate his Juggernaut Drive."

"J-Juggernaut Drive!? You can't mean-!" Rias became even more worried as she looked back at the battlefield.

Even the others shuddered and flinched as they had heard of stories about what happened when a host of Heavenly Dragon activated the forbidden move.

Rias stepped forward, intending to help out her pawn. However, Sirzechs placed his hand on his sister's shoulder, stopping the latter from advancing any further. His expression was that of authority, demanding no objection before Rias could have protested anything in return.

"Now that the Hakuryuukou had entered Juggernaut Drive, it becomes more crucial for us to stay and maintain the barrier to prevent the damage from spreading outside. We have to trust in Issei-kun with this."

Rias scowled at her brother's point. Even she brought her peerage along, she might end up getting in Issei's way. It irritated her that all she could do was only hoping for her pawn's victory.

"Your brother is right, Rias Gremory…" Azazel interjected. "Just as the legend says, the Two Heavenly Dragons will fight through eons whenever they met. There's nothing much we can do to stop them at this point. Besides…" Azazel pointed at Issei who was getting back on his feet. "That Sekiryuutei did not seem to have any intentions of loosing."

Then everyone else could only stay back and watch the next round of the fight between Two Heavenly Dragons.

X

"What the fuck is that?" Issei stared at Vali's new form as the boy spat out and he tried to stabilize his breathing, as well as regenerate his shattered Scale Mail. The boy could tell that his ribs were broken, and his organs were hurting, but fortunately his internal damage was not bad enough to hinder his body from keep fighting.

**[Juggernaut Drive…]**

Issei furrowed his eyebrows at the Welsh Dragon. "Juggernaut… Drive?"

**[Also known as Dragon of Supremacy… It is a special ability of Longinus that contains us; Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing. The forbidden move that removes the seal placed on us, allowing our host to unleash the full power of the Two Heavenly Dragons]**

"Great… So you're telling me that Vali just made himself into a mini version of Albion? And if you said this Juggernaut Drive is exclusive for you and Divine Dividing, why did you never tell me before?"

**[Because that ability is a double-edged sword. Despite the overwhelming power, the user will find themselves abundant with newfound abilities and enhancements powers upon application. However, what makes Juggernaut Drive to be dangerous for the users is what it consumes: life - force and sanity. I never told you this before because this move is still way too dangerous for you to utilize. Not to mention you still need to learn more how to regulate your reserves properly]**

"Well, if you said that the ability also consumes sanity…" Issei saw that Vali was still floating above him. "That guy sure isn't behaving like a berserker to me."

**[And that's the terrifying part of him. Through our clash earlier, the current host of Vanishing Dragon had shown us that he had an enormous amount of magical reserves, and he managed to use his reserves as an alternate fuel of his Juggernaut Drive instead of his life - force. A mad person in Juggernaut Drive is troubling enough, but a person who remained sane with the power of Juggernaut Drive… No wonder the Fallen Angel Governor deemed him as the strongest host of Albion…]**

"….Heh, we're fucked, aren't we?" Issei snorted in sarcasm as he finally regained his bearing as well as his Scale Mail.

Vali who believed that he had waited long enough prepared his stance once again as his wings flared. Issei barely had anytime to retaliate as the Hakuryuukou suddenly charged at him with greater speed and force than before. The two's fists crossed each other and managed to land solidly on each other, with Vali's on Issei's cheek and Issei's on Vali's side-belly, and the two immediately engaged in another exchange of punches and kicks as their Sacred Gears were doing their functions to help them gaining an upper hand.

**{Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!Divide!****}**

Issei found himself to be the one who was driven to the corner. _"What the-! His dividing rate had gone even higher!? This is getting ridiculous!"_

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Issei quickly recovered his lost power and this time, the boy was the one who was forced to fly away, ended up giving Vali a chance to blow off some of his stored power. While Issei was busy evading Vali's barrage of magical blasts, Issei kept boosting his power to find his way around Vali's defense.

**[Divide!]**

Issei used his Dividing Gear, successfully halving Vali's power to throw him off the loop for a second and creating opening for Issei to use. The Sekiryuutei immediately forced his way towards the Hakuryuukou and the former landed a solid uppercut towards Vali's abdomen, damaging the chest-plate and thrown the white dragon's body a good distance away and at the same time, Issei also fired his dragon shot to further the damage.

Of course, with the enhancement of Juggernaut Drive, Vali could take the brunt of Issei's attack without much trouble as the former continued to half the latter's power in alarming rate. At this rate, Issei found that his Dividing Gear only served as a dead weight, due the usage of the gear consumed his stamina more than his Boosted Gear. Regardless, Issei continued his relentless assaults right after Vali had parried off the dragon shot, and Issei managed to give a surprise attack to Vali, forcing Vali to fall to the ground. The Red Dragon continued his onslaught as he threw a barrage of punches towards Vali, only for the latter to be intercepted easily and the two ended up in another stalemate as the two's fists locked up to each other, but Issei was having harder time with Vali slowly pushed him down.

"Hahahahaha! Impressive, you're still faring quite well in the face of my Juggernaut Drive! However!" Vali boasted as he stretched out his arm. "It's still far from enough!"

True, while Issei's attack was strong enough to deal some cracks on Vali's armour, the attacks were not nearly enough to deal any actual damage on Vali's own body.

"I actually invented this technique to fight against Saitama, but I might as well will test it on you!" While their fists were still connected, Vali activated his other ability on Issei at point-blank range.

**{Compression Divider!}**

"HNGH!?" Issei's eyes widened when suddenly felt his body was being pressured over and over again, as if the space around him was trying to squash his body. Vali's Compression Divider was an enhanced version of Half Dimension, which compresses the body of a specific opponent until they vanish from existence.

"OOOOOOOHH!" Issei roared in defiance as he tried his best to fight back the space distortion, and the spot where Issei and Vali were clashing on each other finally exploded from Vali's technique.

Another dust cloud was filling the air again, and Vali emerged from the wall of dust, taking a flight to the sky. Still donned in his Juggernaut Drive, Vali scanned the area where he locked-fist with Issei to find any sign of his opponent.

"…Is that it?" Vali wondered as he kept searching for his enemy. "Does Hyoudou Issei finally succumb before my Juggernaut Drive?"

However, from the depth of the smoke screen, Vali spotted a pair of gleaming green eyes and suddenly, Vali found a red blur shot out from the smoke right towards him and the Hakuryuukou found Issei had already planted his left fist into the centre of his torso.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

"UOOOOOOOGH!" Issei kept pressing his punch as he charged his power to his left arm. His left gauntlet started to glow from the sheer power charged into it.

"Uohk!?" Vali found Issei's strike managed to go through his body as he spat out a good amount of blood from his mouthpiece. Even so, Issei kept pushing his gauntlet into Vali's body as deep as possible.

**[Transfer!]**

"DRAGON SHOT!"

A massive red beam shot out from Issei's left fist in point-blank range and drove Vali along into a distance, as Issei descended to the ground and breathed heavily. The latter was aware that even his last attack did connect, it was not enough to actually defeat the strongest White Dragon Emperor. It left him one option if Issei really wanted to win this battle.

"Say, Ddraig. This Juggernaut Drive… We can do it too, right?"

**[Well, yeah. What are you…]** then Ddraig's eyes widened at what his host was trying to say.** [Whoa… No… No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…. No way. Your stamina had been depleted low enough thanks to your earlier stunt with Albion's power, and now you want to surrender yourself under my power? You may have quite large reserve, but in your current condition, you could die from the drawbacks!]**

"Well, what else do we do?" Issei shot back. "We're gonna loose anyway if this keeps up! If I'm gonna go crazy, at least I'll make sure that I'm gonna drag him along with me away from this place! At this rate it's an eye for an eye, a dragon for a dragon! Besides…. He's set on fighting me alone."

Ddraig contemplated on the situation at hand for a minute, until the dragon groaned and sighed at his host.

**[Oh, fuck it…. Fine! Don't say I didn't warn you!]**

"Never dreamt of it. You know that I won't die easily from something like this." Issei smirked. "Now what do I have to do? Do I do the same thing like that guy did?"

**[Just follow my lead and repeat after me]**

X

"I, who is about to awaken…"

Everyone who was watching from the conference room widened their eyes in shock when they heard the familiar chant that came out from Issei's mouth and saw Issei's Scale Mail was emitting red aura as well as small green orbs of light.

"Holy shit…. Him, too?" Azazel mused. The others however, did not take the sign too kindly.

"That aura…. That chant! Is he trying to use that move, too?" Rias gasped incredulously, followed by some other females.

"Looks like it, our Sekiryuutei is sure desperate now. Michael, Sirzehcs… I believe an evacuation is in order?" Azazel turned towards the other leaders, who nodded in agreement.

"Yes, it is. Everyone must evacuate this ground! I and the other leaders will remain on stand by should the worst were to happen!" Michael sent out his command as he himself, his sister and the other leaders prepared themselves.

"No! Ise is still out there! I won't leave without him!" Rias, being restrained by Sona and Akeno attempted to go to her pawn's side. The others from Rias' peerage were reluctant to leave, but they also were aware of the danger towards the others as well.

Sirzechs on the other hand, simply stared at the battleground, particularly at Issei, and he looked up towards the sky, as if hoping for something. _"Saitama-kun… Wherever you are now, we can really use some help here…"_

X

Meanwhile, Vali was floating with smokes were emitted from his entire body thanks to the red beam from earlier. His chest-plate was badly damaged, and the man could tell that Issei's last attack had dealt a serious damage on his body despite his armour protecting him. However, while breathing heavily, Vali only got excited even more. His rival, the Red Dragon Emperor could still deal some damage on his Juggernaut Drive, by his regular Scale Mail.

"Fufufufu…. Really… In the end, that little cub is still a beast through and through…" Vali mused before started to head back towards Issei.

However, Vali suddenly stopped abruptly when he found Issei's body was emitting red aura and small green orbs of light, and his grin beneath his helmet widened even further when he heard what came out from the Sekiryuutei's mouth despite the distance.

"…Am the Heavenly Dragon who has stolen the principles of domination from God."

**{That boy… Don't tell me-!}**

Albion's retort was interrupted by Vali's maniacal laughter. "FUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Amazing! You truly are amazing, Hyoudou Issei!" Vali shouted gleefully. "Come! Break free from your shackles! Bear your fangs and claws at me! Then the world shall be reminded of the Two Heavenly Dragons once again!"

Meanwhile, inside Issei's mindscape, Ddraig was watching over the conditions of the white world around him. To be more precise, ever since Issei's reincarnation into a devil, his mindscape somehow altered its appearance to be more like a massive grand hall with the eight mutation pawns acting as the supporting pillars. As Ddraig occupied the space, in front of him were the souls of his past hosts, every single one of them was donning an emotionless expression on their faces. However, when Issei started the activation sequence of his Juggernaut Drive, all of them suddenly rose up their heads and their faces turned into something akin to anticipation.

The past souls started to muttered words of grief, regrets, things that reflecting their past hatred and grudges during their life as Sekiryuutei. And as Issei got further into the chant, the souls became more erratic and their voices became louder.

"I laugh at the 'Infinite', and grieve at the 'Dream'…."

However, when Ddraig heard his host had arrived at that one sentence, he felt a pulse across the mindscape. Correction, the dragon had felt that pulse when Issei had finished the first line, but now the pulse became more noticeable, and suddenly the entire room was shaking in tremor. Strangely enough, the souls did not even bother the tremors and they did not even notice that the pillars, Issei's evil pieces was trembling and crackling from the wave of the foreign power.

Ddraig, being the only one to notice the anomaly, looked around and he felt something powerful, something whose power even exceeded his and Albion's power combined, was flaring from even the deeper parts of Issei's mind.

**[Damn it, I know this is a bad idea after all!] **

Listening to what his instinct was telling him, Ddraig immediately looked up to make contact to his host, the cry of the souls of the past predecessors were getting too influential from the safe point, anyway.

**[Partner! Partner, do you hear me!? Stop chanting, something is not right!]**

In the real world on Issei's side, the boy was gritting his teeth as he felt the surge of overwhelming power washed over him. There were numerous voices, similar to the voices he heard from Vali's Divine Dividing earlier, littering his mind, as if those voices were the ones guiding him to activate Juggernaut Drive instead of Ddraig. Issei tried his best to ignore the voices, but their noises were slowly and surely invading his mind as he unconsciously proceeded to the next line, ignoring Ddraig's warning.

"I shall become the Red Dragon of Domination…!"

**[Partner! Stop!]**

"**AND I SHALL-!"**

"Alright, that's enough."

BAM! CRACK!

"Guheh!" Issei let out a funny cry of pain as suddenly a hand was slammed into his head. For the boy though, it was like a giant hammer was slammed against his head. At the same time, the tremors, as well as the cry of the predecessor's souls in Issei's mindscape immediately died down and Ddraig sighed in relief.

The spectators were surprised at the sudden development when a man suddenly showed up and knocked his fist into Issei's cranium.

Vali widened his eyes at the interference. The said interference was a bald man wearing a yellow suit with white cape, he was wearing a pair of red boots while both of his hands were covered in red gloves. The man's right hand was balled into a fist and just made his way towards Issei's skull, knocking him out, shattering/dismissing his Scale Mail, and forcing the ground beneath Issei to cave into a crater as soon as the head made contact.

The said Sekiryuutei was now out-cold with his face down and smoke was coming out from the spot Saitama just knocked. The man himself was now staring impassively at Vali, who was still equipped in his Juggernaut Drive.

"Saitama…" Vali glared at the man. "Why are you here of all times?" The Hakuryuukou was honestly and thoroughly annoyed when things were starting to get really good for him.

"Sorry, but it's already late and I don't want him to miss dinner." Saitama simply pointed at his knocked-out son. "So can you let him off and continue to play some other time?"

The others quickly approached the father and son as Rias' peerage helped to tend to Issei's body, while everyone else gathered around Saitama to confront the Hakuryuukou.

At the same time, a space besides Vali was torn and from the gap between space, came out two figures. One was a young man with blonde hair and formal business suit with a sword on his waist, and the other one was a man with short hair clad in ancient Chinese armour wielding a long staff. The two of them were seen riding a flying golden cloud, presumably was controlled by the latter.

"Vali, we've come for you." The man with blonde hair stated as he and the other guy flew to Vali's side.

"Arthur… Bikou, as well. Couldn't you guys hold him off a bit longer? And where's Kuroka?" Vali complained.

The one with Chinese armour snorted. "Oh, come on! You expect us to handle the guy on that calibre? It's already a miracle that we're still alive by now! And by the way, Kuroka had returned first to our base."

At his ally's whining, Vali sighed after few seconds. "….I guess you're right. It seems quite selfish and foolish of me to give you guys that kind of task." The teen admitted his blunder.

"Put that aside, we have a situation in our hands as well." The man in suit leaned his head to whisper something. Vali nodded at the whisper couple of times until his eyes widened.

"What?" Vali seemed not taking whatever whispered to his ear well.

"We'll get you the details. But now is not the time nor place for that." The man in suit scanned his surroundings that were surrounded by forces of heaven and underworld along with their leaders as well.

**{I agree with him, Vali… Right now your condition is far from adequate to take on all of them here. Not to mention, you're well aware of the outcome if you're to fight Saitama in your current state}**

"I see… Then it's time to go." Vali, albeit begrudgingly, reverted his Juggernaut Drive into his regular Scale Mail.

"Wait! Who are you people!?" Rias shouted as her peerage along with Sona's peerage were readying themselves to attack at the moment's notice.

The one in suit was the one to reply first. "My name is Arthur Pendragon from the house of Pendragon, the descendant of original King Arthur and Morgan Le Fay."

The one in Chinese armour followed suit. "'Sup! The name's Bikou, nice to meet y'all."

"The descendant of King of Knights and the descendant of the Victorious Fighting Buddha…" Azazel smirked at the introductions. "Vali, that's quite a roster you have there."

"You have no idea." Vali retorted. "Anyway, I'll withdraw for now. Saitama, tell this to my rival. That was fun, and don't forget to be stronger by the time we meet again…" Vali said as he and his other friends vanished into the gap in the air, leaving Saitama, Issei (still out-cold) and everyone else at Kuoh Academy.

X

Issei's eyes fluttered and slowly open as his mind slowly returned back to the realm of consciousness. When his view cleared up, the first thing he saw was his master, followed by Asia, who was using her Twilight Healing and the rest of his comrades from Rias' peerage.

"Ah, he's waking up! Thank God... Ouch!" Asia was the first to notice Issei's awakening but she clutched her head immediately as soon as she expressed her gratitude.

The rest also relieved and glad to see Issei waking up.

"Ugh… Asia? Buchou and everyone, too…?" Issei woke up and Rias immediately pulled him into a hug. "B-buchou…?"

"I'm so glad…" Rias muttered with tears leaking from her eyes. "My Ise…. Always making me worried so much…"

Issei's expression softened, he pulled away from his master slowly and he felt his head was aching. "My head… What happened? I only remembered I was fighting Vali, the guy used Juggernaut Drive, and I was cornered, then…" Issei then blinked before he let out a sigh. The last voice he heard before he was knocked out, and the one strong enough to do so, there was only one person that fitted the criteria. "Where's that guy who knocked me out?"

"He already left a while ago. Saying he wants to prepare for something else… But anyway, he did the right thing for knocking you out." Rias expression then turned into a firmed one. "Ise, what were you thinking, attempting to use Juggernaut Drive in your already beaten-up state? If it were not for Saitama-san's interference, you might end up destroying yourself and the surrounding area!"

Issei looked dejected as he slumped his head down. His master was right; his plan to use Juggernaut Drive earlier had lots of holes in the application. He realized that his mind was being overwhelmed by the strange voices from earlier during his activation. Even if he were able to defeat Vali in his Juggernaut Drive, in the end he might end up destroying everything else in a fit of rampage. How did he come up with such idea? Was it desperation? Desire to win? Overconfidence that he could control his power? All in all, Issei berated himself in his mind for coming up with such reckless plan.

"I'm sorry…" the boy apologized. "It's just…. Vali had become too powerful for you guys to get involved, and I just found myself don't want loose against him…. It's my lack of judgement in the end, and for that, I'm sorry."

Rias stared at her pawn with judging eyes for few seconds before speaking up. "Will you promise me not to pull those kind of stunts ever again?"

"Yes, you have my word." Issei then turned and bowed towards the others as well. "I'm sorry too for worrying everyone."

The others seemed satisfied enough of Issei's apology, then Rias hugged her pawn again. "Then I'll hold you to that… Make sure to rely on us more often, okay?" Issei only smiled and realized that he was immersing himself into his master's embrace.

_**[Glad to have you back]**_

"_Ddraig?"_

_**[Yes, Ddraig. And you almost gave me a heart attack with your stunts back there. Good job]**_ the dragon spoke sarcastically. _**[And here I thought you wouldn't wake up for next couple of days. I guess you did get stronger day by day]**_

"_Or maybe he held back even more that time…."_ Issei grimaced at the thought. _"By the way, sorry about earlier. How are things down there?"_

_**[Back to usual… But still, what was that power all about?]**_

"_What was what? What power?"_

_**[…Nevermind. Sorry, I was just imagining things. Anyway, good to have you back, partner. And when you started training again, I strongly advise you to focus on managing your reserves]**_

Issei wondered about what the Welsh Dragon was implying just now, but he dismissed the thought. _"Yeah, sure thing."_

"Really, Ise-kun… You scared the hell out of us with your stunts there." Yuuto commented, the others also nodded in agreement.

"But to be honest, your overall performance back there had turned me on, ufufufu…" Akeno interjected playfully.

Issei laughed sheepishly as he broke the hug from his master, then the boy looked around to see the devastated school-grounds, with the remaining army of the three factions, angels, fallen angels and devils alike were working together to clean up and repair the mess.

"Another thing, what about Vali?"

"He got away."

Issei turned his head to see Azazel, along with other leaders sans Serafall were approaching him. "Apparently, right after your father came, his friends also came to pick him up. They escaped through Dimensional Gap." Azazel explained.

"Dimensional Gap?"

"A void world, it's a space that lies between different worlds and dimensions." Michael filled in. "We wanted to give a chase at first, but Dimensional Gap was too dangerous for our soldiers to venture to, so the Hakuryuukou managed to get away in the end." The Archangel's tone went bitter.

"And Vali wanted you to be stronger when you guys meet again. Looks like that kid really enjoyed his fight with you." Azazel quipped in again. "You really surprised me when you're about to use Juggernaut Drive, Hyoudou Issei."

"If it were not for your father's interference, there's a good chance that we might have to deal with you instead of Hakuryuukou, Ise-kun." Sirzechs also put his two-cents with his expression and tone becoming stern. "Please be more careful about your decisions in future. Your actions earlier may endanger everyone here."

Issei looked ashamed before the devil king. "I understand. Please forgive me for my unsightly performance, Sirzechs-sama." The boy bowed deeply.

Sirzechs's expression then softened as he smiled at the boy. "Very well… Since everything's fine now, I'll let this slide. I'll be counting on you again in future, Ise-kun."

"Yes! I won't let you down, sir."

"Now then, I'll return to the heaven and I will work on a plan for the matter of peace and countermeasures against the Khaos Brigade." Michael then spoke as he prepared to take his leave.

Sirzechs nodded. "Thank you for coming, and I'm sorry for the chaos that had taken place since I had arranged things this time. We who set up the place of this conference feel ashamed."

"Please don't blame yourself too much, Sirzechs. As for me, I'm just glad that the three great powers are walking on the path to peace together, you know? With this, useless quarrels should also decrease." Gabriel replied in kind.

"Well, since those who don't agree will have to leave, anyway." Azazel put in his sarcasm.

"I know our race had been each other for a long time now, but this Khaos Brigade is the real threat for our newfound peace. Let's cooperate and discuss from now on regarding that matter." Sirzechs proposed, which was responded positively by the other leaders.

"Then, I'll return to heaven at once. I'll come back immediately, so we'll conclude the formal peace agreement at that time."

Michael was about to leave, but Issei stopped him. "Please wait, Michael-dono!"

"What is it, Sekiryuutei-kun?"

Issei hesitated for a second before proceeding. "There's one thing I'd like to ask of you. Is that okay?"

Michael blinked before smiled in kind. "There isn't much time, but I will hear you out. What is it?"

The boy swallowed a lump. "Can you please look into the Heaven's system and allow Asia and Xenovia to pray without any repercussions?"

Everyone blinked and raised their eyebrows at Issei's question, before they slowly giggled and ended up laughing, resulting a confused look from the boy.

"Eh? What? What's wrong? What's so funny?"

Michael was the one to cease his laughter. "I'm sorry… It's just… Sekiryuutei… No, Hyoudou Issei-kun, you truly are your father's son."

"Eh?"

"Saitama-san just requested the same thing from us before he left earlier." Gabriel followed.

"Eeeeeeeeh!?"

"I know, right? That's exactly everyone's reaction when your father of all people asked such a request." Azazel said between his laugh. "When Michael and Gabriel offered him a reward for his service, he actually asked what you just asked. That guy said that, having those two to be able to pray to the Heaven could serve as a symbol of our alliance. Damn, that baldhead really knows what to say when the situation calls for it…"

Issei blinked in disbelief at the information, then he turned towards Asia and Xenovia, who smiled and nodded in confirmation at the testimony. Then the boy gave a long sigh and ruffled his own hair in frustration, before finally giving a goofy grin towards the two former church members. "Well, if the old man has done so, then it's good for you two to be able to pray again without problems, right?"

"Again, Saitama-dono had done us another great favour…." Xenovia nodded. "But we appreciate your thought."

"Thank you very much, Ise-san… For thinking about us…" Asia also gave her appreciation as she wrapped her hands around Issei into a hug, which the latter gently pat the former's head in return.

"One last thing, where are the Student Council and Leviathan-sama?"

"Sona and the others had left to take care of papers regarding the school's repair." Rias replied, followed by Sirzechs.

"And as for Serafall, she had returned first to the Underworld to announce the alliance. Of course, she had first sent a couple of… parting words to your father before she left." The Crimson Satan shook his head in amusement at the memory.

Issei only chuckled bitterly at the information, some of others also smiled uncomfortably at the memory of the Leviathan's swearing that was really out of her character towards Saitama before she went off.

"Michael-sama, about what we have agreed before, please do as you said." Yuuto then moved towards Michael.

"Following your advice, I swear on the Holy Demonic Sword you gave us that I will not allow Holy Sword research to produce any more victims. It was a huge error for us to flatly reject important believers to this extent."

Issei raised his eyebrows for a second at Yuuto and Michael's conversation, but when he heard about Michae's response, Issei understood the gist of it as he grinned and shot his thumb up towards Yuuto. The knight also nodded with a smile in return.

Then Azazel sent his piece to the Archangel. "Michael, I'll be waiting the result of the negotiation with the folks from Valhalla and Mountain Sumeru to you. Since they won't have a good impression if I was the one to show up."

Michael simply nodded resolutely as he along with his sister and the rest of his angelic troops proceeded to fly towards the Heaven. Irina was given a teleportation pass and she turned around to send her goodbyes to her devil friends before she disappeared into the light.

"Bye bye, Ise-kun! I'll see you all again, Xenovia, Asia-san, everyone!"

Then Azazel announced to his fallen angel subordinates about his alliance with devils and angels, which was replied with roars of absolute loyalty, before he gave orders to return to the Grigori headquarters.

"Well then, I'll leave the cleaning up to Sirzechs. I'm tired, so I'm heading back." Azazel said before he took his leave. "Ah, but I need to talk with Saitama again later… Whatever, I'll make it quick."

"Oh, one more thing, Sekiryuutei." Azazel suddenly stopped and turned around. "I plan to stay here for a little while longer, so I'll help that dhampir of Rias Gremory. Since I can't stand to see a Sacred Gear that can't be controlled."

Issei blinked as he was unsure of Azazel's offer, but in the end, the Fallen Angel Governor could give some good advices about Sacred Gears, as long as Issei could prevent Azazel to drag Gasper into his lab. "…Sure thing."

Then Azazel waved his hand before he finally returned to the Underworld.

Heaven's representative Archangel Michael, Grigori's representative Fallen Angel Governor Azazel, and Underworld's representative Satan Sirzechs Lucifer, with these representatives of the three great powers, a peace treaty was signed.

Thereafter, disputes between the three great powers were prohibited, in the framework of cooperation. The treaty adopted its name from the name of academy that became its stage, and was called the 'Kuoh Treaty'.

X

_(Unknown Location in Underworld)_

Three dark figures were standing in a dark room, in front of them was a large screen equipped with an observation spell, and the screen was showing the image of Saitama standing in front of a dragon carcass.

"Holy shit! Did you see that!? Did you see what he did there!? One punch! He nailed him with a single punch, I tell you! Uhyahyahyahyahyahya!" One of the three was jabbing his finger at the screen while laughing maniacally.

"You don't seem to be displeased at the development… I thought that dragon was one of your minions?" the second figure asked.

"Oh, please…. I can always revive him back later. But back to that scene! Did you see what that fellow did?"

"Hmph, how absurd… I bet that was probably just a fluke, or you messed something up during the revival. And to begin with, I never approved of us to rely on those… broken dragons you favour so much… Not to mention, relying on those magicians and that half-breed Hakuryuukou did not do any good in the end." The second figure scoffed. "In any case, I still think the Two Heavenly Dragons, as well as those… alliance, pose a bigger annoyance in our agenda."

"Bah, don't be such a sourpuss! Those youngsters and my dear grandson sure are quite some trouble, but then again, you always looked down upon other races. Oh, well! I'd better go and look over my schemes again! This development had warranted more of my attention!" the figure that laughed earlier proceeded to leave the room.

"Don't tell me that you honestly think that a mere human can pose a threat to us." The third figure finally spoke up.

"Believe what you want. In my case, that man really got my hopes up now… It will take such a great evil to take down that kind of hero. Smell ya later!" the figure then disappeared from the room.

The third figure then turned to the second. "What do you think about current situation? Katerea is dead, and she had failed her mission."

The second figure remained silent as he contemplated about the past events. He glanced again at the image of Saitama on the screen for a minute before he scoffed again.

"_Ridiculous…"_

"We shall proceed as planned. Go contact our spy, tell him that we'll move on to our next step soon."

X

The next day, Issei was getting yet another news ever since the day of conference. First, he learned from Haruka that his father had set out for another journey when he got home, and his mother did not seem to be upset at all. Secondly, at the moment, Issei and the rest of others were gathering inside the room of Occult Research Club with Azazel, wearing a worn-out suit, was sitting on Rias' chair.

"So, from today on I'll be the chemistry teacher of Kuoh Academy, as well as the advisor of this occult research club. Please call me Azazel-sensei. Or Governor is fine too." The Scapegoat declared casually.

Issei, having lost for words, only sent a dry look and robotically turned to his master while pointing his fingers at their new teacher and advisor. Rias only sighed while rubbing her forehead. "I know, I know. As absurd as it is, he had requested to teach us more about Sacred Gears. There's nothing much I can do at this point…"

Issei did hear that Azazel would hang around longer to help them about Sacred Gears, but the boy expected that the fallen angel would do so through visits during after-school period, not being a full-time teacher and advisor of all things. "Then… What about the arm? I thought you lost it?" Issei turned back to the Governor.

Azazel lifted up his supposed to be gone left arm and moved it just fine. "Ah, this... It's a genuine artificial arm that I produced while researching Sacred Gears. It's an all-purpose arm that can be loaded with light power-style laser beams and tiny missiles. I wanted to be equipped with such a thing once. I equipped it in commemoration of my lost arm." Azazel explained and his artificial arm flew out like a rocket, only to be caught easily by Issei after flying around the clubroom for few seconds and the boy threw it back to the owner.

Azazel caught his mechanical arm and placed it again on his left stump. "I can stay here as long as I can make the immature Sacred Gears possessed by the Devils of the Gremory family grow. Well, my knowledge as a Sacred Gear enthusiast is useful, after all. You guys have also heard about it, but there is this Khaos Brigade. As a future deterrent against them, the Welsh Dragon and your family have become famous. Rather than that, I'm an expert on the opposing Vanishing Dragon. From the information I got on him, I know that Vali has his own team. We're temporarily calling it the Hakuryuukou Team, or Vali team will also do."

"And this Vali team… Are they gonna attack this place again?"

"Unlikely. Vali has said that his team is just a hired gun for the last assassination attempt, which failed, and that alone has made them the enemy of Heaven and Underworld alike. With Heaven is now on full alert, and Underworld is now under joint-forces of fallen angels and devils, even our enemies would at least have to think twice before attacking again."

Everyone's face went thoughtful at the information. At least they now had a breathing room until the enemy decided to attempt another assault. Azazel then clapped his hand.

"Moving on! You, Holy-Demonic sword user." Azazel turned to Yuuto. "How long can you fight with your Balance Breaker?"

Yuuto was a bit startled being asked by Fallen Angel Governor all of sudden, but replied nonetheless. "Err… My limit is one hour, give or take."

Azazel frowned at the answer. "Okay, that's not good. If you really want to contribute in future battles, at least you have to be able to hold it on for at least 3 days, give or take."

Yuuto only replied with an expression of determination and fire in his eyes. Then Azazel turned to the Queen in the room. "Next, Akeno!"

"Y-yes?"

"…Do you still hate Baraqiel?" Azazel did pause for a second, but he asked without hesitation.

Akeno replied with stern expression in return. "I still have no intention of forgiving him. That's all I have to say."

Azazel's expression remained serious when he carried on. "You know, when he found out about your reincarnation into a devil, he did not say any word."

"It's only natural for him not to have any position to make any comment about my life."

"Well, I guess it's not my place to butt in between you two…" Then the Scapegoat turned to Issei. "Speaking of, Sekiryuutei, or if Ise is fine, what is your opinion about your father now?"

Everyone turned their attentions towards the boy in question who blinked at the fallen angel's question. "I still intend to surpass him someday, and I will put him in his place when the time comes." Issei replied with determined smile before asking again. "Actually, did you get any word about him? Since you guys hang out a lot."

"I guess it's only natural coming out from you. Besides, you did wake up after an hour or two after he knocked you out, compared to the first time when you're out of commission for three days." Azazel snickered. "And yes. While he did not tell me much about where he's going to, but he did leave a message to you guys."

_Don't expect me to do all the work and clean up your mess all the time! Even I can get too old to keep up, you know!_

At Azazel's relay of Saitama's message, everyone's expression turned into that of being thoughtful and understanding. Issei on the other hand, simply snorted while he also took in his father's message.

"Can you believe that? 'Too old to keep up' he says…" Azazel said in amusement as he shook his head. "Because, as the matter of fact, this old-timer we're talking about is the strongest that humanity could ever offer. Hell, at the very least, he even can destroy the entire Underworld single-handedly many times over if he wants to. We from the alliance are planning to make him into our trump card. Because most of the enemy forces were not aware of his power and existence."

Those who had witnessed Saitama's display of strength in the past like Xenovia, and those who had tasted Saitama's strength first-hand like Issei, could somewhat understand Azazel's idea. However, there were still others who remained skeptical of Saitama's power.

"Well, I know Saitama-san is not to be underestimated, but I'm sure you're exaggerating too much, Azazel-sensei… Saitama-san is still a human in the end." Rias voiced out her opinion.

"Well, if that's what you think…" Azazel rose up from his seat and walked over towards the door. However, he stopped by Rias and he leaned in to whisper something to her. After listening to what Azazel was telling her, Rias' eyes widened followed by a gasp, then she stared at Azazel who was proceeding to open the door.

"Eeh!? W-w-wait a second! Azazel-sensei, i-is what you said just now true?" Rias stuttered at the new teacher.

"I mean every part of it. Now then, I'm off to visit Serafall's sister now. I'll see you kids later!" then the door was closed.

Rias remained stuttering on her spot at whatever revelation Azazel had given her. "Then… Onii-sama… Those rumours… His condition when he came home those years ago…!" then the girl's face went white after she pieced her whatever puzzles together.

"B-buchou-san? Are you alright? You looked pale…" Asia asked with worried look.

"Buchou? What's going on? What did he tell you?" Issei asked with concerned tone.

However, before anyone could have said anything, the door of the clubroom opened again, revealing Azazel's head popping in. "Oh, I forgot one more thing. Sirzechs had gave out this one command: 'All girls in the Occult Research Club must move into Hyoudou residence in order to foster relations with each other.' So there you have it, Ise. I'll leave it to you and Rias Gremory to take care of things. See ya!"

Everyone remained silent as they stared at the door where Azazel had left of, Rias' face was still pale from her newfound revelation and Issei could only blink and came up with one answer.

"…Huh?"

The life of Hyoudou Issei had become even livelier that day.

_**To be Continued…**_

**A/N:**

**I know, I know… I terribly suck at making twist, so save the flames, fellas. **

**About Vali, I just can't see him to go along with peaceful lifestyle and go buddy-buddy with the alliance in this story, and I can't simply make him into an affiliate of Khaos Brigade (though he'll change sides later on). So I decided to make him to be a battle-freak who works as a mercenary/hired gun for Khaos Brigade, or rather, Ophis in particular in this story thus far. Thoughts?**

**And about Saitama, you guys might find him very OOC in this chapter, but take a look at his canon personality. There were more than one occasion (rather, there were lots of occasions) where the guy appeared to be the dumbest, or perhaps the most ignorant person around, but then he suddenly became a person with the most insightful mind, even he became the most heroic and selfless person at the most unexpected times. So… Thoughts?**

**And about Juggernaut Drive, I found that the size of Juggernaut Drive in the anime is bigger than the one in original LN, albeit similar appearance. Thus, I decide to use the LN version for the time being, though I already may have an idea how to incorporate the Juggernaut Drive of anime version and LN version together. Once gain, thoughts?**

**Please review of what you think in this chapter, thank you. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	20. The Gathering of Young Devils (I)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**I know it's too late to say, but I'd still like to wish you all a happy new year for 2016. Without further ado, here's the opening act for the volume 5 of canon LN! R&amp;R!**

**Chapter 19: The Gathering of Young Devils (I) – Summer Vacation in The Underworld**

_(Flashback, Underworld)_

That day was definitely the worst day for a certain young devil as the boy lied down on the ground with wounds and blood were covering his body. A giant, crustacean creature with fire spewing out from its mouth and some of its body segments, was standing right in front of him, while its expression was unreadable, the young devil could tell that the infernal beast was growling, mocking his helpless state, taking pleasure to toy around him before landing a killing blow. As the boy struggled to get on his fours, he recalled everything he had gone through in his life.

Being born from a prestigious family that taking pride in their signature Power of Destruction, the head of the family had high expectations from the boy who was the first-born to inherit the family traits, as well to inherit the position of the family head in the future. Unfortunately, the boy failed to inherit the family's traits much to the family's disappointment. Thus, his younger half-brother was chosen to be the successor and the boy was shunned and scorned by the rest of his own family, along with his mother who was deemed to be a failure in giving birth to a worthy successor.

After being isolated to the countryside, the boy was constantly bullied by other devils due to his status as a family's disgrace. Being a caring woman, his mother advised his son to get stronger in different way. Thus, the boy began to take vigorous and strenuous training to strengthen his muscles, his joints, his bones, his entire body so he could become strong and proved his worth to the family who banished him and his mother.

However, the boy realized that his training had not been enough as he was overwhelmed by more bullies that day. The boy had fought back valiantly with his fists and body alone despite being outnumbered, and few minutes after that, things had gone down the hill. The place where the fighting took place happened to be at the edge of the forest where a dangerous beast had been sighted and the nearby populace were warned by authorities not to venture around that area. Being young and ignorant, the devils recklessly started a one-sided brawl, resulting the denizen of the forest to come out and prey on whatever unfortunate enough to be its next meal.

When the beast showed up, the bullies were panicked and found that their magic and spells could not scratch the hard shell of the beast's body. And after the beast feasted up on some of the devils, the rest quickly scrammed away in fear, leaving a beaten-up young devil behind to his own device. The beast's attention was directed at the boy, who recklessly shouted in defiance and boldly ran towards it with his fists clenched, only for the beast to swat him away easily. However, despite the huge difference in body size and strength, the boy refused to run away and he kept getting up and charged at the beast that simply overpowered him in return. The cycle repeated for several times until the young devil reached his limit.

The beast had finally had enough, and it raised its claw to put the boy out of his misery. The young devil could only stared at his incoming demise as he knew that he did not want to die, he still wanted to live with his mother, and he still had to prove his worth to his family, as tears of regrets flowed from his eyes. However, what happened next blew his mind away.

It happened so fast. A figure suddenly stepped in between him and the beast, and the boy witnessed the beast's body was suddenly obliterated and splattered towards the ground around. The man's fist was outstretched at the direction where the beast once was standing at, smoke was coming out from the fist. The man, with his bald head being his most memorable feature, clad in ragged clothes and cloak, simply relaxed his stance and strangely sighed as he looked at his smoking fist.

Who was this man? Did he come to his aid? Was he one of the famous Four Great Satan? Numerous questions swirled within the boy's mind as he kept staring at his saviour. One thing he knew, the man in front of him was someone he had trained so hard to become. There was no more hesitation. The young devil knew what he needed to do.

"Wait, please wait a second!" The man turned his head towards the boy who seemed to scream at him. "My-my name is Sairaorg Bael, and I've been wanting to be strong as you! Please take me as your disciple!"

"Sure." Then the man suddenly blinked as a sense of déjà vu washed over him. _"Eh? Didn't this thing happen before?"_ After good few minutes, the man's brain clicked and he felt the urge to face-palm himself.

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

_You're weak…_

That voice rang out as Issei was running desperately in a dark space, chasing after a distant figure with baldhead. The bald figure had his back towards the boy with the white cape obscuring most of his body safe for his head, and Issei barely closed the distance between him and the man.

"Wait…. Wait for me!" Issei cried out between his ragged breaths. "Don't go!" He stretched out his arm towards the man's back, but their distance was not closing at all.

Issei clicked his tongue after what it seemed like forever chasing the figure before him. He blinked when he saw the man in front of him turned his head ever so slightly, and Issei thought that he might be able to catch up at last. Only for the figure to suddenly turn around and threw his red glove-covered fist right at the boy's face. Issei could only widen his eyes at the incoming attack. And the boy opened his eyes, finding himself lying on a bed.

He was sweating, his breathing was a bit ragged but he easily stabilized it with a single, long breath. Issei then blinked when the boy noticed few different things of his dimly lighted bedroom. However, before Issei could have taken in the difference, he noticed that someone was looming over him. And that someone could be said as the most defining difference.

That defining difference was a pair of violet eyes boring into his, belonged to a girl with long black hair, Issei did not bother to see the fact that the girl before him was as nude as she was born, along with OTHER two naked girls, one had red hair while the other had blonde hair.

"Are you okay?" Akeno, who was looming over Issei, asked with concerned expression. "You looked like were having a nightmare just now…"

Issei stared at the three girls on his bed before he steadied his breathing. "Yeah… I'm fine. It's nothing serious."

"Was it about your father?"

Issei blinked when Rias, who was on his right, suddenly asked, which was quite right on the spot. Issei did not say a word as he only looked down after taking a glance at his master. "Was it that obvious?" Issei let out a bitter smile.

The girls let out a soft sigh at the same time, as Rias and Akeno also gave their own bitter smile, while Asia's concern only deepened. "It kind of was, and it's getting easier to tell." Then Issei found Asia snuggled into his left side.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been able to help much…" the former nun said. "But I promise that I won't let you face your problems alone."

Issei would be lying if he said that he was not touched, he smiled as he caressed Asia's head gently, resulting Asia to smile at the warmth of the contact. Rias and Akeno also agreed as the latter proceeded to lay her body on top of Issei's chest, while the former also proceeded to lay beside him.

"It will be fine…" The girl on Issei's chest muttered. "Because we'll be with you."

"…Sorry for worrying you girls…" Issei let out a breath, while maintaining his smile. "Damn, I feel so lame."

"Fufufu… Everyone has their own moments of weakness, Ise." Rias chided in. "But still…. Does his presence really bother you that much?"

Issei went silent for a moment before replying. "It's not like that… It's just… I found myself wanting to keep up with him, but…" Issei looked up at the ceiling and reached out his hand. "He seems so far away…" Issei finished as he clenched his hand into a fist. "And I still can't picture myself surpassing him."

"I see…" Rias lowered her gaze before she looked up again. "However, Akeno…" Rias turned to her queen with her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing here? When did you get into this room?"

Then Issei blinked once again to realize that, while he appreciated her presence, Akeno was not supposed to be on his bed in the first place. Looking again at Akeno's voluptuous body, Issei glad that he had gotten used to see women's naked body, courtesy of Rias and Asia. Come to think of it, since when did his bed get big enough to accommodate him, Rias, Asia and Akeno altogether? The boy finally took in his surroundings and made out that it was already in the morning, but there was still quite some time for them to sleep in. However, the boy was pretty sure that his bed was not this big, and he was pretty sure as well that his bed did not have a canopy of all things considered.

"I simply want to have a nice morning with my adorable Ise-kun, so I came in. After all, being in bed alone is lonely."

"'My'? Since when did you become Ise's master?"

Issei blinked again and he shot up from his lying position, ignoring Rias and Akeno who were starting to bicker to each other, while Asia was panicking to placate them. The boy did not remember to have a flat-screen High Definition TV in his room, he did not recall to have all kinds of the latest version of game consoles in the market, and he did not recall that his bed room was as big as his living room of his house, or what it was supposed to be.

"Even if I'm not his master, I'm his senior. It's a senior's duty to be affectionate with their junior, right?"

"Senior… I see, so that's your reasoning. This room is close to being a sanctuary for me, my only absolute healing place. Asia aside, I can't have others intrude here! This is my and Ise's room."

"Awawawa… Please calm down, Rias nee-sama! … Akeno-san!"

The boy maintained his stoic face as his brain tried to assess the situation. He then skilfully slipped out from his bed, leaving the room with the girls to their own devices, since there was no stopping those girls at that point, and ran exploring the now foreign interior of his house. The halls were clearly bigger and longer, the ornate on the walls and the doors was obviously more luxurious, and Issei finally got out to the front of the house and found that his house had become a six-story building. He even double-checked the name on the house-plate to make sure that he had not been barging into a stranger's house.

After making sure that the six-story building was indeed his house, Issei remained standing in front of his house with his eyes twitching in bewilderment. "What the hell!?"

* * *

The morning training that day was magic training, with Issei got tutored by Akeno how to regulate his reserves properly. Currently, Issei was cleaning himself at the newly renovated bathroom on the first floor. For the boy, his morning training that day was more mentally taxing than his usual muscle training. Issei let out a small breath as he drowsily brushed his teeth at the newly renovated, large basin.

"_Man, whoever constructing this place should get a raise…" _Issei thought as his eyes darted around the bathroom's interior, which had been more luxurious and at least as big as the whole public bathhouse in his neighbourhood, before he returned his gaze at the mirror.

Issei proceeded to rinse his mouth when suddenly a male voice was heard beside him. "Can you pass me the toothpaste?"

"Hn…" The boy simply mumbled in return while gargling the water in his mouth as he passed the toothpaste to the person next to him, and Issei immediately did a spit-take when he finally realized who exactly the person beside him.

"Hm?" The person, the man, who was only wearing a set of pyjamas and had a bald head, only raised his eyebrows at his son who was coughing out the rest of the water before looking with incredulous eyes at him. "What's wrong?" Saitama asked while he kept brushing his teeth.

"Uh?! Buh! Wha-!?" Issei stuttered and he pointed his fingers at his father. "What the fuck are you doing here!?"

Saitama only blinked in return as he rinsed his mouth. "I'm brushing my teeth. What else do you think?" the man replied, as if it should be the most normal answer available.

"But…! I thought you left!"

"Well… Yeah, I did." Saitama scratched his head. "But then, before I could've gone too far, Sirzechs suddenly told me that he'd renovated my house, so I quickly came back to take a look around. Damn, that guy really knows nothing about holding back." Saitama finished while he looked around, still impressed at the change of his house. "Anyway, hurry and finish up. Haruka should've been waiting with breakfast by now." Saitama nonchalantly walked over and patted Issei's shoulder. The boy's expression was still baffled at his father's sudden appearance.

Few moments after Saitama had left the bathroom, Issei only let out a long sigh as he felt the incoming migraine.

_**[Well, that's quite a surprise for the day to begin]**_

"Seriously, what the fuck…!?"

_(Scene Break)_

Everyone in the house: Issei, Saitama, Haruka, Rias, Asia, Akeno and Xenovia were sitting on the dining table (five times wider than the previous one) with their breakfasts. Issei and Saitama were still looking around at the new interior of the house while eating their breakfasts, until the former finally spoke up. "So… To sum it up, Lord Gremory has renovated this house to accommodate everyone here, free of charge?"

Rias only nodded with a calm smile.

"While everybody's sleeping?" Saitama followed suit and got the same reply as well. That day, Saitama once again was taken aback by the wonder of magic of this new world. He wondered what would have happened if that kind of power was employed in his old world.

"I heard that our neighbour, Suzuki-san and Tamura-san have moved away. I hear that they suddenly obtained some favourable plots of land and then moved there."

At Haruka's information, Issei and Saitama inwardly agreed of how dreadful the Gremory household in more ways than one. Haruka turned to Rias after the former swallowed her food. "And Rias-chan, your cooking has become even better! This is so delicious!"

At Haruka's praise and beaming face, Rias smiled modestly. "Thank you for that, dear mother. I need to learn how to cook your son's lunch in future, after all." The girl glanced at the aforementioned boy.

Asia, being one of the girls who were aiming for Issei's attention, puffed her cheeks in defiance. "I also want to cook Ise-san's lunch as well! Ise-san, father, how's the soup today?"

The girls blinked at the fact that Asia definitely addressed Saitama as father in her question.

"It's very good. The taste even more similar like mom usually makes!" Issei replied with a smile.

Saitama also nodded and gave his two-cents. "Hm… It's good. Asia-chan will be a perfect wife one day."

The girls inwardly became wary at Asia, despite her heart of gold personality. As they watched Asia and Issei were chastising Saitama out of embarrassment, with Haruka giggled approvingly, the girls, especially Rias could see that Asia was the one who was leading at this point. And the most terrifying part was, the girl's actions were so natural that she was not even aware of it.

"Fufufu… My son sure has become popular…" Haruka said pleasantly. "And I have more daughters to boot! Akeno and Xenovia-chan… I heard there's one more person to come here, is she…?

"Koneko will be coming here as well, but apparently she has a lot to prepare before moving in. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Rias informed.

Haruka nodded in understanding. "I see… Anyway! I'm looking forward to see which one of you will be the first to bear my grandchild…" Haruka said with gleam on her eyes.

Saitama and Issei almost choked themselves with their food at Hyoudou matriarch's words. The girls showed various reactions as Rias and Asia were flushed at the notion, Akeno smiled pleasantly, while Xenovia looked somewhat determined.

"MOM!" Issei rebutted his mother. "Can we not talk about it on the dining table? Stop putting more weird ideas into their heads already! And you spoke as if I'm gonna knock them up or something…" he trailed off with his face flushed furiously along with the girls.

"Grow up, Ise…. I'm simply stating what the future holds." The mother retorted with her smile remained present. "The real problem is if you want to take responsibility or not. Besides…" Haruka turned to her husband with a gleam that made Saitama to widen his eyes and started to shake his head, as if trying to stop the woman from opening a new can of worms.

However, it was too late. "It was what your father did to me, before we finally married three months later." Haruka stated with her expressions unchanging.

Issei dropped his chopsticks while the girls turned to Saitama, who looked sideways to avoid the looks from the girls' wide eyes.

"Whoa… Wait… Hang on…" Issei held up one hand while the other was holding the side of his head. His face was contorted of that of confusion and disbelief. "So, you two…. Mom… He actually… to you….!?" After stuttering, the boy grunted, sighed deeply and he proceeded to finish his breakfast at alarming rate, at the speed that seemed to be more like 'swallowing' rather than 'chewing' properly.

Issei then spoke up again after he let out another breath. "Can we just… wrapped things up and talk about the room assignments? Please?" Issei pleaded as he felt another incoming headache that morning.

Saitama only sent a dry, deadpanned look at his wife, who only winked in return. Breakfast in that morning ended with an awkward note.

_(Scene Break)_

"Alright, on the first floor are the guest rooms, living room, kitchen, and Japanese-style rooms. On the second floor are the rooms of Ise, Rias-san and Asia-chan. The arrangement has the other two adjacent to Ise's room. It seems to be structured so that you can go between the rooms next to each other from inside." Haruka explained as she laid out the house's blueprint on the table. Issei could tell that it was Rias' intentions from the beginning regarding the room arrangements. The boy even considered that there might be no need for Rias to have her own room in the first place if things were to go down like this. His bedroom alone might be already enough to house everyone else.

"On the third floor are your father's and my room, the study, and the storeroom. On the fourth floor are Akeno-san's and Xenovia's rooms. There's also the room for Koneko-chan, who will be coming later."

Issei then caught Akeno was smiling at him. He blinked at how 'radiant' the queen's smile than usual, but the boy chose not to think much into it and returned a quick smile before returning to the blueprint. Unknown to him, Akeno pouted for a second before she re-joined the discussion as well.

"The fifth and sixth floors are entirely made of just vacant rooms. For the time being we intend to use them as guest rooms. Since Rias-san said she didn't mind letting anyone have the rooms except for the second floor when we asked her."

At Haruka's briefing, Rias put in her two-cents. "Yes. This is the house of Ise's mother and father. In the end, I and the others are just home-staying here."

At Rias' graceful claim, Issei blinked as he recalled that his master just said something opposite earlier, but he shrugged it off soon after.

"Oh, there's an open-air garden on the roof…" Saitama raised his eyebrows at part of the blueprint before he turned to his wife. "Haruka, do you want to plant something there?"

The said woman hummed for a second before replying. "Of course. Some vegetables and flowers would be nice. And would you like me to plant some cactus as well?"

Saitama let out a small smile at the offer. "Yeah. Thanks, Haruka."

Issei blinked at the interaction between his parents. He could understand about his mother, but his father also had a thing for gardening? And cactus? Those were things he did not expect to hear.

"In addition, we also have built it so sturdy that the house can withstand a war." Rias chided in.

Issei blinked again that his parents took it as if it was something ordinary. Shouldn't they at least take it as a joke? Perhaps both of his parents had gotten their fair share of something abnormal. Issei just hoped that his new house was not equipped with any weapons or any deadly security system.

"Then what about basements? What's in there?" Xenovia asked this time.

""Basements?"" Saitama and Issei said and turned their heads in unison at Xenovia, before the second continued. "As in plural?"

"Yeah, there are up to three underground floors." Rias confirmed. "The first underground floor is a huge spacious room. Not only can it be used as a training room, it can also be used as a movie theatre. It's also equipped with a large indoor bath. The second underground floor is used entirely for an indoor pool. It can also use warm water. In the third underground floor are a library and a storehouse."

"Ise… Saitama-dono… If you have time, I'd like to train with you later." Xenovia said with confident smile towards the two males in the room.

Issei then glanced at Saitama, who only stared impassively in return. The former had no objection to help Xenovia, but he still had not gotten used to have his father around.

Then Rias blinked as she re-read the blueprint. "Ah, one more thing… This is Azazel's idea, in case if Saitama-san and Issei were to… duke it out…" Rias looked uncertain for a second. "There's a door leading to special ground where you can train to your heart's content."

The aforementioned father and son blinked and glanced at each other, the latter narrowed his eyes before he gave a small scoff and looked away. Saitama only raised his eyebrows in confusion at his son's attitude. Haruka on the other hand, smiled as if she was expecting something in future. The other girls were amused at the spectacle.

* * *

Despite the holiday, the Occult Research Club went to school because Rias said that they needed to do a last-minute 'cleaning up' before they could officially enjoy their holiday. Currently in the clubroom, everyone was busy cleaning up windows, floors, walls, furniture, as well as sorting out books and other documents.

While Rias was filling up some leftover files, she caught her pawn was humming a song while sorting out the bookshelves. "I don't know that you sing, Ise." Rias commented, resulting the pawn to stop his humming and turned his head to his master. "I never heard that before, what song was that?"

The others, who also caught the sound of Issei's humming, also stopped their chores and looked at Issei with curious looks. The boy in question glanced at everyone before he scratched his cheek in slight embarrassment. "Well… I don't know, actually." His first answer received odd looks from everyone. "It's just something I recalled from my childhood, and I found humming this song can help me relax sometimes… Am I disturbing you guys?"

"No, it's nothing like that." Rias shook her head while smiling. "It's just that you're surprisingly pretty good at singing."

"You should've seen Issei sang during our hang-out at the Karaoke, buchou." Yuuto interjected with teasing smile. "He was one helluva singer."

The knight's remark caused Issei to send the former a dry smile and deadpanned look, while Asia and Koneko nodded in agreement and Xenovia looked at Issei in curiosity.

"Hoo?" Akeno voiced her wonder. "Ufufu, I'd love to bring your together with me to karaoke sometimes, Ise-kun… Just the two of us, then we can have some other fun in the room…" Akeno licked her lips suggestively, resulting Issei to sweat-drop, but the queen quickly moved on as soon as Rias and Asia's glare were pointed at her. "Anyway, are you sure that you don't remember that song?"

Issei went silent in thought for a moment before he shook his head. "No, sorry. I just suddenly like to hum this song before I knew it."

"Moving on", Rias immediately changed the topic as she put away the last paper on her desk. "Ise, do you have any plans for summer vacation?"

Issei blinked and he went into thinking again. His past summer vacations were spent either by going with his mother or his classmates. He expected that he would have gone with his friends again to either beach or mountains, or perhaps, strangely enough, with _both_ of his parents since his father had come home much to his mother's delight. However, those plans had yet been official for this year. "No, I guess I don't have any plans for this summer."

"I see, because I plan to go back to my home in the underworld during the vacation. You as well with the rest will accompany me as my servants." Rias explained. "That's right, this will be the first time for you, Asia and Xenovia to visit the underworld, correct?"

"Y-Yes! I'm nervous about going to hell while alive! I-I thought I'd like to go there with the intention of dying!" Asia nodded at Rias' question.

Issei inwardly snorted at Asia's innocence. While Xenovia's remark on the other hand was too serious for him. "Yes. I've been interested in the underworld, in hell for a long time. However, for the sake of going to heaven, I had to serve the Lord…But now that I'm a Devil, there shouldn't be any possibility of me going to heaven…I feel irony in setting foot in the same world as those who have been sent to hell as divine punishment. Hell, huh… It suits a former believer who became a Devil."

"We will spend the remainder of the summer holidays there until after the 20th of August. It seems like we'll be returning here at the end of the month. The plan is to train and attend various kinds of events at the underworld."

At Rias' explanation of the schedule, Issei remembered something. "Then, Azazel-sensei…" Issei then turned his head towards a seat. "Are you going to follow as well?"

Everyone in the room blinked at Issei's question. The question was not about someone, but it was directed right at the aforementioned person. All heads then turned towards the direction Issei pointed and saw a man with black hair and golden bangs was sitting at the corner of the room.

"Yeah, I'm also going to the underworld." The person, Azazel replied casually.

"W-Where did you come in from?" Rias stood up from her seat and asked incredulously.

"Why are you so surprised? That Sekiryuutei saw me came in from the front door, right?"

Issei only nodded and he noticed everyone was eying him. "I didn't even feel his presence. How did you do that, Ise-kun?" Yuuto voiced his feelings.

"Well…. Earlier, I just caught him silently walked in and he gestured me to ignore him for a moment…" Issei smiled sheepishly.

"And that also means you guys lack training." Azazel interjected. "However, I'm still quite sure that Ise-kun will be the first to notice my presence even if he did not catch me coming in. More importantly…" the fallen angel stood up. "You kids are returning to the underworld, right? Then, I'll go too. I'm your teacher, after all."

Then Rias asked after everyone seemed to agree with Azazel coming along. "Then, shall we make the travel reservations for you?"

"Yes, please do. It's my first time entering the Underworld through the Devils' route. I'm looking forward to it. Since, I usually use the route of the Fallen Angels' side."

Seeing that everyone was on the same page, Issei thought that going to the underworld might be good in another way. Considering his relationship with his father was still awkward, for the lack of better term, Issei did not want to imagine what would have happened if he were to travel along with his father. Besides, his mother would definitely want some quality time with his father (though Issei found himself shuddering at the idea). The boy believed that the summer vacation this year would only about his friends, devils and definitely no bald human around him.

However, for a second, Issei caught Koneko's expression was kind of depressed, but the rook soon turned steely as she clenched her fists.

X

It was the day of the departure. The Occult Research Club, clad in Kuoh Academy's summer uniform, and Azazel were standing at the train station's platform. Apparently, the devil's route between human world and underworld was some kind of a secret underground platform that could only be accessed by high-class devils, completely unseen by normal humans.

As everyone was waiting for their train to be ready, Issei leaned his head to whisper to Yuuto. "Is it just me, or is this like a Harry Potter rip-off?"

Yuuto only giggled silently before replying. "It's actually different, but I know what you mean. I also thought of that when I happened to watch the first instalment. I even once wondered which one was the first to come up with this idea."

The boy's chatter was ended as Rias turned to address her peerage. "Alright everyone, it's time. Let's get going." Everyone then replied in affirmative and followed the king dutifully into the train.

_(Scene Break)_

As the train began to move, The Occult Research Club was sitting at the centre of the train. Everyone was gathering in the middle while Azazel immediately went to sleep at the corner. As Issei took a glance at the window, he found that the train was moving inside something like a dark tunnel. Seeing that there was nothing to see, Issei turned towards his friends.

"Say, how long until we get there?"

Akeno was the one to reply. "We'll arrive in about an hour. Since it seems that this train passes through the dimensional barrier using official means before it eventually arrives at the Underworld."

Issei nodded in understanding before he asked again. "Then, what about teleportation? Isn't it possible for us just to teleport to our destination?"

"Normally, it's fine. But new household devils like Ise-kun, Asia-chan and Xenovia have to enter via official route at least once, otherwise you'll be charged for illegally entering. There are few protocols you need to follow before you're allowed to travel via teleportation."

Issei nodded again when suddenly the door opened and an elderly man showed up. He had a dandy look and wore a suit that perfectly pressed on his body. "Princess, I have come to inform you that we'll be arriving at the Gremory station shortly." The man addressed the Gremory heiress politely.

Rias nodded at the old man before she turned to her peerage. "Thank you. Everyone, let me introduce you our train conductor, Reynaldo."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." The aforementioned man bowed.

Issei, Asia and Xenovia also stood up to return the courtesy. "My name is Asia Argento, Rias Gremory-sama's bishop. Nice to meet you, too."

"I'm Xenovia, Rias Gremory-sama's knight. Please treat me well as well."

"I'm Hyoudou Issei, Rias Gremory-sama's pawn. I'll be in your care."

When the pawn introduced himself. Reynaldo raised his eyebrows. "Hyoudou…?" The old man found the name to ring a bell, then he started to chuckle after a second. "Ho-ho-ho… I sure have lived a long life, to be able to meet the son of Maou-sama's friend."

Everyone blinked at Reynaldo's words, but it was Issei who got the most curious. "You… You know my father?"

"Why, indeed, I do know your father. Even if you don't share your father's looks, I can tell that you're definitely his son…" Reynaldo mused, as if he was reminiscing an old memory. "Your father once rode this same train along with the Four Great Satan. Ho-ho-ho… I still remember how lively the journey back then…"

_**[Wow… your father REALLY has met lots of people, partner…]**_ Ddraig commented in Issei's mindscape.

While Reynaldo was reminiscing, everyone sans Azazel had their own imaginations about how that trip ended up, since they were aware the rocky relationship between Saitama and the Leviathan. The moment soon ended as the train conductor snapped out of his reverie and took out a strange-looking device from his coat. "Anyway, I need to register the new devils into our database. Please stand still for a moment."

Issei, Asia and Xenovia obeyed as Reynaldo held the machine in front of each of them and the device let out a sound. And the session ended not long afterwards. "Alright, your evil pieces and identities have been recorded in our database. Now you can all est and relax until we arrive at the scheduled station. There are also beds to sleep in and places where you can have a meal, so please use them until we reach our destination."

Rias and the others nodded in gratitude before the former carried on. "Thank you. Is Azazel next…?" When she trailed off to look at the man in question, Azazel was still sleeping soundly. Everyone else sighed and shook their heads warily as they were amazed at the nerve Azazel had within the territory of his former natural enemies.

"Ho-ho-ho. The Governor of the Fallen Angels truly is a peaceful person." Reynaldo on the other hand, simply laughed pleasantly.

_(Scene Break)_

"**We will momentarily be breaking through the dimensional wall. We will momentarily be breaking through the dimensional wall."**

Everyone stopped their activities to pass time when they heard the announcement. Rias then turned to address her newest servants. "Go open the window and look outside."

Issei blinked at Rias' words that hinted that something big was waiting for them, the three moved to the window and as soon as the window was opened, a wave of fresh air could be felt, and the scenery had changed from dark tunnel into a massive landscape.

"Ooooooohh!" Issei could not help but amazed at the scenery despite the purple sky. Asia, who was standing next to him, was also excited as she kept crying words 'amazing' at the scenery.

"I present you the Gremory territory." Rias said proudly.

Issei then turned to his master. "Gremory…? Then, all of this belong to your family, ojou-sama?"

Rias nodded before she spoke again. "Actually, Ise… Can you address me as 'buchou' during our stay? Please?"

Issei blinked as he wondered at his master's reasoning. The whole thing about 'ojou-sama' was actually a spur of a moment, the boy honestly did not expect his master to allow him to address her in such a way during his first day as a devil. But looking from another point of view, it might be strange if other people caught him addressing Rias as 'ojou-sama' while the others addressed her as 'buchou' in the first place, so Issei came up with a conclusion.

"As you wish, buchou." Issei obeyed with a smile. "By the way, how large is the Gremory territory?"

"Hmm… I guess it's around the size of Honshu."

Issei only blinked while he put on a frozen smile. "Okay…" He turned to look at the scenery again while his expression did not change at all due to the shock.

"Yes, I'm almost forgot." Rias placed her fist on her palm. "Ise, Asia and Xenovia will be given a plot of land from Gremory territory as my new servants. Yuuto, Akeno, Koneko and Gasper each have their own territory for a while now."

The said three new servants only blinked once again as Rias showed a holographic map made by magic at the centre of the room. "The red areas are places that have already been taken, so they're no good, but anywhere else is okay. Now then, please point at the land you like. I'll give it to you."

And until the train arrived, Issei kept contemplating what kind of land he would pick for himself.

* * *

"**We will soon be arriving at the Gremory main residence, thank you for riding this train. We will soon be arriving at the Gremory main residence, thank you for riding this train."**

"Alright, that's our stop. Let's go everyone." Rias instructed her peerage as she stood up.

Everyone followed and proceeded to get out with their luggage. However…

"Azazel-sensei, are you not getting off?" Issei asked to the fallen angel who chose to stay behind.

"Nah, I plan to keep going through Gremory territory like this and go to the Maou's territory. I have a meeting with Sirzechs and the others there. A so-called 'invitation'. Since it faces the main residence of the Gremory's, I'll come after I go see them and finish my greetings." Azazel waved off from his seat.

Then everyone sent their goodbyes as they got off the train. "Then, see you later, sensei."

"Send my regards to my brother for me, Azazel."

Azazel did not say anything but waved his hand in return. The rest of the trip was truly eventful for Issei, Asia and Xenovia. As Issei, Rias, Asia, Akeno, Xenovia and Grayfia were sitting in a carriage moving towards the Gremory's residence, the pawn recalled the event that had transpired during their arrival at the train station. Issei could not forget the spectacular sight of the fireworks, the soldiers firing off gun-salute to the sky and numerous orchestra bands and many more only to welcome their mistress' homecoming. He even remembered Gasper was scared out of his wits at the sight of so many people. While Issei was still baffled how extravagant their arrival had been, he saw a huge structure coming into view.

"Buchou, I take that it's your home?" Issei pointed at the structure that happened to be a castle.

"Yes, that's the main residences of one of my homes." Issei blinked yet again at his master's answer while he kept his eyes fixated at a behemoth of a building.

_**['Homes'? As in plural?]**_

"_I believe she said so, Ddraig."_

_**[Hot-damn, rich kids indeed.]**_

Issei inwardly nodded in agreement and looking back at the short conversation with the train conductor, the boy wondered if his father also visited this kind of place in the past. The trip in the carriage ended as soon as they arrived at the main gate of the residence. Led by Grayfia, the Occult Research Club proceeded on the red carpet and they walked on the path created by another line of maids and butlers. When they were in the mid-way, suddenly a small silhouette broke out from the line of maids and ran towards Rias.

"Rias-nee-sama! Welcome back!"

Issei and everyone then saw a cute young boy with short crimson red hair and blue-green eyes came and embraced their King.

"Millicas! It's been a long time, you've grown so much!" Rias greeted back as she returned the embrace.

"_Millicas? That name sounds familiar somehow…"_ Issei was the one to voice his curiosity. "Um, buchou… This child is…?"

Rias turned to everyone and introduced the boy. "Issei, Asia and Xenovia, this is Millicas Gremory. The son of my brother, Sirzechs Lucifer-sama; He's my nephew."

Then Issei's brain clicked. He recalled that Sirzechs had mentioned about his son during his visit to his house.

"Come on, Millicas. Greet them. These are the new members of my group."

At Rias' instruction, Millicas nodded and turned to face everyone. "How do you do, everyone. I am Millicas Gremory, nice to meet you."

"My name is Asia Argento. Nice to meet you too, Millicas-san."

"I'm Xenovia. Nice to meet you"

"I'm Hyoudou Issei. Nice to meet you, too."

When the youngest-looking boy took the new members' introductions, his eyes widened at the mention of Issei's name. Then his expression turned into that of excitement. "Uwaaah… Amazing! So Saitama-san really has his own family!" Then he turned towards Grayfia with glittering eyes. "Mother, look, look! It's Saitama's son!"

Issei only laughed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, while the others looked at him with amused looks. With his image of Saitama to be an irresponsible man who tended to do as he likes, Issei wondered if his father could be a likeable person.

"Yes, he is Saitama-sama's son. And Millicas-sama, didn't I tell you not to address me as mother while I'm on duty? Please remember that currently I'm the head-maid of the Gremory family. Now, everyone is tired from the trip from human world. They should rest until dinner." Grayfia politely reprimanded her son, who pouted in return.

"Okay…" Issei raised his eyebrow at how serious Grayfia about her profession than he originally thought.

"Ah, but I'd like to greet my father and mother after coming home as well."

Grayfia turned to Rias this time. "Unfortunately, the master is out at present. He's expected to return by this evening. He said that he would meet together with you while dining with everyone together at supper. But your mother is inside, she's been expecting you."

"I see. Let's go inside the residence, then." Rias invited her peerage as she walked inside with Millicas holding her hand. The others followed her dutifully from behind.

After trekking through a large hallway, the group finally arrived at another large room, when a new voice was heard. "Oh my, Rias. So you've returned."

Everyone turned towards the source of the voice which belonged to a woman; a beautiful woman who was very much like Rias, only with shorter brown hair and purple eyes. Everyone also noted that the woman's age appearance was not much different from Rias and her peereage themselves.

Then, before Issei could have made any assumption about the woman's identity, Rias immediately addressed the woman with a smile of her own. "Mother. I've returned home."

Issei blinked again at that. So many surprises for the day ever since he began his trip from his house to the underworld. However, this one did not really surprise him. Considering that his own mother looked at least ten years younger than her actual age, Issei could take Rias' mother's appearance quite well.

Then Rias' mother took a glance at her daughter's peerage and her eyes stopped at the boy with brown hair. "Oh, Rias. Is this the rumoured Hyoudou Issei?"

Issei blinked and this time, he took the initiative to introduce himself to save his master's time. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am. My name is Hyoudou Issei. I've been in your daughter and my master's care for some time now." The boy gave a polite bow.

The Gremory matriarch nodded in content and Issei could tell that the older woman was giving an evaluative look. "Hmm… Strong, lean body… So you're Saitama's son." Rias' mother said with her smile remained present on her face. "While I can tell that you're his son, I honestly was expecting your head to have… Less hair."

At the woman's remark, Issei had to hold down his frown from showing up while his friends behind him were trying hard to hold down their laughs and giggles when the image of bald Issei came to mind. However, Issei could hear that Ddraig was laughing hard in his mind.

"Fufufufu, please forgive me. I'm just so curious to see the son of my son's friend. It's not that your father is unpleasant, but I can't help but to note that you're exceeding my expectations as his son." Then the woman gave a polite, small bow as well. "Nice to meet you, I'm Rias's mother, Venelana Gremory. Please treat me well from now on, Hyoudou Issei-kun."

_(Scene Break)_

"Please enjoy yourselves without holding back."

Several hours after the meeting with Rias' mother, everyone was sitting in the dining room after being assigned into their respective bedrooms. Issei recalled that even his newly renovated bedroom at his home was still pale in comparison with the bedroom in the real castle. The room for each person was so big, even Asia and Xenovia requested Grayfia for them to sleep in the same room as Issei (he did not mind at all), saying that their rooms were too big for them to sleep in.

Now, in the dining room, before them, high-class extravagant meals complete with set of cutlery was prepared on the large mahogany table. Everyone then proceeded to eat their dinner at the words of Lord Gremory. Issei never once had such a high-class cuisine served before him. He did not know how to enjoy the meal before him without embarrassing his master. He did know a little bit of table manners, but he only knew that he should not rest his arms on the table while eating, and that was it. He did not know the rest.

Issei then took a deep breath quietly and he took a glance at everyone. The boy was aware that it was not the time for him to get panic. If he did not know what he should have done in his situation, he only had to learn quickly from the others. After all, during his first days awakening his Boosted Gear, Ddraig once taught him how to learn from his surroundings. Darting his eyes around the occupants of the dining table, Issei picked up his fork and knife and began to imitate the other's movements and how they ate as best as he could. He knew that his movements were sloppy and rather awkward, but seeing that nobody was saying anything, he could assume that he did well so far.

Speaking of, Issei noticed that Koneko had not touched her meal even once. The boy found it strange, considering that Koneko tended to have so much appetite, and her odd behaviour since the other day was starting to bug him. When the rook's eyes met the pawn's, the latter silently gestured the former to eat her food, but Koneko simply averted her eyes while remained expressionless.

However, Issei's built-up worry was interrupted by Lord Gremory's another announcement. "I understand that some of you might be having a hard time adjusting yourselves with the environment here, but please don't hesitate to ask if you need anything. Our housemaids will see through your needs right away." Then he turned towards Issei. "By the way, Hyoudou Issei-kun."

Issei quickly swallowed the food in his mouth. "…Yes?"

"You may call me father-in-law from today on."

Issei only blinked several times before he said, "Excuse me?"

However, before Issei's confusion could be answered, Venelana had already chided her husband. "Dear, you're being too fast. There's such a thing as order first."

"Ah, yes. You're right. But still, crimson and red… Don't you think those two sound so compatible?"

"I know, I know. But it's still too early for them."

"Forgive me, it seems I became too hasty yet again…" Lord Gremory sighed in defeat. "And speaking of, don't you have something to say to him as well, dear wife?"

Venelana nodded before she turned to Issei. "Hyoudou Issei-san. Is it fine if I can call you Issei-san?"

"Yes, of course." Issei agreed at the request.

"Will you be staying here for a while?"

"Yes. As long as my master… Rias-sama stays here, I also will be staying here as her servant."

"I see. That's perfect. Since I have to have you acquire gentlemanly behaviour as well. You'll study manners a little while here."

BANG!

Before Issei could have expressed his confusion, Rias immediately slammed her hands on the table as she stood up. "Father! Mother! I've been listening quietly until now, but what kind of thing are you trying to advance while leaving me out of it!?"

At her daughter's complaint, Venelana narrowed her eyes and her smile was no longer present. "Be silent, Rias. You already canceled your engagement with Riser, remember? The fact that we just permitted it should be thought of as special treatment. How much effort do you think your father and Sirzechs had to put in in order to take care of things with the other high-class devils? Do you know that he told one noble that 'My selfish daughter cancelled her engagement using the legendary dragon'? You may be the younger sister of the Lucifer, but there is still a limit." Venelana scolded Rias with calm tone.

Issei would like to voice his opinion that he would gladly help his master to be away from men like Riser Phenex, but he knew better than butting in carelessly into other people's business. The Sekiryuutei could only watch in silence for the time being.

"Onii-sama has nothing to-!" Rias' attempt to talk back was cut off by her mother.

"You mean Sirzechs is unrelated to what you do? Officially, that is true. However, everyone sees you as the Maou's younger sister. Right now, when the three great powers have formed an alliance, your position is known even by the lower classes of the other powers. You can't behave selfishly as you have in the past. And, above all else, everyone will pay attention to you from now on. Rias, you have been placed into that kind of position, you know? There will be no second instance of that kind of selfishness. Do not carry any spoiled thoughts. Understood?"

Rias did not have any words to retort back simply slumped back to her seat in defeat, then Venelana let out a sigh before she returned to address the rest of others. "I'm sorry for the unsightly display. Getting back to the topic, you will go through special training during your stay here, Issei-san. Since, you have to experience the upper society and nobility even if only a little."

Issei then held up his hand. "Not that I mind, but… Why me?"

Venelana only smiled at the boy's question. "It's because you are the last bit of selfishness of my daughter, the next family head. As parents we bear the responsibility right until the end."

Issei then turned to his master, who looked away with flustered face. The boy's face began to flush as well as he somewhat got a vague idea where things might end up, but he soon dismissed the thought and decided to go with the flow for the time being.

* * *

It was the day after Rias and her peerage had arrived at the underworld. Currently Issei and Millicas were sitting next to each other inside a study room with an elderly man acting as their tutor. The boy found that devil's language ability only applied for human's native language, while he still had to learn devil's native language from scratch. So far, the boy was barely keeping up with the lecture that was being hammered into his head.

"Young master, have you memorized the Devil Alphabet?" the tutor turned around from the board towards Issei.

The boy blinked at his tutor before replying. "Are… You asking me or him?" Issei asked, pointing to Millicas beside him. The latter giggled at Issei's joke while the tutor only raised his eyebrows, not showing much reaction. Knowing that his tutor demanded answer, Issei rubbed the back of his neck and simply showed his paper. "I don't know if I'm doing this right. Can you take a look at it?"

The tutor only nodded, took Issei's paper and had a thorough look at it. He seemed to write something, presumably correcting whatever Issei had written, and he gave it back to the boy. "You're getting into it, young master. Your writings are still rough, so you need to learn writing more neatly. Otherwise other people might misinterpret your writings."

"Okay, thanks. By the way, why are you calling me 'young master'? You don't have to call me that."

"Moving on, let's speak about the history of the Gremory family next."

Issei's eyes became deadpanned at his tutor and he leaned his head towards the younger boy beside him. "Millicas-san, did he just ignore me?" Issei whispered, receiving a sheepish smile from the redhead. Come to think of it again, Issei wondered again why he had to study together with Millicas while everyone else was having fun sightseeing around Gremory territory in the first place.

However, Issei's musing was interrupted when the door suddenly opened and Venelana came into view. "Grandmother!" Millicas then quickly approached and greeted his 'grandmother'. Issei still actually amused at the fact that a beautiful, young-looking woman like Venerana was being called 'grandmother'.

"Issei-san, Millicas. How is the progress of your studies?" Venelana asked as she patted her grandson's head gently. Then she came between Issei and the tutor with gentle smile on her face. She took a glance at Issei's notes and gave an understanding nod. "Hmm…. You're making a good start here, keep it up."

"Very well, Issei-san. I believe you should get ready and wait for Rias to return. Since there is a customary function for the gathering of young devils in the Maou's territory today." Issei then nodded affirmatively at Venelana's words.

_(Scene Break)_

It was the time where Rias and her peerage had to attend the gathering as well as meeting with the devil kings. They took the train from the Gremory station towards the underworld's old capital Luciferd. However, as soon as the peerage stepped in to the urban area of the capital, they were swarmed by mobs of people, men and women, screaming towards the group, particularly at Rias Gremory.

"Kyaaah! Rias hime-samaaaaaaa!"

Issei winced at the high-pitched cheer that sounded almost busted his eardrums. Gasper immediately went panic and shrieked in fear before he hid behind Issei. According to Akeno, with her beautiful looks, as well as her status as the Lucifer's younger sister, Rias Gremory had been a target of admiration among low to middle class devils. Thus, in order to avoid the crowd and anymore uproar, Rias and her peerage decided to switch over to use underground subway train and the master immediately arranged a private train to a pair of black-suited men. Of course, before they left for the underground train, Rias waved her hand with a strained smile on her face at a group of men among the crowd whom cheered at her. Issei inwardly proud and admitted that his master was truly popular whether it was in human world or underworld.

Around five minutes later, Rias peerage finally arrived at the basement of the biggest building in the city, which was supposed to be the meeting place for the gathering of young devils, old families, and other elites. They went via elevator towards the top floor, and Rias gave her peerage a warning while they were still in the elevator.

"Everyone, I'll say it one more time. No matter what happens, stay in a calm state of mind. No matter what is said, don't start a fight. —The people above are our future rivals. We mustn't show an unsightly form."

Everyone nodded resolutely at their king's words filled with fighting spirit. When they arrived at their floor, they stepped into a wide hall and greeted by an employee who gave a bow towards Rias and the other guests. "Welcome, Gremory-sama. Please come this way."

Everyone followed the said employee and after going down a certain passage, they were met with a group of people standing in front of them. Rias apparently recognized one of those people.

"Sairaorg!" Rias approached an individual who happened to be a handsome young man with short black hair and violet eyes. He was very tall and had a muscular build.

"It's been a while, Rias." The man called as Sairaorg then greeted back with his smile and shook hands with Rias.

"Yes, I missed you. I'm glad to see you're doing well. That's right, there are new additions in my peerage who you haven't met yet." Then Rias turned to her peerage. "Everyone, this is Sairaorg Bael, my cousin on my mother's side."

On cue, the man introduced himself. "Sairaorg Bael, the next head of Bael family at your service."

Issei widened his eyes slightly at the mention of Sairaorg's surname. He remembered the name from his last lecture, being the name who bears the title 'Great King' next after the Satan. The new members of Rias' peerage immediately introduced themselves and Sairaorg's eyes widened when he heard Issei's name.

"Hyoudou? …I see! So you are sensei's son!" Sairaorg then proceeded to shake Issei's hand eagerly. The latter blinked incredulously at the word 'sensei'. "I only have been hearing news and rumours, but I'm honoured to finally be able to meet with the son of my teacher! I'm looking forward to cross-fist with you if we have the chance!"

"Err… Y-yeah, sure…?" Everyone from Rias Gremory's peerage along with the group behind Sairaorg had become interested at the interaction. Issei himself was dumb-founded at the treatment he received from a strong-looking guy such as Sairaorg. _"Eh? What? 'Sensei'? What the hell is he talking about?!"_

Feeling that she needed to change the topic, Rias proceeded to continue her conversation with her cousin. "Um… By the way, Sairaorg. What are you doing in a passage like this?"

Sairaorg finally let go of Issei's hand. The latter could tell from the grip alone that Sairaorg was not someone to be trifled with. However, after putting the two on two together from Sairaorg's introduction, Issei's mind arrived at somewhat disturbing conclusion.

"Ah, about that… We came out here because it's so idiotic in there."

"…Idiotic? Have the other members also arrived then?"

"Agares and Astaroth have already arrived. Zephyrdol came last. Immediately after he arrived, Zephyrdol and Agares started arguing." Sairaorg's expression then became bitter.

As if on cue, suddenly a booming sound was heard from the nearby room, followed by a tremor that shook the hallway.

"The hell!?"

"This is why I advised not meeting each other before the official meeting…" Sairaorg sighed before he followed Rias who had already run towards the room with her peerage.

When everyone got in the room where the sound came from, they found the said room had become a complete mess. All tables, chairs and decorations had been destroyed. In the middle of the room two groups of people were glaring at each opposing party with their weapons and magic readied to strike their necks. One side was made of evil-looking, goblin-like devils. The other side seemed to be made of relatively ordinary devils. However, there was a table safe from the destruction at the corner of the room and one man was calmly drinking tea in the midst of the chaos.

A female devil, who happened to be the leader of one of opposing groups, started to speak with cold tone. She was a young woman around her late teens. She wears glasses and has a cold, sharp gaze. She was wearing a blue robe that exposed very little skin. "Zephyrdol, can you not help starting a fight at a place like this? Do you want to die? Do you really want to die? Even if I kill you, I won't be blamed by the people on top."

The leader of the group with goblin-like devils, Zephyrdol, replied with different kind of hostility. The leader was a man with lots of black magic-like tattoos on his face and on his upper body. He had blue hair that stands on its end. He was also wearing ornaments on his pants as they sounded to jingle and clank. "Hah! I'll say it again, bitch! I said that I'd teach you in one shot in a private room with great trouble! The Agares' lady really doesn't like being without her guards, now does she? Heh, is that why you're still a virgin who hasn't let a man come near her till now!? Geez, all the women of families of the Maous stink of virgins and are unbearable! That's why I said that I'd do a formal opening ceremony for you!"

"_Uwah… Does he kiss his mother with that mouth? And take a look at those tattoos…"_ Issei commented in his mind. However, the boy felt the urge that he had to do something before things could have gone even more ugly.

"Gya, gya, gya, gya. How can it be so noisy here…?" everyone snapped their heads towards Issei who nonchalantly stepped in. The fool's approach had become his favourite method when it came to these kinds of thing. "…Are you guys in heat or something?"

Rias was about to stop her pawn, but she found Sairaorg put his hand in front of her, keeping her from interfering. Rias noted that Sairaorg's expression was that of expectation.

"And who the fuck are you!?" Zephyrdol asked with venom in his voice. The lady with glasses also stared at Issei incredulously.

Ignoring the tattooed man's question, Issei continued his rant. "Listen here, nii-chan and nee-chan. If you guys want to fight you shouldn't do it half-assedly in this room. Instead, go all the way outside where you don't have to cost the manager for the things you've broken here."

"Hey! Answer me, you asshole!" Zephyrdol then lunged towards Issei with his fist ready in a fit of rage.

But Issei did not seem to panic at all. "My name is Hyoudou Issei…." Then he gave a bow, or rather, a head-butt right at the incoming fist. "Nice to meet you!"

CRACK!

The sound was heard when Issei's forehead collided with Zephyrdol's punch. However, much to everyone's surpise, it was the latter who cried in pain as he pulled back his broken hand and took few steps back. Issei on the other hand, not even a mark was seen on his forehead.

"Agh! You bastard…!" Zephyrdol was angered further by Issei's head-butt, and began to use magic to retaliate. However, Sairaorg decided to step in as he immediately sent Zephyrdol flying towards a wall with a single straight punch.

Issei blinked when he saw the wall where Zephyrdol flew turned into a crater from the sheer force of the impact. He turned around to see Sairaorg gave him a quick, approving smile and addressed the rest in the room, especially Zephyrdol's peerage who was growling in anger towards the well-built man.

"Devils of Glasya-Labolas, I won't tolerate anymore unsightly behaviour in this room. I suggest you should attend your master now, the important function will be starting soon, so make sure your master recovers first." The group of goblins noticed the point and immediately turned to look after their downed master. Then Sairaorg turned to address the lady with glasses. "Seekvaira, princess of Agares family. There's still time, put your make-up on again. It wouldn't do to attend the function while wearing something so bad."

The lady, Seekvaira, glanced at Issei first with wary looks before she returned her gaze at Sairaorg, then she nodded and retreated towards her own peerage. After making sure that the situation had calmed down, Sairaorg then addressed his own peerage. "Call the staff. The hall is too messed up now, how can I be able to have tea with Rias like this?" then one of his peerage immediately left to fulfil the order. Then Sairaorg turned towards Issei. "As expected from Saitama-sensei's son. That's quite an impressive display you showed earlier."

"_So he really was talking about that guy earlier!?"_ Issei inwardly screamed as his conclusion had been confirmed.

Rias and her peerage then approached the two men as well. Knowing Issei long enough, only Asia was kind enough to at least ask if Issei's forehead was hurting.

"Sairaorg, what did you mean back then? Why did you address my servant's father as your teacher?"

"Because it's thanks to his guidance I managed to make it to this point. Perhaps calling him sensei was stretching it a bit, since we didn't spend time long enough, but I still see him as the one who made me into the man I am now."

Issei put up a thoughtful expression for a moment, imagining his father to be a teacher figure. However, the image just could not come up properly in his mind. Then his musings were halted when Sona Sitri peerage came into the room, as well as the employee from earlier showed up to announce that the next event was going to take place.

* * *

The time went by, it was already night time in the underworld (despite the purple sky) and Issei was going to enter the hot spring in the Gremory's family residence. As he took off his clothes, Issei recalled the meeting that took place that day.

The meeting was hosted by the Four Great Satan themselves, along with other elderly and noble devils who served as advisors. He recalled each of the young devils from the waiting room who introduced themselves (aside from Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri); Sairaorg Bael (Great King), Seekvaira Agares (Archduke), Diodora Astaroth and Zephyrdol Glasya-Labolas.

Aside from Sairaorg Bael, Issei remembered the name of Astaroth and Glasya-Labolas, since two of the Four Great Satan once were the member of those said clans. However, the elders from devil king's side mentioned that the original successor of Glasya-Labolas clan was dead due to a freak accident. What bothered Issei more was the vibe he got from Diodora Astaroth. Issei could have sworn that despite the gentle smile that Diodora presented all the time, the latter had sent a couple of strange glances at Asia.

Issei's eyes hardened at the memory where Sirzechs Lucifer announced that Rating Games would be held among the young devils for them to raise power before their official debut. However, what really concerned him was the mention of Khaos Brigade, as well as at the prospect where the young devils, including his master, might have to face them sooner or later. The boy wondered how dangerous they were. That question also led to another question whether his father had even encountered one of them during his travels, and with several assumptions, Issei somehow ended up with a question: how strong was his father?

Then again, Issei remembered the feeling of admiration he felt when Sairaorg proclaimed that he wished to be a devil king when the young devils were asked about their future goals. What made Issei admired Sairaorg's goal was because the latter's sense of duty rather than his mere desires. The other young devils, including Rias Gremory's goals were rather… mundane compared to Sairaorg. Nevertheless, Issei would definitely help his master with his friends to be the top ranker in Rating Games. The boy also made a note to himself to set a higher goal for himself. Simply surpassing his father's strength would not do anymore.

However, Issei grimaced when he remembered how other noble devils mocked Sona Sitri's goal. Issei personally found the student council president's ambition to be at least as admirable as Sairaorg's, to make a Rating Game School that accepts all devils from all class and status, without discrimination. Even Saji had shown his passion and determination in supporting his master. However, the long-tradition of devils society would always make it hard for Sona's idea to come true, considering the devils were still strongly influenced by the traditionalists. Then, thanks to Leviathan's interference in defence of her sister (much to the latter's embarrassment) and the Lucifer's as well, it was decided that a rating game would be held between Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri.

Issei smirked in anticipation as he finally set to enter the hot spring.

_(Scene Break)_

Issei, Yuuto and Azazel were immersing themselves inside the nice hot water of Gremory's hot spring that was modelled after the Japanese traditional hot spring. Azazel was humming a tune while soaking his twelve black wings. "Hahaha, now this is what I call life. Moreover, when it comes to the distinguished Gremory family's private hot spring, one of the best in the Underworld, a great spring is also a great spring."

"Ise-kun, shall I wash your back?"

Issei would have not mind about the offer, if Yuuto were to ask normally. The knight's blushing face was creeping the pawn out somehow. To avoid any more awkwardness, Issei then looked around to notice one member was missing.

"Say, I thought I was the last to come in. Where's Gasper?"

Before anyone could have replied, Issei then spotted the dhampir was loitering around the entrance from embarrassment. "Hey, Gya-suke! Don't just stand there and come in here!" Issei rose out from the water and walked towards Gasper, who let out a shriek in return.

When Issei got a good look on his junior, he furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "Gasper, why are you putting up your towel up to your chest?"

"It's-it's embarrassing…." Gasper turned away with flustered face. "Please don't look at me like that…"

"Why are you embarrassed? It's not like you have any boobs to hide from anyone!" Then Issei proceeded to take Gasper's hand and throw him right into the water. "Man up and enjoy the spring!"

As soon as Gasper's entire body was dipped in the water, the boy let out a girlish scream as he tried to withstand the heat. "Nooooooooo! It's hoooooot! I'm meltiiiiiiing! Ise-senpai is perverteeeeeeed!"

"Ise, you can't sexually harass Gasper, you know?" Issei then turned to the wall that divided the male and female baths where his master's voice could be heard from, followed by the other girls' giggles.

"I'm not!" Issei simply shouted back and he shook his head in exasperation as he joined the other males back in the spring.

"Say, Ise." Azazel began a conversation. "How are things with Saitama?"

Issei glanced at Azazel before replying with a sigh. "…Fine, I guess." Issei's gaze turned downwards as he slightly drowned himself further into the water.

"Have you tried using the device I installed in your new training room?" the fallen angel smirked.

"Ah, you mean that door? I took a quick look at it on the other day. But sensei… Is that door…?"

Then Azazel's smirk grew into a grin. "Yep, I made it based on Doraemon's Anywhere Door. Considering your father's strength, it would be wise to take your sparring session with him somewhere far from home, no? Otherwise your father might end up destroying the house many times over."

Issei only sighed while getting Azazel's point. Speaking of his father, however. "Azazel… What do you know about him?"

"Hm? You mean Saitama?" Azazel then raised his eyebrows at Issei's nod. "Curious, ain't we? Well, what do you want to know?"

"Well… I'm not sure actually…" Issei looked to the side. "I once asked my mom about him, and she only said that my old man just came out of nowhere. You're the type who observe people a lot, aren't you? And since you spent a lot of time with him, I thought you may know a thing or two about his background."

Azazel blinked at the question before he smiled. "Well… For Saitama's background and history… It's not for me to disclose. You should ask him yourself." Azazel then leaned back to the wall. "But if you want to know about your father's strength… I can only say that his power is a complete mystery."

Issei, now with Yuuto and Gasper, furrowed their eyebrows in curiosity. "Mystery…?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've seen many occasions where your father managed to defeat his opponents with a single punch, you know? It didn't matter mortals or not, one punch was all he took to end the fight. Hell, I even once witnessed him defeated a god in a one-on-one before. Such a power was way too powerful to be possessed by a human. I tried to research the origins of Saitama's power, but so far I can only make speculations. Is it his genes? Is it something that had been dormant for a long time then awakened by strenuous and vigorous training? Like a Longinus, perhaps? Who knows? I tried to con him into my guinea pig once and he grinded me to the ground in retaliation. But in the end, it was as if Saitama houses a god inside his body. That's just how ridiculous your father is."

Everyone's expression turned to that of awe and bewilderment. One punch? Defeating a god? His father was capable to do such a thing with his fist alone? As much as unbelievable as it sounded, it was way too stupid for Azazel to spew such a lie, but it was too surreal to be called the truth as well. Issei clenched both of his fists under the water in determination, he would definitely find out from his father, one way or another.

"Anyway, Ise." Azazel's expression then turned lewd. "Have you rubbed Rias' breasts?"

The previous atmosphere immediately disappeared and Issei could only deadpanned at the question. "…What?"

* * *

The next day, everyone, clad in jerseys, gathered in the Gremory's residence large garden. Azazel, clad in jerseys as well, was reading several documents in his hands before he began to talk. "Let me say this first. What I'm going to tell you now is a training menu that focuses on things in the immediate future. There are people who produce good results immediately, but there are also those who have no choice but to look at things in the long run. However, you are all growing young people. Even if you mistake your direction, you will grow well. Now then, first is Rias, you."

Azazel turned his gaze to the Gremory heiress. "From the beginning, you have been a high-spec devil with everything, including talent, physical ability and magic power. Even if you live normally as you currently are, those traits will rise and you'll become a candidate for being a highest-grade devil when you become an adult. However, your wish is to become stronger than you would in that future, right?"

"Yes, I don't intend to lose to anyone." Rias nodded resolutely. She steeled her mind even harder when she remembered her defeat from Kokabiel.

"Then, follow the training recorded on this sheet exactly, even all the way up to the battle day." Azazel gave Rias a piece of paper.

The girl looked over her training regiment and she turned back towards the Governor with puzzled looks. "…But, this training doesn't seem all that special, though?"

"You got it, basic training is fine for you. According to the data I got from your brother, your performance during the mock Rating Game with Riser Phenex has shown that you pretty much have collected everything. That's why your power can only be raised by basic practice. The problem is the quality of the King. Over time, the King seeks brains more than strength. You know that even if they're not good at magic, devils can climb to the top with a good head and cleverness, right? Learn all you can about the Rating Games until the deadline. Drive everything, from game documented images to documented data, into your head. What a King needs are the thought, quick-wittiness and judgment to defeat any kind of situation. It's your job to make sure that your group's servant devils can display their power to the fullest. However, also remember that, until the actual game, you won't be able to know what will happen. It's the same as a battlefield."

Then Azazel carried on with the briefing. "Next is Akeno."

"…Yes." The queen replied with rather sullen tone.

Ignoring the tone Akeno had used to reply him, Azazel moved on. "You must accept the blood that flows within you."

Akeno's eyes widened slightly before she frowned. Nevertheless, Azazel kept going on. "I've seen the recording of your performance with the game against Phenex. You did win, but what the hell was that? With your original specs, you should have been able to easily defeat the enemy Queen. Why didn't you use your Fallen Angel powers? You limited yourself to only thunder. If you don't add light onto thunder and make lightning, you can't display your true power."

"…I can do just fine even if I don't depend on that kind of power."

Issei recalled how Akeno had barely won against the bomb queen. It was thanks to Issei's idea for the training camp that Akeno managed to strengthen herself further, but in the end, Azazel had a valid point. The girl had to accept herself and move forward.

"Don't deny yourself. What will you do if you can't accept yourself? In the end, the only thing you can rely on is your own body, right? Denying yourself makes you weak. Accept everything about yourself, even the tough and painful things. Your weakness is your current self. Overcome it by the day of the battle. If not, you will become a mere obstruction in future battles. The Priestess of Thunder must become the Priestess of Lightning as well." Azazel concluded as he handed the paper.

Akeno accepted the paper without any objection, albeit begrudgingly. It seemed the girl realized that she had just to suck it up.

Then Azazel moved on to Kiba Yuuto. "Next is Kiba. First, you must maintain Balance Breaker for a full day. If you get used to it, you'll be able to maintain it for a full day in your actual battle form. Your objective is to continue that and to become able to maintain that state for the length of a day. After that, you'll be able to become sufficiently strong by doing basic training like Rias. I'll teach you man-to-man how to handle sword-type Sacred Gears later." When Azazel gave Yuuto his training regiment, the former seemed to remember another thing. "By the way, I heard you'll train under your teacher again for the sword training?"

"Yes, I plan to be taught from scratch again." Yuuto confirmed as he took the paper.

Then Azazel moved to the other knight of the group. "For Xenovia, To be able to use Durandal better than you do now…you need to be able to use another holy sword."

Xenovia blinked at the mention of another holy sword as she received her own paper. "Another holy sword?"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of that." Azazel smirked in return. "Next is Gasper."

"Y-Yes!" Gasper replied nervously. Azazel only sighed at the attitude.

"Don't be so frightened. Your biggest obstacle is that fear. You need to train your mind and body that fears everything from scratch. From the start, the specs with your bloodline and your Sacred Gear are substantial. Skill improvement of your bishop special characteristics and your magic will also support you greatly. Since I've constructed an exclusive 'Hikikomori Escape Plan' program, you must first put on a proper attitude as much as possible. Even if going out in public entirely is impossible for you, make sure that your movements aren't dull."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeees! I'll try to obtain a spirit that goes for broke!"

Leaving the pessimistic answer for the time being, Azazel turned to the other bishop. "Next is… Asia. You will also improve your body and magic with basic training. Also, your main task will be to strengthen your Sacred Gear."

Asia nodded resolutely, but Issei had another thing to say. "Isn't Asia's Twilight Healing already the best? She can heal everything besides sickness and stamina just by touching."

"I get what you mean. The speed of her recovery ability is great. However, the problem is the "touching" part. She can't heal if she doesn't expressly go into close range if an ally is injured."

Everyone nodded in understanding at what Azazel was tyring to imply. "Is it possible to extend the range of Twilight Healing, then?"

"Exactly. However, there are few other implications. Since Sacred Gears respond to the user's feelings, Asia will have to learn how to master-control her gear. Asia's kind nature will end up healing both allies and enemies alike, and we certainly can't have that. For that, I recommend that Asia should learn how to fire her healing power like a projectile."

Everyone then widened their eyes in approval at Azazel's conclusion. If Asia managed to learn such a thing, it would increase the efficiency of the team. "I-I understand! I'll do my best!" Asia responded with even more resolve in her voice.

"Next is Koneko." Azazel proceeded to the rook. "You have nothing to be criticised about, as you possess the elementary traits of offence and defence as a Rook. Your physical ability is also not a problem. However, there are those better at offence in Rias' group than a Rook like you, namely Ise, Kiba and Xenovia. Ise and Kiba already have their brutal Sacred Gears with their Balance Breakers in tow and Xenovia has her Durandal."

"…Yes, I know." Koneko replied with frustrated tone. Issei wondered if it had something to do with her odd behaviour for the past few days.

"Your case is similar with Akeno. You need to release the power you've personally sealed. If you don't accept yourself, big growth won't be possible for you."

Koneko only took her paper from Azazel without a word. Issei then put a hand on her shoulder and gave her an encouraging nod. But the girl only looked away with stern expression.

"_Uh… Did I just step on a land-mine?"_ Issei nervously blinked at the rook's reaction.

_**[Sure you did, partner…. Sure you did…]**_ Ddraig nodded sagely in agreement.

"The last is Ise. Let's see…" Azazel scratched his head as he looked over the files. "You pretty much are the strongest in the group here. I heard that you've trained your body ever since you're ten, correct?" Azazel then received a nod from the pawn. "You've covered most of the things, but… I forgot to ask this, how long can you maintain your Scale Mail?"

Issei was about to answer by raising his finger, but then he shut his mouth as he wondered again. "Err… I actually never thought about it." Then Issei turned to his left arm. "Ddraig, if you don't mind?"

A green light glowed from the back of Issei's hand and Ddraig's voice could be heard by everyone. **[Hmm…. Considering how large his reserve and the way my host abused its usage so far… I'd say he could last around a week or two]**

"Hmm… Not bad, but not good enough if you compare yourself to Vali. That guy can maintain his Balance Breaker for a month." Azazel nodded.

Issei inwardly clicked his tongue. After all, he did have a hard time during the fight against the Hakuryuukou last time.

"So we really need to work on your magic department." Azazel concluded. "I heard that you've received some training from Akeno here. Akeno, how did the training go?"

Akeno tapped her chin. "Hm… Last time, his control over his reserve was still rough, but he's definitely improving." She said with a small smile.

"Well, whatever. Your training had been decided anyway." Azazel shrugged before he suddenly sensed something and looked up at the sky. "Ah, he's here."

Everyone followed Azazel's gaze towards the sky and all eyes were widened at the sight of a gigantic, purple western dragon, about fifteen meters tall. "Um, guys…? Is-is that…?" Issei became somehow nervous as he pointed his finger at the dragon.

"Yeah, Ise. A real life dragon." Azazel confirmed as he noticed that the dragon was looking at him.

"**Azazel… You sure have some nerve openly entering devil territory."** The dragon said with booming, yet calm voice.

"Hah, I've properly gotten the personal permission of the devil king and have entered this territory fairly, you know?" Azazel shrugged despite the intimidating figure before him. "And Tannin, I believe he's the one you've been looking forward to meet." The fallen angel pointed his thumb at Issei who only blinked in confusion. "Ise, let me introduce you the Blaze Meteor Dragon Tannin, he's formerly one of Six Great Dragon Kings now Five, and currently a reincarnated, ultimate-class devil. And Tannin, this guy is Hyoudou Issei, the current Red Dragon Emperor."

The dragon, now known as Tannin, peered down on Issei before giving a nod. "I see that you are Hyoudou Saitama's son… So that news is true, that man's son is the latest host of the Welsh Dragon."

When he heard the name of his father being mentioned, Issei rolled his eyes as he fought the urge to sigh exasperatedly. Of course, his father had encountered and acquainted with angels, fallen angels and devils, fought a god as unbelievable as it sounded, so why should he surprised if his father knew one or two friggin' dragons?

"**Ddraig, are you there? Can you hear me?"** Tannin then asked.

The green glow appeared again from Issei's left hand and the Welsh Dragon replied. **[Yeah. It's been a while, Tannin]**

"Wait, so you two know each other?" Issei asked, looking around between Tannin and his hand.

[Yes. As Azazel has said, there was originally Six Great Dragon Kings, with Tannin as one of them before he turned into a devil, making six dragon kings into five. This guy is the same one recorded in the bible.]

"Tannin here has volunteered himself to send you to your training grounds." Azazel spoke, causing Issei to look at Tannin.

"Um… Is it really alright, Tannin-san? To come all this way…" Issei asked nervously.

"Kukuku… It's fine. I also want to see how Saitama's son looks like, so I'm simply returning the favour. Come, hop on." Tannin replied with a chuckle and lowered his body for Issei to ride.

The pawn looked over to his master who gave a nod. "Well, then… Don't mind if I do." Then Issei hopped on to Tannin's back.

"The training period is about 20 days in human world time. I expect everyone to make improvements by then. And Ise!" Azazel called out as Tannin stood up in preparation of departure. The former tossed something at Issei who caught it and saw a ring. "That ring is to seal your Sacred Gear and you are to put it on for the first 10 days. In other words, you're not allowed to use Boosted Gear for that period of time."

Issei raised his eyebrows at the instruction and he took another glance at the ring. He then closed his eyes for few seconds and he opened them again to give a resolute bow before put the ring on his middle finger. However, the boy was still a bit curious about the thing.

"_Ddraig, can you still hear me?"_ the boy asked in his mindscape.

_**[Yeah… I can hear you just fine. But that ring from Azazel really works. There are bunch of seals appeared here and you won't be able to use my power unless the ring is removed. Are you sure about this?]**_

"_Yeah, I guess I can vaguely tell the purpose of this training method. Sorry, Ddraig. For the time being you'll have to stay put until further notice."_

_**[Nah, that's fine. Then I guess I'll just go to sleep. Make sure to go out there and kick some ass, partner] **_then Ddraig went to slumber.

"Well then, everyone! I'll be going for a while!" Issei then turned to his friends.

"Ise, do your best!" Rias cheered his pawn while giving a thumbs-up. The others also gave him cheers and words of encouragement.

"Yeah, good luck to you guys too!"

"After 10 days, you can take off that ring and you'll receive the next instruction! Just do your best to stay alive!" Azazel sent his last words.

"Got it!"

"Well, let's be off!" Tannin roared and finally took off, leaving the rest of devils and the fallen angel towards the sky.

When Issei and Tannin were out of sight, Rias then turned to Azazel. "By the way, Azazel, where is Tannin taking Ise to?"

Azazel only smirked at the question, and when he replied the details regarding the venue etc., Rias' face suddenly went pale as well as the others, sans Asia and Xenovia who looked confused and worried at the same time.

"Wha-! Are you out of your mind!? Why would you send my Ise to a place like that!?" Rias asked furiously.

"Relax. You know how tough that guy is, training in that place won't be enough to kill him. Besides, I already paid that guy to supervise him, so it's going to be fine. Don't worry."

Rias was about to retort, but she finally let out a deep sigh and she gazed towards the direction where Tannin had flew to with worried eyes.

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait…" Issei said as he held up his hand and rubbed his forehead with the other. The boy could not believe what Tannin just revealed to him. "So, you're saying that my pops once came to the underworld with me when I was still a baby? And he encountered Tiamat-san and you during that time!?"

"**Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier about the fact that I have known your existence and your father for quite some time now. I still remembered him carrying you in his arms when we parted ways. The phenomenon that happened to your father was something that only occurred once every hundred years. Your father was just incredibly unfortunate to get 'spirited away' along with you."**

Issei's jaw dropped during his conversation with the former dragon king. Now everything had been brought to light when he felt nostalgic when he set his foot on the underworld forest during his search for a familiar. His father actually brought, or rather, accidentally dragged him along to the friggin' underworld? Did his mother know about this? His headache somehow got worse as more questions about his father came to his mind.

"…**Well, just ask your father for more details if you really want to know."** Then Tannin finally landed at the edge of a forested area. **"We've arrived here."**

Issei snapped out of his musings and he jumped down from the dragon's back. "Alright, I'm ready now. I'll be in your care, old man Tannin!" Issei bowed in respect.

"Hm? Who said that I'll be the one to train you?" Tannin asked, not being bothered at being called 'old man'.

"Eh?" Issei looked up with confused look. "Uh, but I thought that…?"

"**I simply wanted to see you in person and volunteered myself to take you here."** Tannin then turned around to leave. **"Azazel had assigned someone else to be your teacher. Just keep going straight into that forest and you'll find a clearing along with your teacher there. Now go, time is the essence here**." Then Tannin took of to the sky and sent his goodbyes. **"All the best for your training, Hyoudou Issei!"**

"Err… Okay." Issei gave a dumb-founded look when Tannin had flown far away. Taking another breath, Issei then patted both of his cheeks as he resolved himself and proceeded into the dark forest.

As Issei kept trekking his way through bushes, vines and trees, Issei felt bad vibes from his surroundings. Not only the forest felt more eerie than the Forest of Familiars, he could have sworn he saw couple of glowing red eyes between the trees around him.

No, that was not quite right about his location. If he recalled during his trip on Tannin's back, the forest he was in was actually the deepest and isolated part of Forest of Familiars. Issei could feel that there was something lurking in the darkness, but what made Issei more worried was the teacher that had been assigned to train him. He wondered who it would be.

"_Oh, you gotta be shittin' me!"_ When Issei arrived at the appointed clearing, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped once again at the man who was supposed to train him. "Why the fuck are you here!? POPS!"

In the middle of the clearing, Saitama was sitting in front of a bon-fire, cooking a marsh-mellow. The man spotted Issei was gapping at him and he simply held out his free hand to greet his son. "What's up?"

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And… Done! Whew, I didn't expect to write this much! For those who wondered why I skipped the meeting part, there are three reasons:**

**\- I personally don't like that part.**

**\- I believe that part would only serve as long, unnecessary filler in this story. Because I don't think Issei here would have much different = reaction than the one in canon, considering both my Issei and Saitama are not the type who would boldly make a scene in that kind of meeting.**

**\- I'd like to use a different approach while re-telling that part. It also saved me more time in making this chapter. :p**

**I'm sorry if you readers find it dissatisfying. You may complaint, but please safe the flames. Another thing, since the holiday has come to an end, I can't guarantee how fast I can update this story. So just hope for the best. Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	21. The Gathering of Young Devils (II)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Whew! Thank you very much for your support that my story had reached over 600 hits! This chapter was much harder to write than I thought. Without further ado, here's the new chapter of my OPM x Highschool DxD crossover! R&amp;R!**

**Chapter 20: The Gathering of Young Devils (II) – The Training**

_(Flashback, somewhere in Underworld)_

In a forest of the underworld, a cry of an infant, which was unusual, could be heard among the trees.

"Hey… Come on, Ise. Can you stop crying? For me? At this rate I might gonna cry too, y'know." The sound of a man was heard as the owner was trying to placate what it appeared to be a baby's cry.

That day was truly not the best day for Saitama, who's cradling a crying baby in his arms as he walked through the plantations of the eerie forest. _"Seriously, why the hell's this happening again?"_ Saitama whined in his thought as he looked back at how he ended up at such a bizarre place.

It was supposed to be a nice, peaceful family picnic where Saitama did not have to think about his duties neither as a hero, father or the pillar of the family. Haruka managed to win a family-package vacation ticket to Hokkaido through lottery, and with baby Issei as the recent addition in the family, they decided to spend the rest of the spring vacation together.

The trip went well so far, until the tour program led the family towards the more secluded area of the region for flower viewing. Haruka took the liberty to get some rest in the inn while she told her husband to have some 'bonding moment' with their new-born son. At first, everything had been nice and perfect for Saitama to enjoy the scenery with his son, something that he would have never imagined before he got sucked into a black hole. Then, things went down the hill when Saitama just finished going through some trees, things got blurry for a second, and he suddenly found himself with his son in some god-forsaken forest, which was definitely not Hokkaido or even Japan as far as he could see.

Saitama had found himself plunged into a warzone, eye of the storm, even deep under the earth, but being 'spirited away', as most people would call it, was a whole new experience for the man. Had been used to bizarre situations, Saitama remained calm while he knew that he had to find a way back as soon as possible. Fortunately Issei had been fed earlier, so he would not have to worry about his son getting hungry anytime soon. However, being a baby he was, Issei soon got uncomfortable with the place they were at. Thus, Saitama found himself walking through dark forest, looking for a way back home while trying to stop his son's crying at the same time.

Few minutes later, as if to make matters worse, Saitama suddenly smelled something awful. The man sniffed around the air, and he tracked the awful scent was coming from his crying son's pants, which was now stained with what appeared to be the remains of his lunch from earlier. "Oh, for the love of-! Do you really have to do this to me?!" Saitama whined exasperatedly. Now the man's top priority was not exactly to find a way home, but to find a store that sells fresh diapers.

**GRAOOOONG**

Of course, the world, if the place could still be called as his current world, decided to spit on Saitama's face one more time. As his son's cry got louder, the man suddenly felt something massive was looming above him. He looked up, and he saw huge flying reptiles on the sky (which was coloured purple for some reasons) descended few feet in front of him. By the looks alone, Saitama could immediately tell that the creatures in front of him was anything but friendly. With pitch-black scales, drools dropping from between their fangs, blood-shot eyes and menacing growl, Saitama only sighed as the group of three black dragons did not waste anytime to lung their massive jaws at him.

"_I don't have time for this shit."_ Saitama cursed in his mind as he decided to suck it and cradle Issei in his one arm, despite the state of his pants. Then, Saitama's free hand, now balled into fist, blurred away as Saitama engaged the dragons.

"Consecutive Normal Punches."

Saitama's barrage of punches immediately obliterated the reptile's bodies as soon as the fist made contact. Saitama simply let out a breath and shook the blood and guts off his fist as the pack's remains dropped lifelessly to the ground. As if felt a bit relieved that the danger had passed, Issei had calmed down a bit, although he was still uncomfortable with his dirty pants.

Soon after, Saitama suddenly felt another presence coming towards him. He turned to the source and saw a massive purple dragon descended from the sky. However, unlike the black one from earlier, Saitama did not sense any hostility from the reptile in front of him.

"**I saw what you did…. And here I thought my own eyes are fooling me."** A massive dignified voice came from the dragon.

Saitama, with Issei (thankfully his crying had toned down a bit) still in his arms, only stared back into the dragon's eyes. "Are those friends of yours? Do you want to have a go, too?" Saitama asked with neutral tone, but his fist was clenched tight, ready to be unleashed at any moment's notice.

"**Hardly. These fellows suddenly went rogue on me and I'm here to deal with them personally. And I owe you an apology, since they were my responsibility, after all."** The purple dragon looked at the remains of his former kin. **"Ah, let me introduce myself. I'm Tannin."**

"Saitama. Nice to meet you." The man returned the courtesy.

Suddenly Tannin's furrowed his eyes slightly as he sensed something in the air. **"What is that smell?"**

Saitama scratched his cheek awkwardly as he glanced at his son, who was about to cry again. "Well, sorry about this…" Saitama showed his son, resulting a look of understanding from the dragon. "Anyway, can I ask you a favour? I'm… kind of lost here, you see. So maybe you can show me around?" Saitama was not really sure how to explain his current situation.

"**Hmm… It is indeed strange to see a… human like you wandering in the underworld to begin with."** Tannin was a bit doubtful to see Saitama as a 'human'. **"But let's talk somewhere else. After all, this place is-"** Then Tannin turned his head as he sensed another incoming presence. **"Ah, she's here."**

"She?" Saitama turned towards Tannin's direction and saw another massive dragon, this time with blue scales, flew towards them.

The blue dragon landed and it addressed Tannin first. **"Well, well… What business do you have in one of my territories, Tannin?"**

"**Tiamat."** Tannin nodded at the newcomer**. "Sorry for intruding, but few of my men went rogue and caused troubles around the area. I'm here to dispatch them."** The purple dragon explained**. "And I assume you're here to take care of the intruders?"**

Tiamat snorted at the question. **"Indeed, I was. This is part of my territory, after all. But it seems that things had taken care of by… This particular fellow."** The blue dragon turned her gaze at Saitama, who was cradling a baby in his arms. Strangely enough, Tiamat got unpleasant vibes from the baby for some reasons.

While dragons are prideful beings due to their overwhelming strength and power, they still have respect for those who are worthy, regardless of race. Not to mention for Tannin, who had warrior-like personality, he would never deny Saitama's strength, despite being a human. Especially after the dragon had seen what the man could do with his own reptilian eyes.

"**Can you see that, Tannin? His overwhelming aura… Wait, what is that smell?"** Tiamat's eyes furrowed slightly as she sniffed around the air.

Saitama then raised his voice. "Yeah, I know, I know. Look, it's nice knowing you two, I'm sorry if the smell from my son's pants is getting on your nerves, 'cause it's getting on mine too, but can we go back on track? I really need to go back to Japan and get a set of new diapers here!" Then Issei began to cry out loud, as if to emphasize his father's point.

The dragons only sweat-dropped at the spectacle.

_(End of Flashback)_

Back at the Gremory residence, it had been few minutes after Issei had taken off somewhere by the former dragon king Tannin. As the others were donning worried looks at the direction where Issei had gone to, Asia and Xenovia had no idea what was going on. The former then turned to her master. "Um, buchou-san… Where is Ise-san going to, exactly?"

Rias grimaced slightly at the thought of Issei's training venue. "We call that place as Forbidden Forest, the deepest and most secluded part of the Forest of Familiars. That place has been deemed as extremely dangerous because that place is the habitat of the most fearsome creatures and monsters of olds that cannot be tamed into familiars."

The two former church members widened their eyes in worry at the revelation. "Monsters of old? How strong are they?" Xenovia asked.

"Well, they can give even an ultimate-class devil a run for their money…"

"Then, that's too dangerous even for Ise!" Xenovia then shot a look towards Azazel, who had already gone elsewhere.

"I know. So far only ultimate-class devils are allowed to venture inside the forbidden forest. Let's just hope that those two can make it for the next 20 days. Have faith in them." Rias said as she closed her eyes in resignation.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the forbidden forest, noises could be heard from the centre part of the forbidden zone.

"You fucking baldy! Go get a job or something!" Issei screamed as he struggled.

"Hey, come on, now… I am sort of on a job from Azazel here. I just can't leave after I came all the way here to watch over your training." Saitama replied as he ate another piece of marshmellow.

"Well, too bad! I don't want to learn from you! At least I want another teacher!" Issei struggled even harder since his father was sitting on his body. "Forget that, stop eating them while you're sitting on someone! Your body's already heavy as it is!"

"Well, it's because you ran away." Saitama plopped another of the sugary white snack into his mouth.

"Argh, shit! Fine, I get it! Just get off me already!"

Saitama glanced at his son for a second and stood up. "Sheesh, what a noisy son I have…"

"Sucker!" However, Issei immediately got on his feet and dashed off towards the trees.

Saitama only sighed, and when Issei was only halfway on his way, suddenly Saitama had already gotten a drop on him already. The older man suddenly appeared in front of his son, causing the latter to suddenly skid to a stop, and Saitama only lightly knocked his son's head, at least what it seemed to other people.

BLAR!

"Buegh!?" And Issei's body was suddenly forced to be buried underground from the impact.

"Come on… Just give it up, kid…" Saitama said, his smoking fist still raised.

Issei, with only his shoulder-to-head popping out from the ground, grunted in pain as he remained stubborn. "Ugh…. No, no way in hell… Not one bit, go eat shit..."

Saitama sighed yet again, until when Issei got himself out from the burrow, his left hand started to glow again. **[You should just listen to him, partner]**

"Ddraig!? I thought you're asleep?" Issei, still on his fours, shocked from hearing the dragon's voice.

**[With all your yapping from earlier? Of course not.]** Ddraig scoffed. **[Anyway, how long are you gonna keep this up?]**

Issei only looked down, as his head began to cool down. **[I hate to say this, but even I and Albion during our prime might still going to lose against your father, and with my sealed state inside your body? You need to suck it up and make do with this guy. Or else you won't get anywhere.]** Saitama inwardly nodded in agreement.

Issei then went silent for few minutes, then he let out a breath as he stood up and dusted himself off before he turned back to his father. "Fine. But it's not I'm gonna submit myself to you so easily…" Then Issei bowed his head slightly. "I'll definitely surpass you. So let's do this, old man."

Ddraig smirked at his host's resolve before he simply continued his slumber. Saitama's lips twitched upwards as he saw the fire in his son's eyes. "Good."

Then Saitama suddenly turned his heels around and walk away. "Wait, what are we doing now? And where are you going? I still have-!"

"For now, I'm just gonna leave you here." Saitama interrupted as he picked up the rest of his marshmellow that he dropped from chasing Issei earlier. "Just stay alive for the next couple of days. I'll check on you again once I come up with your training program, got it?" Then Saitama stopped at the edge of the clearing to look at his son one last time. "Oh, I'll just leave the fire there so you can use it. And you see the bag over there?" Saitama then pointed at a small bag that was laid next to the fire. "Azazel said it's a medical kit for you to use for emergency. Good luck!"

Issei only remained stupefied as he stared his father disappeared into the mass of trees. The wind blew, and his eyes then twitched in his growing irritation. He made a strangling gesture with his hands as he mumbled something about promising pain. "You just left me here alone after that talk of teaching me… Okay, so you want me to survive in this shithole? Fine. By the end of this training, that cue ball will be in for surprise…." Issei then chuckled before he finally snapped out of his reverie. He walked to the bonfire and arrived at the bag that Saitama left for him. The boy took a look at the contents, only to see bandages, disinfectant, other tools for first aid, and several familiar-looking vials. "Phoenix Tears…?" Issei recognized the vials from the rating game with Phenex. "I guess this will do, let's go find something to eat first…" Issei mumbled to himself as he swung the small bag over his shoulder and began to move somewhere else.

However, when Issei just moved for few steps, he suddenly felt a chill ran down on his spine. His senses told him that something was stalking him. The boy looked around cautiously and he just turned back in time to see a giant shadow lunged towards him. That afternoon in the underworld, an inhuman howl, followed by a human cry, were heard from inside of the Forbidden Forest as the birds within vicinity flew away from the voice.

_(Scene Break)_

At the estate where Azazel stayed, the fallen angel governor had just returned from visiting the participants of the upcoming Rating Game when he spotted Saitama.

"Yo, Saitama! You already done for today?" Azazel greeted casually as he strode towards the man.

However, when Saitama saw Azazel approaching him, his eyes narrowed and he suddenly knocked on Azazel's head as soon as the latter was within the range. Causing the fallen angel's body caved the ground beneath.

BLAAR!

Azazel groaned as smoke came out from his head. "Ugh…. What the hell was that for?" Azazel attempted to get his body out from the crater, but his own head was killing him.

"Care to explain, Azazel?" Saitama asked with annoyance and irritation written all over his face. "I was supposed to enjoy summer with my wife when you suddenly popped out of nowhere and warped me into some god-forsaken forest, and left me with a bonfire, a small bag of first-aid kit, a pack of marshmallow and an E-mail that asked me to supervise Ise's summer training camp?"

"Now, now, no need to get upset here…" Azazel finally got back to his feet. "Don't you think you're the most suitable to make your son stronger?"

"What do I do when I got back? Do you know how furious Haruka was when I called her earlier? And who's gonna help her looking after our newly giant-ass house while I'm away?" Saitama pressed on as his figure somehow shadowing over Azazel's.

"Like I said, no worries. If you're worried about your new house, I've already sent an extra-hand to help. Rest assured, she's completely reliable." Azazel said as he rubbed the sore spot on his head.

"'She'? Who-" Saitama's further enquiry was interrupted by another newcomer.

"Azazel, Saitama-kun." The aforementioned two then turned their heads to see a middle-aged, gruff-looking man with black hair, matching beard and a muscular body, with 10 black wings walking towards them. "I don't know that you're coming to the underworld, Saitama-kun."

"Ah, Baraqiel." Saitama greeted back. "Well, it's thanks to this guy…. You know what I mean." The bald man pointed his thumb sarcastically at Azazel, who only showed a smug smirk in return.

"I see… So you're training your son?" the fallen angel Baraqiel enquired further.

"Yeah. Might as well to see this through." Saitama sighed as he rubbed his head with a hint of resignation in his tone. "By the way, are you here for…?"

"Yes. I'm in charge of my daughter's training. It's Azazel's orders too, after all."

"I see. How's your day going, then?"

Baraqiel sighed before replying. "…At least Akeno is now willing to use her fallen angel power… And how about yours, Saitama-kun?"

"For now, I just left him to familiarize himself with his training ground, err… What's that called again, Azazel?" Saitama turned to Azazel.

"It's the Forbidden Forest."

Baraqiel's eyebrows raised up at the name. "That place? I know your son is the Red Dragon Emperor, but are you sure leaving him alone there?"

"No need to worry about it. Nothing in that forest is strong enough to kill him. The kid will live." Azazel waved off. "Besides, even without Saitama there, the environment and habitants of that place are more than enough to keep him preoccupied with work."

"Yeah, my son is a tough nut to crack, after all." Saitama voiced his agreement. "Anyway, what do you say about grabbing a bite? It's on him." Saitama pointed at Azazel, who blinked in surprise.

"Wait, why me?"

"Because I want compensation for dragging me all the way here without notice. Come on, why don't you act like a good leader for once. Right, Baraqiel?"

Baraqiel only smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I hate when you guys are ganging up on me…" Azazel grumbled. "Tch, fine. I plan to go with devil kings, anyway. I guess you can tag along."

Saitama then followed Azazel along with Baraqiel who sighed in amusement. Then, Saitama remembered something. "Wait, does it mean that Serafall's gonna be there, too?"

* * *

Days went by, and on the fifth day, Azazel teleported himself to the clearing where Issei's campsite was supposed to be. When Azazel set foot on the clearing, the man found the boy was sitting in front of a bonfire, with several large skeletons and bones littering around. The boy himself, clad in tattered and torn jerseys, with bandages wrapped around his limbs, knuckles and one pressed on his cheek, was doing a squat while the bonfire was roasting a large chunk of meat. What meat it was, Azazel could only guess by looking around.

"'Sup, Ise. How's it going?"

When the boy noticed Azazel's presence, he stopped his exercise and he walked approaching the unsuspecting fallen angel.

BAM!

Then, much to Azazel's surprise, Issei suddenly punched his cheek and the fallen angel was knocked back to the unforgiving ground. "Ouch…." Azazel tried to get back on his feet while massaging his swollen cheek. "What the hell was that for?" At the same time, the fallen angel also felt a sense of déjà vu.

"Care to explain, Azazel-sensei?" Issei asked with bags under his eyes, presumably from lack of sleep, as he grabbed Azazel's collar and pulled his face close. "Why did you have to pick my old man, of all people, to be my mentor? And did you know that he actually just left me here on my own device?"

"Now, now, I think it should be obvious that-…" Azazel's attempt to explain was interrupted yet again by Issei.

"And who's gonna help my mom taking care of that newly big-ass house of mine while he's here?" Issei pressed on as he shook Azazel's body by his collar.

Azazel only rolled his eyes at Issei's agitation. _"Sheesh, truly like father like son."_ Then the fallen angel held up his hands. "Alright, alright. I get that you're pissed and all, but I give you my word that everything is under control. So let's just focus on getting stronger, okay? By the way, I brought some lunch made by Rias here, wanna have a taste or not?" Azazel raised a lunchbox wrapped in cloth. Issei stared at the lunchbox for a moment before he quickly snatched it away and proceeded to the seat near the fire.

The boy opened the lunchbox and found some rice-balls with oolong tea in the thermos. He took a bite, and one would see his eyes sparkled. "Whoa, this is good!" Issei's expression brightened up as he kept eating the rest of the meal.

Azazel chuckled at Issei's reaction as he proceeded to take a seat for himself. "Glad that you like it. Not only Rias, Akeno also contributed during her spare time to make those. Man, could've sworn that the kitchen turned into a warzone that day."

Issei only hummed while sweat-dropped at the image of the girls fighting each other at the prospect of making him lunch. But shrugged it off in the end. Then Azazel spoke again as he scanned his eyes on Issei's body. "Hmm… I see that you have improved over these few days. Your reserves had increased compared the last time… How's this place been treating you? The place that had been deemed as one of the most dangerous places that the underworld has to offer?"

"Well, as you can see." Issei only smiled dryly as he showed his bandaged limbs. "The inhabitants in this place were really welcoming when I arrived at this place." Issei said with obvious sarcasm in his explanation.

"I can see that, indeed." Azazel nodded. "How much of the supplies do you have left?"

"Probably still more than a half. There's still the Phoenix Tears, so I don't need to worry much about injury as long as I can keep them safe with me."

"How many Phoenix Tears have you used over this past five days?" Azazel enquired further.

"Um… Just one. I had to use it after some of demonic-looking elephant managed to break couple of my bones on the other day." The boy shrugged.

"Hmm…. That's not a bad start, I guess." Azazel nodded. "Just make sure to use those tears wisely. It cost me quite a fortune to prepare those tears to keep you alive for the entire training. I'll make sure to have Saitama bringing more supplies by the time he's coming back here."

Issei swallowed his food. "Thanks, and uh… May I know how much each of this vial cost you?"

Azazel pursed his lips for a second. "You… probably don't need to know. But anyway, let's change the topic..." Azazel paused for a moment. "… Ise, how do you think of Akeno?"

Issei blinked at the question before replying. "Hmm… I think she's a good senior." The boy nodded in conviction.

Azazel shook his head again. "No, no. I mean, as a woman."

"Oh…" Issei blinked again before he let out a soft hum. "Well… She's attractive, and I… sort of like her…. Err, I believe she's a very good person…?" Issei was flustered as the boy became unsure himself how to answer Azazel's question.

The said fallen angel eyed the boy sceptically before he shrugged. "Well, I guess that will do. You see, I have to watch over her in place of a friend of mine."

"You mean, Akeno-san's father, Baraqiel?" Issei raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. The very one." Azazel closed his eyes in reminiscence. "He's one of my oldest comrades besides Shemhazai, ever since my downfall from the Heaven ancients ago." Then Azazel slowly opened his eyes again. "We did a lot of stupid things together while laughing our asses off. And when I realized, everybody but me had made their own family, wives, kids and all."

"No offence, but I thought at least you also have someone… Sorry again, I even could imagine that one day, a little boy or a girl suddenly knocked on your door and claimed themselves as your children or something."

Azazel laughed lightly at that. "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised at that notion. After all, I have histories with lots of women." Then Azazel snapped out from his reverie. "Anyway, I'm very concerned about Akeno. Though, to Baraqiel and Akeno, it may be none of my business."

Issei remained silent for a second before a small smile crept up on his face. "You know what, sensei? You might be nosy, but you're unexpectedly a nice person."

"What do you mean by 'unexpectedly'? That's kind of rude, y'know?" Azazel retorted rather playfully. "But thanks, anyway. I'll leave Akeno in your care."

"…Yeah, sure." Issei replied, while failed to catch the real meaning behind Azazel's words. "Speaking of Akeno-san… How are the others doing?"

"The others are doing well so far…" Then Azazel's expression became grim. "But there's a problem with Koneko."

"What's wrong with Koneko-chan?" Issei asked, not liking the way the conversation was heading.

"She overdid the training I gave her. And she just collapsed this morning."

"Wait, wha-!?" Then Issei shook his head a bit to clear his mind for better concerns to ask about. "How's she doing now?"

"Well… No visible injuries, but she's basically almost exhausted herself to death. Even Asia's Twilight Healing can't do much about something that was caused by overworking. Koneko is still resting right now." Azazel explained before asking again. "Do you want to check up on her?" Seeing a nod from the boy, Azazel stood up. "Good, because I'm also here by someone's request to take you back just this once, come on."

"Wait, on whose orders?" Issei asked as he stood up, preparing himself to go back.

"Rias' mother, Venelana Gremory." Then both men disappeared as Azazel teleported themselves away.

* * *

The sound of footsteps and music were heard from the annex that was detached from the Gremory clan's main residence.

"Yes, turn there. Good…. No, no, Issei-san. You need to match your steps with your partner after the turn. Your movements looked awkward now." Venelana Gremory instructed as she and Issei (with a new set of clothes) were glued to each other and danced across the floor.

"Ah, sorry. Can we try again?" The woman nodded at Issei's request and the two began dancing again. As soon as Issei arrived at the annex with Azazel, Venelana immediately led Issei to have a dancing lesson.

The two began followed the rhythm of the music as they took the steps, and Venelana's smile grew in approval. "Yes, now that's better. Keep it up!"

The two finally stopped dancing as the music stopped playing as well. "Now, shall we take a short break?"

After Venelana gave her permission for Issei to take a rest, the boy took a seat on the chair and let out a breath. The dancing lesson for Issei was tiring in its own right, but the boy believed that what he was doing at the moment was better than being chased around by hideous creatures wanting to eat him.

"I must admit, Issei-san… I'm impressed that you managed to survive living in the Forbidden Forest. As expected from Saitama's son." Venelana voiced her opinion as she scanned on Issei's bandaged limbs. "Shall I call our healer to take a look at your wounds?"

"No, thank you, ma'am." Issei refused politely as he was flattered by Venelana's praise. "There's no need to worry. These injuries will heal in another day or two."

Venelana nodded in consent, Issei then took a sip of his drink as the two fell into another comfortable silence.

"Excuse me, Venelana-sama…" Issei then wanted to ask a question.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Why am I doing this dancing practice? Not that I mind, but did Kiba and Gasper also receive this sort of lesson?"

Venelana nodded at Issei's question. "Kiba Yuuto-san has already mastered these sorts of techniques, as expected of a Knight. Gasper-san is a member of a distinguished vampire family. He may behave unreliably, but he at least knows etiquette. The problem is Issei-san. It can't be helped that you're a commoner from the human world, but even so it's troubling if you don't acquire etiquette beyond a certain level. Because you'll also have to make an appearance with Rias in high society eventually, you have to remember customary practices even a little during your stay in the Underworld."

Issei blinked as he processed Venelana's reasoning for a second. "W-wait, what do you mean by I have to make an appearance with Rias-sama in high society eventually?"

At Issei's shock, Venelana shifted her gaze to the side and she hid her smile with one of her hands. "…Oops, I carelessly let something slip out. That kind of thing is still talk of possibilities. Leaving that aside, I see that you addressed your master by her name just now."

Issei's eyes widened slightly and his face became flustered. "Oh, ah, err… Sorry. Should I address her differently?"

"No need to be nervous, Issei-san…" Venelana's smile grew wider slightly. "In fact, you should address her that way since this place isn't school. Since, Rias is… Oops, I almost let something slip up again."

Issei's eyebrows furrowed at Venelana's 'slip-up', but he decided to ignore it. "I see…. I understand."

"Yes, and you can also address her as 'master'. Though… I think you should address her differently in private as well."

"U-uh… Differently, like… By her name, for example…?" Issei replied un-assuredly.

Suddenly, Venelana's eyes glittered in excitement. "Yes! That's right! You should call Rias by her name!"

"B-but isn't that rude? After all, I'm just her servant, her Pawn." Issei reasoned back.

"Have you forgotten that you're a part of Gremory clan? We treat our servants like a family. Everything else is just a part of formality, nothing more. Though…" Venelana paused as her excitement faded. "Perhaps it would be good if you take it slow and easy, otherwise Rias would bewildered if you did that suddenly. But please tell me, Issei-san…" Venelana's expression went serious. "Do you dislike Rias?"

Issei's eyes shot up at the question. "Of course not! She's a wonderful woman! There's no way I could hate her!" then Issei realized his outburst and his face blushed. "S-sorry for raising my voice."

Venelana only giggled as she saw Issei bowing his head down. "Fufufufu… It's fine. This means I can rest easy for now…"

Issei only raised his eyebrows as he was completely lost. Then the boy remembered the other reason why he returned to the estate. "Um, Venelana-sama, can I ask another question?"

"Yes?"

"Koneko-chan… Is she alright?"

"…Yes. It was just ordinary overworking, so she should recover slowly if she rests her body for one or two days."

"I see…" Issei turned to the ground, his eyes looked rather solemn. "I… I'm very worried about Koneko-chan. She's been acting weird since we got here…"

"That girl is doing her best to face her own existence and power right now. It's a difficult problem. However, she won't be able to advance forward if she doesn't find the answer herself." Venelana replied with more or less the same solemn tone.

"Her existence and power?" Issei became more curious with more questions popped up in his mind.

"…Now that I think of it, you haven't been part of Rias' group for long. I guess it's only natural that you don't know. Very well, I'll tell you a little."

Thus Venelana began her story about two cat sisters. Being orphaned since childhood, the two sisters were inseparable as they did everything together. They played together, they ate together, and they slept together. Having no home to return to and no one to rely on, the two cats struggled to live day to day while depending on each other.

One day, the two sisters were scouted by a certain high-class devil and the elder sister was reincarnated into the group as a Bishop. The elder sister was given the privilege to bring her little sister as well so the two could remain together. Having finally obtained a decent life, the two of them believed that they could pass time happily.

However, those happy times began to end as the elder cat sister appeared to achieve a rapid growth after gaining power. The elder sister's talent began to overflow by becoming a reincarnated devil. Apparently, the cat sisters were of a species that naturally excels in Youjutsu (Black Magic/Arts). Furthermore, she also bloomed in magic talent, and even invoked Senjutsu (Sage Arts) that was said only the last of the Sennin (Mountain Sage) could use.

Issei had started to connect the dots as his mind felt even concerned when the story took a darker turn where the elder cat sister, having surpassed her master in a short time, was swallowed by power and was transformed into a wicked existence that only sought blood and battle. She killed her master, became a stray devil and managed to kill all her pursuers during her escape, thus the elder cat sister became one of the Underworld's most wanted.

Issei clenched his fist when he found that the little cat sister, who remained behind, was deemed as a liability by other high-class devils. To make matters worse, the devils chose to sentence the little sister to death in hope of preventing the little sister from going rogue like the elder sister did. When the little sister was at the brink of collapse and despair due to betrayal by her sister, torture and interrogation by the devils, Sirzechs Lucifer came and saved the little cat sister from execution. Fortunately, after Sirzechs left the little cat sister under the care of Rias Gremory, the cat recovered her emotions little by little. As the time went by, Rias gave the cat a name – Koneko.

Part of Issei was angered by what Koneko had been through, another part of him was relieved that Koneko managed to avoid the cruel fate thanks to his master. Issei also finally realized that Koneko was originally a youkai Nekomata, as well as the only survivor of the strongest sub-species of Nekomata, a Nekoshou.

_(Scene Break)_

After Issei finished his dancing lesson with Venelana, he moved to the main residence to check on Koneko. And as soon as the boy arrived inside the building, he was welcomed by his master, Rias Gremory.

"Ah, buchou."

"Ise!" Rias turned and immediately ran to embrace Issei into a hug. "Are you okay? I heard that you're sent into the Forbidden Forest. I was so worried! If… If anything were to happen to you, I… I…!" Rias eyes started to get teary when she spotted Issei's bandage on his person.

The boy blinked few times at the sudden contact, but slowly, Issei moved his arms to return the embrace as his expression softened. "It's… It's okay, buchou. I'm fine, and I'll make it through this summer training."

Looking at her pawn's face, Rias felt a great relief as she buried her face into Issei's shoulder. "…Ise's smell…." Rias muttered as she felt everything she could sense from her pawn – his scent, his muscle, his body heat.

"Err… Sorry, I've been sweating a lot, after all…" Issei replied sheepishly.

"It's fine…" Rias replied softly. "It's not that I don't like your smell… I was lonely, you know? I haven't been able to sleep with you ever since we arrived here, and I wasn't able to feel you like this every day either…Since, I can no longer imagine a life without you…What a pitiful master I am..."

"Come on, now…" Issei smiled to comfort his master. "It can't be that bad. At least just try to hold it until the training is over, okay? I'll see what I can do to make it up."

"Then I'll take your word for it." Rias said playfully. "By the way, is it true? Saitama-san is in charge of your training? Because I ran to him earlier today." Rias' expression became concerned.

"Unfortunately, yes…" Issei sighed. "But I guess I can use this as an opportunity to get few answers from him… But more importantly, how's Koneko-chan?"

"Well… She's still resting now. Actually, it was Saitama-san who found her first and brought her for recovery. He also watched over her until I and Akeno arrived." Rias smiled.

"I see… So that old man helped her…" Issei took in the information as the corner of his lips twitched upward. "Where's he now? Is he still with Koneko-chan?"

"No, not long after Akeno and I arrived to take over, Saitama's already gone somewhere else. Saying something about making a training program or something. Is he really taking his job?" Rias asked sceptically.

"Only one way to find out, right?" Issei shrugged. "I'm willing to bet on this chance to get stronger."

"That side of yours is one of things I like about you." Rias commented. "Anyway, would you like to see Koneko? I think she should've been awake by now." at Issei's nod, Rias beckoned him to follow her.

_(Scene Break)_

Rias led Issei to the room where Koneko was resting in, and the latter was permitted to go inside the room alone. Knocking on the door couple of times, Issei then letting himself in after hearing the voice from beyond the door. When the boy came in, he found Akeno was sitting by the bed, with Koneko laid on top of it. Her position was seated, but the most noticeable feature for Issei to see was a pair of cat ears jutting out on Koneko's head. In other situation, Issei might find it cute. In fact, it could be said that Koneko was too exhausted to hide her true form alone.

"Ise-kun… This is-…" Akeno tried to explain the situation, but Issei immediately cut her off.

"It's okay, Akeno-san. I've heard the general story." Then Issei proceeded to stand by the side of the bed and took a quick glance at Koneko. Relieved that there were no visible injuries whatsoever, Issei then asked with a smile on his face. "Hey, how are you doing?"

However, Koneko only muttered with sullen tone and half-opened eyes. "…What did you come here for?"

Issei could feel Koneko's anger from the response alone. Nonetheless, he continued as he kneeled down beside her to level his eyes with hers. "Would it be okay if I said that I come here because I'm worried about you?"

Koneko kept acting sullen, but she did not reply. Issei took it as a signal to continue. "I… Heard about it. The story. But still, overworking yourself is no good. You should take care of your body." Despite the words, Issei was inwardly berating himself for not able to come up with something better to say.

"…I want to…"

Failed to catch what Koneko just said, Issei jerked his head slightly closer to the girl. "Hm? What is it?"

"I want to become strong. Like Yuuto-senpai, Xenovia-senpai, Akeno-san…and also Ise-senpai, I want to make my spirit and body strong. Gya-kun is also becoming strong. I don't have a healing power like Asia-senpai either…At this rate, I'll become useless. Even though I'm a Rook, I'm the…weakest…I hate being useless…" Koneko said as tears were welling up on her eyes.

"Koneko-chan…." Issei's words were cut off by the tears which finally fell from Koneko's eyes.

"…But, I don't want to use the power sleeping inside me…my Nekomata power…If I use it, I…just like my Nee-sama…I don't want that…I absolutely don't want such a thing…"

As Issei saw Koneko cried for the first time, a part of him got angry again as he recalled the story where Koneko's elder sister got swallowed by her own power and caused so much grief to the white-haired girl. He clenched his fist to calm his emotion down and he closed his eyes.

"…Power corrupts. No matter what kind of power that is." Akeno and Koneko blinked and stared at Issei, who said those words.

The boy only smiled bitterly. "It was what Ddraig once told me, not long after I awakened Boosted Gear for the first time. I heard that lots of my predecessors got drunk from the power of the Heavenly Dragon, and they went on mindless rampage, destroying everything around them, friends and foes alike, until they lost everything precious to them in the process." The two girls in the room stared wide-eyed at the revelation as Issei went on. "It terrified me, to the point that I got nightmares for a while. It was a lot of work to keep my mom from getting worried and keep my self in check…. But soon, I learned that… The only thing for me to avoid getting swallowed whole… was to master this power. It's not easy… It could never be that easy. But…" Issei paused, remembering what he went through until the point where he was. "I was just fortunate that I got time on my hands, I got Ddraig guiding me along the way, and most of all… I got friends for me to protect. That's why I tell myself that I need to master this power and become stronger if I want to protect those that are dear to me."

At Issei's words, Koneko remained silent as she processed everything in her mind. Then, a hand was placed on Issei's shoulder, causing him to turn and found the hand on his shoulder belonged to Akeno. The girl only shook her head when their eyes met.

"Ise-kun, please leave the rest to us."

Issei looked down for a second before he nodded. "…Okay."

When the boy was about to leave the room, he turned his head to look at Akeno and Koneko one more time. "…Buchou once told me that she will help me whenever I lose my way. So…" Issei scratched his head before continuing. "I don't know if I have the right to say this, but… I promise that I'll be there for you if you ever lost your path. Please have more faith in yourself and in those around you."

Then Issei finally left the room with Akeno and Koneko thinking about his words. After the door was shut, Issei took a deep breath, and he smacked his face with both of his hands as he prepared himself to return to his survival training, as well as anticipating what Saitama had in store for him.

* * *

When Issei returned to his training grounds, the gruelling fight/training for survival began again. Not long after the boy returned to his campsite, monsters and other inhabitants of the forest returned their onslaught with vengeance. Having his Boosted Gear sealed only made things more difficult for him, since he could only rely on his touki and physical strength alone, no boost, no Balance Breaker.

The creatures that attacked Issei during his stay took various forms. Most of them looked more or less like animals from the human world, but with much larger size and somewhat more deformed and demonic appearance. There were also those that resembled dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, but the numbers were much less than the rest of inhabitants.

For Issei, these monsters were not only strong, some of them were even smart enough to learn whenever their assaults failed and retreated, only to come up with somewhat better plan to kill the boy during their next strike. One time, a giant ape with fiery fur would bring its pack and tried to steal Issei's bag instead of killing the boy himself, as if those creatures attempted to weaken the boy and prevented him from recovering from his injuries. And these giant monstrous-looking apes were the most stubborn and the most frequent ones to attack Issei.

It was the seventh night of the training, and much to Issei's predicament, the boy was standing with his fist raised against what appeared to be a pack of the giant apes. His body was again littered with bruises, scratches and other injuries, a streak of blood was flowing from his temple, his newly fresh clothes from Gremory main residence was already torn and tattered again, and his breath was heavy. And to make matters worse, he lost his supplies of first aid and Phoenix Tears in the middle of the fight, making Issei no longer had any means to recover if he got injured too badly.

However, the boy did not let his enemies to have it any easier either. Some of the monsters that are still standing were already on their last legs, many of their brethren had already fallen around Issei's figure. The one monster whose size was several times bigger than the others, presumably the leader, was still standing tall as it let out another roar of command for its underling to attack Issei once again.

GRAAAAAAAHHH!

The group of primates lounged towards the boy, and the latter immediately sprung into action as well. As Issei evaded each strike that the monsters threw to knock the boy out, Issei immediately aimed towards the nearest enemy and slammed his fist right to its skull. The impact was enough to crack the bones and the targeted monster fell to the ground with the blood leaking from its head. The boy ducked and managed to avoid another swing from behind, and Issei retaliated with an uppercut, sending the monster to fly away with a sickening crunch after his fist made contact. Much to Issei's surprise, these creatures had been moving and attacking in a formation to catch the boy off-guard, as well as weakening him through fatigue and blood loss from his earlier clashes.

ROAAARRGGH!

Suddenly, three monsters roared and sprung up and slammed their hands at once on top of Issei, who bent his knees as he blocked the strike just in the nick of time and caused the ground beneath him to cave in from the sheer impact.

"Uuuurgh…!" Issei gritted his teeth as he felt that the bone of his arms cracked from the pressure, and the muscle on his legs ached from the strain. Bracing himself, the boy then swiped the three attackers' feet in one go and when the monsters lost their balances, with a defiant roar of his own, Issei immediately threw a round-house punch on the monster's belly, sending them flying to a distance.

RAAAAARGH!

However, not giving Issei a chance to even breath, the leader of the monster was already in front of the boy with its fist ready to be launched. Finding his position was not ideal to launch a counter-attack, Issei gritted his teeth as he embraced himself for the incoming attack.

CRASH!

Suddenly, a figure with bald head and a large bag-pack suddenly jumped out from the trees and the body of the Alpha monster suddenly blasted into smithereens when the man's fist made a contact with its own fist. The remaining beasts were seemed baffled at the spectacle and soon they quickly ran away after they realized that they had lost their leader.

The bald man landed on the ground, and Issei relaxed his stance to regain his breathing as he recognized the newcomer. After making sure that there were no more hostiles, Saitama put his bag down and he turned to his son. "'Sup, Ise. How are you feeling?"

"Just so you know, I had everything under control." Issei replied as he was still trying to regain his breathing.

"Sure you did, sure you did…" Saitama nodded as he turned away to rummage through his bag. Then he took out a first-aid box and he approached his son. "Okay, I'm no expert in treating injuries, but let's get you back in shape. Otherwise I can't start with your training."

Issei wanted to refuse, but he knew better than having his injuries remained untreated. Thus the boy only let out a breath and took a seat as Saitama clumsily tried to heal his son's wounds.

"Ouch, ouch! It stings! You really suck at this, don't you!?" Issei complained when Saitama applied alcohol too much on his bleeding.

"Shut up! I told you I never did this before!" Saitama shot back as he tried to clean Issei's wound.

"Ugh, give me that! I'll do this myself!" Issei attempted to snatch the bandages from Saitama.

"No, no! I got this, I got this!"

"Ouch! Watch it! Are you trying to kill me!?"

The rest of that night was spent with father and son quarrelling to each other over injuries.

_(Scene Break)_

The next morning, Saitama and Issei (clad in a new set of jersey pants and white T-shirt from his father) were standing next to each other with a radio placed behind them. Music was being played from the device and Saitama, holding a microphone, put up a stance and Issei followed suit.

As the music played out, Saitama started to sing while his expression remain plain as usual.

"**Hey, you guys! Did you brush your teeth?! It's your Saitama-san!"**

Then the two men began moving their hands following the beat from the radio.

"**We gotta make this training fun! So everyone, come with me and let's release power!"**

The two began to dance their bodies following the rhythm as the music played on.

"**Hey! Hey! 1, 2, 3, 4! You keep on growing until you die! Yeah!"**

Issei's eyes began to twitch as their movements started to involve some punching.

"**Okay, kids! The next part of the training is: Stretch your fist forward and break the front teeth of the enemy!"**

Issei's eyes twitched more as Saitama kept singing the instructions.

"**You're getting good, kids! You're getting the hang of this! The next part is finally-…!"**

"LIKE HELL IT IS!" Issei interrupted his father by a kick in the butt, causing Saitama to trip from loosing balance.

"**What are you doing, member Ise?!"** Saitama asked while kept holding on his microphone, as if the session had not ended yet. The radio was still playing.

"Shut up! Just what part of this shit is training?! I'm not trying to diet here!" Issei yelled back.

"**Diet? Come on, that's rude! This training program is the fruit of my thinking for a whole week straight, plus what I thought of just a while ago."**

"So, you made it on a spur of a moment, after all!?"

"**Ise."** Saitama's expression turned serious. **"You said you wanted to do this. So quit your whining and decide. Are you gonna do this? Or not?"**

Issei flinched and furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. Mulling over his decision and the pros and cons of the entire thing, Issei finally made up his mind, albeit a bit begrudgingly. "Fuck, I got it! I'll do this! I'll do this, you hear!?"

Satisfied at his son's answer, Saitama carried on with his microphone. **"Alright! Then, the next exercise is from stomach to breast…"**

"You just called this an exercise!" Issei retorted echoed among the trees.

Much to Issei's chagrin, the exercise went on for another two hours before the two proceeded to do 100 push-ups. "Seriously, was that exercise really necessary?" Issei asked between push-ups.

"Of course, it is. Warm-up and good exercise are essentials for a healthy body." Saitama replied nonchalantly, as if it was a matter of fact. The man was doing his push-ups as well.

Then the two moved on to 100 sit-ups. "Did Sairaorg also receive this kind of training?" Issei then asked between sit-ups.

"…Well, probably." Saitama replied. "I only gave him some instructions, some tips and he started off by himself. He's just that kind of guy who'll get stronger if we let him doing it alone."

Then Issei asked again during 100 squats. "Did you also do this kind of training?"

"Why, yes." Saitama replied confidently. "In fact, I managed to achieve my current strength after doing this for 3 years during my younger days."

"Are you fucking with me?!" Issei could not believe his father's testimony. "I trained my ass off for over 7 years and I'm still weaker than you!"

"Don't put your boxers in a bunch so soon, kid." Saitama retorted. "Every person has different case. Perhaps your case only takes longer than mine. In any case, I just know that you'll become really strong one day, just like me."

Issei took in the information for a second. "Just like you…" Then his eyes widened. "So I'm gonna be bald?!"

Saitama made incredulous expression at Issei's conclusion. "Wha-? No! Sheesh, what's so bad about being bald, anyway?!"

"I don't know! Can you imagine myself being bald like you?!" Issei shot back.

"Oh, quit your bitching already!" Saitama then proceeded to strap his bag-pack on Issei's back.

"Wait, what are we doing now?" Issei looked at the bag behind him.

"We're gonna run around this forest, as well as looking for something for our lunch and dinner. We can't just leave our supplies unattended, so while I'm watching over you, you're going to carry this all the way through. Make sure not to lose it, otherwise we're gonna be in a pinch."

"Wait, why are we have to look for food again? What's inside this bag?"

"Only some first-aid kits and few camping utensils. Nothing edible for sure." Then Saitama gave his son a light shove forward. "Now run, Ise! Run! I'll be right behind you."

Issei did not care anymore at that point. He finally decided to suck it up and follow his father's instructions for the remainder of his training as he began to run into the forest with Saitama in tow.

* * *

Few more days went by and on the tenth night, Issei (with his shirt torn apart, leaving him topless) and Saitama were sitting in surrounding the bonfire at the campsite. Issei could not help but awed at his father's strength during the training so far. Hunting for food had become much easier since every monster that came across would be dispatched by Saitama in a single punch. It made looking for food much easier, and by the looks of it, the monsters would likely leave them alone in fear of Saitama's power at some point. But at the same time, Issei felt envious of his father as well, due to the fact of his father only needed 3 years to obtain his current strength, as unbelievable as it sounded, while Issei was not even close to his power after more than 7 years of training. It agitated him, but Issei knew lashing out and acting rashly would get him further from his goal.

Issei then hummed the same song when he was cleaning the club room on the other day in order to calm his mind. Saitama, who was cooking a peace of some random monsters meat, suddenly widened his eyes slightly as a nostalgic feeling washed over him.

The bald man smiled at some image of the past and Issei caught Saitama was humming the song as well. "You know this song?" Issei asked while Saitama kept humming.

"…Yeah." Saitama stopped his humming. "That's the lullaby Haruka used to put you to sleep when you're still a toddler." He closed his eyes at the memory of Haruka cradling baby Issei in her arms while singing the melody. "She's one helluva singer, you know? I heard that she once worked as a singer in a local bar during her younger days."

"I see…" Issei's own lips twitched upward. "By the way, I haven't thanked you for helping Koneko-chan on the other day."

Saitama blinked at the gratitude before he simply waved it off. "Don't mind it. I was just passing by. Though I was surprised to see a little girl like her was sprawling on the floor with few barbells on top of her body."

"She really had it hard." Saitama mused. "About her sister and all."

"So you've heard her story."

"Yeah, I got the big picture from granny Venelana."

Issei decided to pretend not to hear his father just nonchalantly addressed his master's mother as 'granny'. However, what Saitama said next caught his attention. "No wonder Kuroka never said much about her past."

"Who?"

"Hm?" Saitama blinked at Issei.

"Who're you talking about?" Issei pressed on.

"Oh, it's Kuroka. That little girl… Koneko, right? Kuroka is Koneko's elder sister." At the same time he said those words, Saitama felt that he just slipped up something he should not have.

"And how do you know the name of Koneko-chan's elder sister?"

Seeing that lying would not get him anywhere, Saitama then grabbed a bite of his dinner before began to talk. "Because I know her."

Issei only furrowed his eyebrows. "Come again?"

"I met her around one or two years ago. I met the girl through Vali since she's on the same team as his around that time. She was actually the one who kidnapped me during Vali's attack at your school."

Issei remained silent for a minute, processing what his father revealed to him. "And?" Issei asked. "How's your meeting with her? What do you think about her?"

"…She's kind of different than the story."

"How different, exactly?"

"Hmm… She acted and behaved not differently than sane person in general. That's for sure." Saitama recalled his past interaction with the cat youkai. "She's simple minded, easy to talk with, sometimes obnoxious and kind of a bitch, but she's overall not a bad person. I was surprised when I found that Kuroka is a fugitive in the underworld. I guess that kind of explains why she's willing to go along with Vali's stunt back then."

"And are you sure that she wasn't messing with your mind when you interacted with her?" Issei asked.

"I… am pretty sure she did not pull anything on me. She's quite sincere when she's talking about her sister. Makes me think that there's something more behind her case being a rogue and all."

"And what makes you think that?" Issei asked sceptically.

"I told you, didn't I? Kuroka was pretty much a sane person during our last encounter. If what granny said about her was true, about her being all insane, drunken by power and all, pretty sure I would've dealt with her already."

"So you're saying that Kuroka did not kill her former master due to rampage?"

"Probably." Saitama shrugged. "I don't have a proof, after all."

Issei only let out a sigh as the conversation that night ended up with him having more questions. But soon he chose to think about it later as he went to sleep, preparing for the next day of training with his father.

_(Scene Break)_

It was the beginning of the eleventh day. After doing their usual warming-up, going for a quick hunt and ate breakfast, Issei was supposed to be allowed to remove the ring that sealed his Longinus already. However, much to Issei's shock, the ring suddenly shattered by itself before Issei could have touched it. Was it a program by Azazel prepared beforehand? Or perhaps the ring was overloaded by Issei's growing power? Whatever it was, Issei was now able to access the power of the Red Dragon Emperor once again. Issei could hear the Welsh Dragon yawned awake in his mind.

**[Hmm…. It's good to be back… Is it already 10 days already?]**

"Good morning, Ddraig… And welcome back." Issei greeted the dragon.

**[Yeah, good to see you again, partner. So I take your father will step up the training?]**

"'Sup." Saitama raised his hand at the gauntlet that manifested on Issei's left arm. "We never introduced ourselves properly, right? My name's Saitama, a hero for fun, nice to meet you." Issei inwardly scoffed at how Saitama addressed himself.

Ddraig snorted at how Saitama called himself as 'hero for fun', but chose not to pry into it. **[Hm, you're right. I'm Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon, one of the Two Heavenly Dragons. Nice to meet you, too.]**

"Oh, and thanks for looking after my son while I wasn't around." Saitama bowed his head slightly.

**[Hahaha, you're not as bad as my host thought you to be. The pleasure is mine, your son is a good kid and a good host.]** Ddraig proudly returned the courtesy.

"Alright, alright, can we stop the chatter for later?" Issei interrupted. "We're here to train, right?"

"Right." Saitama agreed and he took a look at his cell-phone. "Let's see…. According to Azazel, you're supposed to be able to use your Sacred Gear again around today. And… okay, the next instruction is for you to maintain your Scale Mail for as long as possible. So let's do this." Saitama turned to his son after reading the message from the fallen angel governor.

Issei blinked for a second before his lips turned into an excited grin. "Of course. Sounds interesting. Are you ready for this, Ddraig?"

**[You bet. Let's show him our drive!]**

"Okay." Saitama nodded before he turned to rummage his bag. A moment later, Saitama turned to Issei again with a small plate strapped on his chest. "Right, my next task for you is simple. You only have to break this plate over here." Saitama tapped his plate with his finger. "We're gonna keep going at it until I say stop. You can to use any means necessary as long as you're not dying on me for the rest of the training days. Is that okay with you?"

Issei's grin only widened at the instruction. "I'll grind your ass to the ground, old man…" Issei said confidently as he felt that he might have better odds since he could go all out now. After all, the last time they sparred did not allow him to use his Scale Mail due to their surroundings in the human world.

As Issei prepared his attacking stance, Saitama simply walked away to set a distance between him and his son then he only stood impassively while waved his hand in taunting. "Well, if you're ready… Come at me, kid."

Issei did not say anything else as he focused his attention to his father and he dashed towards his opponent in a streak of red light.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Thus, Saitama's 'real' training for Issei had just begun for the remaining 10 days.

_To be Continued…._

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**And that wrapped this chapter, folks. However, here's my first omake of this story. Enjoy!**

**OMAKE**

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me get my head around this story of yours." Issei held up his left hand while pinching the bridge of his nose with his right.

It was another night of Issei's training under Saitama's tutelage. The two were sitting around a bonfire with their dinner, another large chunk of roasted meat they plundered from another unfortunate beast that came across their path. Issei, exhausted from the training that day, with bandages wrapped around his torso and limbs had just started another conversation with his father. The topic of the conversation was, how his father ended up with his mother. And Issei was certainly not expecting something so unbelievable came from his father. Saitama's story itself only began from the part where he got sucked into a black hole.

"Basically, you're an illegal alien from _another_ dimension." Issei tried to summarize.

Saitama, with the plate for training still stuck on his chest, gave a nod. "Yep."

"You rescued mom from some random ogre-looking monster when you're wandering around the neighbourhood." Issei carried on, as he presumed that the monster was either a stray devil or some other rogue monster.

"That's right." Another nod.

"And you…. Ugh, knocked her up while you're living together for couple of years?" Issei felt nauseous when he talked about the birds and bees between his parents.

"Mm-hm." Saitama hummed in affirmation as he took a bite of his roast monster meat. "And it's that I married her, okay? Don't say that as if I was just banging her senseless or something." Saitama pointed out.

"And you expect me to believe that crap?" Issei's expression turned sceptical instantly. Saitama only stared blankly in return, his own face barely had any emotion.

Few seconds of stare-down later, Issei blinked as he let out a breath that he forgot had been holding for how long.

"Holy shit, you're not lying."/ **[Holy shit, he's not lying]**

Even Ddraig, who had been listening from inside Issei could not help but shocked at the story. Both heavenly dragon and its host said those five words in unison. "Then, how come did you get sucked into a black hole in the first place? And what about your identity and citizenship? There should've been no records about you-?!"

"Shh! Shh!" However, Issei's next question was interrupted by Saitama's hush. "One second, kid…" Saitama looked around while his index finger remained in front of his face.

Issei frowned for a second at Saitama's serious-looking expression, as if the latter hinted something was around them. Sharpening his senses, Issei looked around and then he caught a light buzzing sound in his ears. The boy blinked, then a moment later, Issei caught something small was flying around them and the bonfire.

"A mosquito….? That's quite a big one." Issei's eyes trailing around the flying insect as the vermin landed on Saitama's left hand.

The two simply stared at the said insect for a second until Saitama raised his free hand and slammed it on the spot where the mosquito rested on.

SLAP!

Issei blinked at how loud a slapping sound could be. A moment later, Saitama raised his hand, only to see the offending insect flew away from his left hand, unharmed. Then, Saitama put down his dinner and his hands suddenly blurred away, trying to catch the mosquito in mid-air. However, the mosquito somehow managed to evade all of Saitama's strikes. When the insect landed on Saitama's temple, the man slammed his hand on the spot, only to see the mosquito flew away unharmed again.

Saitama's eyes began to twitch when the mosquito started to fly too close to Issei. The booy simply stared for the flying vermin for a second before he caught it between his palms in a clap.

Saitama stared at his son who blew the insect carcass away from his palm into the fire. When Issei returned the stare with raised eyebrows, Saitama gave an approving nod and a thumbs-up. "Good hit, Ise."

"….Thanks?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows. _"What's his deal? It's just a mosquito…"_

However, when Saitama was about to return to his seat again, more familiar buzzing sounds were heard in the area. The two then found more mosquitos were attracted to their campsite, and as soon as the insect was in Saitama's line of sight, the man's body blurred away as he began to clapped around the air.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

Issei only stared wide-eyed at the after-image Saitama conjured as the latter desperately tried to kill the blood-sucking vermin, and Issei simply killed the mosquitos one by one with the same clap he used on the first one earlier.

Moments had passed, and Saitama was standing with his guard on and his face looked agitated. His eyes darting around the space as few mosquitos remained in the area. Issei on the other hand, unconsciously smirked upon seeing his father's face, feeling that he had triumphed over something for once against his own father. Though in a way, the situation looked kind of sad for Ddraig, who had no idea of how to make out of the situation as he watched for the entire time.

SLAP!

Issei just killed another mosquito and he threw the carcass into the fire. "Come on, old man! It's already 9 kills for me! Geez, why do you so suck at this?" Issei taunted his father.

"Shut up, you!" Saitama shot back as his eyes suddenly caught one last mosquito landed on his son's cheek.

Saitama then quickly moved in reflex. "Head's up, kid!"

"Wha-!"

SMACK!

Issei had no time to say anything as his father's hand slammed into his cheek, sending him skidded across the ground until he crashed into several trees.

"Did I get it?" Saitama growled as he looked at his hand. His eyes widened when he saw the mosquito was dead, its body squashed on Saitama's palm. Then Saitama's expression turned victorious as he clenched up his fist into the air. "Yes! I finally killed one! Holy shit! Ise, I finally managed to kill one without a spray!" Saitama cheered on, unknowing that his son had not gotten up yet.

Issei, with smoke coming out from his hand-printed swollen cheek, had forgotten of all his curiosity about his father's story. The only thing remained in his mind before he succumbed into consciousness was cursing and swearing to get back on his father in folds.

_**OMAKE End.**_

**What do you guys think? I hope I didn't make the characters too OOC. And for those who are curious about the song Issei hummed, the song was actually 'Hoshi yori Saki ni Mitsukete Ageru' by Hiroko Moriguchi.**

**Another thing, I am working my side project, the companion of this story, 'Dragons and Heroes: The Fist Marks'! Please look forward to it!**


	22. The Gathering of Young Devils (III)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Hello, folks! I recently published the companion of this story, Dragons and Heroes: The Fist Marks! Thank you for those who had read and reviewed, and for those who had not read them, please do so! I hope you like it! (^_^)**

**And before you started reading: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING. NOT HIGHSCHOOL DXD, NOT ONE-PUNCH MAN AND NOT OTHER SOURCES I USED AS REFERENCES FOR THE SCENES IN THIS STORY.**

* * *

**This chapter had been beta-edited by KoroshiyaBlaze**

* * *

**Chapter 21: The Gathering of Young Devils (III) – Party of Cats and Dragons**

Kiba Yuuto had just returned to the Gremory main residence from his last day of training. When he came into the house, he was greeted by his comrades, who just finished with their training as well. The knight could tell that his friends had improved exponentially since the last time he saw them, judging from their appearance especially Xenovia. The others also commented on his tattered jersey, showing how hard he had trained for the past 20 days. As the others from Occult Research Club continued to converse with each other about their training days, Yuuto decided to look around outside, considering they were still one person short.

It was when Issei and Saitama had just returned after their training at the Forbidden Forest. When the two arrived at the front of castle's gate, Yuuto was the one who found them first.

"Hey, Ise-kun, Saitama-san." Yuuto greeted the father and son duo as he took a good look at the latter two's appearance.

Saitama did not seem much different than any other day, however Issei was the one that caught Yuuto's attention. With his training attire reduced into only a pair of sweat-pants and his top replaced by something akin to animal's fur, the pawn looked like someone who had been living in a wild for years. There were even few bandages applied on his face.

Yuuto had seen Issei's muscular body during their training camp to fight the Phenex, but when the knight caught a glimpse of Issei's body under the latter's make-shift clothes, the pawn's muscle had become even more refined than before. Yuuto found himself swallowed a lump at the glimpse of Issei's abs.

"…'Sup, Kiba." Issei returned the greeting, Saitama himself only nodded in return. However, Issei inclined his head a bit when he found Yuuto was still gluing his sight on his body. "Um…. Hello? Kiba? Are you there?" The pawn waved his hand in front of the knight's face.

Yuuto immediately snapped back to reality and he blinked few times. "O-oh… Sorry for spacing out. It's just… You've gotten a good body."

Issei unconsciously took a step back with his eyebrows furrowing uncomfortably. "Um…. Thanks?"

Saitama who watched the interaction narrowed his eyes a bit at the handsome knight and he leaned in to whisper at his son's ear. "This kid is kind of creepy…" The hero was hushed away by the said son.

"And speaking of… You don't seem to have changed at all." Issei asked Yuuto to liven up the mood.

"Well, because I have the body-type that has difficulty in putting on more muscle. I'm rather jealous of you."

Before Issei could have replied, another figure came out. "Oh. Ise, Kiba, and Saitama-dono."

Issei and Saitama turned to look at an individual who was covered in bandages from head to toe. There were few blue strands coming out from the head, and the person's appearance was completely ragged.

""Err…. Who are you?"" With the same expression, father and son asked at the same time.

"It's Xenovia. How cruel of you two…. Forgetting me like that…" the girl actually sounded a bit insulted in her tone.

Issei and Saitama blinked at the name and they soon recognized after they caught the sight of the blue strands sticking out from between the bandages. "Oh… Ooh! Xenovia! Sorry, sorry. It's just… You know, the mummy get-up and all." Issei reasoned as his hand was gesturing about Xenovia's appearance.

"How rude… I have no intention of being preserved forever, you know?"

"Well, that's not what I…" Then Issei closed his eyes and he finally chose not to care anymore. "You know what? Never mind that. You two looked much stronger than before." Issei found himself could perceive the two knights' more refined aura and flow of magic power.

"Good work, you two." Saitama said with a nod. Yuuto and Xenovia smiled proudly in return.

"Ise-san! And father, too!"

"Asia!" Issei addressed the former nun who came out next.

Dressed in her nun outfit, Asia immediately threw herself to Issei's body, which the pawn caught her in an embrace out of reflex.

"I'm so glad that you're alright…." Asia muttered multiple drops of tears leaked from her eyes. "What happened to you? What with these clothes?" Asia ran her hand through Issei's make-shift clothes from the forest's beast skin.

"Yeah… Come to think of it, are those from….?" Yuuto asked with some idea in mind.

"Yeah, the forest happened. It got chilly during the couple of nights, so I decided to loot some skin from the animals I hunted down." Issei pulled on his top to emphasize. "I tell you, though. It's really hard to skin them with just your bare hands. Ddraig was adamant not to have Boosted Gear being used as a make-shift peeler."

"….Ah…" Yuuto nodded while Xenovia only stared with apprehensive look.

"Oh, now everyone from the group has returned." Rias finally came into view as she stepped out.

"Buchou! Long time no see!"

"…'Sup, Rias-chan."

Rias nodded briefly at Saitama and she also gulped when she set her eyes on Issei's body. Despite covered in Issei's new clothing, the girl could catch few glimpses of Issei's more refined muscles and abs.

"Ise, you…. You've become more robust than before…." Rias approached her pawn and she slid her hand inside Issei's clothes, getting the feeling of his muscles.

"….Buchou?" Issei started to become flustered as his master's hands were feeling him up.

Few moments passed, until finally Saitama broke it off. "Um, Rias-chan? You know that we're here and watching, right?"

Rias finally snapped back and she looked around to find that Saitama, flustered and teary-eyed Asia, and amused Yuuto plus Xenovia were watching her leaning her head and hands against Issei's chest.

Rias then quickly stepped away from Issei and cleared her throat to recompose herself. "Uhm… Sorry. Let's come in. Once you've taken a shower and change attire, we'll meet to report the outcome of our training." Rias said with a flustered face and hurried back inside.

As the group followed behind, Saitama approached beside Rias and whispered to her ear. "It's okay, you know. You'll get more chances to get a feel of my son."

Saitama's whisper was audible enough for everyone to hear. Rias' blush deepened, and Issei only sighed with an embarrassed, awkward face. Asia only whimpered while Yuuto and Xenovia only chuckled in amusement.

* * *

In Issei's room (the boy was not sure why his room, but he chose not to think much about it), everyone plus Azazel were sharing about what they had been doing for the past 20 days. Issei found that his comrades had their training much less rough than his. Even Xenovia and Yuuto were provided Gremory's private mountain cottage and villa during their training in the open field.

Issei, now clad in new set of clothes, was a tad jealous of everyone had it easy. Not only he had to fend for himself for the entire training, he still thought that being trained by his father was the last thing he wanted.

"So, Ise…" now it was Issei's turn to share. "How did your training go?"

Issei's eyes darted around, wondering where he should start. "Well… In a nutshell, this baldy here is a horrible mentor." Issei jerked his thumb at his father, resulting some others to snort.

"Hey."

Ignoring his father's retort, Issei carried on. "And the life-style in that forest didn't make things easier. Sometimes I couldn't sleep at night because he snored so loud that it attracted more monsters, he always over-cooked my hard-earned meal almost to the point it's no longer edible, and the fact that he really sucks on giving first aid! I've already lost count how many times he ended up making my wounds even worse."

"Well, first of all…" Saitama tried to save his own face. "…Okay, I'm sorry about the snoring. But secondly, it was only one time. Lastly, I told you that I'm totally new about tending wounds."

"Still, I thought you were gonna tear my arm off my body when your tried to fix my dislocated joint. That one really hurt! And the conclusion that you almost got me killed on many occasions while I'm trying my damn hardest to survive!"

"Hey, that's why I've been there to keep you alive!"

"Okay, then what about one night when I got us a good sleeping spot to avoid monsters, and you just had the audacity to scream something out-loud about someone throwing their boogers at you in your sleep?!"

"For your information, it was a terrible nightmare!"

"Nothing compared with our survival-of-the-fittest lifestyle!"

"Grow up, you cry-baby. It's all for the sake of your training."

"And ditching me in the nest full of those creepy crawlers was for the sake of my training too?"

There was a pause. "…..Yes!"

Issei grumbled then a gleam appeared on his eyes. "Well, at least I know there's one thing where I'm better than you." Then Issei clapped around with a mocking expression on his face.

Realizing what his son meant, Saitama narrowed his eyes. "Guh… That's a low-blow, kid…"

"You may say so, but it's still the fact that I outclassed you nine times out of ten on that night." Issei's smirk widened.

"You're being a sore-loser, you know that?"

"And you've been such a massive ass."

The father and son kept glaring at one another while everyone else had become intrigued at the spectacle.

"Um…" Rias chided in, snapping the father and son to look at her and everyone else, whom all were sporting curious and amused looks. "We missed a lot of things, didn't we?"

"No, no. Nothing."

"Nah, you didn't miss anything."

Issei and Saitama replied and shook their heads in unison. Rias and everyone smiled at the sight. They could tell that the two had become somewhat more acquainted with each other. Even Azazel could tell that Issei had improved a lot from the sheer aura leaking out from his body alone.

"If you say so. Alright, the meeting ends here. Tomorrow is the party. You're all dismissed for today." Azazel announced as he stood up. "By the way, Saitama. Since you're already here and all, what about joining the party as well? It's sudden, but I can talk to Sirzechs to reserve one more spot if you want."

Saitama gave the offer a thoughtful. After thinking for a while, Saitama closed his eyes. "Nah, I'm good. I guess I'm gonna go home tomorrow after a night's rest. Can't keep Haruka waiting for me, after all."

Everyone accepted and understood Saitama's reasoning as they proceeded to go their own way.

"Um…!"

When Saitama was about to go to his own room, a voice suddenly stopped him on his tracks, causing him to turn his head around at the source of the said voice. The source was a petite girl with white hair and hazel eyes.

"Err… Koneko-chan, right? What is it?" Saitama asked.

The rest also stopped on their tracks to see the exchange between the girl and the man.

Koneko fidgeted nervously for a minute before she spoke again. "Um… It's… About the other day…" Then Koneko bowed her head down. "Thank you very much for helping me."

Rias, Akeno and Issei smiled as they realized what Koneko was implying, while the others simply found the scene kind of touching.

Saitama only blinked before his mouth opened ever so slightly in recognition of what the girl meant. While Koneko was still bowing her head, she suddenly felt something gentle and warmth was placed on top of her hand. The girl swore it felt like someone's hand. The hand was hard, strong, yet so warm as it hit the spot, causing the girl to purr a little in bliss.

When the warmth ceased, Koneko lifted his head up and saw Saitama was already leaving. The man simply walked away while waving his hand off. "Just take better care of yourself."

Then Saitama vanished at the same time the door of his room slammed shut.

Koneko stared at the door where Saitama just left for a minute before she placed her hand on her head, on the spot that Saitama patted her. A smile came to her face, as the girl was somewhat reminded at the warmth of her deceased parents, which she had almost forgotten.

oXo

It was bedtime.

Our favourite Sekiryuutei found himself lying down on the bed with Xenovia and Asia by both of his side. Originally, they had been placed into their own separate rooms, but later the two girls came knocking on Issei's door, saying that they felt uncomfortable sleeping in such a luxurious bedroom. Issei seemed to understand their nervousness and thanks to him used to sleep with both Rias and Asia on his bed, Issei and Asia were able to sleep just fine while Xenovia being the only one awake as she stared at the ceiling.

'_Hmm…. I can't sleep… Even we're just sleeping, having a man makes me nervous somehow…'_ Xenovia muttered in her mind. Then she glanced at sleeping form of Issei and Asia. _'I heard those two have been sleeping on the same bed…. How nice…'_

"….Uuugh…"

"…Ng?" Xenovia blinked when she heard Issei was mumbling something. "…Ise?"

"Gh…. Don't mess with me, you damn baldy….."

Xenovia blinked again at Issei's words. Issei himself started to move around a little on the bed.

"Stupid old man….." Issei continued mumbling in his sleep as his expression somewhat troubled.

Asia who was nudged thanks to Issei's movement finally woke up. "…Munya…?" Asia yawned cutely as she rubbed her sleepiness away from her eyes. "….Ise-san…?"

"No…. Don't give me that shit…."

Now, Asia blinked again at Issei who was still talking with his eyes closed. Then she turned to look at Xenovia, who was watching in amusement. "Um…. Xenovia-san? Is Ise-san…?"

Xenovia snorted. "Yeah, I think Ise here is dreaming about Saitama-dono."

"Heee…. The hell you doin'….?"

Asia heard Issei sleep-talked again and she giggled. "…Fufufu… It's kind of cute of him. Right, Xenovia-san?"

"I guess so… It's kind of rare to see this side of Ise." Xenovia smiled in return.

"Then I'll show you I can be a hero better than you, you stupid caped baldy….. Strong enough to protect everyone around me… My friends…. Nyem, nyem… Kicking your ass….."

Despite being unconscious, Issei's last statement caused Asia and Xenovia to widen their eyes. A few seconds later, both of their expression turned into fond smiles.

Asia then ran her hand on Issei's head. "Yes, I'm sure you'll be a great hero in future, Ise-san…"

"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?" Xenovia commented while she rested her head on her palm.

The moments passed by with Xenovia and Asia looked fondly at sleeping Issei, with the second kept stroking the latter's head fondly. "….Huh…? What do ya mean looking I get that outfit…? That stupid…." Until Issei started mumbling again. "Huh….? The mirror…..?"

Few seconds later, Issei's eyes suddenly shot wide open and immediately woke up with a cry. "GAAH! I'M BAAAALD!"

"Kyah!"

"What the-!?"

Asia and Xenovia were startled at Issei's sudden outburst. The boy himself then blinked, before it took only few seconds for him to realize that he had been dreaming. The pawn then ran his hand through his hair and let out a small sigh. "….Ah, a dream."

"Ise-san…?"

Issei turned to see Asia and Xenovia were giving him worried looks. "Uh… So sorry about that, girls. It's just… It was a terrible nightmare!"

**[KUHAHAHAHAHA! Even in your dreams you never ceased to amuse me, partner! HAHAHAHAHA!] **Ddraig did not bother to contain his amusement as a roaring laughter came out from Issei's left hand.

"Shut up, Ddraig!"

Asia and Xenovia glanced at each other before the latter asked again. "…What happened?"

"I was like…. An E.T." Issei replied and released another sigh of relief. "But thank goodness it was all just a dream…"

Then the door of Issei's room burst open, revealing Rias, Akeno, Koneko and Yuuto in their respective sleepwear. "Are you okay, Ise? I heard a scream."

Issei blinked at his friends' arrival and quickly got up again to explain the situation. "Um, really sorry about this. I just had a bad dream, that's all. You guys can go back to sleep. I'm gonna be fine."

Before Rias could have asked more, Saitama appeared from behind the teenagers. "….(Yawn)….What happened? I heard a noise." Saitama asked lazily while he was still rubbing his eyes.

Issei then grimaced at the sight of his father, which in turn, reminded him of his 'nightmare'. "Oh, for the love of…! No, nothing's wrong! Much appreciated, but your face is the last thing I need to see tonight! Go back to your room, pops!" Issei then proceeded to bring Saitama back to his room.

Saitama then blinked at his son suddenly pushing him around. "Hey, what the shit!?"

As he kept ushering Saitama out of his room, Issei turned one last time to his friends. "It's okay, everyone. I got it from here. Sorry again about the noise. Goodnight!" Then Issei dragged Saitama away until they disappeared at the corner.

Everyone from the Occult Research Club only stared at the direction where the father and son had disappeared into and would turned to Asia and Xenovia who were still on Issei's bed.

"….What just happened?" Rias asked as she pointed at the direction. Asia and Xenovia only shrugged in return, barely knew anything.

* * *

It was the evening of the next day and Issei was preparing himself for the party sponsored by the Satan himself. Saitama had gone away that noon to catch the train leaving for the human world, but before he left, the man made time to buy Issei a set of black suit along with red tie, saying that it was a gift.

Currently, the boy was alone in the parlor waiting for his friends. He had on an armband with the Gremory symbol inscribed on it, so the boy would be allowed to enter the party.

"Hyoudou?"

The silence was broken by a familiar voice and Issei turned his head to see Saji Genshirou approaching him. The member of Student Council was wearing the summer uniform of Kuoh Academy.

"Saji? Why are you here?"

"Ah, Kaichou will be going to the meeting place along with Rias-senpai and I followed her here. Kaichou went to meet with Rias-senpai and after that, I inevitably ended up wandering aimlessly around the mansion, until I arrived here."

"Hmm…. I see." Issei nodded as Saji took a seat beside him.

"The game will be taking place very soon now." Saji spoke with serious expression.

"Yeah." Issei took in Saji's words.

"I've trained. And guess what?" A grin appeared on Saji's face. "I was trained by a dragon king! Isn't that cool?"

Issei blinked and he turned to Saji. "Dragon king? Are you talking about old man Tannin?"

"….You know Tannin-san? And 'old man'…?" Saji asked, not expecting Issei to know the former dragon king so casually.

Issei shrugged. "Well…. He offered himself to send me to my training venue. Anyway, how's your training with him?"

Saji slumped as he let out a sigh. "Well… Simply put, there were many times when I thought I was gonna die. Tannin-san kept chasing me around while spewing giant fireballs at me every day."

"Wow, seems you had it tough." Issei commented.

"And speaking of, how did your training go? Who was in charge of training you?"

There was a pause before Issei replied with a sigh. "….My old man."

Saji blinked before confirming. "…Your dad?" Issei nodded.

"Okay…. How did it go?"

Issei leaned back and stared at the space. "I couldn't put a scratch on him… Even when I was using my Scale Mail."

Saji looked at Issei with widened eyes filled with disbelief. "Seriously? Okay, I've been meaning to ask this… Is your dad really a human?"

"Strangely enough, yes." Issei shrugged. Then his expression turned to that of anger. "And what got on my nerves was that he was going easy on me for the entire training!"

"You… don't seem to like him very much."

Issei snorted. "Hmph, try to spend a week with him. You'll find his ever-present poker face is getting on your nerves."

Another silence fell between the two until Issei decided to break it off. "You know what, enough about training. Tell me, does Sona-kaichou really want to build a school?"

The two boys began talking about their dreams. Saji passionately showed his determination to always be there for his master, despite his lewd goal to impregnate Sona he once declared on the other day. Issei's view on Saji had become better as a smile crept up on his face.

"You know what, Saji? I think you're gonna make a wonderful teacher."

"R-really?" Saji asked with hopeful tone.

"You bet. And you have my full support on this." Issei raised up his right fist.

Knowing the gesture, Saji held up his left fist and the boys fist-bumped. "Thanks, Hyoudou… But that doesn't mean that I'm gonna go easy on you on the game later!"

Issei gave a challenging grin. "Never dream of it. Give me all you got and I'm sure as hell I won't hold back either."

The two boys then laughed at each other before Saji took a note of Issei's get-up. "That's a nice suit you have there. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, this? My old man bought it for me before he left today."

"Heh… That's nice of him. I only have this uniform for myself." Saji tugged his uniform. "You… thanked him, didn't you? I thought you don't like him and all…"

"Of course I…. thanked him…" Issei found himself swallowing a lump before continuing. "Besides, it'd be a waste if I don't wear it, right?"

"Sorry for the wait, Ise. Oh, Saji-kun came as well."

A female voice was heard, causing the two boys to turned their heads towards the source. They found the girls from ORC and Sona Sitri, clad in beautiful dress. They had put on make up and their hair had been done up nicely.

Issei and Saji were silent for a while, staring dumbly at the girls. Both men had their faces flushed at the sight. Fortunately, Saji was the one who snapped back to reality and quickly tapped Issei's shoulder.

"Hyoudou! Oi, Hyoudou!"

Issei blinked as he also returned from the trance. "Huh, wha-?" Issei looked stupefied. "What is it?"

Saji gestured at the girls again and Issei realized that his friends had arrived. "Ise? Are you okay?" Rias tilted her head while looking at him worriedly.

"Oh, sorry…" Issei shook his head out of the gutter. "It's just… You all look very beautiful tonight." The boy said sheepishly. "Kaichou." Issei made time to give a greeting nod towards Sona, who also nodded back in return.

The girls immediately blushed deeply at the compliment. However….

"Gasper, why are you wearing a dress?" Issei asked in calm tone at the male who was wearing woman's clothing.

"B-because it looks so cute. I want to wear a dress too…." The dhampir nervously replied.

Issei could only sigh at this. Then, here was the massive sound of something flying in the garden along with a soft tremor in the ground. Soon, a butler came and informed them. "Tannin-sama and his family have arrived."

Issei raised his eyebrows. "Tannin? What's he doing here?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." Saji said beside Issei. "Tannin-san offered to escort Kaichou's peerage to the party. He also agreed on giving a ride for you guys too! Isn't he amazing?"

Issei blinked at the news. He looked at his master, whom said that she had been informed beforehand by Sona. "Wow, that's amazing, indeed." Issei smiled as he thought that riding a dragon to a party sounded rather stylish.

When everyone went out to the garden, Tannin and ten other dragons around his size had been waiting for them. On the back of those dragons, the rest of Sona Sitri's peerage were sitting on stand by. **"I came just as promised, Saji Genshirou."** The Blaze Meteor Dragon looked at the Sitri pawn before he turned to Issei. "**And it's good to see you again, Hyoudou Issei."**

"Yeah, it's good to see you again, old man."

"Hey, Hyoudou! Show proper respect! You're talking to a dragon king, you know!" Saji whispered furiously.

Apparently, Tannin's ear was sharp enough to catch Saji's scolding. **"Hahaha, it is fine. You also don't need to be all formal towards me, Saji Genshirou…" **The dragon simply laughed it off.

Then the dragon addressed the others. **"While you all ride on my back, I'll place a special barrier around you. With that, your hair and clothes won't get ruined by the wind, since those things are important to women."**

"Thank you, Tannin-sama. We'll be relying on you until we get to the meeting place. Are you sure it's fine with people of Gremory coming along as well?" Sona asked politely.

"**It's fine, milady Sona. Both you and milady Rias are really beautiful tonight. And please leave that matter to me."** Tannin replied after complimenting the girls' looks.

oXo

While the dragons were flying in the sky towards the party venue, with Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri's peerage were riding on their backs, Issei was sitting on Tannin's head, courtesy the dragon himself wanted to have another talk with the Red Dragon Emperor. Here he was, mesmerized by the view of the scenery from the sky as he enjoyed the wind flowing to his face.

**[For me to see this scenery from on top of a dragon, it's an experience that can't be described.]** Ddraig commented rather bitterly.

"**Hahahaha, that is an interesting experience, Ddraig. However, there are only three mighty dragons that are still active left, including myself. No, since I was reborn as a devil, the only real ones remaining are Ophis and Tiamat. The rest have either been sealed or have retired. Yu-Long and Midgardsormr never come out onto the surface anymore. You, Albion, Fafnir and Vritra have been sealed into Sacred Gears. —In all ages, strong dragons have been suppressed. Strong dragons are a fearful existence, after all."** Tannin replied with a hint of loneliness in his tone.

"Now that you mention it… Old man, why did you become a devil?" Issei brought up the question.

"**One reason is that in this era where there aren't any big battles anymore, I thought that I would get to fight various guys if I participated in the Rating Games. There's another reason."**

"Another reason?"

"**There is a special fruit that grows for a specific race of dragons to eat. The fruit is called Dragon Apple. However, the ones that grew in the human world have become extinct because of sudden environmental changes. Now, the fruit only grows in the Underworld, but dragons are hated here. They're detested by both devils and fallen angels. So I made a deal with the devils. I became a devil and serve them, then in return I will be given a territory where dragon apples grows once I exceeded high-class." **

"I see… So those dragons who were in need of those fruits went to your place?"

"**Yes. Thanks to that, they avoided becoming extinct. I also performed research on how to artificially grow the dragon apple in my territory successfully. It's a special fruit, so the research takes time. Still, if it lets there be a future for the dragon race, it's better to continue."**

Issei came to admire Tannin for his effort for the sake of other dragons. No wonder Tannin was titled as a dragon king. "You're really a nice dragon, old man."

"**Gahahahaha! To be praised by the Red Dragon Emperor, such a rare chance! Actually, you're the second person told me that. The first person being your father."**

"…Really? Him?"

"**Yes. Ever since Saitama was given permission to visit the underworld, he would sometimes come over to my territory for sightseeing. Even now he would give me an extra hand to take care of my dragon apple garden."**

"…I see." Issei found himself smiling. "Guess that's just what my pops would do."

"**Speaking of, I heard that Saitama was in charge for training you. How did it go?"**

Issei's smile turned into a small frown. "Uh… I'd rather not to talk about it…"

Tannin snorted and the snort turned into another laugh. **"Gahahahaha! From that answer alone I can tell he has done a number on you!"** Tannin then stopped laughing. **"In any case, I can see that you've become much stronger than the last time we met. But be careful, Hyoudou Issei. The wielder of Vritra over there has also shown impressive spurt of growth and has received several power-ups from Azazel as well."**

**[….I see…]** Ddraig mused, as if he caught on something. **[I sensed that Vritra's presence within that kid has become stronger than ever. So that kid had been given more of Vritra's Sacred Gears, huh?]**

"Wait, what are you talking about? And did I just hear that there is more than one Sacred Gear that contains Vritra?" Issei asked.

[**Ah, right. I haven't explained to you about this. Actually, when Vritra was defeated in battle by a certain god, his soul was split and sealed into multiple Sacred Gears. I'm not sure how many they are, but Vritra's consciousness will become stronger when more of his Sacred Gears are gathered. You should heed Tannin's words and look out for that kid, partner… It won't be long until he can master the power of Prison Dragon]**

Issei took in the information and he turned behind to look at Saji who was conversing with the girls from student council. When Issei focused again, he really could see that there was black aura leaking out from Saji's body. And it only made the Red Dragon Emperor smirked eagerly.

The flight went on until the dragons finally arrived at the meeting place.

* * *

At the edge of the Gremory territory, there was a high-class, high rise hotel reserved by the Satan. Issei was amazed by the sheer mountainous size as the boy was looking at it from the top of Tannin's head. The dragons landed to drop their passengers on the open field that seemed to be a sports field. After exchanging gratitude, the dragons left the young devils as there was a separate place that accommodated devils with larger size like Tannin. Gremory group and Sitri group then split up and took a different pick-up due to another quick appointment. When the Gremory group was being escorted inside their own limousine, Rias picked up a comb from her purse to tidy Issei's hair up. It appeared that Issei's hair had become disheveled, due to Issei's sitting spot on Tannin's head was not covered by barrier against wind current.

"Buchou… You don't need to, I can comb my hair just fine." The pawn tried to refuse his master politely.

"Stay put, Ise. It's also my job as a king to make sure my servants are presentable." Rias insisted as she just finished doing her pawn's hair.

Letting out a sigh, Issei then asked. "Then, Buchou… What about Azazel-sensei?"

"It seems that he will head here after joining up with Onii-sama and the others on another route, since they're really close friends, after all…"

"I see…"

Then Rias put on serious look. "Listen, Ise. You probably didn't know since you were sitting on top of Tannin-sama's head, but earlier, I declared a war on Sona. I told her that we'll defeat her for the sake of our dream."

Issei only blinked at the information as Rias carried on. "She aims to create a school – a Rating Game School. For the sake of building that, Sona studied the school system of the human world while living as a student there. The schools of the human world, which anyone can enter, are important for her, after all."

Taking in the information, Issei then smiled. "I see… Actually, Saji also told me earlier that he would become a teacher in that school. And his eyes were saying that he won't back down no matter what."

With the face of determination, Rias concluded. "Even so, we will win. We have our own dreams and goals as well."

Issei nodded as he understood well. Going half-heartedly would only insult the dreams of others, especially if those others were your friends and rival.

The group's limousine soon arrived at the hotel, then the youngsters were welcomed by numerous employees. The group entered the lobby, checked-in, and twent to the elevator.

"The party will be held on the top floor, Ise. If you're called out to by any people from distinguished families, make sure to greet them properly, okay?" Rias began her final briefing.

"As you command, milady." Issei bowed slightly before asking another question. "But tonight's party was hosted by devil kings for young devils, right?"

"That is the official stance. In truth, people won't get very excited even once we enter the room. This is an annual custom. If anything, it's more like a gathering for the members of all the distinguished families to meet. We, the next family heads, are just extras, while it's really a party for our fathers to enjoy themselves. In reality, they've made reservations at the nearby facilities until the fourth or fifth after-parties. Proof of that is that they arrived at the meeting place separately from us. They probably gathered together before the young people arrived and may have already finished their alcohol." Rias grumbled with displeased expression.

Akeno and Yuuto also had bitter smiles on their faces. Issei only scoffed in understanding.

_**[I guess I remember why I wasn't that fond of devils in the beginning…]**_ Ddraig muttered in Issei's mind.

When the group finally arrived at the party hall, every attendant's eyes were directed at Rias Gremory. Breaths of admiration came out as everyone greeted the red head.

"Princess Rias. You've become more and more beautiful…"

"Sirzechs-sama must also be proud."

Praises were exchanged while the group kept walking among the party crowds. Gasper was sticking on Issei's back like a life-line. "Uuu, there's so many people…"

Despite the whimper, Issei noticed that the dhampir had improved. He still felt nervous, but he no longer chose to run away nor having his Sacred Gear going haywire, and the pawn inwardly proud of the said improvement.

"Ise, we're making our rounds of greetings."

Issei snapped his head at Rias' instruction and blinked once. Of course, someone with Rias's stature would only be natural to follow the etiquette of the social gathering like this. Issei smiled lightly and nodded, "Understood, milady." And the Occult Research Club split up while the king and her pawn went around the hall to greet the other high-class devils.

oXo

Issei was now sitting on one of the chairs prepared in a corner of the floor along with Asia and Gasper after the pawn had finished greeting around the guests with his master. The boy was not particularly tired, but he found that he needed to accompany the two of rather shy bishops in a place where there was a lot of people going around.

As his eyes scanned around the party, Issei spotted his master and her queen, conversing with some female devils. He scanned around again and saw Yuuto was being surrounded by many of his female fans.

Occasionally, there were male devils that greeted the cute Asia. Not that Issei could not understand, but Issei found that most of those devils were throwing somewhat lecherous looks at the girl. Fortunately, a glare was enough to fend off the hyenas trying to hit on her.

Xenovia then came over them with a massive quantity of dishes of extravagant foods placed on her hands. "Ise, Asia, Gasper… I've gotten some food. Dig in."

The three mentioned then accepted the food gratefully. "Thanks. Sorry about this, Xenovia…"

"No, it's nothing. This amount is inexpensive. Look, it's better for Asia to have a drink too." Xenovia waved off Issei's apology as she handed a glass of juice to Asia.

"Thank you very much, Xenovia-san…Since it's my first time doing this kind of thing, I was nervous and my throat got dry", the said bishop took the glass and drank from it.

As the group was enjoying their food, Issei caught someone was staring and approaching him. Issei then recognized the person when they were close enough.

"I-it's been a while, Red Dragon Emperor." The person greeting Issei was a young girl in a fancy dress with her blonde hair tied into twintails with large, drill-like curls and blue ribbons keeping them in place.

"Hi, err…. Ravel-san, correct?" Issei asked.

"Yes, I'm Ravel Phenex. It appears you still remember me." Ravel gave a curtsy bow.

"Well, of course I do. Your face is hard to forget." Issei's answer caused Ravel's face to flush slightly. "Anyway, how are you? How's your brother doing?"

Ravel replied with a sigh. "…He has been in low spirit ever since his defeat by your hands. Well, since he had always relied on his talent and got cocky because of it, his battle with you should have been a good lesson for him."

Issei blinked at how harsh Ravel just dissed her own brother. "Wow, truly no mercy from you. You were also part of your brother's group, right?"

"About that, I've currently finished trading, and I've now become my mother's servant. My mother traded away an unused piece she had in exchange for me and said that she would trade me again when I found someone whose family I want to become part of. I'm essentially a free Bishop now, since my mother doesn't participate in the games."

Issei tilted his head at the new term. "…Trading?"

"I guess a low-class like you won't know much about Rating Game just yet. According to the rules, it's possible to exchange pieces between Kings, on the condition that they're the same kind of piece."

Issei took in the information. "So there's a rule that allows such thing…" However, from another point of view, seeing that servants and peerage members could be 'traded', as if they were objects made Issei inwardly grimaced.

"B-by the way, Red Dragon Emperor…"

Issei looked back at Ravel, who seemed a bit nervous. "Um, Ravel-san… You can stop with the Red Dragon Emperor. There's no need to call me so formally. After all, we are around the same age and everyone calls me 'Ise', so you can also do that as well."

"I-Is it really okay for me to call you by your name!?" Ravel stuttered with a somewhat happier expression. Before Issei could have answered, Ravel quickly cleared her throat and regained her composure. "…T-Then, I'll oblige and call you 'Ise-sama' without reservation."

"Uh… Please, you don't have to use honorifics-"

However, Issei was quickly interrupted again. "No, this is important!"

Issei was taken aback at how serious Ravel was taking things. In a way, the young girl kind of resembled Xenovia and Issei had to hold down amused chuckles.

"Ravel-sama, one of master's friends is looking for you." A woman with a half-faced mask came and spoke to Ravel.

"I understand." Ravel nodded at the woman, before he returned to Issei one more time. "Ise-sama, the next time we meet, would you like to have some tea with me? A-A-A-And if it's okay with you, would you like to have a homemade cake p-p-prepared by me?"

However, before Issei could have responded with anything, Ravel suddenly gave another curtsy bow and quickly left. _'Is she… inviting me or what? I haven't said anything and she suddenly bolted away.' _Issei thought as he blinked incredulously at Ravel's behaviour.

_**[You still have a long way about learning women's hearts, partner]**_ Ddraig commented.

"Hey, Hyoudou Issei." Issei then turned to look at the masked woman who came earlier. "Remember me?"

Issei blinked again at the woman. He stared and he was embarrassed that he somewhat could not recall the woman.

_**[You met her at the Rating Game with Phenex. You bashed her face and broke her mask in the process]**_ Fortunately for Issei, his dragon immediately fed him with information.

"Err… Right! You're from Riser Phenex's peerage… Um…. Clarabella, correct?"

Inside Issei's mind, Ddraig face-palmed at his host's poor memory. Thankfully, the woman before him did not seem to be too offended at Issei's mistake. "…My name is Isabella. And yes, I'm a Rook of Riser Phenex-sama."

"Oh… Sorry." Issei rubbed his head with a sheepish look. "Well, Isabella-san. Are you here as Ravel's escort?"

"Well, something like that. Because that girl has things that she can't grasp as a child, like our master Raiser-sama…" Isabella shrugged. "And ever since that Rating Game, Ravel has only talked about you. She seems to be very impressed by your power."

"Is that so? If anything, the last time I saw her in that game, I probably did something wrong to her."

Isabella was amused at Issei's response. "…No, it's the opposite. Well, it's fine. You'll understand eventually."

"Okay…?" Issei said uncertainly. "Anyway, can you tell her that I'd love to taste her cake sometimes."

"Really? Well, thank you for that." Isabella giggled. "Ravel will be happy to hear that. Now then, please excuse me. Enjoy the rest of the party." Isabella waved her hand and walked away.

"…Ise-senpai, you surprisingly have a lot of devil friends…" Gasper commented from Issei's side, while giving a look of admiration.

"Well, I don't know if 'friends' is a correct word, but… Meh. I guess I do know some people." Issei ceased the thought as music began to play and everyone began to dance with their respective partner.

While he watched people dancing across the hall, Issei caught Asia beside him was mesmerized by the sight of people holding hands and moved across the floor. It seemed to be the first time for the girl to be at dancing event. Then with a smile, Issei stood up and he outstretched his hand towards Asia, who looked between the boy and the hand in confusion.

"I-Ise-san…?"

"Would you like to dance, Asia?" Issei asked with gentle tone. The boy believed it would be a waste for the girl to miss her first dance.

Asia then blushed and looked nervous. "B-but I don't know how to…."

"It's alright." Issei still gave his hand. "I'll guide you." Issei reassured. The music at the moment was not particularly that quick-paced. With the lesson Venelana had given him, the boy had quite confidence.

Asia looked straight into Issei's eyes. After a minute, her lips curled into a smile and she slowly grasped Issei's hand. "T-then, I'll be in your care, Ise-san…"

Issei nodded and the two walked towards the dancing floor. Placing a hand on Asia's waist and his other hand grasping Asia's right gently, Issei waited for Asia to ready herself as the girl placed her free hand on Issei's shoulder. After a nod, they waited for a moment until they got a right rhythm to move and then they steadily took steps across the floor.

The music was normal-paced, Issei and Asia's movement was not that different than everyone else, thus nobody took attention at the two new devils, safe for those who were more familiar with them. Everyone from Occult Research Club was a bit surprised to see Issei was leading Asia on the dance floor. The girls; Rias, Akeno and Xenovia felt slightly jealous at the sight.

Issei and Asia stopped moving at the same time the music had ceased playing. With a bit short breath, Asia took a long one before she returned her gaze at Issei, whom seemed was not tired at all. "Thank you for the dance, Ise-san. It's really fun." Asia said with beaming smile.

"Anytime, Asia. I'm glad you like it." Issei returned the courtesy.

Rias wanted to ask Issei for a dance, however, she was beaten to the punch by her own queen. Rias found herself gaping at Akeno who quickly strode over and cling on Issei's arm, saying that she was amazed at Issei's dance and wanted to have a round as well.

Then, when everyone was prepared for the next session, Rias was approached by Yuuto instead. "I don't know Ise-kun already knew how to lead a woman into a dance." The knight chuckled in amusement before he turned to her master. "Would you honour me a dance, buchou?"

Yuuto had been in Rias' group for a long time. They were comrades in arms and Rias had acknowledged Yuuto to be a perfect gentleman. As much as she would prefer to dance with Issei, in a social event like this, who was she to refuse her own Knight?

Thus, while dancing with her knight, Rias could only steal some jealous glances silently at Issei and Akeno who danced across the hall with their bodies pressed against each other. From her expression alone Rias could tell that her Queen was using every possible opportunity she got to fulfil her own 'desires'.

What infuriated Rias more was every time the session ended, Rias kept got herself beaten to the punch by the other girls, from Xenovia, Koneko, Ravel, even some from Sona's peerage. She had to hold down the urge to wail as she could only watch Issei leading the girls on the dance floor.

"Thanks for the dance, Ise-kun." One of Sona's peerage, Tsubasa Yura, smiled and she walked away back to her own group after she thanked Issei to be her dance partner. The boy let out a breath, due to the slight fatigue from all the dancing with the girls from his own group and several from Sona Sitri's group.

When Issei turned around to retreat from the dance floor, the boy spotted her master was glaring and pouting at him. Issei sweat-dropped, realizing that he had not danced with his master while he had done so with the others. When their eyes made a contact, Rias huffed and averted her gaze away in irritation.

Issei had to think fast how to placate his master's temper. Seeing that the orchestra was preparing for another song, Issei then found one way to cheer Rias up.

Rias noticed her pawn approaching at the corner of her eyes, but she was still pouting and refused to look at him. Issei gave a sheepish smile before he stretched out his hand. "Would you honour me one last dance, milady?"

The said lady glanced at Issei and his hand. After contemplating for a minute, Rias decided to get the only chance she had, before she took his hand with a smile. However, soon she realized that the music this time was quite quick-paced, and she was not sure if Issei could dance with her with such rhythm. "Um, Ise… Are you sure you want to have another dance? You must be tired after dancing with the others…"

"Buchou." Issei simply smiled and gave her a confident look, making Rias flushed slightly. "Please have more faith in your servant."

Rias was silenced for few seconds before she smiled and nodded, then she let herself to be led by Issei to the middle of the hall. When the music began and Rias stepped in with Issei, all eyes were attracted at the beautiful young woman with red hair in dress, dancing in the middle of the hall.

Every step, every turn, were done perfectly with gracefulness as Rias and Issei spun across the dancing floor. At this point, everyone else had stopped their own dancing, mesmerize at how well-done the young couple follow the rhythm of the music with their body movement. It was breath-taking when Rias bravely took quick steps and lunged, only to be caught and lifted high in the air by Issei. The boy kept stepping along with the music while lifting his master's body above him, and he lowered his arms to keep Rias' body close to him as he took another spin. Like flowing water, Rias then let her body sprawled to the ground, only to be pulled back again soon after by Issei, who lifted her up again in the air for the finishing pose.

Meanwhile, when Koneko was watching the performance, she suddenly caught something at the corner of her eye. A black cat was peeping from outside one of the windows and threw a mischievous look at the white haired girl when it knew it was being watched. Then, as the cat vanished, Koneko's face went pale and she looked around before she gave one last stare at Issei and Rias. While everyone's attention was still on the dance, she silently walked away until she got out from the ballroom.

The music ended at the same time Issei took another fluid spin and the two stopped with their hand outstretched, while their body remained close to each other perfectly. The room then filled with cheer as the audience, other attendants of the party were praising and clapping at Issei and Rias' performance. The said two were sweating a bit from the dance, but both of them had satisfied expression on their faces.

As the two made their ways to retreat from the dance floors, Rias and Issei were approached by their friends, with Azazel and Rias's mother in tow.

"Ise-san! Buchou-san! That was amazing!" Asia said with glittering eyes.

"Fufufu…. I never thought Ise-kun could dance like that." Akeno said while placing her hand on her flushed cheek.

"Well done, Ise-san. It seems you still remember my lesson. And the lifting up my daughter was done perfectly." Venelana complimented with a satisified tone.

"Hahaha… Thank you, everyone. That was nerve-wrecking for me, actually. It's the first time I had to dance in front of lots of people." Issei said sheepishly.

"Hahaha, stop being modest, Ise." Azazel commented. "You must be parched from all those dancing. Here, have some." Azazel handed out a glass of what it seemed to be water.

"Oh, thanks, sensei." Issei took it without thinking since he was indeed thirsty. When Issei downed the glass, he felt the drink tasted rather funny, but he finished all nonetheless.

"Azazel, Ise-san is still a minor to drink something like that." Venelana chastised Azazel when the woman recognized the drink Issei just took in.

Azazel only laughed it off. "Bah, relax! This is a party, you're never too young to drink! Right, Ise?"

"….Yeah, I guess so…. Hic~!" Issei replied with a hiccup, as his face was heavily flushed. "This drink…. I like it. Hic~! Can I have another?" Issei rose his now empty glass.

'_Oh, dear…'_

The others sweat-dropped at Issei's unexpected change of attitude through one glass of liquor. Issei gave a goofy smile as he scanned around him. "Huh…? Hic~! There seemed to be a lot more people….. And why is the room moving so much?" Issei wobbly turned around. "And…Why is there four… Hic~! No, six buchou…?" Issei asked as he looked at Rias and Venelana.

"Ise, are you alright?" Rias said worriedly as she supported Issei's wavering posture.

"Uh… Yeah, I'm fine… Hic~! Just feeling so funny right now…" Suddenly, Issei lost balance and he ended up burying his face into Rias' cleavage, surprising everyone. "Mmmhh….. Buchou's breast…." Issei muttered. "Did it always feel this good…? Hic~!"

"Wha-! Ise, no! Not in a place like this!" Rias panickedly tried to push Issei away, but at the same time also worried over his well - being.

"Awawawa, Ise-san! You can't harass buchou-san like this!" Asia said as her face was beet red, trying to separate Issei from Rias.

"Hmm…. So Ise is weak against alcohol…" Xenovia said observantly. Yuuto only chuckled at the spectacle while Gasper could not tell what he should do.

Akeno was giggling in amusement, as well as Azazel and Venelana.

"Right, right, sorry…" Issei wobbly got up from his master's breast, only to trip again and Asia was the one to catch him.

"I-I-I-Ise-san!?" Asia squeaked at the proximity between her and the boy.

"Hic~! Sorry, Asia…." Issei tried to regain his bearing, however, his arm snaked around and he pulled the heavily blushing blonde closer to him. "Mmhmm… Are you always this cute… always this nice to hug? Hic~!" Issei said as he instinctively rubbed his cheek on Asia's head, who was literally fuming red by now.

"Ise, you're drunk! Onii-sama was going to start his speech and you need to watch your behaviour!"

"Ehh!? No! I ain't drunk~!" Issei waved his arms around childishly. "Sure this drink makes me funny inside but I'm surely ain't drunk! Hic~!"

"Ise-san… I advise you keep your act together." Venelana decided to take action.

"Huh? Rias…? How could you move so fast…?" Issei blinked at the woman.

The mentioning of Rias' name from Issei's mouth all of sudden garnered another look from his friends, especially Rias who flushed again at her crush calling out her name in such a way. Venelana on the other hand, seemed amused at Issei addressing her daughter by name.

'_Ise is somewhat bolder in this state…' _was pretty much what everyone thought at the moment.

"Ise, that's my mother! Get a hold of your senses!" Rias chastised, trying to fight down the blush creeping up on her face.

"Hmm…? Where's Koneko-chan?" Issei, despite being drunk, was the first one to notice that the rook of the group was not around. The others noticed as well.

"Eh? That's strange. I actually saw Koneko-chan, just now. Where could she be?" Gasper wondered.

"Perhaps she's looking for more refreshments?" Xenovia voiced her guess.

"In any case, it's going to take time to find her in this huge place with many people around, and the speech by Satan was going to start. We need to find Koneko before the speech." Rias instructed. "Let's split up and find her. Ise, you stay here and stay out of trouble, do you understand?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'll do that… Hic~!" Issei replied. The boy was still drunk.

Rias sighed. At least he was willing to listen. "Asia, can you stay here and look after him?" The King turned to her Bishop.

"Yes, please leave him to me."

Azazel then turned around. "Well, I guess it's fine with Ise for now. I need to go find other leaders as well." The fallen then walked away with a wave of his hand.

Venelana sighed at Azazel's attitude, but chose to let it go. "Rias, I have to return to your father's side. Ise-san, be a good boy and listen to Rias, okay?"

"Yeah, got it… Hic~!"

As everyone left to find Koneko, Asia remained by Issei's side at the corner near the window, as she made sure that the boy would not cause any scene. As Issei simply stared with unfocused look at the outside the window, Asia then left him out of her sight for a moment to scan around the room, hoping to find the white haired girl. Sighing with no result, Asia turned her head again to find that Issei had already vanished from his previous spot.

"Ise-san, let's find a se-…. Ise-san?" Asia then frantically looked around the room, not knowing where the boy could have possibly wandering to.

At the same time, one of the staff found that their liquor stock was one bottle short.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tannin suddenly looked up as he sensed something in the air.

"_**What's this? Two foreign signatures…. Intruders? And quite strong ones…."**_ Then his senses picked up something else.

"_**Another presence... And his aura is incredibly… I see, if he's around then it should be fine…. But I will take a look later."**_

* * *

In the forest surrounding the hotel, Koneko was walking alone until she stopped at a small clearing. The girl then turned her head back and forth, as if looking for something.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Suddenly, a voice was heard and Koneko snapped her head towards the source. Up on a tree branch, a young woman wearing a scantily black kimono and cat ears on her head was seen sitting on it. Koneko widened her eyes in recognition of the woman.

"You…"

"Hello, Shirone. It's me, your sister. Good work on spotting my familiar, nya."

"Kuroka-nee-sama… What is this about?" Koneko asked with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Come on… Don't make such a scary face, nya. I heard that there's a big party being held by the devils, so I'm little interested to have a look, nya." Kuroka said with a wink while waving her hand like a cat. "I don't really plan to do anything here… Not with someone like that around, nya." The last sentence was directed to someone else as Kuroka stared at one tree. "Right, Saitama-chin?"

At the mention of the name, Koneko turned around to see Saitama came out from the shadow. "S-Saitama-san?!" Koneko did not expect Saitama of all people to appear. "Why are you here? I thought you've already left for the human world?"

"My train schedule got delayed, that's why." Saitama replied. "And you're here too, right? Bikou."

As if on cue, another figure in ancient Chinese armour appeared under the tree where Kuroka was seated. "Hahahaha, how did you know I was here too?"

"I was here just to kill some time and sightseeing while waiting for my train to re-schedule, and I saw you two were loitering around the place. Then I suddenly saw Koneko-chan wandering alone. Mind telling me what's going on?"

"Just as she said. There was a stand-by order came out in the underworld. And since we're off-duty, Kuroka here wanted to visit the devil's party. I'm here just to tag along and keeping her out of trouble." Bikou replied nonchalantly.

"Don't worry, Saitama-chin~. It's not a terrorist attack or anything like that, nya." Kuroka waved her hand again, before she set her eyes on Koneko. "I'm leaving soon, but now that Shirone is here, I want to take her with me, nya."

The white haired girl flinched at her sister's look and instinctively took a step back.

"You know that I won't just let you go kidnapping people around, don't you?" Saitama asked. His stance looked relaxed, but both intruders could tell that the man could take them down anytime at the moment's notice.

Kuroka knew that she did not stand a chance against Saitama, but she remained strong as her expression hardened in determination. "Not even you can make me change my mind, Saitama-chin." Her speech was kind of playful, but her expression was serious with her aura started to leak from her body. "The only place where Shirone won't be harmed is by my side…"

"….Nee-sama?" Koneko was taken aback by her sister's words. The girl wondered why her sister talked as if she wanted to protect her from something. She believed that day, her sister went insane and drunken with power of Senjutsu, killing her former master in a fit of rampage, escaped from the underworld and left her to take the punishment herself. So why… after leaving her like that, her sister suddenly said something about not wanting her to get hurt?

"That's a bit rude to pry into other family's business, isn't it, Saitama-chin?" Kuroka shot back.

Saitama went silent for a second before replying. "…I guess you have a point. It's not really for me to decide things here." Then Saitama turned to Koneko. "It's yours to decide things here, Koneko-chan."

The girl in question blinked at Saitama's statement. "So? What do you want to do? Go with your sister or stay behind with your friends?"

Koneko contemplated about her choice. She did not want to go, but what if her sister retaliated by targeting her friends? She knew the most about the power of her sister. Kuroka had taken two bishop pieces to be reincarnated, and with her lineage, it made Kuroka as one powerful bishop in the underworld. Even now, her strength was already on par with an ultimate-class devil.

Koneko then turned to Saitama. Despite his looks, Koneko could tell that Saitama is powerful, probably even more than her sister, or perhaps anyone else in the matter. The girl wished Saitama would have stopped her from leaving, but the man's statement about the decision being in her hands made her thinking again. What did she want in the end?

"Ah, there you are, Koneko-chan!"

A new voice was heard, and everyone's head turned to see Issei was walking wobbly with a bottle in his hand. The boy took a sip from the bottle and made his way with flushed face.

"Ise?"

"Ise-senpai?"

"Hic~! Koneko-chan, everyone's been looking for you…." Then Issei caught the sight of his father. "Ah, dad! What are ya doin' here…? Hic~!"

Saitama furrowed his eyebrows slightly at his son's state, the flushed face, the hiccups, the bottle in his hand, and the strong scent from his breath…

"Ise, are you drunk?"

"No, I ain't drunk! I'm just tipsy from all the dancing… Hic~!"

Kuroka who had been watching the spectacle between father and son whispered to Bikou. "Say, is this boy the same one who repelled Vali-chin?"

"…I think so." The monkey youkai himself was half amused, half confused.

"Then that means you're drunk. C'mon, go back to the hotel and the others, kid." Saitama persuaded his son.

"No! You don't tell me what I do in my life, hic~!" Issei ranted. "You're the one who is supposed to go back, you drunkard!"

"…No, you're the drunkard here."

Kuroka could not just watch anymore. "Excuse me, nya. I'm here to take my little baby sister with me if you don't mind."

"Huh…?" Issei turned his hazy gaze to Kuroka. "Oh, hic~! Good evening, young lady… And, err…." Issei narrowed his eyes at Bikou. "Do I know you people?"

Bikou snorted. "…Well, you're knocked out that time, after all. The name's Bikou, and the woman here is Kuroka. Nice to meet ya!"

"Hmm…. Hic~!" Issei rubbed his eyes. "Is it just me, but why are you kind of like… a monkey…? Hic~!"

"Hahaha! You sure need to keep your act together, Sekiryuutei! Don't worry, it's not just you. I'm a monkey youkai, after all!" Bikou simply laughed at Issei' drunken comment.

"Ho… I see…. Hic~! Sorry, but I highly doubt any of us here have any dumplings to share or any time to accompany you travelling to India…" then he turned back to Kuroka. "The young lady over there, Kuroka-san… Hic~! I hear you want to pick up someone… your little sister…? Hic~! Do you have a name or her picture by any chance…? Hic~!"

"That little sister's name is Shirone, and she's right over there, nya~." Kuroka smirked as she pointed at Koneko.

"Ise-senpai, you're not in any condition to fight! Please, get away from here with Saitama-san!" the said white haired girl warned the pawn.

Issei only blinked at Koneko before he limped towards the girl and he put his hand on her head. "Kuroka-san… I think you got the wrong girl here."

The statement garnered looks from both sisters. "Hic~! Look, I don't know this Shirone, but this girl here is Toujou Koneko, the servant Rook of Rias Gremory, and also a dear friend of mine. Unless you can give me the right picture of your little sister, I suggest you look somewhere else and good luck with your search. Hic~!"

Kuroka's eyes narrowed at Issei's words. "No no, I think you don't understand, Sekiryuutei-chin. That girl IS Shirone.. My fellow nekoshou and my little sister, nya."

Issei only sighed. "Hic~! Seriously, Kuroka-san... I think you're drunk." This comment caused Saitama and Koneko to frown a bit at the boy, Bikou to snort and Kuroka's eyes to twitch. "Koneko-chan may be a nekoshou, but she ain't Shirone. And besides, if you still want to take her with you… Hic~!" Then Issei looked at Koneko. "Her expression is saying anything but willing." The two nekoshou widened their eyes as Issei took another sip of his drink.

PRANG!

Suddenly, the bottle in Issei's hand shattered, shocking Issei a little as he watched the glass remains in his hand. He then turned to see Kuroka had her finger stretched at him. Her expression was anything but playful at that point. The woman then snarled. "Let me tell you that I'm the only one who can teach her to master her power, her lineage. So get out of my way, Sekiryuutei-chin."

The air around Kuroka shifted as the woman released her aura. Issei who was about to respond was stopped when Koneko suddenly walked forward. "Kuroka nee-sama. I'll go with you, so please overlook these two people."

Koneko's words caused Issei and Saitama to widen their eyes slightly. Kuroka's expression softened as her lips turned to a smile. "Now, that's a good girl, nya. Come here, Shirone~"

Suddenly, Koneko stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and found Issei was halting her, his eyes were obscured by his bangs. "Ise-senpai, please let me-!" Koneko's next word was interrupted when Issei suddenly pulled her into embrace. The girl's face was flustered from being hugged from behind. "I-Ise-senpai?!"

"Sorry, but I can't let you go now. Rias will be upset if you're gone." Issei whispered as he rested his head on Koneko's head.

Koneko grabbed on the arms enveloping her as she tried to break free. "No…. It's no good…" Koneko reasoned. "I understand best my sister's power… Her power is on par with an ultimate-class devil. Even with you and Saitama-san… I don't think you can capture my sister…"

Issei's arms remained wrapping Koneko's petite body. "…Really? Then, if you really want to go, why don't you push me away already? I know you're strong enough to do that."

Tears began to fill Koneko's eyes as her lips tightened into a thin line. After trembling for few seconds, Koneko finally opened her mouth. "This power…. My nekomata power…. I don't need power like that… I don't want a power that brings misfortune to other people…"

"Stop being naïve, Shirone. You can't-!"

"Shut up, you."

Kuroka's words were cut off by Issei. "I don't exactly know what happened between you two but can't you see, Kuroka? Whatever you did had left a wound on her heart for a long time. I was a bit surprised that she showed so little emotion when we first met. We may haven't talked much, but at one point I promised that I will show her many fun things in life…" Issei paused as a smile crept up to his face. "Just like Rias promised that she will be there for me, I also have promised that I'll always be there for her. I… No, all of us, Rias Gremory's peerage will do anything for our friends in need!"

Just like a broken dam, tears finally flowed freely from Koneko's eyes as Issei asked again. "So, Koneko-chan? Will you put your faith in your friends or will you leave with that so-called your sister?"

Koneko wiped her tears and she gazed upon Kuroka with resolved look. "No… I don't want to go. I am Toujou Koneko. Kuroka-neesama, I don't want to go with you! I want to stay with Ise-senpai, Rias-buchou and my friends! To live!"

Issei smiled at Koneko's final answer, even Saitama gave a nod. Kuroka on the other hand, silently clicked her tongue in annoyance. "You know what? You're actually annoying enough even if you're not drunk." Kuroka said as she released her power and formed a large-scale barrier. Issei, Saitama and Koneko immediately felt something was enveloping the area. The bald man did not really have a perception on magic, but he could tell that something invisible was erected to keep them in place. "And now it has come to this, I guess I just have to kill you, nya."

Bikou prepared himself for battle, but he realized that Saitama was also in scene. The man's presence alone was enough reason for the intruders to be wary. Koneko was about to fight as well, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from moving. The girl looked up and saw Issei was giving her a smile, while his face was still flustered, showing that the alcohol had not left his system just yet.

"Stay back, Koneko-chan… Hic~! I got this." Then the boy pointed his finger at his father. "And you too, I don't need yer help, baldy! Hic~! You stay back and look after Koneko-chan! BOOSTED GEAR!"

**[DRAGON BOOSTER!]**

_**[Partner, it's not that I think you won't survive, but your power is in flux, and… Ugh, never mind. You're no longer listening anyway]**_

Saitama only blinked at his son, then he let out a small sigh and moved beside Koneko. The two intruders finally saw a chance to at least get away alive if they were to fight Issei alone. Koneko still looked worried and she turned to Saitama. "Saitama-san, are you sure you won't help Ise-senpai?"

Saitama only replied with a pat on her head. "Don't worry and just stay back, Koneko-chan. That kid is pretty strong, you know?" Saitama said as he kept his eyes on the battle.

"Man, it finally comes to this way, huh?" Bikou said as he twirled his staff and pointed it at Issei.

"You actually can beat us if you let your father help, y'know? That petty arrogance can cost you dearly, nya." Kuroka spoke as she and Bikou were facing Issei. The boy on the other hand only hiccupped and taunted them with his right hand.

"Heh, looks interesting. Let's see what he's got, the current Sekiryuutei!" Bikou said as he took the first strike. "Extend, Nyoi-bo!"

As the staff extended with the tip making its way towards Issei, the boy simply tilted his head and moved in swift motion, sneaking through his way towards the two while Bikou's staff simply passed Issei's body by a hair's breadth. The youkai did not expect Issei to be so nimble despite his drunken state and the two immediately split up to avoid becoming a target within Issei's attack range.

As the two of his opponents split up, Issei chose to chase after the monkey first. The two soon got caught in a close combat, with Bikou using his staff and Issei using his red gauntlet. Sounds of Boosted Gear and Ruyi Jingu Bang could be heard as the two tried to outclass each other in flurry of strikes, parries, and dodges. The two were on par until Bikou managed to see an opening and landed the first strike. Bikou's staff managed to hit Issei's side, but if the boy felt anything, he sure did not show it. The staff remained on Issei's side for a fraction of second, but that was all Issei needed for launching a counter attack.

**[Boost!]**

The sound echoed from the Boosted Gear at the same time Issei quickly trapped Bikou's staff with his right arm. Bikou was a bit surprised, after all, he was not holding back in that strike, yet the boy before him could take his hit head-on. The monkey youkai was too late to react as Issei immediately grabbed his shoulder with his gauntlet to keep him from moving away. And Bikou felt the air was being forced out from his body as Issei planted his knee on his stomach.

"Guhah!?" Bikou coughed out as Issei kicked the youkai's abdomen few times, before he proceeded to head-butt Bikou's face and finish off with a round-house kick, launching the youkai towards the nearby tree. Another of Bikou's blunder was that his Riyu Jingu Bang had been wrenched out of his grasp in a moment of weakness, and the said staff was still in Issei's grip.

What made Bikou surprised was that Issei was lifting his staff. While its name was only taken after its original, Bikou's Riyu Jingu Bang still possess a weight of several tons, making not any creature, even a devil could lift it so easily without proper training. However, Bikou saw that Issei was using only his right arm to throw the staff hurling towards him like a javelin. When the staff hit, the staff was only few inches from Bikou's head, striking and destroying the tree behind Bikou instead.

The monkey youkai let out a sweat drop on his temple at the proximity between his own weapon and his own head before he returned his gaze on Issei, who was actually still drunk. Despite the damage done to him, the youkai could not hold down an excited grin. _'Damn… He's really that baldy's kid. He's crazy strong!'_

While Issei still looked at Bikou's downed state, he lousily bent his body in a nick of time to avoid a white orb flying towards him. The orb missed and it exploded when it made contact with another tree. When Issei turned towards the source, he saw Kuroka was standing with her hand raised and aimed at him. Behind her was a large purple magic circle that did not look like devil magic he had seen before.

**[Boost!]**

"Heeh…? Hic~! Is that Youjutsu? Or perhaps Senjutsu…? Hic~!" Issei commented.

"That's a good move for a drunkard, nya." Kuroka replied as she prepared another attack.

"The hell are ya sayin'!? I ain't drunk!" Issei waved his arms childishly before he instinctively evaded another shot. However, the shot's trajectory was not fired from Kuroka's position.

Issei blinked to see that there was many clones of Kuroka facing him with similar aura coating her body. Less experienced people would not be able to tell them apart. "Did your vision get more fuzzy? You shouldn't have walked around while being drunk like that, nya." Kuroka said in slight mocking tone.

Issei's vision was already blurry thanks to alcohol, but having illusion casted on him only made his case worse. "Can you tell the real one? Sekiryuutei-chin?"

**[Boost!]**

Issei only took a deep breath before he dodged again another shot from one of Kuroka's clones.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

Issei's power spiked up by folds, and as Kuroka's clones began firing their Senjutsu bullets, Issei simply dodged and countered with his dragon-shot, dispatching the clones easily. Issei's vision was blury from the alcohol, but somehow the boy's attack managed to hit all of intended targets without missing. Kuroka grimaced as her illusions disappeared one by one at fast rate. She kept recreating her clones while Issei kept destroying them one by one.

The shoot-out continued, with Issei simply dodged and countered with his own dragon shot or ran to dispatch the nearest clones. As Issei kept firing his dragon shot towards Kuroka's illusions, one of his shots was bound to hit the real Kuroka at some point. Kuroka immediately put up a barrier to fend herself, however that act alone was enough for Issei to determine his real target even with his blurry vision.

Seeing that Kuroka's cover had been blown, Bikou immediately sprung to action to give Kuroka time to hide herself again, as the monkey youkai engaged in another combat with Issei. Once Kuroka had hid herself among her clones, she began to prepare the next shots, but because she and Bikou rarely cooperated, the woman could not risk her chance of friendly fire. So instead of Senjutsu, Kuroka moved to use Youjutsu by producing poisonous mist.

Bikou had learned some Senjutsu and Youjutsu, so it was not a hard task for him to regulate his own spiritual energy in order to fend off Kuroka's purple mist, and Issei had developed immunity to the poison thanks to Heavenly Dragon's influence. However, Koneko who had not learned much about Senjutsu immediately dropped to her knees as she covered her mouth to prevent herself from inhaling more poison. Saitama on the other hand, remained indifferent, but he snorted when he inhaled some of the poison mist.

"Saitama-san, are you alright?" Koneko asked with rasped voice.

Saitama snorted again before he covered his nose. "I'm fine, but this mist just smells weird."

Koneko was wondering again about the depth of Saitama's strength, but she chose to focus on the fight before her for the time being. While Issei was still engaged in close-quarter combat with Bikou, the latter's more experienced fighting technique managed to outsmart Issei as the youkai used his weapon as a feint and landed a back-handed strike square on Issei's cheek. The hit did deal some damage as blood trickled from the corner of Issei's mouth. However, as if the boy did not feel anything, Issei immediately overpowered Bikou with his own back-handed strike, this time launching the youkai towards a tree again when the fist made contact.

"Ugh… Again?" Bikou groaned out as he had to deal with the pain running in through his head.

Seeing that he was being surrounded by another horde of illusions, Issei decided to bring his left fist to the ground. "Haaaah!"

BLAAR!

The said ground exploded as the fist made contact, destroying the battlefield where Issei and Kuroka were standing on. Kuroka was surprised at the display of strength and her illusions dissipated from the force, splinters of earth and rocks thrown at them. When Kuroka landed on more even ground and was about to move again, Issei was already right in front of her and caught both of her shoulders.

"Well, I guess this is check-mate." Saitama declared from the side-line.

Kuroka went panic for a second when she could not move from Issei's strong grip. She looked up to see Issei was staring right to her eyes. His face still indicated that the boy was still drunk, but his eyes somewhat more focused than before.

"Kuroka-san… After thinking for a moment, I think you're really not lying about being Koneko-chan's sister…" Issei spoke. "But after everything you caused her, don't you think it's too simple and easy of you just to come and take her away Just…" Issei seemed to swallow something first. "If you ever show up, and make Koneko-chan cry again… I…."

"…You damned brat! Let go of-!" Kuroka's eyes narrowed in anger and she suddenly found the boy seemed to catch something in his throat.

"I feel so sick…!" Issei quickly muttered as his face went pale in seconds.

"Wait, what are you-!?"

What Issei did to Kuroka next made Bikou, Koneko, Saitama, and even Ddraig's faces to be drained of all their colours.

* * *

At the hotel's front yard, Rias and the others from Occult Research Club, along with Tannin, finally saw Saitama and Koneko, with Issei appeared to be out-cold and carried on Saitama's back.

"Saitama-san? I thought you've left underworld? And what happened to Ise?" Rias was the one to ask, as well as the one to approach the group first.

"Schedule delay happened… And can anyone switch with me carrying this kid? His breath is killing me." Saitama said as he cringed his nose.

The man laid down Issei and Rias quickly took the job on supporting him, but she also cringed her nose at the smell emitting from Issei's mouth. "What in the hell is that smell?"

"He puked after being so piss-drunk. Who's the idiot that gave him liquor in the first place? I want to have a word." Saitama complained.

"**Took you long enough to drive out the intruder, Saitama… I was about to take a look before the intruder's presence suddenly vanished. Though, I wonder, how could someone with your strength end up letting those intruders get away?" **Tannin asked.

"Err… It was my son who engaged those intruders, while I was asked to keep an eye on Koneko-chan there. As for them getting away…" Saitama and Koneko's face went slightly pale at the memory of how Issei 'handled' the intruder. "Let's say I was too distracted by Ise's method. It's not a pretty sight. Trust me, you don't want to know."

"…**.Very well, I trust your judgement. Now that the crisis had passed, shall we head back inside? And Saitama and the Rook here can provide us more detail about the intruders,"** the former dragon king implored.

Everyone agreed as they began making their way back to the hotel. Rias chose to have Saitama to carry Issei in the end, saying that it was father's job to attend to his son.

On the way back, Rias then talked to Koneko.

"You've made us so worried back there, Koneko. And even more when I found you ran into intruders. Are you alright? Did you get hurt anywhere?" Rias asked in concerned tone.

"Yes. I'm okay, Buchou. I'm okay, now." Koneko then set her gaze fondly at Issei's peaceful sleeping face. The boy was mumbling something about his stupid dad in his sleep. "It's all thanks to Ise-senpai." The girl said with a smile and faint blush on her face.

* * *

_(Meanwhile, Unknown Location)_

Vali was seen reading some papers and documents in the living room of his headquarters when he sensed his two compatriots had returned. "Ah… Bikou, Kuroka. What took you so…. What the hell happened to you?!" Vali suddenly widened his eyes at the sight of Kuroka, who was covered by slimy substance from her head, her entire upper body, until her legs. The smell emanated from Kuroka's body also made Vali to cover his nose.

"Nyaa! Your stupid rival happened!" Kuroka shouted angrily as she stomped her way to the inner part of the base.

"And what the hell is with the smell!? Is that… a barf?!"

"Yes, captain obvious! It's a fucking barf! Your stupid rival's barf!" Kuroka yelled. "Grr….! Never once I felt so filthy and violated before…. I'm definitely gonna make him take responsibility for this…! Nyaaa!" With another yell, Kuroka vanished from sight.

Vali only blinked incredulously, his mind could barely make out what just transpired. He then turned to Bikou, who had exasperated expression on his person.

"Poor bastard, that cat. Vali, you'd better be careful now, because I just found that Red Dragon Emperor had become stronger than our last encounter. He took both of us on while being drunk!" Bikou then walked away while waving his hand. "We have no time to slack off, Vali!"

Once he was alone, Vali let out a long sigh. All things aside, the news made Vali's lips twitched upwards slightly. The Strongest White Dragon Emperor truly had no much time to take things easy.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**OMG! I finally finished this chapter. I found it difficult because it was the first time for me to write the dancing scene. Yes, especially the dancing part. Anyway, what do you people think of this chapter overall? Did I do justice with the dancing and the fighting scene? As well as some Issei moment with Saitama and other characters? For those who wondered and/or disappointed about me skipping the rest of Issei's training with Saitama, because it was more like a filler and I just want to leave it for your imagination to figure it out. I hope you understand. Please don't bother with the flames! Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	23. The Gathering of Young Devils (IV)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, my beloved readers! Here's the update of the Legacy story, and here is the moment where Rias Gremory will have her Rating Game against Sona Sitri. This time I will make it different from the original LN to spice things up. I hope it will be acceptable for you people. Enjoy, R&amp;R! Ahsoei, over and out.**

* * *

**Chapter 22: The Gathering of Young Devils (IV) – Gremory vs Sitri**

It was the day of the rating game between Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri. Issei had to take several good hours in the morning to get rid of his hangover from the other night. Even then, the boy still felt his head funny. When everyone asked him about what actually happened the other night, Issei could only vaguely remember. He only recalled that he was dancing with the girls, he felt tipsy from the drink Azazel offered to him, and the last thing he remembered was he encountered a lady in black kimono and a man in chinese armour. The rest was all fuzzy to him.

Saitama had long gone back to the human world after he shared some information about the intruders and wishing some luck to Rias for the coming rating game. Currently, the Gremory group was on standby with their respective battle gears and uniforms while the transport magic circle was being prepared under the Gremory castle. "Ise-san, are you really alright, now?" Asia asked in worried tone as she kept using her Twilight Healing on Issei's head.

Issei only smiled in return as he gently pushed Asia's hand away, telling her that her healing was no longer necessary, but appreciated nonetheless. "Don't worry, Asia. I'll be fine." Not entirely true, but still mostly true. At least the boy could at least maintain a presentable appearance.

"Last night was very troublesome, Ise. From now on I command you to be careful on what you're drinking! You ended up out cold and didn't attend our briefing for today's rating game last night." Rias chastised her pawn.

"Understood, buchou…" Issei said with his head hung low.

Lord Gremory, Venelana, and Milicas were also present to give Rias' peerage their support and wishing them luck in the game. Sirzechs and Grayfia were already in their spectator lounge for VIP guests.

"Do your best, Rias nee-sama!"

"Win this one as well, Rias."

"Make sure you performed befitting that of a Gremory. Oh, and Issei-san…. I almost forgot…" Venelana then turned to Issei. "Your father wished you luck as well."

The boy blinked at the message, then his lips twitched into a small smile. "…Yeah."

Soon, the magic circle was ready and lit up underneath the group, transporting them towards their designated battlefield.

* * *

When the group had arrived at their designated spot, the pale-faced Issei immediately broke off from the group, ran towards the nearest corner and puked the remaining of inside his stomach, much to everyone's chagrin. Asia quickly ran to Issei's side to attend the boy. After the pawn felt that he had relieved himself enough, he looked around the area and the group found themselves had been teleported into a clearing in the middle of a jungle. They looked around, and the only thing they saw aside from trees towering over them and greenery surrounding them was a hill and rocky areas at a distance from their position. They also saw a tower in the area they were at. The tower was roughly 6-7 meters high with ornate walls and cage-like rooftop in cone-shape, and a crimson glow could be seen from inside it.

"**Hello, everyone. I, the Queen of the Lucifer group, Grayfia, will be carrying the role of arbiter in the Rating Game between the Gremory group and the Sitri group on this occasion." **The voice of Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation was heard across the arena. **"In the name of my master, Sirzechs Lucifer, I will watch over the battle between these two families. To get right to the main topic, the battlefield for today is an island, 25 kilometres at the farthest points. Rias Gremory-sama's base will be located at the forest on southwest part of the island, while Sona Sitri-sama's base is located at the forest on the northeast, and each team had been granted with one vial of Phoenix's Tears, please use them wisely. Special rules had been implemented in this game, and those will be explained by the Governor General of Grigori, who had contributed in creating the game. Azazel-sama, if you would?"**

It appeared that there would be another arbiter as Grayfia's voice was replaced by a familiar male voice.

"'**Sup, there! This is Azazel of Grigori speaking, your best, greatest of the fallen angels, you may call me mad genius, the king of… Wait, what are you-…!"** Azazel's tone became panicked for a moment, as he seemed to be interrupted by Grayfia, followed by some static noise from the microphone. **"Okay, okay, okay! I get it, I get it! Geez! Ahem…. Well, as Grayfia, hater, has said, I'll take the pleasure as… co-arbiter for this match to explain the rules. You kids see the tower at your place?"** The participants once again confirmed the existence of the tower in their designated area. **"If you take a look inside the tower, you'll see a large, glowing gem that is protected by special materials founded by Grigori and Underworld's Technology Department, capable of withstand an attack of ultimate-class devil. That's your objective, destroy the gem inside your opponent's tower while defending your own! Or, eliminate the king of the opposing team before your tower got done in. Every strategy and tactic you want to defend your treasure is a free game! You have 20 minutes to prepare yourselves. That's pretty much all! Good luck!"**

The speech ended. Everyone on the stage did not say anything until Issei realised something. "Wait a second…. The setting… The objective…. Hey, Azazel! You took this settings and rules from a game, didn't you! Which was it, Defence of the Ancient or League of Legends!? Spit it out!" The pawn cried out to the sky.

The others blinked at the comment, then they also looked up to the sky, expecting an answer. For few seconds, Azazel did not seem to say a word, until…

"…**..Nope, neither of them. I don't know what you're talking about."**

At this answer, everyone was giving a deadpanned stare at the sky as they reached the same conclusion about the fallen angel governor. Thus, the team started to prepare and discuss over their strategy.

* * *

Meanwhile, Azazel returned to the executive viewing room as he joined with other VIPs. In the room there were two of the Four Great Satans: Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan, along with an elderly man with long, grey hair and a matching beard. He was also wearing an eyepatch over his left eye. With the elderly man was a beautiful young woman with long, straight silver hair and light blue eyes who appears to be in her late teens, wearing a business suit.

"Oh, Azazel. Welcome back and good work." Sirzechs greeted.

"Yeah, I'm back. Damn, your queen really doesn't know how to take a joke." Azazel lightly grumbled and he addressed the elderly man. "Odin… So the old geezer from the old northern countryside also came to enjoy the show, eh?"

The man, known as Odin, the chief deity of Norse pantheon as well as the leader of Asgardian gods, flashed a smirk as he rubbed his long beard. "Yes, I sure came, fallen angel brat. Though…. What happened to your face?"

Azazel's face was apparently, looked a bit worse to wear. The small bruises were from the night where Saitama voiced his 'complains' about him giving liquor to Issei during the party. And Saitama apparently was not amused by Azazel's excuse and the latter's 'bad joke'. "…Huh. I thought it would've faded this morning. Ah, well. That guy's hit is on a whole different level, after all."

Hearing Azazel's reply, Odin raised his eyebrows. "That guy….? Who are you talking about, boy?"

"You should have known him. After all, I heard that he had helped you with some of your land's affairs not long ago."

It only took a second for Odin to hit a mark. "…Saitama?" At Azazel's nod, Odin laughed. "Hohoho… I see. True, that baldy had been a great aid for us when we're busy subduing some rascal's rebellion. And he also came to the underworld… Well, where is he now? Does he have any interest with this game?"

"Nah, Saitama was kind of being kidnapped by me in the first place. He just left back to human world this morning, saying that he doesn't want to aggravate his wife any further." Azazel replied with chuckles.

"Hmm… That's too bad. Sorry, Rossweisse. Looks like you won't be able to have any reunion with your ex-boyfriend here." Odin turned to the woman sitting next to him.

The said woman, known as Rossweisse, replied with flustered face. "O-Odin-sama, please stop saying things people would misunderstand! I-i-it was all in the past, and Saitama is already a married man!"

"That's right. You do have bad fortune when it comes to finding a man. And when you finally found someone, he's already committed. Not to mention that stuffy attitude of yours is not popular kind among men in general."

Rossweisse then broke into tears. "A-at any rate, I'm just an aged female warrior with a history of no boyfriends! I… All I want is a proper boyfriend, it's not my fault that Saitama has already found someone else!"

"Whoa/Wait/What?" came several voices. It was Azazel, Serafall and Sirzechs.

"Saitama had a girlfriend?" Azazel was the first to speak up. "Wow, never knew he's a type to hit on a teenager."

"He never said anything about this in his emails either." Sirzechs quipped in with amused expression.

"Hoh… So that guy got some balls to date other girls while already married…" Serafall muttered before she let out a dark chuckle. "Boy, I think this will be fun."

"No, no, everyone! It's all a misunderstanding!" Rossweisse whined in her embarrassment. "We did have history, but nothing as such happened between us! I swear!"

"Hahaha, let me introduce you first. This person is my current assistant, Rossweisse, a Valkyrie. There were rumours about she having a crush on Saitama during his stay in Asgard. I had thought that she finally got herself a boyfriend until another rumour about him already has a family came up. And by the way…" Odin rubbed his beard again. "Is it true, that bald head's son is the current Red Dragon Emperor?"

"Yes, his name is Hyoudou Issei, and the kid is playing in this rating game as my sister's servant." Sirzechs replied. "Look, the brown-haired one."

"Hmm…. I see no resemblance at all…" Odin mused as he took in Issei's appearance. Even Rossweisse was a bit curious as well. "Is he adopted by any chance?"

"Hahahaha! I assure you, those two are biologically, definitely father and son. People say the boy is taking more after his mother if anything."

"I see… Though he doesn't seem too well." Odin said as he noticed Issei's slightly pale face. "Is he going to be okay? It will be a shame if the Red Dragon Emperor showed us a poor performance on such occasion."

"Well…. His state is the reason why Saitama scolded me." Azazel said as he scratched the back of his head. "But he'll live. He's toughness is only second to his father, after all."

"If you say so, then…" Odin hummed in acknowledgement and he turned to his assistant again. "There, you hear that, Rossweisse? Now that you failed to get the old bull, why don't you after the young calf, instead? The story of the Heavenly Dragon is quite renown even in Valhalla, you know?"

"Odin-samaaaa!" Rossweisse cried again, much to everyone's amusement.

* * *

Everyone turned their heads when they heard Issei sneezed while Rias and the rest were still discussing about their strategy. "Ise, are you really okay, there?" Xenovia asked.

"Hmm… Yeah. I'm good." Issei rubbed his nose. "Anyway, so are we really going with this set?"

"Yes, we're going to settle this nice and quick." Rias confirmed. She found that the tower had a door and a window, presumably to grant access for the attacker towards the target. The said target was surprisingly smaller than she expected. The gem was only slightly bigger than softball. She then turned on her communication link. "Gasper, what do you have on your side?" Apparently, the dhampir had been sent out to do reconnaissance around the battlefield.

"**The landscape doesn't seem that complex, buchou."** Gasper, in his bat form, replied from the other side of the link. **"The island is divided by a small mountain and rocky areas in the middle, with a large river and several smaller branch of streams across the whole island. I can also see the forest beyond the rocky area a bit. Should I fly higher to have a better visual?"**

"Perhaps, but Sona might catch a wind of what we're trying to do. Though… Can you see anything that indicates her tower from your position?"

"**Um… I'm afraid, not. However…"** Gasper paused as he seemed to catch something else. **"I saw several scary monsters roaming around the forest…."**

"….What?"

Then Azazel's voice was heard across the island again. **"Oh, right! I almost forgot! In order to make things more interesting, some monsters of Forbidden Forest and something made by Grigori and Technology &amp; Research Department bio-engineering team, had been released across the island as your obstacles! So you have to pick your route carefully in order to avoid them. Don't worry, they're specially bred, so they won't be too strong for you to handle, but still tough enough to give you some troubles. Have fun!"**

The group remained silent at the sudden announcement until everyone sighed. "He really took this from a game…" Issei commented while rolling his eyes.

"In any case…." Rias rubbed her temple. "Ise, since you had your training in the Forbidden Forest, is there anything you can share with us?"

"Hmm…." The pawn gave a thoughtful expression. Then he turned on his communication link. "Gyasuke, can you describe how those monster look like?... Actually, let me ask you this, did you see anything that resembles a giant ape?"

"…**Um… So far it's negative, senpai!"**

Issei released a small sigh of relief. "Good, those were the most troublesome ones." Issei said towards his friends before he turned to his communication link again. "Then what else did you see?"

"**Let's see…"** Gasper looked around again. **"I saw some that resembles elephant, dragon-like dinosaurs…. Giant lions… And I'm not sure about others. I can't tell from the trees blocking the view…."**

Suddenly, a loud sound was heard in the air, then Grayfia's voice was heard.

"**The strategizing time is over. Rating Game begins now."**

Rias then nodded and addressed her peerage. "Alright, everyone. Yuuto, Xenovia and Ise will be our attack team. Ise, I'll leave you in charge." The pawn blinked for few times at the order. He wanted to have a say, but when his eyes caught the two knights, who nodded, then back to his master's, who told him that she would not take any objection, Issei resolved himself.

"Roger that. We'll be able to reach there in few minutes if we're flying." Issei nodded then he turned towards the two knights.

"No." Rias interrupted. "Sona definitely has prepared some counter-measure against attacks from the sky. We need to catch her by surprise… Ise, you will lead your assault team on foot. If what Azazel said about those monsters are true, I'd like you guys avoid them if possible. Unnecessary clash with them would only be a waste of time and energy."

"Understood, then." Issei turned to Yuuto and Xenovia. "Let's go!"

""Yeah!"" The Gremory's assault team then ran into the woods.

"Gasper, I need you to be our support, eyes and ears. Make sure nobody sees you." Rias gave her instruction to the dhampir and the said dhampir affirmed and flew to hide among the trees. "Akeno, how is the preparation on your side?"

"I'm just done covering the tower with invisibility spell." The said tower slowly blurred away from sight. "I've also finished setting up some traps around the forest, as well as illusion magic around the base."

"Good, the rest of us will remain here to guard our base. Alright, my cute servants. Let's win this!" Rias declared, followed by everyone's chorus of affirmatives.

Meanwhile, Issei, Yuuto and Xenovia were running across the forest in high speed towards the enemy base. "So, Ise-kun. Since you have some experiences with those monsters Gasper mentioned, is there any tips you can share with us? Just in case." Yuuto asked as he jumped over a log.

"Let's see…. Okay, let me tell you that the real deal from the Forbidden Forest made me have to go Balance Breaker, so if what Azazel said was true about them being specially bred… Well, either way there are some ways to go around them. For those dragon-like dinosaurs, they're not so smart and only chase after moving objects. So as long as you don't move a muscle or play dead, they should leave you alone."

Xenovia nodded as she kept running, cutting through obstacles with her Durandal. "That sounds simple enough. For the lion-like ones?"

"Those are a bit harder to deal with. They… only attack from your blind spots for some reasons. Since you two have swords, make sure to hold it over your shoulder and have the tip pointing right behind you. That way they'll think twice to ambush you from behind. Also, maintain eye contact. That way you can at least buy sometime."

"Hmm…. I guess those information can be helpful. Really glad you're on our side, Ise-kun." Yuuto replied with a smirk.

"Tell me that when we've won, Kiba. But don't worry, if what Azazel said earlier is true, it shouldn't be much problem even if we're to fight them. Worse comes to worst, I'll just equip my Scale Mail and get it over and done with." Issei said as he glanced at the Boosted Gear on his left arm then he shot a confident look. "After all, I used to have these things for breakfast."

The two knights giggled in amusement at Issei's boast, a while later, they crossed over the rocky area and they were at the edge of enemy territory. Issei walked towards a cliff and what he did was to puke one more time, causing Yuuto and Xenovia to worry all over again about the pawn's well-being.

"Ise-kun, are you sure you're okay?" Yuuto asked.

Issei took few deep breaths as he massaged his stomach. "I'm okay, I'm okay…." Then he took another deep breath. "Yeah… I'm better- Hurk!" He vomited another bail, coughed and took one more breath. "….There, _now_ I feel better." He finished by wiping his mouth clean. "Rather, are you two alright after all those running? As far as I recall, endurance isn't knight's best feature."

"Fufufu, don't worry, Ise-kun." Yuuto calmly replied. "Thanks to that 20 days of training, this kind of distance is nothing to me."

"My physical endurance had been trained far before I became a devil. I'm completely fine." Xenovia added.

Issei nodded and the three looked over the forest of Sona's territory. "Okay, let's split up. If we want to catch kaichou by surprise, we'll do by a three-way pincer attack. I'll strike straight from the front. Xenovia, can you take them from the left side?" Issei addressed his teammates.

"Leave it to me." the bluenette nodded with confident smile.

"I guess I'll take the right, then?" Yuuto concluded, receiving a nod from Issei in return.

Just when the three were about to split up, Issei then remembered something. "Oh, right. Before we move, I need to inform you guys something just in case." The two knights only blinked in curiosity at what Issei was going to tell them.

* * *

To be honest, Issei could have just activated his Balance Breaker right from the start, flew over the enemy's base in a minute, and complete their objective before the enemy could prepare. However, that would not do for two reasons. The first reason was Rias' idea of element of surprise; In case of real battle, activating his trump card so early could be a waste and ended up putting the team in a disadvantage if the fight went longer. The second reason was, the word 'game' in Rating Game meant that this match was supposed to be enjoyable by everybody. Ending the Rating Game with overkill would only spoil everyone's fun and give a bad taste afterwards. This event was not a one-man show, after all. The opposing kings' ability to lead their people and simulate a real battle scenario would be evaluated as the game progressed. Having Issei to go alone and end the match early would only give negative views on his master's image.

That was why Issei was running, this time alone, through the jungle. Keeping his speed while making sure to pay attention to his surrounding to avoid ambush, Issei felt that he was getting closer to his objective. However, he stopped and crouched upon sensing something. There was no voice heard as he waited, and several moments later, Issei heard some rustling leaves and suddenly a glowing line shot out from the bushes, Issei quickly lifted up his Boosted Gear to guard, only to find the line bent and wrapped around his neck, with Issei's left arm also got wrapped together much to his surprise. He looked at the source of the line, and he saw Saji Genshirou was pulling the line connecting to his neck with his Absorption Line. However, the Sacred Gear looked different than the last time Issei saw it. The size was now big enough to cover Saji's fore-arm, and there were more gauntlets and grieves with similar motive covering his limbs as well. An upgrade, perhaps?

"Damn…." Issei grunted. "Saji, are you trying to kill me? And are you always this strong?!" Issei exclaimed as he tried to tug the line wrapping around him, only to see Saji stood his ground.

"I've promoted to a Queen, obviously. All I need to do just to go around to avoid you guys and set my foot inside your territory. Kaichou had predicted the route you guys would take so it's not that hard to find a way around." Saji smirked in return as he slightly pulled the line. "Don't take this wrong way, Hyoudou. With an opponent like you, drastic measures are necessary."

"I guess it can't be helped. We all want to win, after all." Issei shrugged, preparing to retaliate as the orbs on Saji's Absorption Line gave a glow.

oXo

On the other side of the battlefield, Sona Sitri was crouching on a tree branch, hiding among the leaves as she looked at a monster that looked like an elephant. Its body was massive and larger than those from the human world, its tusks are more like a mammoth's rather than an elephant. Its skin was blood red, covered with some grey-ash furs. The tip of its nose was a mouth with fangs instead of holes. She narrowed her eyes, then she let out a small breath as she confirmed that the monster had not detected her presence yet. She then turned on her communication link.

"Reya, how is it on your side?" Sona whispered to conceal herself and she waited for a reply.

On the other end, Kusaka Reya, one of Sona's bishops was sitting on another tree branch as she was wearing a mask over her face, there were also several masks floating around her as well. "I've located Rias-sama's base. Scouting Persona seems to work just fine."

Scouting Persona, one of artificial sacred gears that Azazel had been researching for years. As he offered his service as trainer and advisor for all teams for the upcoming rating game, he also handed out several of his artificial sacred gears to handful individuals. He decided to reinforce Sona Sitri's peerage with his creations with intentions to conduct a field test. The fallen angel governor wished that he could have given the team more sacred gears, but apparently, Scouting Persona was the only one Azazel could test on the team, as it had the least risk to jeopardizing the fight in case of malfunction.

"Good. How many enemies can you see?" Sona asked.

"There are five hostiles. Gremory-senpai, Himejima-senpai, Argento-san, Toujou-san…. with Vladi-san hiding among the trees."

"Anything else?"

"Um… There are… multiple targets. And their readings are… strange. It seems your prediction is right on about them using illusions."

"Can you determine the real one?"

Reya tried to find the answer she looked for, then something caused her to narrowed her eyes and tapped her mask. "I'm sorry, kaichou. It seems Scouting Persona still needs improvements. They're not providing enough information, and there are some glitches as well. But…" Reya paused as she tried to focus on her reading again. "There's a possibility that all the towers I saw are fakes."

"I see… Remember to go to Azazel again after the match. Tsubasa, Ruruko, how's your status?"

Sona's rook, Yura Tsubasa was crouching on a tree branch as she set her eyes on her current objective. "I've found one. This one sure looks scary…. Is it true that Hyoudou Issei fought these things during his training?"

"Ruruko, how about you?" Sona ignored her rook's question as she waited for a reply for few seconds. "Ruruko, do you copy?" She whispered slightly louder.

"**Um…"** a soft whisper was heard from the other end. Ruruko was hiding in thick bushes, lying on her front. "Sorry for the wait, kaichou. I've spotted two." Then a soft gasp was heard. "And I think they're searching for me…." her now scared whisper sounded even smaller.

Sona became worried as she swore that she heard a faint growl from Ruruko's channel. Then she turned to her bishop. "Reya, go back Ruruko up. Make sure to stay hidden."

"**No. Wait a moment, please."** Ruruko's voice was heard again. "**I… think I somehow passed them. Don't worry, they're still on sight, but didn't seem to search me anymore."**

Sona let out a relieved sigh. "Good. Are you sure you don't need a back-up?"

"**Don't worry, I've promoted to a Queen, after all. These things aren't looked too bright."** Ruruko gave a confident smirk despite how nervous she was.

The Sitri King then closed her eyes. "I'm sorry that I have to make you girls going along with this plan." She said with regretful tone.

"**No need apologize, kaichou."** Reya replied. **"Against a power house like Rias Gremory's peerage, I think this plan can give us a chance."**

"**Yes, I agree. I can handle this much, kaichou."** Ruruko voiced her consent.

"**I don't know about you, Ruruko… But I'm actually having fun right now."** Tsubasa replied, resulting a small giggle from Reya and a soft groan from Ruruko.

Sona smiled at her peerage's replies, then her eyes flashed open with determination. "Alright everyone, there's no going back now. As we planned, keep yourself hidden, keep your eyes open and wait for my signal. We can only do this once."

"**Yes/Got it/Roger that."**

oXo

"Shit!" Issei cursed as he quickly took off his uniform top, which was enveloped by black flames. "What the hell is that?" Issei asked as he saw his shirt got burned off, leaving him with his red T-shirt revealed.

"Awesome, isn't it? This is Blaze Black Flare, one of Vritra's Sacred Gears that had been implanted in me." Saji smirked as he prepared to use Absorption Line again. He shot the line, and this time Issei skilfully dodged and sneaked his way towards Saji and threw his punch.

Saji quickly jerked his head away from the punch and raised his arms to guard at the same time, only to feel a shattering pain when Issei's fist made contact with his arm. If it were not for the Absorption Line covering his arm, his arm would not be usable for the rest of the game. Saji rolled on the ground as the force of Issei's punch drove him away, and when Saji got back on his feet, he found that Issei was not after him. Instead, he was looking at another direction.

At the same time, voice of birds flying away and trees breaking could be heard, and whatever making those noises was coming to their location. Saji fixed his standing as he realized that his enemy was expecting something to come over them. He readied his Sacred Gears as the voice of crumbling trees and growls were getting closer. Saji's eyes widened when a giant dragon-like creature suddenly emerged from the trees. Its body was covered in black scales with protrusions and spikes here and there, its eyes has multiple pupils, its mouth was filled with fangs, and there was something akin to a half-top of human head on top of the dragon's head.

The monster let out a growl as it scanned the area in front of him. Issei who had encountered this kind of creature immediately seized his movements. The beast set its sight upon the closest object which was Issei, and began to lower its snout and sniffed as its eyes examining Issei's figure. The boy did not even bat en eye as the monster's head was still looming over him. Thinking that Issei was just some random object on its path, the creature then noticed another presence, and this presence was alive and moving.

Saji on the other hand, did not have any knowledge about the monster and he made a mistake by moving backwards in attempt of fleeing. The dragon immediately spotted Saji, whose position was technically further away than Issei. The dragon released a loud roar as it started to make its way towards the panic Saji. "What the….!? Hey! Why are you coming after me!? That guy over there is clearly closer to you!"

Much to Saji's bad luck, the monster kept ignoring Issei, who was still unmoving and Saji immediately utilized his Sacred Gears to defend himself. "Blaze Black Flare!" The monster then let out a pained roar as it tried to shook away the black flames from its side-face. However, the damage Saji inflicted only aggravated the beast and it became more determined to attack Saji. "Damn it!" Saji cursed as he had no other choice but to run away, with the dragon monster chased after him with another roar.

Later, once Issei confirmed that he was alone, he relaxed his stance and let out a relieved sigh as he wiped his sweat. "Whew, that was close."

**[Y'know, if you just activated your Scale Mail, you can take care of that dragon and that Vritra's host at the same time. Why bother going like this? And that was rather cunning of you, partner]**

"I just want to test myself, Ddraig… How far I can get without Balance Breaker. Besides, it's not that I can't beat him without Balance Breaker earlier. But now that the thing had joined the party, that was the best way to deal with the situation. I do feel bad for Saji, though." Issei said as he took a glance at the direction where Saji and the monster ran to before he turned on his communication link. "Kiba, Xenovia, I got caught in a fight earlier and I'm gonna proceed to locate our target. How are you guys doing?"

oXo

Yuuto was standing with his demon sword ready as two figures stood in front of him. One figure was a girl with shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair while the other was a girl with white hair. "It seems I'm heading the right way, Ise-kun. But I ran to two hostiles. Give me 5-10 minutes." Yuuto replied confidently.

Meguri Tomoe and Hanakai Momo also prepared for battle as the former unsheated her katana while the latter conjured a magic seal on her hand. However, before the combatants could have made any move, a rumbling sound was heard from the trees. And when the devils turned their heads towards the source, a massive beast came out. The beast was a large, lion-like monster with massive wings. It had three heads; two of them double as its front paws. Each of its heads possessed a pair of large, thick fangs and multiple red eyes. To complete it all, the beast also had a long, thin tail.

Yuuto and the other devils remained silent as their wide eyes set upon the beast that began to look around them. Then Yuuto replied to his link. "Um…. On a second thought, I probably will need a longer time to catch up."

oXo

Issei only heard what it sounded like a loud roar after he heard Yuuto's reply. "…Uh, okay…. Good luck and be careful there. You hear me, Kiba? …..Kiba?" Issei waited only to hear some trashing sound, another roar, and what it sounded like a cry. "….Alright. Xenovia, how's your side?"

"I'm not sure. I probably had been only running in circle by now…. Wait a second." Xenovia sounded that she found something. "Ise, I've found our target. I'm going for the kill now!"

"Wha-!? Wait, Xenovia!" Issei shouted and he heard explosion from a distance and a scream from his link in return. "Xenovia!? Xenovia!"

"**I'm okay!" **

Issei let out a breath as he heard Xenovia's voice from his link.

oXo

Xenovia, now her clothes were tattered, took a deep breath to regain her bearing as she brandished her Durandal towards Shinra Tsubaki, who was guarding _five_ towers behind her. Xenovia cursed herself as she did not take any possibility of traps lying around the target into account, and she had paid dearly for it. Now she had to face the enemy's strongest piece on a stage filled with traps.

"_Fuku-kaichou_ (vice-president)." Xenovia nodded in greeting with straight face after she gave a quick reply to Issei.

"Xenovia-san." Tsubaki returned the courtesy as she prepared her naginata by her side. "I take that Hyoudou-san and Kiba-kun are after this place with you?"

"I guess it's no longer necessary to hide it… Yes, my two companions are heading here at the moment. I guess this is go without saying, but… I'll have to take you out." Xenovia said as she prepared her battle-stance.

"The same goes for me." Tsubaki gave a small smirk as she took a stance and pointed her naginata towards Xenovia. The two remained silent for few seconds before Xenovia took the risk and lounge first.

oXo

Issei then heard another explosion, this time more noticeable as he got the rough idea about where the sound was heard from. He decided not to waste anymore time as red light enveloped his body.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

oXo

"HAAAA!"

Meanwhile, Xenovia sent an arc of pure destructive aura towards one of the five towers, which were most likely decoys, and one tower immediately dispersed when the attack hit. Xenovia quickly leapt away when she set her foot on the ground, only for the said ground to explode right after. The knight then recklessly charged at Tsubaki, who nimbly dodged and parried Xenovia's strikes with minimal force, showcasing her mastery over her spear until she leapt away and made Xenovia shot another arc of destructive power. However, Tsubaki only smirked and she shot up her hands at the incoming attack.

"Mirror Alice!" a large full-body mirror appeared before Tsubaki and took the brunt of Xenovia's attack. As the destructive aura pushed into the mirror, the Sitri Queen grunted as she supported her lifted arm to push the mirror back against the attack. Few seconds later, the mirror shattered, causing Tsubaki to stumble backwards before Xenovia suddenly let out a cry of pain as her body was hit by her own destructive aura from earlier, which was twice in size and damage.

"Xenovia!" it was only the time Issei arrived, clad in his Scale Mail as Xenovia's body started to glow and slowly disappeared and Grayfia's voice was heard across the field.

"**Rias Gremory's Knight has retired."**

"What the hell was that?" Issei asked as he turned to Tsubaki.

"Mirror Alice. My Sacred Gear that possesses an ability to reflect enemy's attacks back with double the damage." Tsubaki replied as she twirled her naginata around before pointing its tip towards Issei. "I didn't see Saji… But considering there's no announcement about his retirement yet, I take that you either outran him, or he has yet ran to you."

"Either way, I still need to take you down and win for my master." Issei replied as he simply started to walk towards Tsubaki. However, when he took the first step, a magic trap was triggered and Issei's spot was engulfed in explosion.

Tsubaki was well aware that that kind of trap was nowhere enough to hurt the Red Dragon Emperor, but a part of her hoped that it would deal some damage. From the smoke after the explosion, Issei's armoured figure came out unscathed, as he continued his way towards Tsubaki. More traps were triggered as Issei took more steps, but Issei only ignored those traps until one trap unleashed a stronger explosion, causing Issei to stumble few steps backwards, only to trigger another stronger explosive traps, making Issei's body to rocked back and forth from the force of the explosion. Nevertheless, he was still unharmed and no scratch was seen on his armour.

Finally found a safe ground to stand on, Issei scanned the area around him as he was still a bit far away from Tsubaki and multiple towers in front of him. He could avoid the traps if he took off to the sky, but that would not change things by much. He could have boosted his power high enough to destroy the towers with his dragon-shot, but the ability of Tsubaki's Sacred Gear could make things end up badly for him. He needed something that could distract the enemy queen from using her Sacred Gear on him.

"What's the matter, Hyoudou-kun? If you're not going to make a move then I will make one." Tsubaki taunted as she thought that she had a chance to take the battle to her favour.

"**Sona Sitri's Knight and Bishop have retired."**

Tsubaki widened her eyes at the announcement, while Issei smiled under his face-plate as Yuuto soon jumped out from the trees and stabbed his sword to the ground. "SWORD BIRTH!" barrages of swords and blades sprout out from the earth and made their way towards Tsubaki, who was forced to dodge by flying taking to the sky. Her Mirror Alice was still unusable as it was still in cool-down period.

Issei took a glance and Yuuto and the former found the latter had seen better days. Yuuto's clothes were tattered, his sleeves were torn, his pants were also torn, revealing one of his legs and scratches and bruises were apparent on his body as well. With ragged breathing, Yuuto forced himself to smile despite his condition, and regarded his pawn comrade with a nod.

"Thanks for the help, Kiba." Issei said as he tossed a vial of Phoenix's Tears that was given to him beforehand by Rias, towards Yuuto. "How is it? Fighting one of denizens of Forbidden Forest?" Issei asked half-teasingly.

Yuuto snorted a bit as he caught the vial effortlessly and drank its content to heal his injuries. "While half of my wounds were from Meguri-san and Hanakai-san's teamwork, I must admit that my respect to you had increased by folds. How did you survive against these things? And Azazel said they've been specially bred to be weaker."

Issei scoffed. "Well, that baldy made things easier back there… Nevermind that. Fuku-kaichou, are you going to make a move, now?" Issei returned the taunt Tsubaki gave earlier.

Tsubaki narrowed her eyes as she believed she had put herself in difficult situation. However, before anyone could have made a move, suddenly a rumbling sound was heard, followed by a flying… no, a hurling object falling to the ground between Tsubaki, Issei and Yuuto. Everyone widened their eyes when they saw the said object to be a dragon's head that was burning in black flames. And when Issei turned to look at the direction where the head was thrown from, Saji emerged from the trees. His appearance was pretty much that of someone who just had a fight of his life.

"Did I make it for the party?" Saji grinned as he moved to Tsubaki's side.

"Holy shit… Am I the only one who thinks he looks so badass right now?" Issei asked to nobody in particular as he saw Saji's rather savage look.

"No. I kind of agree with you, Ise-kun." Yuuto could not help but felt amazed.

**[Yeah, that was quite a dramatic entrance… Vritra really got himself a capable host] **Even the Welsh Dragon approved.

"Are you okay, fuku-kaichou?" Saji asked his Queen.

"I'm fine. That should be my question, though." Tsubaki replied, but she immediately took out a vial of Phoenix's Tears and handed it to Saji. The pawn gratefully accepted and he used it to heal his own wounds.

"So, the odds are even now, I take?" Issei said as he and Yuuto prepared themselves to attack.

"…Yeah, let's do this." Saji readied his Sacred Gears and Tsubaki brandished her naginata. However…

"**ISE-SENPAI!"** Issei's communication link appeared and Gasper's cry was heard from it. **"You need to return now! Sona-kaichou has-! Kyaaaah!"** whatever was about to be said was interrupted by Gasper's rather feminine scream, followed by crumbling and roaring noises.

"**Rias Gremory's Bishop has retired."**

_To be Continued….._

* * *

**And that's it for now, folks! Sorry for the cliff-hanger, but I originally planned to compile the entire fight, as well as the aftermath for volume 5. However, I realized that it would be way too long, so I decided to split it into two parts instead. Which means, that the second half a.k.a the next chapter is more or less half-way done and won't take too long to be updated. **

**As you can see, this is what I came up with after I watched some League of Legends trailer from Youtube. I never played League of Legends before so…. I hope I was doing justice about the rules and all. I also considered to arm Sona Sitri's peerage with Azazel's artificial Sacred Gears to even the odds, but at the same time I felt it was way too soon, so I decided to go with the idea of Azazel testing one that I deemed to be 'safest to use'; thus you had Kusaka Reya's Scouting Persona. Please spare me the flames; Ahsoei, over and out. m(_ _)m**


	24. The Gathering of Young Devils (V)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, everyone! Here's the continuation of the Rating Game between Rias vs Sona, as well as the closing chapter of this arc. The match actually did not last as long as I expected, but splitting it into two parts allowed me to re-evaluate things. The reason I set up those rules in the game because I was trying to make a match that make the participant to 'think outside the box' as there were more than one options to achieve victory and to be eliminated from the game. On another note, there will be a preview for the volume 6 at the very bottom so SPOILER ALERT! R&amp;R! Ahsoei, over and out.**

* * *

**Chapter 23: The Gathering of Young Devils (V) – End of Summer**

On the other side of the battlefield, Rias, Akeno, Asia, and Koneko with Gasper hidden from plain sight, were on stand-by as they were preparing themselves for the enemy's strike. So far, things looked fine for her. She clearly had the advantage in terms of offensive power thanks to her two knights and her pawn. However, she had to begrudgingly admit that Sona was better than her in terms of strategizing and battle of wits. Every time they played chess or any game that require wits, Sona always the one to outsmart Rias as the former always made the least expected move against the latter. She wished she could have gone with the assault team instead of staying behind the lines. After all, this is the long awaited Rating Game against her childhood friend/rival, and she wanted to fight her personally. However, looking back at the rules Azazel said earlier, her current strategy was the ideal one.

The red hair wondered what her childhood friend/rival's move would be in this match. Based on her assessment, Sona would definitely pit her strongest pawn against her Issei, since their pawns were housing the power of legendary dragons in their body. There was also a possibility that she was going through the similar tactics as her own. But Rias knew well that there was nothing to gain by speculating things that might not happen, so she decided to trust her instinct and her peerage as she focused her senses on her surroundings to anticipate any form of ambush.

Rias did not expect to see Sona, Ruruko, Reya and Tsubasa suddenly came out from the trees and different directions and simply ran towards them. No, running would have sounded too stupid for Sona for not predicting of traps Rias had sprawled around the ground. Instead of running, the Sitri devils simply sprout their wings out and glided towards them. As much as Rias wondered why the enemy would bother to glide slightly above the ground instead of taking it to the sky, she widened her eyes as she saw the trees where the enemies had come out from respectively, were falling down one by one as if something massive was making its way towards their location. Her fear was confirmed when large monsters with various forms suddenly came out from the trees, let out a roar and started to rampage around the base.

Rias could not believe it; Sona just took a horde of monsters as her army to storm her base despite the high risk she could have been retired. The monsters were running mad around the base, chasing Sitri devils and Gremory devils alike, or fighting against each other while brushing off and destroying the traps that were triggered by their massive steps. "Gasper! Contact Ise now!"

The dhampir who was still shocked from the chaos Sona had brought forth quickly turned to his communication link and started to relay his master's orders. However, the tree Gasper was using to hide suddenly broke down and a giant centipede-like monster sneaked its way to lounge at the dhampir from behind. The Rating Game safety system immediately kicked in before Gasper's body could be injured too badly by the monster's attack.

"**Rias Gremory's Bishop has retired."**

Rias' remaining remembers were having a total pandemonium in their own base. Koneko was handling herself well enough against one monster thanks to her strength, Akeno seemed to test the waters by shooting some of her signature thunder towards several monsters, which seemed to only aggravate them while hurting them. Rias herself had to defend herself and Asia at the same time as she tried to make it out alive from this chaos, as monsters were fighting her peerage and some other monsters in fit of rampage. She could not see Sona nor her peerage anywhere, and staying inside her base would only put her in danger.

Shooting up towards the sky was the best way to escape, but the trashing and rampaging monsters, not to mention the trees got in her way. "Everyone, get away from here and try to regroup!" Rias gave out her order. Akeno and Koneko nodded and dashed off to their own ways, while Rias proceeded to withdraw from the battlefield with Asia. "Asia, stay close to me."

"Y-Yes!" With that reply, the two immediately flew away from the base. Rias looked back, and most of monsters Sona brought forth were still busy fighting each other. However, there were some that were not caught into a fight or intelligent enough, and one lion-like monsters actually spotted Rias with Asia and started to give a chase.

As Rias and Asia slid through the woods, the monster behind them simply bulldozed everything in its path with surprisingly decent speed. Rias immediately retaliate by firing her Power of Destruction, but her aim was off, making the attack that intended to obliterate the monster's face ended up destroying one of its wings. The lion let out a pained roar as it stumbled and fell to the ground, but such injury was not enough to put the beast down. However, it gave Rias and Asia enough time to outrun it. Soon the two arrived at another clearing and Sona was there as if expecting them.

"Rias." Sona greeted and she noticed the blonde girl beside her enemy. "Argento-san."

"Sona…" Rias smirked as her eyes were glaring at her enemy. "That's some move you pull on us earlier."

"What can I say? Desperate measure is necessary against you." Sona shrugged. "You know, when I sneaked into your tower, your real tower…. I found that the gem inside was actually fake as well… And I'm not surprised."

"Of course. I honestly didn't expect the gem to be detachable. Azazel sure had put a lot of variables in this game." Rias replied. "But since both of us have no idea where our objective is located, let's settle this through old-fashioned way, shall we?" Rias challenged as her leaked out her aura from her body.

"I couldn't ask for more." Sona prepared herself as water started to surround her body.

"Asia, stay back." Rias commanded her bishop and the latter complied while wishing her master luck. However, the two devils turned their heads to find the lion monster Rias outran earlier suddenly arrived between them, and it was sure not pleased at the sight of the red head who clipped its wing, and the sight of Sona only added its menu list.

Rias and Sona only glanced at each other. No words were spoken, but they seemed to reach some sort of truce as Rias turned to Asia. "Asia, once I distracted that monster with Sona, go hide and don't come out until I say so."

Asia wanted to talk back out of her fear for her master and Sona's safety, but she knew that she was still powerless against such creature. She reluctantly nodded and took few steps back as the beast roared and lounged its body towards Sona and Rias.

* * *

"Well, looks like kaichou's plan had been put into motion." Tsubaki commented after Grayfia's announcement was heard.

"What did she plan to do?" Issei opened his face-plate and asked as he and Yuuto hardened their gazes.

"Why don't you come here and find out?" Saji taunted, making Issei and Yuuto glanced and nodded to each other, and Issei immediately set his face-plate on again and flew off towards the direction of his own base. However, his left leg was immediately caught by Saji's Absorption Line. "Like hell I'll let you!" Saji mustered his strength to prevent Issei to go any further, but Issei simply grabbed the line and yanked it hard, throwing Saji's body to a distance in the process. Seeing that Saji had been dragged away by Issei, Yuuto immediately took his initiative to engage Tsubaki, who responded in kind.

Meanwhile, Saji was slammed so hard that the ground caved into a crater. However, before Issei could have severed the line tangling his foot, Saji quickly stood up again and pulled his line hard, causing Issei's armoured body to jerk down in the air as he resisted the force. Issei then decided to muster all of his power and fly around, dragging Saji across the ground to wait for the latter to let go the line himself.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

However, as Issei kept enhancing himself and dragged Saji around the jungle, the latter remained strong as he kept trying to sap the former's power with his Absorption Line. Seeing that this could not keep going, Saji then utilized his Blaze Black Flare and lit his line on fire. The black flame then made its way through the line towards Issei.

"What the-!?" Issei felt as the black flame started to burn his armour down. _"Is this the power of a dragon king?! And this one is supposed to be the weakest?!"_

_**[Dragons are still known to be exceptionally powerful, partner. Even being the weakest in terms of raw power, Vritra has the most variation of techniques that allow him to be acknowledged as one of dragon kings.]**_

"Shadow Prison!" Saji shouted out and suddenly a shadowy aura appeared around his body and started to make its way towards Issei to restrain his movement further.

Issei struggled to break free from Saji's shadowy aura and Absorption Line coated in black flames as he kept boosting to make up for his lost power. "I guess I can't take him lightly, after all!"

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Issei then broke free from the shadow and shot to the ground, surprising Saji as the former punched the latter's face. The line was easily severed as its wielder dropped to the ground. And Issei quickly charged his magical power for finishing move.

"Dragon shot!" as Issei then fired his signature attack towards Saji, who was still on his way to get back on his feet.

"Delete Field!" Saji barely managed to activate another one of his Sacred Gears as the red beam in front of him suddenly diminished. However, when the attack dissipated, Saji did not expect to see Issei to be in front of him, with his fist cocked back.

The Red Dragon Emperor did not waste anytime to be surprised from how many Sacred Gears that Saji possessed in his person, and began to launch a combo attack on the host of Prison Dragon. The Prison Dragon could barely guard himself against the vicious strikes and he was launched back towards a tree.

Seeing the damage he had dealt, Issei then relaxed as he turned on his communication link. "Kiba, I'm gonna head back to the base. How's it on your side?"

"**The objectives are all fakes. It seems that kaichou also detached the gem to be hidden somewhere else."**

"What about fuku-kaichou?"

"**She vanished into the woods after I launched an attack to her. I'm currently in pursuit."**

"Keep it up and be careful. I'm moving now." Without waiting for a reply, Issei then turned off his link and prepared himself to fly away.

At the same time, Saji was trying his darnest to stay conscious as he struggled to get back on his feet. Pain ran across his body, frustration occupying his mind. Even after his rigorous training by Tannin, the ultimate-class devil and former dragon king, and modifications on his Sacred Gears, Saji was still loosing against Issei, the current Red Dragon Emperor. Was it all for nothing? Was he destined to be always a runner-up? He gritted his teeth on those questions. Damn it all, he had dreams to fulfil, he had a master whom he fell in love with, a master whom he wanted her to look at him, to acknowledge him, and the said master's dreams… Saji wanted to protect and fulfil them too. All of Vritra's Sacred Gears were made aware of the frustrations and wishes of their wielder's mind, and as if answering his call, power suddenly started to spike up from Saji's being.

"VRITRA PROMOTION!"

Issei looked back when he sensed a sudden spike of power when his view was suddenly overlapped by a black dragon coated in black flames.

* * *

Meanwhile, Akeno and Koneko were able to regroup with each other and currently trekking through the jungle in searching for Rias and Asia. While flying Akeno was flying through woods and vines, Koneko could not fly as fluid as Akeno, so the rook decided to cover the ground.

"Akeno-senpai!" Koneko called out as the two then halted as Koneko picked up something with her Nekomata senses. Akeno trusted her junior in this regard as she did not talk back, and focused on her surroundings as well.

Then, three figures appeared in front of them: Yura Tsubasa, Kusaka Reya and Nimura Ruruko, running towards them. Koneko and Akeno were immediately on their edge, preparing to retaliate until the three devils of Sitri suddenly ran passed them. Reya did pass them a glance, though.

Koneko and Akeno then blinked at the still running trio, and looked at each other confused. What were their enemies doing? Their answer came soon enough as the trees where the trio came from earlier crumbled down and revealed a massive elephant monster that attacked their base earlier.

BUOOOOOOOON!

The elephant monster let out a booming roar as it kept making its way towards the devils, running over everything that was unfortunate enough to stand on its path. Akeno and Koneko were quite surprised and their distance with the monster was too close for Akeno to conjure any spell, so the two decided to run following the direction of the three Sitri devils earlier.

Soon, Koneko and Akeno caught up with the trio, and the monster was still hot on their tails. "Ufufufu, you three really got yourself in one hell of a mess, didn't you?" Akeno somewhat could still tease her enemy despite the situation she was dragged into.

"Y-Yeah…. I guess we made it too angry earlier…" Tsubasa replied with a hint of regret and shame in her tone.

"How did you get this thing, anyway?" Koneko mused.

"It's kaichou who planned to bring it along in the first place, the rest of us only helped her to agitate it enough to chase us all the way to your base. I didn't expect it so…. tenacious." Ruruko replied this time.

"What can you expect? Azazel-sensei created these things, after all." Koneko retorted, resulting everyone to sigh with the same sentiment.

"Himejima-senpai, Toujou-san." The aforementioned two turned to Reya, who was flying with slower speed than Akeno. "I know this may sounds inappropriate, but…. What do you say about us having a temporary truce?" Reya then glanced at the elephant monster that seemed to be a bit closer behind them. "At this rate, all of us might be eliminated by that monster before we can do anything for our King."

Koneko and Akeno looked at each other before they turned at the monster who seemed to slowly close their distance. They then looked at Tsubasa and Ruruko, who were looking back at them, then the Queen and the Rook nodded to each other as they reached an agreement.

"Very well, we accept this truce until that monster had been taken care of." Akeno smiled. "And I already have a plan for that. Koneko-chan, if you would?"

Without a word, Koneko then grew her tail and cat-ears, utilizing her Senjutsu skills, much to Sitri devil's surprise. She then gained more speed as she ran up ahead, and once she gained enough distance, she gathered the natural energy around her as many as she could, and she aimed right at the monster's eyes.

BOOM!

The monster let out a pained cry as Koneko's bluish white flame boiled its eyes. Robbed of its vision, the elephant stumbled and it lost its trajectory as it fell and skidded on the ground. "Akeno-senpai!"

Akeno's expression then turned into that of determination, as she had hardened her resolve and decided to overcome her hatred of her own lineage, and much to everyone's surprise again, she grew one fallen angel wing on her left while her right was her devil wings. "Thunder, lightning!" With that command, a demonic thunder appeared on her right hand and holy lightning crackled on her left. She brought her hands forward, and the Priestess of Thunder and Light fired her combined attack of thunder and holy lightning towards the blinded monster.

BLAARR!

The monster screamed when Akeno's electricity fused with thunder and holy lightning ran through its body. From its monstrous appearance, and its birthplace in Underworld's Forbidden Forest according to Azazel, it was safe to assume that the monster was a demonic origin. Thus, it was completely vulnerable towards light and holy element. However, even with its body heavily injured and charred nearly crisp by Akeno's attack, the elephant monster struggled to stand up with its trembling limbs.

"My, my… This boy is resilient, ufufufu…" Akeno giggled as she put a hand on her blushing cheek, resulting Reya, Ruruko and Tsubasa to be reminded what kind of woman Himejima Akeno was.

"Akeno-senpai, please keep your tendency in a stray hunt only." Koneko politely reprimanded her senior before she turned to Tsubasa and Ruruko. "Tsubasa-senpai, Ruruko-san, I'll need your help."

Tsubasa and Ruruko only saw Koneko ran towards the disoriented monster and grabbed one of its tusks, then the former two quickly understood what the rook was trying to do. Tsubasa then quickly grabbed the other tusk and Ruruko grabbed the base of its trunk. With Ruruko's acquired higher strength through promotion, and Tsubasa and Koneko's rook enhanced strength, the three then mustered their muscles to flip the monster's body around. Reya who felt that she needed to do her part quickly used her bishop's enhanced magic ability and earth spell to conjure a large spike on the ground, right on the spot where the elephant would land. She matched the momentum of the monster's fall and the spike's growth, resulting the earth spike to pierce through the centre of monster's giant body. The monster let out another cry, its body trashed around for few seconds until it finally stopped. Seeing that the monster was finally dead, Reya let out a relieved sigh and she looked at Akeno, who smiled at her. Tsubasa and Ruruko also did a high-five and the former gave a thumbs-up to Koneko, who returned the courtesy.

"Well, now that the monster's been dealt with…" those words ended the short-lived victory moment, as Koneko cracked her knuckles and immediately struck Ruruko who was still lowering her guard. Koneko's ki coated fist was strong enough to knocked Ruruko out in one strike.

"**Sona Sitri's pawn has retired."**

Tsubasa immediately realized the current development and jumped back to avoid Koneko. "Oh, come on! Do you have to kill the mood so soon, Koneko-san?!"

"It's temporary truce, after all. We're enemies to begin with." Koneko shrugged as she brought up her stance.

Meanwhile, Reya who did not expect Koneko's surprise attack, noticed that something was behind her and she looked to see Akeno was sweetly smiling at her, thunder and holy lightning surrounding her body. At the sight of the Gremory's Ultimate Sadist, Reya could only whimpered at the tough battle waiting for her.

* * *

"**Sona Sitri's Bishop has retired."**

Issei was breathing hard when he heard the announcement. In front of him was a figure of fiery, black eastern dragon glaring at him. The Red Dragon Emperor was taken by surprise when Saji was suddenly enveloped by black flame and the said flame morphed into his current dragon form. The surprise attack Saji pulled on Issei earlier managed to sap quite a lot of Issei's reserve, thanks to the combined powers of all Vritra's Sacred Gears. The black dragon's flame also managed to shatter some parts of the Scale Mail. The Red Dragon Emperor realized that he needed to finish this fast before he could have ran out of juice.

"Damn, Saji….. That's really…. Something, you pulled on me there…" Issei commented despite the situation he was in as he repaired his armour.

"**GRAAAAAAAAH!"** the black dragon only roared in return and shot towards Issei.

"Whoa! Okay, so you're still that pissed?!"

Issei also moved, then sky was filled with red and black streak as the black dragon tried to catch Issei and the boy flew around to avoid. Issei could easily outran him in his Scale Mail, however, he also had more than one reason to be wary of Vritra's curse. Not to mention, going faster meant draining more of his reserve, and his reserve was starting to run low thanks to Vritra's combined ability of Blaze Black Flare and Delete Field.

"**Sona Sitri's Queen has retired."**

"**Ise-kun, are you still there?"** at the same time Grayfia's announcement was heard, Issei's communication link suddenly turned on and Yuuto's voice was heard.

Issei was reluctant to talk during a fight, but with the current situation where the match had to end as soon as possible, it was time for some multi-tasking. "What is it, Kiba? Make it quick!" Issei replied as he still tried to shake-off the black dragon on his ass.

"**I doubt that enemy's gem is within our reach, anymore."** Yuuto replied with grave tone. **"I didn't find it on fuku-kaichou. Wherever it is now, I don't think we can find it anytime soon."**

"Damn…. Oh, shit!" Issei cursed as he barely managed to evade the black dragon that suddenly increased his speed and almost caught him between his jaws.

"**Ise-kun?"**

"Kiba, our only shot is to after kaichou, who is all the way back at our base! Go back there and help buchou and the others!" Issei increased his speed as well as he screamed to his link.

"**It's going to be tough…!"** Yuuto's voice then was interrupted by coughing sounds. **"Huff….. Sorry, Fuku-kaichou got me good just now. I won't be able to move at full-speed or fight at full-power anymore…. But I'll see what I can do."**

"Again, damn… Just don't force yourself. I'll catch you again later!" Issei then turn off his communication link.

"Ise-kun? What are you…. Oh, I see." On the other end, Yuuto with his body badly injured from Tsubaki's last act of retaliation, just saw a red streak followed by black passing above him. "Okay, let's see how far I can last." Yuuto spoke to himself as he used his sword as a support to help moving his battered body.

Meanwhile, Issei was still flying to evade being struck by Vritra's curse. Soon, he found himself entering the mountain area and realized that the black dragon was no longer on his tail. _"What the…? Where did he go?"_ Issei thought as he kept flying without particular direction.

**[Watch out!]**

Ddraig's shout snapped Issei out of his musing as he suddenly got caught inside a mass of black flame. Vritra roared as he enveloped the Red Dragon Emperor with his body coated and enchanted with all of his curses. Issei's groaned in pain as Vritra's black flame flared out, trying to pierce through his Scale Mail; his movement, power and reserve were being chipped away again as the Prison Dragon's curse did its work.

"If it has come to this, then….!" Issei gritted his teeth as he prepared to do his 'last ditch' effort. "Ddraig! Put everything into the booster!"

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

"HAAAAA!" Issei then mustered all of his strength as he pushed to reach Saji's body inside the dragon's form, and he kept pushing forward as the power of Welsh Dragon clashed with the curse of Prison Dragon.

"**OOOOOOOO!"** the black dragon also let out a roar as it felt its 'core' were struck.

As the red and black kept colliding towards one another, finally an explosion occurred on the sky and from the explosion, a figure in damaged red armour were shooting down to the ground while holding a boy with short blonde hair. The two crashed, making a crater on the ground and as Issei stood up; he loomed over Saji's unconscious body that also slowly disappeared.

"**Sona Sitri's Pawn has retired."**

Issei then let out a breath and what remained of his Scale Mail disappeared, followed with his body falling to the ground. "Holy crap…. That sure was scary…" Issei groaned as he felt his body in a world of pain. While the wounds on his body were not too grave thanks to his armour protecting him, the curse of Prison Dragon caused his body completely exhausted and his reserve nearly dried up. Maintaining the gauntlet form of his Boosted Gear was all he could do at the moment. Issei then caressed his stomach, which still held some lingering effects of the alcohol he consumed last night. "Fuck… I'm even too tired to feel sick…"

"Let's see if it's still in one piece…" Issei glanced over to his gauntlet and he activated his Second Liberation. However, when the Boosted Gear extended, it was a gem glowing in red instead of its usual green. Issei then willed in his mind and the red gem just popped out from its chamber, and the chamber was soon replaced by Boosted Gear's usual green jewel again. "It's still here." Issei chuckled as he breathed relief and he kissed the red jewel at the same time another announcement was heard.

"**Sona Sitri's Rook has retired."**

When Issei was entrusted with the red jewel of his team, Issei found this idea from the time he forced his Boosted Gear to assimilate with Divine Dividing. He pondered, if something 'poisonous' like Divine Dividing's jewel could be stored inside Boosted Gear, sure the gauntlet could store some harmless object like the red jewel he had been tasked to guard with. As per Ddraig's suggestion, Issei placed it inside the chamber for the Gift function in order to conceal its location from the enemy. However, until the red jewel to be removed, Transfer ability would not be usable as Second Liberation required all of the green jewels to function properly. That was what Issei told Yuuto and Xenovia before they split up, the former let the latter two know that he would not be able to lend them his power if such occasion arrived.

Issei then turned on his communication link as he tried to contact his teammate. "Kiba? Do you hear me? Where are…" but his words were cut-off with another announcement.

"**Rias Gremory's Knight has retired."**

"Goddammit…" Issei cursed and groaned out. When Issei thought about it again, the knight did not sound too good on the last time he heard from him. "Oh, well… I guess it's up to me now. Ddraig, how bad is it?"

**[Pretty bad. Vritra's curse really hit you hard. You're fortunate that his curse is not permanent, but I'm afraid that you won't recover anytime soon. Just rest up, with that Sitri heiress is on her own now, it's just a matter of time.]**

"This is Sona-kaichou we're talking about. If she were to manage to ambush buchou…." Issei then shook his head to discard the negative thoughts. "I just can't sit around here. I have to make do with what I got now." The boy then began to make his way back as he hoped that he would not run to any monster with his current state.

* * *

Sona Sitri was put on her edge when she heard that her queen had been retired. As she and Rias held a temporary truce to fight off the giant lion monster interfering with their battle, Sona summoned a large, water-elemental serpent to bind the monster's movement, allowing Rias to fire her power of destruction right to its face. The attack seemed to deal a critical damage as the monster's skull was literally blown off, and its body finally fell to the ground with last twitch.

Rias let out a sigh of relief, believing that she could focus back on fighting Sona while the latter did not waste any second to immediately strike the former who let her guard down in a moment of victory. Rias did understand that Sona's peerage was loosing, and desperate times called for desperate measures. But she was still caught in surprise as Sona immediately unleashed many water-elemental animals to attack her. Water hawks were flying surrounding her, lions and wolves attempted to lunge at her, and serpents tried to sneak their way to her. In amidst of chaos when Rias retaliated with her power of destruction, Sona forced her way to get close to her, and did another unthinkable.

WHAM!

While she was not as proficient as several members of her peerage in close-quarter combat, Sona had received some basic training in her younger days. She relied more to her demonic arts, but she also knew some basic martial arts move in case of emergency. As Rias was within her reach, she mustered all strength her body could give, and she landed several blows on Rias' torso, stretching the muscles and breaking some of her ribs in the process.

*CRACK

"Ugh!" Rias coughed up blood as she was completely shocked at Sona's movement. Her body crashed into a nearby tree, and she saw Sona was charging her magic attack to finish her off.

During that moment, in span of seconds, a minute at best; Rias tried to move away but her fractured bones were too painful to move. Then, she saw a green orb of light shot towards her, and when it hit her, she felt better. She did not know whether her fractured bones were healed completely, but the pain eased up enough for her to move away at the nick of time when Sona unleashed her attack in a form of water dragon.

Rias saw Asia coming out from her hiding with her hand stretched out, Twilight Healing glowed brightly on her fingers. Rias landed beside her as she gave her Bishop a smile of gratitude. "Thank you, Asia. You saved me." which was replied by Asia's own smile.

Sona clicked her tongue as she lost her chance and she began to formulate another tactic to turn things around. Going after the enemy's tower's jewel was no longer possible, and her only chance to take Rias out. However, just before Sona could have made any move, a lightning descended and struck the ground, forcing everyone to turn towards the source of the said lightning.

"I'm sorry for the wait, buchou." Akeno said as she landed next to her master both her fallen angel wing and devil wing were sprouting out from her back. "Ufufufu, it seems you're in a tight spot."

"Everything is under control, Akeno. Thank you very much." Rias retorted as Koneko also arrived by her side in her Nekoshou mode. "Well, Sona?" Rias then turned to her rival again, giving her one last chance either to surrender, or to retaliate.

As Rias' Queen, Rook and Bishop were now by her side, Sona bit her lip at her fading hope to win. Outnumbered, outgunned, she contemplated what she should do at that moment. She closed her eyes, racked her brain and mind as she mulled over her dreams, her reason not to lose, everything her peerage had done and sacrificed for her.

Sona then opened her eyes as she came to a decision.

oXo

"Oh, come on….." Issei groaned out as his just lucky enough to end up running into another monster. The boy was exhausted, his reserve was depleted, and the monster seemed more than eager to attack him. Just when Issei was about to go for swim or sink, an announcement was heard as he felt his body was being teleported away.

"**Sona Sitri, the King has retired. The match is over with Rias Gremory's victory."**

* * *

Issei was on his way towards Sona Sitri's ward in Underworld's medical facility to check on Saji. After the rating game had ended, he had to be put on bed for a while as he suffered extreme exhaustion and magic reserve depletion, not to mention some wounds and burns he received during the match. However, he felt himself… mortified as he recalled the whole match. He was practically out of the match after he fought Saji, and it was only due to his tougher physics that Issei was not retired from the game. And after that, he was supposed to got back as soon as he could to assist his master and teammates, but instead he was 'saved' by his master winning by a direct confrontation between Kings.

The match was totally different than the one they had with Riser Phenex, and what was more, Issei would say that Sona Sitri's performance was the high-light of the match. While Issei managed to defeat Saji, the latter managed to achieve a new level of power with his Vritra's Sacred Gears, and from what he heard, Sona showcased her own leadership by coming up with a risky strategy that truly threw Rias out of her loop. Not to mention her last surprise attack at Rias; if it were not for Asia's help, followed by the others arriving on time, the match would have ended with Rias' loss against Sona. At this evaluation, Issei only sighed as he continued his way towards his destination.

oXo

In a certain hospital ward, Sona was sitting beside Saji's bed, looking after her pawn as well as the rest of her servants' condition. The male pawn was wrapped in bandages as he suffered multitude of fractures, some serious bruises, as well as extreme exhaustion both body and mind, thanks to his duel with Hyoudou Issei. The rest of Sona's peerage did suffer injuries to a degree, but they were not as bad as Saji's. Fortunately, Saji, who got it the worst, just woke up not long ago and everyone was showing signs of recovering.

The sound of knocking door was heard. Sona gave whoever the guest was the permission to go in and everyone widened their eyes at the sight of Issei at the door.

Issei could feel that two particular eyes were glaring daggers at him: Ruruko and Momo. Saji, who addressed his comrades to calm down when he sensed their hostility, "Come on, girls. I thought we've been through about this." The female pawn and Bishop's hostility then faded, but their eyes still held some uncertainty. "It was a Rating Game and we're on opposing sides, of course we were going to have a fight. Right, kaichou?"

"You have a point." Sona nodded. "So, Hyoudou-san. What is it that we can help you with?"

"Uh, well…" Issei scratched his cheek awkwardly as he was a bit embarrassed. "The match earlier was my first time fighting against my friend, so…. I'm honestly not sure what to do. I thought I should at least… apologize for what I did to you." Issei then turned to bow 90 degrees at Saji. "I'm sorry."

Everyone blinked at the apology, until the girls were smiling softly, Sona sighed quietly and Saji groaned. "What are you sorry for?"

Issei looked up with confused expression. "Eh?"

"It did hurt when you beat me, but thanks to that I learn that I still have so much to improve." Saji then smirked to Issei. "And by the next time we fight, I won't lose."

Issei blinked at Saji's fortitude and determination before he snorted and smiled back. "Yeah… Bring it on." Then Issei changed the topic. "By the way, Saji… That move you used on me earlier… What the hell was that?"

"Well… the thing is, I'm not sure myself." Saji awkwardly replied. "When I was down back there… I only remember that I wanted power so bad… Then the rest was blurry with black flames… I vaguely remember I kind of kicked your ass, though."

Issei only chuckled at the explanation. "Then it means that whatever that was is controllable… And once you gain control of it, you'll be one hell of opponent." Issei concluded. "I tell you what, thanks to that move you pulled on me, I would have been eliminated if the game were to go any longer." It was not exactly a lie, because Issei was about to get mowed by a monster back there.

"Glad to hear it." Saji chuckled in return, resulting some giggles from the girls and a pout from Issei.

"By the way, kaichou." Issei then turned to Sona. "That was some bold move you pulled on us. None of us could see that coming from you."

Sona only smiled calmly at Issei's compliment. "As I said to Rias before… Desperate times, desperate measures. I'd never be able to pull it off without my peerage's help, after all." Sona glanced over her servants who were smiling in return.

"And I heard that you pulled some martial arts on buchou." Issei added. "You really got that one on her."

However, before the conversation could go any further, another knock was heard from the door, and Sirzechs Lucifer and Grayfia Lucifuge came in, causing everyone to widen their eyes at recognition.

Sona and Issei were about to kneel when the Crimson Satan stopped them by raising his hand. "Please, be at ease. I'm here to speak with Saji Genshirou-kun. Is he available?"

"Y-yes, I am." Saji tried his best to be presentable despite his current state. Sirzechs then turned to Issei.

"Ise-kun, my sister is looking for you now. You should go to her."

"Ah, yes!" Issei complied and he addressed to everyone else. " Then I'll take my leave. Kaichou, everyone… It was a good game." Then he turned one last time to bow at Sirzechs and Grayfia. "Sirzechs-sama, Grayfia-san." Then he left the room.

Sirzechs then turned back to Saji. "Saji Genshirou-kun…" He greeted as he picked out a small box. "I'm here to give you this."

What was inside the box was something that made Saji and the others to be proud of themselves.

* * *

"Ah, Ise. There you are." Rias said as she met her pawn in the hallway. "Where have you been? You weren't in your room when I came to visit."

"I just came from kaichou's ward to check on Saji." Issei replied. "Where are the others, though? I thought I was gonna wake up in the same room with Gasper, Kiba and Xenovia."

"Their wounds are worse than yours, so they're being treated in a different room." Rias replied. "They'll get better soon enough. The others are looking after them by now."

The two then talked while walking towards the room where their friends were. "I'm sorry about the game, buchou." Issei began with an apology. "I should've returned to you when kaichou pulled her move on us."

"There's nothing for you to feel bad at, Ise." Rias replied gently. "You did well in that match by taking out Sona's most potent servant. Yuuto and Xenovia also did well as striker team." Then her smile widened. "Not to mention… Both Akeno and Koneko overcame their walls in this game. This is something to be happy about."

"…Yes, yes it is." Issei nodded in agreement.

"And it's all thanks to you, Ise." Rias' statement caused the boy to look at his master again, who was still smiling. "Thanks to whatever you did, everyone in my group are breaking through the things they carry. You've broken through all the things I've worried about, Ise. I'm very grateful."

"Well… I actually didn't know what I was exactly doing that time…" Issei blushed at the gratitude. "I guess I just don't want to see anyone sad…. And all I did was only giving them a light push. That's all." Rias only giggled, and she smiled fondly at her pawn.

Then, their trip to the room was interrupted as they encountered an elderly man with a long white beard and a young woman with straight long silver hair. "You are the wielder of Welsh Dragon, am I correct?" the old man asked in greeting.

Issei only blinked before replying. "Err… Yes, that would be me. May I ask who you are?" Issei asked politely.

"Hohoho…. I see that you are his son…" Issei perked up slightly when he heard the word 'his son' from the elderly man. "I'm the Old Man of the Northern Countryside. Red Dragon Emperor… I thought your father would have shared about us…"

"_Another 'acquaintance'…."_ Issei mentally sighed as Rias interjected. "You're Lord Odin of the Norse, aren't you? This is the first time we've met. My name is Rias Gremory, it's an honour to meet you." The red hair gave a polite bow. Issei also followed suit automatically.

"_Odin, Odin… Sounds familiar…."_ Issei mused until Ddraig gave him an answer.

_**[As your master said, partner. Odin is the chief God of Norse pantheon. The woman beside him is a Valkyrie, some sort of demi-god.]**_

Odin then turned to Rias. "That's right. You're Sirzechs' little sister… I saw you in the game. Well, there was also something like that. But, I see, hmm…. So big. When I was watching, I was fascinated by just these." Odin showed a lecherous smile as he set his sight on Rias' two mounds.

_**[Shit… The rumours about this old geezer's debauchery are true.]**_

Issei's eyes twitched at the sight of Odin ogling on his master's breasts and the boy quickly placed himself between Odin and Rias protectively. "Lord Odin, would you please stop looking at my master's…. breasts?" Issei asked with strained smile.

Odin then measured Issei with look of interest. "Hmm? Are you jealous here?" Odin replied coolly.

Issei's face immediately flustered, unknowing that Rias was also blushing behind him. However, before Issei could have made any more comment, the woman with Odin had already slapped the chief god's head with a paper fan. "For crying out loud! Did I not already tell you that indecent eyes were prohibited?! Since there's going to be an important meeting now, please pull yourself together as the King of the Norse Gods!"

Odin only rubbed his head and regarded the woman with his half-lidded eyes. "Sheesh… Look at you, taking his side already…" Then a mischievous smirk appeared on his face and he turned to Issei again. "Hey, Red Dragon Emperor. This woman here was your father's-!" whatever Odin was about to say was immediately stopped by the woman's shriek as she put her hands on Odin's mouth.

She was blushing mad, and she was well-aware that her attitude was very rude towards the King of the Norse. However, she could not possibly let even her own superior to reveal what had happened between her and _that_ man, especially in front of _his_ son. "Please forgive me for my rudeness, Lord Odin…. But I implore you to say no more."

Odin then only laughed in return. "Well, I guess I'll be lenient and pretend not seeing what you did. I was overstepping my bound as well, after all." Then he proceeded to walk away. "I'll take my leave, Sirzech's little sister and Red Dragon Emperor. And this is just a random advice from me, the world isn't full of only trials, there are many fun things as well. Advance forward while both fully enjoying and suffering through it all. Being reckless is the only way for youngsters to grow up. Oh, and Red Dragon Emperor, send my regards and hers to your father when you meet him. Hohohoho…." Odin gestured to the woman with him as he finally walked away while laughing.

"My deepest apologies for the unsightly things you saw earlier." The silver-haired woman bowed to Rias and Issei before she proceeded to catch up with Odin.

The two youngsters remained silent for a while as they saw the two Northerners vanished in a distance, and Issei let out a breath. "Well, that's quite something… Wasn't it, buchou?"

"Yes… Yes, it was." Rias agreed. "Let's go to the others, shall we? They must be waiting for us by now."

As the two walked again, Rias then asked something that had been bothering her since the game. "Still, Ise… Where do you think Sona hid her tower's jewel?"

* * *

It was the time where Rias Gremory's peerage had to return to the human world. Currently they were all saying their goodbyes to the Gremory household.

"Ise nii-sama… will you come again?" Millicas asked as he said his goodbye.

"…Yeah, I will." Issei said as he kneeled on Millicas' eye-level. "I'll see you again, okay?"

"Yes! Please send my regards to uncle Saitama!"

Issei could only chuckle at the young boy's notion.

"Issei-kun. I look forward to the day we can meet again. You may return here any time without hesitation. Think of the Gremory family as your own family." Lord Gremory said his piece, which made Issei felt flattered and more awkward at the same time.

"Please take care of my selfish daughter here in the human world, Issei-san." Venelana said her piece as well, which Issei gladly obliged and caused Rias to blush cutely.

Isse caught Lord and Lady Gremory saying something about a bright future for the family, but decided to ignore it. It was not his place to butt in.

(Scene Break)

During the trip back in the train, everyone just remembered that they barely touched their summer homework. Well, except for Rias, Akeno, Yuuto, Koneko and Gasper, the newest members were still considered adapting with their new lifestyle as both devil and high-school student. Issei however, claimed that he had finished his homework during the stay in the Underworld. Currently Rias was looking over her pawn's homework. She flipped over the page, nodding, humming and she finally closed the notebook, only to hit Issei's head with it.

SMACK!

"Err…. Ojou-sama?" Issei cringed and addressed his master back as he usually did at home.

"Ise, I want you to do everything all over again when you got home." Rias said sternly with overly sweet smile. "Your answers to the problems are all over the place. I won't accept any of my servant to do their work poorly, do you understand?"

"N-No way…." Issei stuttered and he finally relented. "Yes, I understand…." The pawn sighed then slumped back to his seat, followed by few giggles from the others.

Then, Koneko suddenly walked over and made herself comfortable on Issei's lap, much to the boy's surprise. "Err…. Koneko-chan…?"

Koneko simply revealed her cat-like features and turned around to face Issei, and she smiled with a cute pose. "…Nyan " the gesture caused Issei's face to fluster furiously as he struggled to keep himself to hug something so adorable there and then. This scene warranted various reactions from the girls: Asia had teary eyes, Rias scowled with narrowed eyes, Akeno was giving off pressure with a silent smiling face, and Xenovia, Yuuto, as well as Gasper were more amused at what Koneko did to Issei.

Thus, the trip back to the human world went on…

* * *

Raynare was cleaning the front hall of Hyoudou's residence, per Azazel's orders. When she received the order to assist Hyoudou Haruka looking after the newly renovated house until the Occult Research Club returned, she was nervous as hell. After all, the house and the woman she would assist were related to two most fearsome individuals in her life. However, instead of a regal or gallant woman she had expected before, the fallen was met with what people would call 'your everyday young housewife'.

Hyoudou Haruka looked rather young to have a son who attended high-school, and as far as Raynare had assessed from the human woman, Haruka was nothing like the Red Dragon Emperor, who murdered her allies and tore one of her wings in the past, and his father, who garnered the attention of her master, Azazel. The Hyoudou matriarch was kind, hospitable, and would sometimes chat with her about mundane stuff. Raynare actually was reluctant to accept the order, but Azazel's promise about Haruka barely knew anything about supernatural side managed to put her in ease… somehow.

However, one day Raynare learned how Haruka could become the mother of the Red Dragon Emperor when Saitama had come home. As soon as Haruka's eyes met with her husband's, her caring persona from before was replaced by a wrathful…. whatever that rhymed with queen, goddess, etc. Raynare was scared out of her wits yet again when she saw Haruka's expression when she was scolding and chiding her husband whom tried to reason with her in futile. And much to Raynare's shock, when Saitama was still trying to reason with his wife, the said wife suddenly silenced him by slapping him across the face before she proceeded to suck his face. It was supposed to be some bonding event between husband and wife, but Raynare could only see a woman dominating her man as Haruka slapped Saitama again. The man did not seem to be hurt in any way by his wife's physical abuse, but his expression was that of resignation as he was dragged away somewhere to be 'punished'. The fallen angel prayed to every remaining gods that the human woman would never knew anything about what she had done to her son.

Days had passed, and Raynare did not see Saitama at all ever since Haruka commenced her 'punishment' on her husband. That day was her final day as a hired maid since Issei and the girls were returning, and apparently Saitama's punishment was being carried out in the living room, and Raynare preferred not to interfere as she moved to the front hall. When the youngsters finally came in and spotted her, everyone was rather surprised at her sight. Asia flinched back as she quickly hid behind Issei; Rias, Akeno and Koneko narrowed their eyes slightly at the fallen, while Xenovia only blinked at the stranger before her.

Issei however, narrowed his eyes as he asked her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Raynare struggled to maintain her composure as her hands were clutching her broom hard. "I-I was hired to help Haruka-sama to look after the house until y-your return…."

"And where is she?" Issei pressed on.

Raynare only flinched and glanced at the door leading to the living room. Without another word, Issei walked pass her then he opened the door, and the sight he was met with made him blinked several times as his hand was still grabbing the door. When Issei and the others got to see the living room, their eyes were widened at the sight of papers scattered on the ground, all of them had words 'Please forgive me' written on it with black ink, and the some of those inks were splattered on the floor. Saitama was prostrating on the floor as the man was writing another 'Please forgive me' on another paper, with his wife standing before him holding a practice sword from the basement. Not to mention the dim light illuminating the room only made the sight kind of scary for the kids.

"Err… Mom?" Issei swallowed. "What were you doing with... dad here?" Issei then took another look at his father. There was no injury on Saitama's body whatsoever, but the boy had to narrow his eyes at the strange red marks on his father's visible skin. _"Are those… insect bites or something?"_

Haruka then turned around to look at the kids, and for a second, everyone swore that Haruka's face was at least as intimidating as Grayfia on her worse days. "My, Ise, everyone… Welcome home~" Haruka's expression immediately turned warm. Despite her perfectly fine and sweet voice, the girls somehow felt afraid to see what was happening. "Oh, and darling, you can stop now." Haruka turned to her husband, whom sighed in relief as he stopped writing and straightened himself. The mother then turned to her son again. "As for your question, I was punishing your daddy, of course… After all, he had it coming after leaving me alone so suddenly for weeks while he was supposed to spend some romantic summer with me together."

Everyone, especially Issei, was not sure which one to be more 'disturbing'; what had happened during the punishment or the two parents spent a 'romantic summer' together.

"Alright, I guess I have to prepare dinner. You kids should wash up, and YOU…" Haruka then turned to her husband. "Tidy all of these up and bring them to our room. I'm going to review them tonight." She said as she licked her lips with her eyes glinted, sending slight shiver to everyone. "Oh, and Raynare-chan…" Haruka turned to the fallen angel. "Thank you very much for being a big help these past days. Would you like to join us for dinner before you leave?"

Raynare forced herself to smile. "Thank you for the offer, ma'am. But I'm afraid I have to return to Azazel-sama as soon as possible."

"I see… That's too bad." Haruka replied. "Well, send my regards to Azazel-san that I'd like to… have a word with him." For a moment her expression turned dangerous. Saitama only shook his head as he buried his face to his palm.

"Y-yes, I will see to it. Then, everyone... I'll take my leave once I've packed my things." Raynare gave one more bow to everyone and left the room.

"Well, I'll see you all at dinner. Tell me more about your summer vacation by then." Haruka winked then she left to the kitchen.

That day, Issei and the girls had made a mental note for themselves about one rule in the house: Never mess with Hyoudou Haruka. Akeno however, secretly gained a newfound respect towards the older woman.

"Well, kids…" Saitama said as he began to pick up all the papers on the floor. "I believe you have learned a lesson about my wife today?" Everyone nodded their heads at Saitama's question. The man then sighed as he shook his head again before he turned to look at the direction where his wife went. "I tell you what. Sometimes I question myself, why did I fall for that woman? And the strangest thing is, I never regret that I chose her."

The youngsters looked at Saitama (some were more interested by the hickeys) as they listened. "And about this…. one thing…" Saitama gestured the state of himself and the room. "I blame Azazel for this. That woman didn't listen to what I have to say. She's actually pissed as well to that guy, you know. That crow-winged bastard is so dead when I meet him again." Saitama said as he continued picking up the papers.

Rias then clapped her hands to gather her peerage's attention. "Alright, everyone. Now that… things had gone out of the way, let's clean ourselves, shall we?" The day went on as everyone went separate ways, as the kids decided to help Saitama to collect the scattered papers first before preparing for dinner.

_To be Continued…._

* * *

**Whew! Finally I'm finished with the vol. 5! What do you think about how the game ended? Especially around Sona's surprise move on Rias? And really, where did Sona hide her gem? It does not matter anymore, because that was the point of the game I set; more than one option to win/lose.**

**For those who wonder about where Diodora was, I simply decided not to show him until the next chapter. I'm sorry if the story was unsatisfactory. I honestly look forward to carry on with vol. 6, which I believe I will enjoy writing. **

**As I said earlier, I shall become whimsical and give you guys a preview of the vol. 6 of this story. Note that depending on my mood and circumstances, some of the things in this preview might be altered later, but the essence will still the same more or less. And of course…. SPOILER ALERT!**

* * *

**Preview**

"…I never regret saving that person back then…." – _Asia said with genuine sincerity from her heart as she recalled the past that changed her life._

"…Can I stay by Ise-san's side forever?" – _the maiden voiced her wish to the man she held dearest in her heart._

"…You have made the gravest mistake…." – _the Welsh Dragon solemnly gave his final warning of the impeding doom, as he could do nothing but to minimize the damage as much as he could._

"…I have to go to him! I promised that I'll always be there for him!" – _Rias desperately tried to reach out to her pawn, whom kept falling deeper into despair._

"….It's my job as his dad, after all…." – _Saitama said as he fearlessly faced the monstrosity that glared at him in return._

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"– _the abomination, taking the form of red dragon, unleashed a furious roar that filled with sorrow, anguish, hatred; and the roar was nothing like of a human nor beast._

"I'm getting too old for this shit…"

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy – The Holy Maiden**


	25. The Holy Maiden (I)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

* * *

**I have nothing much to say, so here is the latest update of my One-Punch Man &amp; High-school DxD crossover! R&amp;R and Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 24: The Holy Maiden (I) – The Proposal**

It was another morning when Issei woke up from his sleep. "Hng…?" When he opened his eyes, the boy also realized that he was hugging something. It was not Rias or Akeno or Asia, because whatever he was hugging felt kind of small, comfortable to hug, even. He looked under the blanket and his eyes widened as he saw Koneko was snuggling in his arms. The girl had her cat features shown and she only covered her body in one layer of white shirt. Issei's face was flustered as he felt how soft the little girl's body against his own.

"…Unya…" Koneko yawned as she slowly opened her eyes, only to find out that she was being embraced by Issei. Her face felt hotter at the proximity between her and the boy, but she could not help but smile as she looked up at Issei and her cat-ears twitched. "…Nyan." She meowed with cute pose that made Issei became flustered even more, before she drifted away again to sleep.

Issei could not help it as he ran his hand on Koneko's head softly. His fingers touched a spot as Koneko softly purred in pleasure. Issei then gently pulled Koneko away from him and got up. The girls were usually waking up around this time, but the boy thought that they could have a bit more of rest. As Issei went to the kitchen to get something to drink before his morning training, Issei was expecting his mother to be there, making breakfast.

"Strange…. She's usually already up by now…" Issei checked the clock and it had already passed almost five minutes since the usual schedule.

When Issei went to his parents' room to have a quick check, Issei froze just before his hand was to knock on the door. He heard a noise from inside the room, and out of curiosity, and when he pressed his ear to the door, Issei could hear moans, gasps, and some shouting.

"Ha…! Ahn…! Hurry up…!" Issei heard his mother's voice. "Hurry up and come already, you bastard…! I'm supposed to… prepare breakfast by now…! Ahh….! And you're supposed to…. Supervise Ise's training…! Hahn..!"

Issei's expression went blank as his brain took in what he heard from beyond the door.

"Fuck….! What is wrong with you, woman!? Even if you say so…!" This time, it was his father's voice.

"You… Unbelievable…! Even though I should've wringed you dry last night…! Fuah….!" Haruka's voice was heard again with occasional gasps.

Issei on the other side only took several deep breaths to calm himself as he massaged the bridge of his nose.

_**[Well, your parents are quite energetic ones in the morning] **_

Ddraig gave his first comment in the morning. His comment made Issei's eyes twitched. _"No, no…. It's just… a movie… Yeah, they're just watching porn."_

_**[Really? Then, whoever in that porn sure has similar voice with your…]**_

"_They're not doing anything! THEY'RE JUST WATCHING PORN!"_

_**[…Okay, okay. You're right. Yes, nothing happened in there]**_

Ddraig let out a sigh as he finally chose to concede with his host's mind-set. Issei took another breath, convinced himself about whatever happened in his parents' room and decided to leave his parents and proceeded to his own activities. Issei still could not fathom how come he had a pair of bunnies as his parents.

In that morning, Saitama, looking ragged and dried, was completely ignored by Issei, who would occasionally send a look of disgust at him during the entire course of the morning exercise to the point that Issei refused Saitama's offer (despite his tardiness) to spar for a round.

Later as well, the girls found that breakfast felt very awkward between Issei and his parents. The boy would avoid looking at neither his father nor mother, and the said mother seemed so refreshed while the father looked so pale. When Rias was about to ask to Issei about the matter, the boy simply shook his head with exasperated sigh. Some of the girls who had more 'understanding' about Haruka and Saitama's condition thought better than brought it up on a dining table (although Akeno was actually amused), while those who did not were only looking around in confusion.

* * *

At Kuoh Academy, when the students were preparing and waiting for the class to start, Issei was sitting with Matsuda and Motohama hanging around him as usual.

"And that bastard Yoshida finally did it during the summer! With a woman from third year!"

"That fucker!"

Issei only listened while giving a dry stare at his two friends' jealous rambling.

"And you, Ise!"

The brown haired boy blinked when Motohama pointed his finger at him. "What?"

Matsuda replied as he clenched his fist, tears were gathering in his eyelids. "When we two were alone and struggling to lose our virginity during summer by going to the beach…. You had the gall to abandon us to join that summer camp with Occult Research Club…. Abroad, at Rias Gremory senpai's home country, nonetheless!" Motohama also nodded as he started to comically tear up.

"Well, I can't help it. Besides, it's not like I promised to hang out with you guys or anything… Rather, why would I spend my summer with two perverts like you?"

"Come on, man! Not only that you have the most decent face among us, your muscles and abs are definitely girls' eye-candy! Don't you remember that you once gained some of the girls' attention during P.E. class?! And look at you now!" Motohama said as he and Matsuda took another look at Issei's body. The latter's uniform was more pressing onto his body slightly, showing little outlines of his muscles. "And look around you! I know some of the girls had been eying you for a while now!" Matsuda screamed at the class.

"Eh?" Issei blinked, and now that he looked around, he caught the girls in his class just averted their gazed from him, while their faces were slightly flustered. Issei awkwardly scratched his cheek. "Well… I did work out a lot during summer…" Issei said as he recalled his summer training camp with his father. Then Issei scrunched his eyes as he turned to his friends again. "And wait a minute….. What you said earlier… Were you saying that I'm some sort of… chick magnet to you guys?"

Matsuda and Motohama only glanced at each other for a second before they answered with certainty. "…YES!"

"You guys are idiots, you know that?" Issei sighed as he held down the urge to deck the two perverts in the face, then he chose to slump to the desk and bury his face in his arms. Forget about attracting women, the incident during class observation day had shattered his good grace among the girls in the academy.

However, before the boys could argue anymore, a new voice came in. "Fufufu…. Smells like virgins around here…" The boys turned to see Aika Kiryuu with her smug smile.

"Kiryuu! Did you come to laugh at us!?"

Kiryuu nodded at Motohama's question. "Fufufu. Since it's you guys, I'm sure you guys spent a worthless summer."

"Shut up!"

"On a second thought, actually…" Kiryuu said as she glanced at Issei. "Say, Hyoudou… You went to summer camp with the girls from Occult Research Club, right?" Issei nodded and Kiryuu's smirk widened. "Hmm…. You sure had become more muscular than ever… Your eligibility had increased in terms of physical appearance." Kiryuu measured Issei's body with a faint pink tinged on her face. "But anyway, have you…. You know, done it with one of them?" the girl winked as she made a suggestive hand gesture.

Matsuda and Motohama froze and they looked back at Issei, who only blinked and rubbed his head awkwardly. "….Err… No…? That's actually none of your business, isn't it?"

The two perverts sighed in relief, while Kiryuu blinked with slight disbelief. "Wow, really? I thought a man like you would have scored with one of those ladies… Not to mention that during class visits, Rias Gremory-senpai…."

"Oh, come on!" Kiryuu's reminiscence about class visit's incident was interrupted by Issei. "It was all a misunderstanding! Or rather, stop bringing that up! Please, I'm begging you! It's so embarrassing that I wanna die!" Issei whined as he buried his face into his hands in despair.

"Sure it is, sure it is…" Kiryuu nodded sarcastically while Motohama and Matsuda only glared even more daggers at Issei. Fortunately for the latter, Kiryuu decided to listen to his plea. "Well, moving on. I heard that there will be a transfer student today… And it's a girl."

(Scene Break)

As the boys' expectations, the newly introduced transfer student was a beautiful young woman with long, chestnut hair tied into twintails and violet eyes. She was wearing a cross necklace as an accessory on top of her Kuoh Academy's uniform. Upon seeing the girl bowing down for introduction, Issei, Asia and Xenovia showed a pleasant surprise on their faces.

"My name is Shidou Irina. Everyone, let's get along!"

* * *

Later in the clubroom after school….

"Shidou Irina-san… I welcome you to our school."

Sona Sitri said her piece as Shidou Irina reintroduced herself in front of the Student Council president, Occult Research Club and Azazel, as the representative from the Heaven.

"Yes! Everyone! Well, there are people I'm meeting for the first time but most of you I have met before. My name is Shidou Irina! Church…. No, I came here to Kuou academy as a messenger of the angels!"

Everyone clapped in welcoming their newest member, and Irina joyfully reunited with Xenovia and Asia. "I'm so glad that you're doing okay! Our positions may be different by I'm really happy!" Irina cheered as she hug the two girls.

Xenovia and Asia returned the hug but they felt something stung them. "Yeah, I'm also glad you're doing alright yourself. But your cross is stinging me and Asia here…." Said the former.

"Oh, sorry about that." Irina broke her hug and she turned to Asia. "Asia-san, I still haven't apologized for calling you a witch last time, please forgive me!"

"I don't mind, Irina-san. I'm hoping we can get along since we all love the same Lord." Asia accepted Irina's apology with serene smile. The three girls of the church (two of them formerly) then started praying as they said The Lord's name, garnering them title 'Church Trio', as Issei thought in his mind.

"So…" Azazel then said. "That Michael sent you here?"

"Yes, Azazel-sama. Michael-sama was troubled because not a single person from the Heaven's side is here. He said it's a problem if none of the staff is in this area." Irina provided the answer.

Azazel nodded in apprehension. "Oh yeah, Michael did say something like that. This location is active with the power of those from either Heaven or the Underworld, but the ones who are actually working here are Rias and Sona Sitri's group, and a small number of other people including myself. Well, it's functioning well enough with us but Michael said something so serious that he thinks someone from Heaven should also work here and said he would send someone. Heaven has already given a lot of support, which is more than we can ask for. I said we don't need anyone but he said that he won't accept that and the one he decided to send is her." The fallen finished with a sigh at the archangel's insistence.

Everyone nodded in understanding. Kuoh had been managed and guarded by devils from Gremory and Sitri clan, as well as Azazel from the fallen angel's side. It was not that strange to add an angel in the roster to even the numbers of representatives from each faction. In fact, the power combination between angels, fallen angels and devils would make a formidable force.

"Shidou Irina, correct?" Azazel confirmed Irina's name as the girl nodded, before he asked another question. "And I take that Heaven had completed that project? Something about reincarnating humans into angels?"

Without another word, Irina put up a prayer pose, then a pair of white wings appeared from her back. With a glowing halo appeared just above her head, Irina had transformed into an angel, much to everyone's surprise. "Yes! I have received Michael-sama's blessing and became a reincarnated angel. Thanks to the combined technologies between Heaven, Grigori and Underworld, such a thing is now possible!"

"Whoa…. Never thought this kind of thing can happen so soon…" Issei wondered in amazement.

"Four Great Seraphs and other Seraphs. The total of ten Seraphs decided to have twelve subordinates called Brave Saints, each with a position from an "Ace" to a "Queen" of the cards. The cards of King will be the position of the Angel leader who would be the master."

Everyone took in Irina's explanation and Azazel came with the whole picture. "I see…. The evil-pieces technologies. So they used the technology of the evil-pieces and the artificial Sacred Gears of the fallen angels, huh…. Man, Heaven sure did create an interesting thing right after we gave them our technology. If the devils are chess, then the angels are cards." The fallen nodded. "Well, cards also have the meaning of 'trump card' in them. After the Biblical God's death the increase of pure angels became impossible. So increasing the number of reincarnated angels would connect to strengthen their forces." Then Azazel made another hypothesis. "If you are using such a system, then I assume there will be something akin to a mutation piece…. A Joker? The other twelve cards represent the twelve apostles from the Bible." Irina only nodded at Azazel's conclusion, and the latter laughed in enjoyment.

"So what card are you, Irina-san?" Asia asked in curiosity.

Irina's eyes glittered and a symbol of 'Ace' appeared on her hand. "I'm an Ace! Fufufu, as Michael-sama's Ace, I received an honourable position! I can even die! Even if the Lord is gone, I can continue to live if I'm Michael-sama's Ace!" Irina said with confidence.

"I see… So the Archangel Michael is your new support of your life, huh?" Issei asked rhetorically and Xenovia added, "Well, it's better than losing yourself."

Irina then added another detail. "Another thing, Michael-sama said he can see a special Rating Game between evil-pieces and Brave Saints happening in the future! He also said due to the Brave Saint system is still a prototype, right now only the angels of Seraph has them but in the near future High-level angel-sama besides the Seraph would be given this system and is hoping for them to battle each other just like the Rating Games of the devils!"

Everyone responded with shock and interest, while Azazel was impressed. "There are those among angels and devils who are against the decision made by the top people. We had a relationship where we had wars against each other for a very long time, so there would be those who feel uneasy if we suddenly tell them to get along. But Michael sure has thought about it. Like that, he's preparing a representative war where they can make their arguments into battle techniques and they can release them. It's just like the World Cup or Olympics of the human world." The fallen quipped.

"Then would it be possible for us, the Gremory group, and the angels who are using this game system able to have a battle?" Rias asked her question.

Azazel only shrugged. "Perhaps in the future, yeah. Even so, I don't think it's anytime soon. At least 10 years… Or 20… Well, around then would be a good time for you devil rookies and you will be able to enjoy it."

"Seems we'll be able to enjoy it…" the male knight of the group said with interested tone.

"Churches are scary…" Gasper sounded troubled as usual. After all, since the new alliance had not made any contact with the vampire race, the Vatican were still continuing to hunt vampires.

"Well, then I'll have to take my leave. I'm sorry again that I can't join Shidou Irina-san's welcoming party later." Sona stood up and apologized to everyone in the room.

"Yes, it can't be helped since the Student Council has to organize the upcoming Sports Festival. Good luck with your work." Rias replied.

* * *

It was after school when Irina also announced that she would also move into Hyoudou Residence, thus everyone began to help preparing Irina's stay. Issei was in appointed to help to move Irina's belongings to her respective room, while Saitama was sent out to buy things for Irina's welcoming party. Asia happened to volunteer herself to help Saitama, much to Issei's initial objection. Currently, Saitama and Asia were walking side by side with shopping bags in their hands.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised to hear Irina moving into the house." Saitama absent-mindedly started a conversation.

"Yes, having Irina-san around can brighten up the mood in the house. I'm looking forward to know her more." Asia replied while smiling.

"No kidding. Haruka was ecstatic to have another girl in the house. But are you sure about this, Asia-chan?" Saitama turned to the girl. "It's gonna be even harder for you to hog Ise for yourself, y'know?"

Asia only whimpered with flustered face as she saw Saitama's point. The man only snorted in amusement and ruffled Asia's hair in return. "Don't worry, I kind of feel that things gonna be fine around you. And thanks again for coming along to help me, Asia-chan…" Saitama said as he kept walking through the shopping district. "And really, you didn't have to go out your way to help me, y'know? I thought you'd rather spending more time with Ise."

"W-well, I do like spending times with Ise-san and everyone…" Asia replied as she looked down with still flustered face. "But I think I should know you more, dear father. Since I've promised that I will help mending things between you and Ise-san." Asia finished with beaming smile.

"…_. So bright!"_ Even Saitama had to avert his eyes away from such radiance emanating from the former nun. He really began to wish that he had a real daughter like Asia around. The formerly Holy Maiden was really one hell of a girl in Saitama's opinion.

As they walked further, the two stopped when a figure stood in their path. The figure was a gentle-looking, handsome young man with blonde hair in expensive clothing. Saitama only stared at the stranger while his body instinctively positioned itself as if like a shield between the man and Asia, while the said girl only blinked at the said man.

"We finally meet, Asia Argento." The young man greeted with his ever-present smile.

oXo

SLAM!

"She's WHAT?!" Issei yelled as he slammed the table of the living room after he got the wind of what happened during Saitama and Asia's shopping. The boy then proceeded to pull his father by the collar and started to shake him. "WHEN!? WHERE!? WHO DID!? WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING? SHE'S STILL TOO YOUNG!"

Saitama then brushed his son off him. "Whoa, geez! Stop putting your boxers in a bunch, man!" Saitama said as he patted himself off. "It's not like it's the end of the world or anything!"

"Are you friggin' kidding me!? This is serious!" Issei then moved to pull Asia into his embrace while wailing. "No, no, no! I will never accept this!"

Everyone present sweat-dropped at the events unfolding before them. The proposal towards Asia was the biggest bomb of the day, as apparently the devil whose life Asia saved in the past, and ended up making Asia being excommunicated from the Church in the first place, had come to visit and asked for her hand in marriage; and seeing someone like Issei, who was always standing strong and unbending before any adversaries, to sob while hugging Asia felt so weird and amusing at the same time. The girl in question only return Issei's hug as she also patted his head. "There, there, Ise-san… I'm not going to leave you."

Issei sniffed as he looked at Asia in the eye. "…Really?"

"Yes. I don't intend to marry anytime soon. After all, I want to be with Ise-san and everyone else." Asia replied with her signature smile.

"Okay, good…" Issei took a deep breath to recompose himself before he turned to his father again. "Pops… Did you get the name of this…. Jackass?" Everyone could have sworn that Issei's body was emitting something dark.

"Hmm…. His name was something like…. Err… D…D…. Deodorant Kakarot…?" Saitama replied uncertainly.

Issei tilted his head and everyone else narrowed their eyes at the name. "….Who?"

"Dear father, I believe his name was Diodora Astaroth." Asia corrected.

The girls then showed apprehension on their faces while Issei's face still remained clueless. "….Yeah, again… Who the hell is that?"

"He's one of the young devils attending the meeting, Ise." Rias provided the information.

"Err…." Issei still tried to rack his brain. He kind of remembered the name, but he still could not recall the face.

"The creep who was smiling the whole time." Koneko provided this time.

"Ah…. Ooooh!" Issei's brain finally clicked as the boy placed his knuckles on his palm. "That guy… Yeah, I remember now. Please tell me that you decked him in the face?" Issei asked to his father again.

Saitama only blinked before retorting, "Why me? If anything, it should be you who deck him in the face by the time you meet him." Saitama said as he poked his finger on Issei's chest.

Issei blinked couple of times before conceding with his father's point as he silently chuckled and muttered something about promise of pain, nails, etc; and his attitude crept everyone out a little.

"Now, now." Haruka decided to put her own two-cents. "The man who fell for Asia's charm here is probably a decent man. He's tenacious, I give him that, but I feel sorry that whoever it is doesn't stand a chance. Isn't that right, Asia-chan?" the woman finished with a wink towards Asia who only flushed and looked down in embarrassment.

"Asia!" Issei's shout caused Asia to jump and squeaked.

"Y-yes?"

"There's nothing for you to worry about! Everyone here will definitely protect you from this…. This…! Dude!" Issei surprisingly ran out of things to say. "And at the very least, I'm gonna make sure that you'll never end up with a wrong guy! Your big brother here will take care of everything!" the boy ended with a proud pat on the chest.

Everyone showed various amused reactions at Issei 'sister-zoning' Asia as the latter whimpered while Haruka and Saitama gave a silent prayer that their son would be more adept in reading women's feelings.

* * *

"Yes, yes! I will do the item borrowing race!" Irina raised her hand up high during a class discussion on the following day at school. Her energetic attitude made her easily getting along with everyone in her new class.

As the Sports Festival was approaching, all students had to decide which people would represent their classes in the activities of the festival. Issei did not pay much attention with the discussion as he only rested his head on his hand and sighed every now and then. His mind was still occupied about the idea of Asia getting married to someone else. Sure, Issei would be glad if Asia could live a happy life, but marriage? While most of people would think that women's ultimate happiness were to be a bride, the whole idea about Asia marrying some random people Issei did not know about just irked the boy to no end, and Issei was still not sure why.

"Um… Excuse me." Issei suddenly caught Xenovia raised her hand as everyone else turned to her.

"Yes, Xenovia-san?" asked Kiryuu, the moderator of the discussion.

"For this festival… Why are we keeping Ise as one of reserve members? Shouldn't we have him as our main representative?" everyone caught Xenovia's point as some of the girls and boys took glances at Issei's athletic figure.

"Ah… Come to think of it, Asia-chan Xenovia-san and Irina-san just transferred in this year, right? I guess they don't know about the last year festival."

"Err… What happened last year?" Irina curiously inquired.

"Well, you see… Hyoudou-kun basically dominated the entire competition last year." One of the students replied.

"Eh?" Xenovia, Asia and Irina blinked then the three turned to look at Issei who was slightly flustered as he scratched his cheek.

"Ise's been pretty much stronger than most people since his enrolment, you know. Last year, he practically won every single individual match in the festival, he even outclassed all senior students." Motohama explained. "And during the club recruitment during our first years, every single sport clubs were hell-bent on having him. And it took half a year until everyone decided to give up on him. Even so, before Ise had officially joined the Occult Research Club, he had ended up being a ghost member for most of the school's sport clubs."

"Waa… Ise-san, that's amazing!" Asia clapped her hands.

"Hmm… As expected of Ise…" Xenovia concurred with a nod.

"Ise-kun was indeed super strong during our reunion…." Irina commented with thoughtful expression.

"So, ever since last year… In order to make the competition fair to everyone, Issei was… kind of banned to be an active participant…. Hyoudou, do you mind to be reserve, this year?"

Issei only sighed, but he conceded. "Well, I guess we still have to make this year's festival to be fun for everyone… So, yeah. I don't mind."

"Glad to hear it. Then, we need a pair to participate in three-legged race." Kiryuu then proceeded with the discussion.

oXo

It was decided that Asia would do the three-legged race with Xenovia. Currently, the students were now practicing for the festival on the sports field with Xenovia and Irina having a quick foot-race, which was supposed to be a warming-up session.

"I challenge you, Xenovia!"

"Bring it on Irina!"

"Hey, Irina! Xenovia! Don't burn yourselves out already from a warm-up session!" Issei shouted, but seemed to be ignored by the two competitive girls.

The two former humans, one a devil and the other an angel, were trying to outrun each other as they ran side-by-side. Asia and the others had warmed up enough as they were now chatting cheerfully with each other. Soon enough, Asia and Xenovia started to practice for their three-legged race; with Issei as their coach after the girls asked him personally.

"Okay, you two. The key of this race is harmony and compatibility, so let's start to get the feeling by walking first."

The two former church associates complied as they walked together with one of their feet tied with one another, as they moved on steady pace and matched each other's movement. "One-two, one-two…"

"Alright, that's good. Keep it up, you two!" Issei cheered, causing the girls to feel more motivated and increased their pace bit by bit. Issei nodded approvingly at the two before his eyes glanced at one corner and shouted with annoyed tone. "And you two! Matsuda! Motohama! Stop ogling at the girls!"

The aforementioned perverts grunted as Murayama and Katase immediately apprehended them. The perverted duo yelled at Issei as they were taken away by a mob of girls. "Damn you, Ise! You're lucky you got to enjoy the juicy parts for your own!"

"Like hell I am! I'm legitimately training them!"

"'Sup, Hyoudou."

Issei blinked and turned around to see Saji Genshirou with bunch of tools and equipment on his hands. "Ah, Saji."

Then Issei noticed a bandage wrapped around Saji's arm. "Your arm…. Was it injured that bad?"

Saji blinked and realise Issei was pointing at his bandaged arm. "Oh, this. No, no… It's actually…." Saji unwrapped the bandage, revealing marks resembling black snakes on his skin.

"Oh, shit…!" Issei's eyes widened slightly and he quickly re-wrapped the bandage while looking around cautiously, before he turned to Saji again. "The hell, man? You should've known that kaichou would rip you a new one if she finds out that you got a tattoo!" Issei whispered.

"What… No!" Saji scowled as he denied. "This ain't a tattoo!"

"…It's not?"

"No, this mark appeared few days after the Rating Game with you guys." Saji explained. "Beside, kaichou is already aware of it. She told me to cover it because it's a bad example for other students."

"I see… Well? Do you have any idea where it came from?" Issei asked.

"Sort of. When Azazel-sensei took a look at it, he said that this mark appeared due to me using Absorption Line on you. Apparently, connecting myself with you, the Red Dragon Emperor who has reached Balance Breaker gave an influence to my body after I had absorbed your power and blood. This mark reflects the information I got from you."

Issei nodded. "Hm… I see… Well, did it do anything to you so far?"

"Well… Nothing except of this." Saji pointed at the small jewel that also appeared along the black snake markings.

Issei poked lightly at the jewel. "Does it hurt?"

"No, it feels weird indeed, but it doesn't hurt at all. Anyway, what event are you doing this year? I'm gonna do the bread-eating race."

"Nah… I'm a reserve member this year." Issei replied.

Saji only blinked couple of times until his expression showed that he caught something. "Oh… Right… The festival last year, isn't it? I almost forgot about that. You practically kicked my class' ass that time."

Issei scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that… So I agreed with everyone to make a fair competition this year."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far if you're in my class… But as long as you're fine with it."

Saji's comment was interrupted by Sona Sitri and Shinra Tsubaki's voice.

"Saji, what are you doing? We will be checking the setting of each of the tents, so follow us quickly."

"We're lacking manpower as it is, so please get back to work."

"Y-yes, kaichou! Fuku-kaichou!" Saji answered. "I'll see you around, Hyoudou!"

Issei nodded as he saw Saji went back to his business.

_**[Vritra has begun to awaken…]**_

Issei turned to his left hand. "Hm? What's that again, Ddraig?"

_**[I'm saying that the kid's connection with Vritra has become stronger. Him achieving the peak of his power won't be long from now.]**_

Then Issei remembered that he was still in the middle of coaching Asia and Xenovia. He looked back to the field and he found Kiryuu was teasing the blonde girl.

"Asia! Did your boobs develop during the summer holiday?" Kiryuu asked with funny grin as she fondled Asia's mounds.

"Kyaaah! Kiryuu-san! Please don't grope them!" Asia cried as she tried to break free.

"Hmm…. Asia's girl power sure is impressive." Instead of helping, Xenovia was simply observing Asia's breasts being groped around.

"Seriously, I can't catch a break…" Issei rolled his eyes and he proceeded to the 'rescue'.

oXo

When Issei, Asia and Xenovia went to the clubroom after school that day, they found the other members had arrived and were sitting with serious expression on their faces.

"Um… Did something happen?" Issei asked as he noticed the tense atmosphere.

Everyone turned to look at the newcomers and Rias welcomed them. "Yes, our next opponent for the Youth Devil Rating Game has been decided."

Issei, Xenovia and Asia widened their eyes slightly at the new opponent they were going to face in the next Rating Game. However, the words that came out next made Issei's expression turned grim and Asia contorting a worried expression.

"Our next opponent is….Diodora Astaroth."

_To be Continued…._

* * *

**Well, sorry for a rather short chapter, folks! After all, this is just an opening act. I promise that next updates will be longer as the real conflict starts to rise, and the party becomes crazier.**


	26. The Holy Maiden (II)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Disclaimer: I do not own neither High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man.**

* * *

**Chapter 25: The Holy Maiden (II) - The Maiden's Dilemma**

"Okay, let's take a break." Xenovia and Asia stopped running and took a rest on the ground after Issei said the word. The boy then proceeded to hand the girls their drinks. "Good work, you two. You're doing better than last time."

"It's getting easier for getting in sync." Xenovia boasted as she chugged the bottle of water, then she handed it to Asia. "Asia here is working hard as well."

"Thank you, Xenovia-san." Asia replied, but Issei caught that she was kind of out of it.

Few minutes later, Issei spoke up. "Well, I guess that's enough break for now. Xenovia, can you go and check on Irina?"

Xenovia blinked, feeling something was up but she complied nonetheless. "Yeah, sure."

"And Asia, can you come with me? I need your help with something." Issei turned to the blonde.

"Huh…? Err… Okay." The said blonde replied.

The two walked away, and once Issei and Asia were secluded enough, the former then looked into the latter in the eye. "So, Asia… Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Asia then looked downwards as her mood worsened. The girl was glad that Issei was paying attention to her, but at the same time, she did not want to bother the boy with her own problems.

"Asia."

The girl looked up and saw Issei was looking at her with concerned look. "You know you can trust me. I know you're worrying about something…." Issei then closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "But… I won't force you to talk if you don't want to. I just want you to know you are always more than welcome to share your problems. We are family, after all." Issei said as he caressed Asia's cheek.

At the boy's gentle administration, Asia could not help but to lean her head towards Issei's hand as she smiled and enjoyed the warmth of the boy's touch. "Thank you, Ise-san…. It's just…. I don't regret saving that person back then." Issei widened his eyes at the answer, as he remembered Asia's back-story. "Even if that was the reason for my banishment from the church, I never regret saving him."

Issei then looked sadly at Asia. "Say, Asia… What would you do… If you're allowed to get your old life back?"

Asia then looked up towards Issei's face once again with her eyes widened in shock. However, after staring at the boy for few seconds, Asia's expression softened as her lips formed into a smile. "I won't go back." Asia said it without hesitation. "I like this place. I also like Kuou Academy and the Occult Research Club. I also like Buchou-san, Akeno-san, Sensei, Kiba-san, Xenovia-san, Koneko-chan, Gasper-kun, Irina-san, and Kiryuu-san. I also love …Ise-san and Ise-san's parents. The new life I started in this city is something very important, and something I greatly love which makes it so wonderful."

Issei could not help but smile at her reply; that was so like her. Of course someone as sweet and kind as Asia would never turn away from anyone in need, even if doing so would make her life easier to live. Even if she knew that her life would change forever, that she would be banished from her home, Asia Argento had healed the devil that day, and she regretted nothing.

"Ise-san…. Can I stay by your side from now on?" Asia then asked sincerely.

Issei only pulled her into a hug, buried her head in his chest as he caressed her hair fondly. "Yeah…. Of course you can." Asia only buried her face deeper into the boy's chest happily. The moment lasted for few seconds until a voice was heard.

*Sniff

Issei and Asia broke away to find Irina and Xenovia were watching them. The former had tears in her eyes as she was clutching a handkerchief while the latter was crossing her arms over her chest with amused look in her eyes.

"This is so beautiful, isn't it right, Xenovia? This is the kind of relationship that is blessed by the Lord and Michael-sama!" Irina said as she wiped her tears away with the cloth.

"Amen." Xenovia replied while nodding approvingly.

Issei and Asia were flustered at the comment, then the former quickly recovered. "Okay, now that everyone's up… Let's resume our training, shall we?"

"And I have decided!" ignoring Issei's say, Irina then proclaimed once again. "I'm going to make my own club!"

Everyone else raised their eyebrows at Irina's declaration. "You are?" Issei asked.

"Yes! The club's name is 'Shidou Irina's Salvation of Love Club'! The description is simple! We will help those in need without receiving anything in return! Aaaah, I will be spreading my love to the sinful pagans for the Lord and Michael-sama since I hold strong belief in our teachings!"

Upon Irina's explanation, the others remained silent for a minute, trying to take in the information. Issei was the first one to react, "Well, do your best…. And actually, how many people are there in your club? Rather, has Sona-kaichou approved this?"

"Um… For now, it's just me." Irina replied.

"You know that you have to join at least one club during your study here, right?" Issei pressed on.

"Ah, you don't have to worry about that. For the time being I'll be put in the care of Occult Research Club. But once I've convinced Sona-kaichou, the club will be glorious! And of course I'll help out Occult Research Club when the occasion arise!" Irina boasted again.

"Oh….!" Asia and Xenovia only clapped at Irina's speech while clapping their hands.

Issei only sighed as he put the conversation to an end. "Alright, alright. Let's go, you three. We have a sports festival coming soon, remember?"

oXo

"Alright, that should be all of them." Issei dusted his hands off as he put down a basket of balls in gym storage room. Asia and Xenovia were also present to help around for cleaning up after school.

SLAM!

However, Issei suddenly heard the storage room's door being shut. "What the…" And he turned around to see Xenovia with her back against the said door.

"What's wrong, Xenovia-san?" Asia asked with puzzled expression.

"Asia…." Xenovia said with serious tone. "I heard that girls around our age start to flirt with others during this period."

"F-f-flirt?!"

Asia asked hesitantly, while Issei only furrowed his eyebrows as his instinct did not like where the conversation was heading.

"Err… And your point is…?"

Without really answering Issei's question, Xenovia kept saying what was in her mind. "It means you get your breast played around with by a boy."

"R-r-really? Having my breasts played by…" Asia trailed off as she glanced at Issei, then her face blushed when their eyes met.

"Wait, wait, wait! Xenovia, what are you-!"

"Issei, be quiet for a bit. Let me finish with Asia first, then I'll talk to you." Xenovia cut Issei's words off. "Just prepare yourself as things gonna get intense here."

"_Seriously, what the fuck is the deal with her?!"_ In his mind, Issei was screaming at Xenovia's lack of tact and common sense.

Xenovia on the other hand, was still explaining her idea to Asia. "Listen here, Asia. There is a girl in our class who has her breasts played with every day by her boyfriend. I researched quite a lot." Asia's face became redder at Xenovia's words. "And thus, don't you think it's a good time for us to also experience it?" Xenovia tried to convince Asia even more by grabbing her shoulders.

As Asia was flustered even more, Issei's brain began to formulate a plan to get out of this predicament. With Xenovia's outrageous idea about flirting, and him being the only male in the room, this kind of situation would definitely lead to some incident that would plummet his reputation to the drain even more. The door was not locked, and if anyone by any chance walked in when Xenovia and Asia were attempting to 'flirt' with him, Issei would be ensnared into another nasty rumour.

"Asia, we're friends, aren't we?" Xenovia asked.

"…Yes." Asia nodded.

"Then let's flirt together. It's not that scary when we do it together."

Issei's instinct started to go on high alert when Xenovia and Asia turned to him, with the latter taking off her whole top, revealing her assets.

"_Damn it! Come on, Ise! You gotta do something! Say something! Anything!"_ Issei began to sweat bullets as he finally held out his hand. "Alright! STOP THERE FOR A SEC!"

Thankfully, Xenovia and Asia stopped on their tracks as they only stared quizzically at Issei, who cleared his throat. "So… Xenovia, do you know what you're asking?"

"Of course I know." Xenovia simply replied and she turned to Asia. "Come on, Asia. You should take off those too." Xenovia pointed at Asia's clothes.

"No, no, no, no. Xenovia, listen to me first." Issei shook his head. "I want you to know that what you've researched is not what flirting really means."

Those words caught the girls' attention. "…Is it?" Xenovia asked while being a bit skeptical. Asia only blinked and tilted her head in puzzlement.

"Well, you see… Um, flirting is….. Err… not simply having your breast being played around by guys." Issei began his lecture. "While it does involve some foreplay with breasts… Kind of… Flirting is….. basically some kind of pre-ritual before marriage…. Or, um… baby-making, in order to deepen the relationship between a man and woman…. I think." Issei muttered the last line.

"Hoo…." The girls started to forget about flirting with him and currently listening to him with interest.

Issei's face might be calm and confident, but inside he was _really_ nervous as hell. Even he did not know how he came up with those words, given his lack of experience with other girls. That night with Rias might be close to what people called as 'flirting', but Issei believed it was all his instinct taking over.

_**[…Wow. Do you even know what you're saying?]**_ Ddraig was rather amused at his host's lecture.

"_Shut up, just shut up! I'm thinking here!"_ Issei scolded the dragon inside him as his mind began to work hard again.

Issei shook his head again before continuing to speak. "Anyway, what I want to say is…. Flirting is something rather sacred that isn't supposed to be done in a place like this. And…Err…" Issei searched for more words again. "I… think Asia is not ready to… flirt, yet. If you want it to be enjoyable, all participants must… Yeah! All participants must be ready both body and mind!" Issei hoped his earnest that Xenovia would believe his bluff.

"Well…. I guess Asia's not really ready for it, but I am more than ready." Xenovia said. "You're a young healthy man. Sure you have some interest in woman's body, no? You're free to do with mine however you wish." Xenovia said by emphasizing her breasts.

"Well, that's the thing. All of this are so sudden and… I need a lot of time to make sure of my own feelings… To make sure that there absolutely won't be any problems afterwards…." While saying those words, Issei felt slightly embarrassed to sound like a virgin little boy in front of a seductress. "You know what? Once I reach high-class, I'll flirt with you as much as you want. How does that sound?"

"Eeeh?!" Asia was flustered and surprised at the boy's sudden blunt proposal.

Xenovia however, did not seem to be convinced as she stared at Issei. "No, that would take too long. Can't you do that sooner? Like in a week or two?"

Issei's eyes began to twitch from frustration. "Okay, how about this. If I'm not mistaken, based on how many contracts we've made so far, it shouldn't be long until we have to attend our promotion test for middle-class. Once we reach middle-class, then we can flirt. Thoughts?"

Xenovia contemplated Issei's proposal again for a minute. "…Fine. But I don't want just to flirt by then. I want to, along with Asia, to begin making babies with you."

"Eeeeeeeh?!" Asia's brain could not take anymore as steam began to appear from her head.

Seeing Xenovia's expression that would take no objection, Issei could only nod. "…Fine by me."

Xenovia then nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Well, I guess we should go meet the others now. Let's go, Asia." Xenovia opened the door, then walked along with the dazed Asia.

"….Okay…" Asia only replied in her dazed state.

Once the girls were out of sight, Issei dropped to his knees and slumped on his fours. _"Well, now that'd been taken care of…. What the fuck did I just say?!"_

_**[No shit… Way to go, partner. You just dug your own bloody grave.]**_

Issei was too frustrated to even make a proper retort as he only whimpered in return.

* * *

"…What are you doing here?" Issei asked with deadpanned expression at the last person he wanted to see after the trouble he got from Xenovia. The boy was sitting on one of the couches of the old clubroom with Koneko on his lap, along with everyone else from Occult Research Club after school. In front of them was a large monitor screen like television.

Saitama, clad in white T-shirt and black sweat-pants was standing beside Azazel. "I, err… was invited to tag along." The man replied while glancing at the fallen angel governor. All seats were apparently preoccupied with the others, so Saitama would have to do by standing.

"Well, we're here to watch the video recording that has the matches of the young devils. His so-called disciple was also recorded, so I think it would be fair if I show him along with you. It's fine, isn't it? The school-hour is already over, after all." Azazel simply replied. "Anyway, let's just focus on the main show, okay? This is the video of your rivals so watch carefully."

Everyone then complied as they focused their attention at the screen as the recording was being played. "Okay, the first match is… Sairaorg Bael vs Zephyrdol Glasya-Labolas."

As everyone watched, the match between the representative of the Bael Household and Glasya-Labolas Household could only be said as one-sided slaughter, and rather anti-climactic in the end.

The fight between servants of each respective kings lasted for several hours, with the result where all of Zephyrdol's servants were defeated by Sairaorg's. The bad-boy looking devil then proceeded to provoke and challenged Sairaorg to fight one-on-one, and the result was the one that widened everyone's eyes, sans Saitama and Azazel.

Zephyrdol immediately set up so many magic seals in front of him to prepare his offensive spell, while Sairaorg suddenly moved in blinding speed and threw a straight-punch right at Zephyrdol's abdomen. The punch did not only shattered all of Zephyrdol's magic seals, but also made the devil coughed out a mouthful of blood and his body was sent hurling towards the corner of the stage.

Once Zephyrdol's body hit the wall, the said half of the entire wall was destroyed from the sheer force and the devil was retired from the game due to being unconscious.

One punch. It only took one punch for Sairaorg to defeat Zephyrdol as the former simply raised up his fist in victory.

"Sairaorg Bael…." Yuuto muttered the name of the victor of the match with wary look in his eyes.

"Saitama-san…" Rias turned to the bald man. "Just what kind of things did you teach him? I did expect him to win, but… Not like that."

"Mm… Not much, actually. I only gave him some basic training regiment, and he picked up the rest of things by himself. Sairaorg is independent learning type, after all." Saitama shrugged. Then, a thought cross on his mind and he turned to his son. "Say, Ise…"

"What?" The boy gave a little scowl.

"When you're doing that training regiment I gave you for the last 7 years… How did you do those training, exactly?"

Issei blinked and narrowed his eyes slightly, searching for any particular reason why his father suddenly asked that question. But he chose to indulge his father's question for the time being. "Well… I was just doing it regularly."

Saitama blinked this time. "Regularly…? I mean, did you get involved in anything? Accidents? Fights?"

Everyone began to get curious at what Saitama was insinuating. "Well, aside from occasional fights with local bad kids, the neighbourhood is relatively a peaceful, crime-free place. Those older bullies were not that tough anymore after I started to grow some muscles."

"Hmm….." Saitama seemed to be in thought for a second before looked up again. "How did it feel when you trained your body? Did you find them so hard that you want to die or something?"

"It was hard during the first few weeks, of course." Issei narrowed his eyes even further out of curiosity. "But I got used to it soon enough."

"And your diet?" Saitama pressed on. "Did you… indulge in any snacks or sweets? Were you using AC in your room?"

"Well, mom did bake some cookies and cakes from time to time… I can't just let them go to waste…. Actually, why are you asking me these?" Issei asked back.

"No, it's nothing, really." Saitama shook his head. "Just curious about my son, that's all." Saitama turned back to the screen. _"Hmm… I guess he had it too easy."_

Issei frowned at the gesture while everyone else was still curious of what Saitama was trying to get. Azazel only shrugged in the end as he made his comment known. "Well, as you can see there… That Glasya-Labolas kid is not a push-over either. Out of the young devils, he's only second after Sairaorg in terms of raw power. That shows just how much of a beast Sairaorg is."

"Rias, you and your cousin there have too many one on one battles even though you guys are the 'King'. Like the match you had with Sona Sitri, you know that you almost lost to her, right? But then again, I guess those who carry Bael's bloodline are hot-blooded."

Rias only looked down in embarrassment as she recalled her close fight with Sona. If it were not for Asia's assist, Rias' group would have lost in that match due to their King was taken down.

"Sensei…" Issei asked to Azazel. "You say that the bad-boy devil wannabe was only second after Sairaorg in terms of raw power, does that mean there's some kind of ranking system around?"

Azazel only replied by showing a holographic graph in the air. They were graphs that provided the information of all six young devils participating in the Rating Game. Each graph has the category of Power, Technique, Support, Wizard and quality as King; and each data varied from person to person.

"According to the Game Committee, Bael is ranked first, Agares is ranked second, Gremory is ranked third, Astaroth is ranked fourth, Sitri is ranked fifth, and Glasya-Labolas is ranked sixth. It's the comparison of average rank of their strengths, including the King and their servants. Though each of them turned the result around after having a match." Akeno informed as she provided some tea for everyone.

"Just for comparison…" Issei asked again. "How strong is Sairaorg-san compared to Riser Phenex?"

"I won't know unless both of them fight against each other, but from that display of power we saw just now, I believe that Sairaorg is stronger. After all, he is known as The Strongest Young Devil." Rias replied to her pawn.

"And by the way, the match just now? Sairaorg was still holding back in that attack." Azazel added his two cents, causing everyone especially Issei to be more wary of the said Strongest Young Devil.

Issei however, inwardly kind of excited at the prospect of fighting Sairaorg. "So if Sairaorg-san was still holding back in that match… I wonder how strong he is when he goes all out. He's using Bael clan's Power of Destruction, right?"

Azazel shook his head. "On the contrary, Sairaorg is the first pure devil from the House of Bael who didn't have any talents. He also couldn't inherit one of the traits passed down from the House of Bael, the power of destruction. The ones who strongly inherited the power of destruction are his cousins, the Gremory siblings."

"And he still managed to gain title of the strongest among the youth?"

"He gained his current strength through methods that devils in general wouldn't normally do. Thus he surpassed the geniuses through sheer hard work." Azazel then motioned to Saitama. "Intense physical training, tutelage from this guy here and his determination after going through muddy and bloody path due to his lack of brilliant environment that other devils have, had put Sairaorg on a whole different level."

"Oh, and just for reminder. If you won against Diodora in the upcoming next, you'll be pitted against Sairaorg."

"…Damn." Issei said mildly.

"But what about our match with Zephyrdol?" Rias asked.

"That kid? I highly doubt it." Azazel scoffed. "People with his attitude usually have their bodies and spirits being crushed after that kind of defeat. I bet he won't be able to fight anymore once he wakes up. Just see." Azazel gave a confident smirk. "Moving on, we're gonna watch the video of the Astaroth against the Agares."

However, suddenly a flash of magic circle appeared in the room, alerting everyone. "…Astaroth." Akeno muttered as she recognized the crest symbol on the magic circle.

Then from the circle, a familiar young man with a smile on his face appeared and he sent his greeting. "How are you doing, everyone? It is I, Diodora Astaroth. I have come to see Asia."

oXo

Currently, Diodora and Rias were seated across each other at the centre of the clubroom with Azazel present as an advisor. After providing some green tea, Akeno then joined everyone else at the corner of the room.

"Rias-san, I'll get to the point. I would like to trade Bishops." Diodora did not beat around the bush.

"Iyaaaan! I-is he talking about me!?" Gasper squealed in fear as everybody knew the prospect of 'trading'.

Issei sighed while Saitama only rolled his eyes, and the former lightly slapped Gasper's head. "Of course not."

"The servant I am seeking from Rias-san is… Your Bishop, Asia Argento." Diodora continued as he took a glance at the girl in question.

The moment her name was stated, Asia grabbed Issei's head for comfort, and the boy responded in kind by giving a reassuring squeeze.

"And the one I will be arranging is…"

Before Diodora could have made his own offer, Rias interrupted him. "Diodora-san… I'm sorry. I thought that I should say it before you show me that catalogue of your servants, so let me say it before hand. I have no intention to have a trade. It's not that your Bishop doesn't match up with mine, but I just simply don't want to lose Asia… She is my important servant devil."

Diodora's squinted eyes slightly opened as he took in Rias' refusal, then he asked with some steel in his voice. "Is it because of her ability? Or is it because of her charm as an individual?"

"Both. I think of her as my little sister."

"Buchou-san…" Asia whispered and her eyes got teary as she was touched by Rias' statement.

Diodora remained silent with his smile for a moment, then he stood up. "I understand. I will withdraw for today, but I will not give up." Then he walked towards Asia, who stepped back from nervousness. Then Diodora kneeled down as he grasped Asia's hand. "Asia… I still love you. Destiny has brought us together, and it will not bring us apart. Even if the whole world rejects us, I shall overcome them, only for you." Then he brought Asia's hand to kiss it.

Issei immediately grabbed Diodora's shoulder, stopping the latter to place his lips on Asia's back-hand. "Sorry, but… I believe you've troubled her enough." Issei calmly rebuked with strained smile.

Diodora only mildly glared at Issei while maintaining his smile. "Can you let go of me? I feel a bit disgusted to be touched by a filthy dragon."

SLAP!

Diodora's cheek was reddening due to Asia just slapped him. Even Issei did not expect the girl would do something like that. Saitama however, did not bother to hide his amusement as he whistled.

"Please do not say that to Ise-san!" Asia said with vehemence in her voice as she glared at Diodora.

However, the young man remained smiling to the point of being rather creepy. "I see. I understand…. Then how about this. In the next match, I will defeat Hyoudou Issei the Red Dragon Emperor. Then I would like you, Asia, to answer my love….." then he turned to look straight at Issei. "Red Dragon Emperor… I will have fun crushing you in our next match."

"Bring it on…" Issei simply replied as he cracked his index finger with his thumb.

Then, Azazel's phone rang, and after Azazel answered the call, he turned to Rias and Diodora. "Well, what do you know… Rias, Diodora. Your game will be held in five days."

Thus, Diodora's visit ended after the announcement.

* * *

It was at night when Issei was walking down the streets of the neighbourhood. He just finished a contract with another client, but since it was the last job for the night, Issei wanted to take a scenic route back to the academy. Besides, there was a vending machine that sold one of his favourite drinks in the area.

He took a sip from the drink he purchased, and then he noticed someone was approaching him. When Issei looked at the source of the presence, a young man in rough clothes appeared.

"It's been a while, Red Dragon Emperor."

Issei only stared at the man for few seconds before he narrowed his eyes. "…Have we met?"

The supposed to be stranger's eyes twitched in irritation but he calmed himself quickly as he let out a breath. "Okay, I guess you're too drunk back then. It's me, Bikou. You fought me and Kuroka back in the Underworld."

"Hmm… Oh! Oh! Vali's group!" Issei's brain finally clicked. "So, yeah… Um… What are you doing?" Issei ended up awkwardly.

"I'm just accompanying him." Bikou looked back, and a familiar face emerged.

"Vali…" Issei said with even tone. The Strongest White Dragon Emperor made his appearance in white shirt instead of his usual garment.

"It has been… 2 months, hasn't it, Hyoudou Issei?" Vali greeted.

"I guess…" Issei looked between Bikou and Vali. "I… take that you guys are not here to pick a fight? You're not here to pick a fight, right?"

"Nope, but I think Kuroka will surely pick one when she meets you again." Bikou replied while snickering.

"Speaking of Kuroka-san…" Issei looked away as he rubbed the back of his neck. "…How's she doing?" The boy actually felt bad after he had learned of what he did to her.

"Pissed and wants to kill you… I think."

"As much as I'd like to fight you again, Hyoudou Issei… I didn't come here for that. I just wanted to talk." Vali interjected.

Issei narrowed his eyes at Vali. "….About what?"

"About your next Rating Game. I heard you will fight against the House of Astaroth."

"And your point is…?"

"You should be careful."

"…What do you mean?"

Vali shrugged. "You saw that video recording of his match, right? His match against the heiress from House of Archduke Agares."

At Vali's answer, Issei recalled about the match he saw from the video. The match was kind of like the one between Sairaorg Bael and Zephyrdol Glasya-Labolas, in Diodora's favour. The young man from Astaroth was practically overwhelming the entire opposing force. Despite the efforts from Seekvaira Agares and her servants, Diodora Astaroth displayed an abnormal power as the King himself fought the entire enemy peerage, while his servants only acted as support.

However, many things did not add up in that video. Firstly, Diodora display of power did not match Azazel's data. Secondly, during the first-half of the match, Seekvaira was in fact, had the advantage until Diodora suddenly gained a massive power-boost and began to dominate the game. The said power-boost was just unnatural. It might be one thing if Diodora was just holding back during the first-half, but even so, his power just way exceeded everyone's expectation. Diodora himself was pretty strong in terms of demonic power in his peers, but even Rias and the others thought that Diodora was not supposed to be that strong, despite being the younger brother of the current Beelzebub.

"Those high-class devils won't listen the words from my mouth, so I thought I can tell you instead."

Before Issei could have replied to Vali, something appeared from the darkness, out of Issei, Bikou and Vali's notice. That something was a big, tall man with his glorious, hulking muscles for the world to see, dressed in gothic-lolita clothes and cat-ears on his head.

It was Mil-tan, one of Issei's regular clients as he walked between the three as he raised up his hand in greeting towards Issei. "Nyo."

"S-'sup…?" Issei returned the gesture with forced smile.

As Mil-tan began to walk away, Vali and Bikou kept staring at the human with looks of disbelief. "…What the fuck was that?" Bikou finally asked.

"Judging from its ears, is he a Nekomata? Even I couldn't sense him until he came closer. Is it Senjutsu?" Vali began to speculate while he was still trying to cope up with what he just saw.

"No, no, no, no. I never knew a Nekomata to be that hideous. That can only be a Troll… right? Some sort of Cat-Troll? Red Dragon Emperor, you know that… guy?" Bikou, still looked troubled, asked to Issei.

"I know, right? Well, that dude is apparently my regular client in my devil job. I still can't even figure out what the hell he is." Issei shrugged.

With the atmosphere somehow lightened up due to Mil-tan's appearance, Vali turned on his heels and started to walk away. "Well, who cares? Let's go back, Bikou."

"What, leaving so soon?" Issei called out.

"I was only nearby, that's all." Vali shrugged.

"And you still bothered to inform me about Diodora... You're actually nicer than you let out, y'know that?" Issei smirked.

Vali snorted in return. "I just wanted to warn my rival. Is that so bad?" Then Vali began to walk away again without waiting for another reply.

"Oh, wait! One more thing." Issei called out, causing Vali and Bikou to look back again.

"Err…. Can you…" Issei sheepishly scratched his cheek. "Can you tell Kuroka-san that I'm really sorry about what happened last time?"

Vali and Bikou blinked and they chuckled as they realized what Issei was talking about. "Not that I mind, but you should tell her yourself by the time you two meet again. Good night, Hyoudou Issei." Then Vali finally left.

Bikou then quickly followed-suit. "See ya, Red Dragon Emperor. Hey, Vali. Let's go to the rumoured noodle-shop on our way~"

Issei blinked at the word Bikou said, then shouted as the two terrorists took their leave. "That noodle-shop doesn't only sell noodles! Try their fried chicken and dumplings, they're pretty good too!"

In return, Bikou only waved his hand in gratitude as the two finally disappeared into the darkness.

**[White One sure has a weird host]** Ddraig spoke out of the blue as Issei kept staring at the place where Vali and Bikou had vanished.

"Is that so?"

**[Well, you're kind of weird as well]**

"How rude…."

**[But I'm having fun. Your current life style…. And the events that follow… They're really interesting. Especially your father.]**

"…What about him?" Issei asked as he took a glance at his left hand.

**[During your training in the Underworld… I saw that the strength he'd shown so far doesn't make any sense. It makes me wonder, how much do you have to boost yourself in order to catch up to him? This is the very first time for me to see such a human.]**

Issei only snorted with small smile. "Well… Only one way to find out, right?"

oXo

"I see. So that's what Vali told you." Rias said as she got a hold of what happened to Issei in the clubroom. Apparently, everyone else had gone home ahead, leaving Rias, the leader, and Issei, who returned the last to the clubroom, behind.

"To manage to infiltrate this town without us knowing…. They do have two Senjutsu practitioners, after all… I will report this to my brother and Azazel just in case." Rias decided and started to do her thing.

Then, Rias finished finalising her report and returned to Issei. "If by any chance Vali was telling the truth, we will need to be alert about Diodora….. Now, let's go home."

"Yes, buchou."

* * *

Later at midnight, Rias was rummaging the kitchen's fridge as she took a glass of cold water.

"Cannot sleep?"

Rias flinched slightly in shock and turned to see Saitama. "S-Saitama-san? What are you doing at this hour?"

"I just want to grab a drink. And you haven't answered my question, y'know." Saitama replied as he took a can of beer from the fridge and took a seat on the kitchen table. "So, mind to share with this old man?"

Rias let out a smile. "Much obliged, Saitama-san… But I'm fine."

"No need to lie, Rias." Saitama said with a hint of seriousness in his tone, as he did not use his usual suffix on Rias' name. "If you can't sleep even with Ise by your side, that means something's going on."

Rias averted her gaze away as Saitama's words hit the mark. "Come on, maybe boring talks with this old man can lull you to sleep." Saitama lightly joked. "Besides, Sirzechs asked me to look after you."

Rias contemplated about what to do for a second before she finally took a seat across of him. She had nothing to lose, and having a conversation like this could sate her curiosity about who, and what kind of man Hyoudou Saitama was.

"So…" Saitama decided to be the first one to talk. "I saw the recording of your match with Serafall's little sister. Congratulations for that."

Rias smiled softly at the gesture. "Thank you. But it was also thanks to everyone's effort as well."

"Yeah, no kidding. If Asia weren't there, you'd have lost from Serafall's little sister." Saitama did not hold back his criticism as he took a sip of his beer. "That really was a close call, y'know that?"

Rias grimaced at that. She remembered her close-match with Sona all over again. Despite her victory, most of the praises and positive reviews fell for Sona Sitri's peerage due to their bold tactic in storming Rias' peerage during the match. In fact, Rias herself received a small critic about her own close-combat capability. The martial-arts moves Sona pulled on her in the last minute had almost become her downfall.

"…Indeed, it was. That was an error from my own part, but it won't happen again." Rias preserved the dignity she had left by acknowledging her own mistake.

As he was listening to Rias, Saitama took another sip to hide his lips that was twitching slightly upwards. The man seemed satisfied enough to see the sign of growth in the Gremory heiress.

"Saitama-san…" Then it was Rias turn to ask questions. "Did you… Really fought my brother and… won?"

Saitama blinked at Rias' slight disbelief gesture before he replied. "…Did Sirzechs finally tell you?"

Rias lightly shook her head. "No, it was Azazel who told me… Then I confronted onii-sama to confirm."

Saitama looked down, staring at the table. "We did fight… But it was more like a friendly match per your brother's request." It was true in a sense of words. "Your brother gave one hell of a fight in that match. I was really surprised at how strong he was." It was also true. During the 'friendly match', Saitama was completely surprised at the strength of Sirzech's Power of Destruction.

"…I see." Rias closed her eyes, then she opened it again, revealing a curious look that saw straight towards Saitama. "Saitama-san…. Who are you?"

"….Just a father who works as a hero for fun."

At Saitama's answer, Rias only gave a small sigh as her lips turned into a wry smile. "A hero for fun… huh..."

"How does it feel to have such power? Azazel stated that you're something like the humanity's strongest." Rias asked again.

Saitama remained silent for few seconds. "…..It's not as good as most people would think of."

"Is that so? As far as I have learned and experienced, many people would've killed to acquire that kind of power of yours." Rias replied sceptically. The mightiest conquers all. That was at least what Rias Gremory's society always believed.

During the devil's civil war, the descendants of the original devil kings were thrown off their pedestals because they were incompetent, and mostly, _weak_. Their power-level did not deserve the title of the original Satans, as their titles were usurped by the four individuals who governed the current Underworld.

Sirzechs Gremory, Ajuka Astaroth, Serafall Sitri and Falbium Glasya-Labolas. While the latter two were outstanding in their own ways, the former two had reached a new form of 'mutation' that allowed their powers to surpass the original devil kings.

"That's just stupid." Saitama retorted. "Those many people should get themselves a hobby or something."

Rias scowled at Saitama's retort. To be honest, the girl was willing enough do anything necessary to attain more power, power strong enough that she would be free to choose her own destiny, her own dreams, no stupid political/arranged marriage under the prospect of conserving bloodline. Not to mention, she was only seen as 'Sirzechs Lucifer's little sister' and 'the heiress of Gremory Household' instead of just 'Rias'. She was inwardly jealous of Sairaorg's overwhelming strength, Sona's intelligence, Seekvaira's professionalism, and she was even jealous of her own pawn, Hyoudou Issei. All of them possess enough power in their own way to choose their own path.

"You're thinking something dumb, aren't you?" Saitama's question snapped Rias out of her own musings. "Your face is saying 'I want more power' or something like that."

Rias scowled deeper without saying a word. That silence alone was enough for Saitama. Then, the girl spoke, "Is that so wrong? Wanting to be stronger? Not to lose from anyone? To be able to protect my comrades?"

Sometimes, Rias would scold herself for her own powerlessness. The incident with Riser Phenex, she did not solve it by herself. It was thanks to Issei. She also failed to fend off Kokabiel's invasion as Issei came again to save the day. It was Saitama who helped her saving Gasper during the attack on the peace conference at Kuoh Academy, and during her match against Sona… It was her peerage who helped her won the game. And even then, it was Issei who managed to get her servants to get out of their cages, while it should have been Rias' duty to do so.

She was in love, yet envious at Hyoudou Issei at the same time.

"Wanting to be strong enough to protect your friends is good and all." Saitama said as he took another chug. "But being the 'strongest' is another case."

Saitama then paused, put on a thinking expression as if he was looking for the right things to say. "…Let me ask you this, then. Why would you fight for your friends?"

"…I love them." Rias replied as the image of her peerage, and Issei appeared in her mind. "I want to spend time with them forever… At least for as long as possible."

Saitama nodded. "And that's the thing. When you became too strong, one day you'll find yourself standing alone, leaving everyone behind."

"…_.Eh?" _Rias' eyes widened slightly as she took in Saitama's every word, as the man put on a serious, yet a solemn expression.

After all, he spoke from his own experience. It all started from his wish to be an aspiring superhero that could defeat all bad guys and monsters around. And the result was, he chased after his dream too vehemently and became too strong. People ended up scorning him, his friends barely managed to keep up with him and got hurt badly in the process. Genos was ever-faithful as he kept being around him, but in the end Saitama found his cyborg friend to be no longer around. And after ended up making his own family, Issei and Haruka, Saitama would still fear of the day where they would not be able to keep up anymore.

"But…. If I'm too weak… I might end up losing them." Rias reasoned.

"Well, you're not that weak. That I can tell." Saitama replied as Rias blinked at him. "What's wrong about relying on others, anyway?" This time, Saitama was smiling. "Well, I'm not saying that you should quit getting stronger. But just take it slow. The time with your friends is more important than actually getting stronger, right?"

"_No need to tell her that I got this strong only in 3 years, though."_ Saitama thought before continuing. "Everybody got their own case about being strong. Some people have their own limits that they can't surpass, even your brother. Sirzechs in the end is still a devil at core."

"Heh… Look at me, rambling." Saitama snorted. Days with his new family had truly changed him. "My last advice is, have fun and take your time. And I give you my word; hard work betrays none."

Rias was kind of speechless at Saitama's lecture. Slowly, her lips crept up into a smile as she finally gave out a small laugh. "…Thank you, Saitama-san. I feel better now."

"Yeah… Man, that's some depressing stuff." Saitama scoffed. "How are things with Ise?"

Rias looked aside as she gave another sigh. "Ise is…. Still being himself."

"Hmm…. I see. Well, just take your time. That kid is not that dense, y'know? You two only need more time to realize each other's feelings." Saitame commented. "Though you'd better not slacking off too much. Because… Honestly, I think Asia is getting ahead."

"I'm not surprised. The two are inseparable ever since Asia became my Bishop. It's probably a matter of time until they become a couple…. Well, worse comes to worst, I'd just have to share Ise." Rias replied with a shrug.

"…..What?" Saitama stared at the girl. "…Sharing, you mean…. You want Ise to have a harem or something?"

"I don't see why not." Rias replied. "Creating a harem is a common practice among devil society due to our low birth-rate. Even my father has a harem with my mother managing them."

Saitama blinked at the fact. He did hear a rumour or two, but he did not expect for those rumours to be true. "…And you're fine about it?"

Rias giggled. "As much as I'd prefer to have your son for myself… All the girls in my group are already too attached to him; Asia, Akeno, and perhaps Koneko…. I just don't have a heart to take him away from them."

Saitama snorted as he took in the statement. "….Wow, my son is a lucky bastard."

"Strong men like Ise tend to attract many people, especially women." Then Rias smiled teasingly. "Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if you were to gain a harem one day, Saitama-san."

"Me, a harem? No way." Saitama denied immediately. "Not only Haruka would kill me, my hands are already full enough handling her. I don't need another woman, thank you very much."

"Speaking of, how did you and Haruka-san meet and get together?" Rias asked with interest in her eyes.

Saitama finished his whole can of beer and stood up. "That's for another time." He threw the can to the trash bin. "It's already late and I want to go back to sleep. You should go to bed too." Saitama left while yawning.

When Saitama's figure disappeared, Rias let out a breath as she chose to let the topic go for the moment. She recalled Saitama's advice again before she went back to bed.

* * *

"I'm sorry for reporting to you by this communication system, Sirzechs. It's about the mysterious death of the heir of the Glaysa-Labolas and the increase of Diodora Astaroth's demonic powers…"

.

.

.

"So it was related like I thought…. The devils still have many troubles even now."

.

.

.

"I still don't have any evidence, but if we were to believe in Vali's warning, then Diodora is… Looks like we need to do that plan which we discussed after all. …Man, I already feel down because of the recent event within my own organisation."

.

.

.

"I heard about it. It seems like one of the leaders of the Grigori got married."

.

.

.

"No shit. I'm probably the only single left around."

.

.

.

"Fufufu. How about you settle down with someone now Azazel? Even Saitama-kun over there had beaten you first in that department."

In the dark room where the conversation being held, a figure's head twitched at the word said.

"Who cares? I'm a man who lives as he wishes. So, about this plan… Saitama, are you willing to go along with it?"

* * *

"…I'm Rias Gremory-sama's Pawn, Hyoudou Issei… Hmm… I guess it's okay." Issei said as he practiced speaking in front of a mirror.

Apparently, Rias received a sudden invitation for interview with Underworld's TV station. As all young devils were invited for the interview, so do their peerages.

"Ise, are you ready?" Rias asked as she went inside his room.

"Yeah." Issei replied as he stood up and he walked together with Rias to meet the others.

"You know you don't have to burden yourself that much about Asia." Rias suddenly spoke. When Issei gave her a look, Rias replied with a smile. "You can't fool anyone with that kind of expression. Well, everyone's also worried about Asia, me included. Do you believe it's your fault that Asia was dragged into this side of the world?"

Issei looked down, pushing down the horrible memory when he failed to save Asia from fallen angel Raynare. "…Yes. She did say that she enjoys her current life, and I'm glad that she does. But still…"

"That's enough, Ise." Rias silenced her pawn with a gentle hug. "…Let's make Asia live a happy life from now on, shall we? A happy life together with us."

Issei smiled as his eyes were closed with unshed tears. Few minutes later, the two then proceeded to their destination.

oXo

After they arrived at the studio, Rias and her peerage were directed towards the program hall where they had run across familiar face and his peerage.

"Ah, Sairaorg. So you're here too." Rias greeted her cousin, Sairaorg Bael.

"Yes. We're about to get our interview as well in a different hall. Oh, it's good to see you again, Hyoudou Issei. How is your father doing?"

"Good to see you again too." Issei nodded at the greeting. "And that baldy is pretty much well. He's probably either hanging out with Azazel, or lounging in the house, rummaging TV channels while picking his nose by now."

Meanwhile, Saitama suddenly sneezed again, surprising Azazel beside him as the two were watching television at Hyoudou residence.

"Fufufu… I guess sensei does need some relaxation after hard days of work." Sairaorg nodded. "I'm a bit jealous, to be honest. I heard that your father personally trained you."

"Err… Yeah, he did a good job there." Issei replied as he averted his gaze away.

"Bael-sama, Gremory-sama. You're on in 10 minutes." Said a staff came from down the hall.

"Well, it's time for us to move." Sairaorg then prepared to take his leave. "I'll see you later, Rias."

"You too, Sairaorg."

However, when Sairaorg walked pass Issei, the former placed his hand on the latter's shoulder. "I wish to fight you someday." With a final pat, Sairaorg finally left with his peerage in tow.

As Issei watched them leave, his lips twitched into a small smirk.

oXo

The interview went well. Most of the questions were answered by Rias, as she showed the other visitors a great interview as the heiress of Gremory clan. Currently everyone was undergoing a private interview session and Issei managed to finish first, as he was resting in the waiting room.

Then the door of the room was knocked, and it was opened, revealing a familiar sight of beautiful girl. "Is Ise-sama here?"

Issei immediately recognized the girl. "Oh, Ravel. What brings you here?"

Ravel's face brightened up when her eyes met with Issei's. Then with rather troubled expression, she pushed a basket she was carrying with her. "U-um… This! A cake! My second eldest brother has a television programme in this studio so I came to give you this since I had time!"

Issei took the basket and saw the content to be a chocolate cake. "Wow, did you make this? I can tell it's delicious from the smell alone."

"Y-Yes! Of course! I have confidence when it comes to cake! A-And I promised you that I would make you one!" Ravel replied happily, while her expression was still flustered.

"Hahaha, thank you for that. I tell you what, next time let's have another one with some tea, just like we promised."

"O-of course! Ohohoho! I'll expect you to hold on your own words. Then, I'll take my leave. I need to return to my brother's side." Ravel gave a curtly bow.

"Yeah. I'll see you later, Ravel." Issei replied with his own smile.

"…I will be cheering for you during your next match. Good bye!" Ravel quickly said and dashed away.

"_Next match, huh…"_ Issei thought as he kept staring at the door where Ravel had left.

Then Koneko came inside the room. "I just saw that grilled-chicken's little sister. What was she doing?"

Issei blinked at the nickname before he realized what 'grilled-chicken' meant. "Oh… Ravel was here to give me this." Issei raised his basket of chocolate cake that quickly caught Koneko's attention. "Want to eat it with me, Koneko-chan?"

* * *

"Guhaah!" Issei cried as his damaged-armoured body was skidding and toppling across the ground.

In front of him, Saitama was standing impassively with his usual poker face. "Is that all you got, kid?"

Issei groaned as his body was aching all over. Sensing that none of his bones was broken, Issei got back to his feet as he tried to regain his bearing again.

Since the next Rating Game was coming up, Issei requested his father to give him some sort of last-minute sparring session, which the latter reluctantly accepted. Currently, the two were sparring in a valley located at Grand Canyon thanks to Azazel's 'special door'. The rules were simple; dodge attacks that could be dodged, no fooling around, no holding back, and kept fighting until one side could not fight any longer.

And 15 minutes later, Saitama had kicked Issei's ass six ways to Sunday. The former watched as the former struggled to remain strong despite his injuries. Saitama wondered, why he would go out of his way to train his son. He usually could not care less when Genos kept goading him to teach him more, which Saitama always tried to find an excuse to escape, and Genos somehow always fell for his excuse. Perhaps it was a perk of being a father of a son who possessed some great power that could outclass gods and demons alike, and just got involved into a world where everyday might be a struggle for survival.

Saitama was kind of curious if his son, who shared his blood could achieve at least a similar level of strength like his younger days, hence the training regimen when Issei was 10. He purposely reduced the workload because he just did not have a heart to make Issei go bald like him. Thus, Issei ended up… not meeting his expectations.

But that was fine. After all, having an overwhelming power would do no good to his son's life at all. Saitama was fine being the only one around. He had met many people that possessed potential to 'defeat' him, especially that big-ass red dragon he encountered before. In addition of his new family and friends, this world was really worth living in. But ultimately, a small part of him wished that his son could surpass him.

"….Come on, kid. Let's just wrap this up. At this rate, you're gonna end up wrecking yourself by the time of your match." Saitama said with a sigh.

"No…." Issei spat a blood from his mouth as he almost finished regenerating his Scale Mail. "Didn't we agree? Keep fighting until one of us couldn't fight anymore."

Saitama rubbed his head in slight frustration. Accumulated years of travelling and meeting many interesting people had somewhat made Saitama wiser. He learned that there were many factors that could decide the outcome of a battle, as he himself had personally experienced them even prior his arrival to this new world, and by looking at how his son had been fighting, Saitama doubt that things would end well in the long run for Issei.

Saitama needed to think of something in order to get his point across his son, but alas, the man was never been a teacher material to begin with_. "…Screw this."_ Saitama then shouted, "Fine! But seriously, don't you learn anything at all!?"

The shout managed to make Issei halted his intended movement as the boy narrowed his eyes at his father. His father was trying to teach him something? "What are you talking about!?"

"You know what I'm talking about! Look at this!" Saitama waved his hands around. "If you kept fighting this way, you're not gonna be able to even land a scratch on me!"

Issei was about to retort, but was interrupted by Ddraig. **[He's right, partner. We need to find a way around him. Attempting to overpower him will take you forever at this rate]**

Behind his poker face, Saitama hoped that Issei would actually think of something. Seeing his son's fighting style reminded him a lot of his younger self; basic hand-to-hand combat to overpower the opponent in every aspect, only with Boosted Gear in Issei's case. But looking at his son closing his eyes in contemplation, Saitama nodded in approval as he waited patiently. If Issei managed to come up with something, perhaps Saitama could enjoy observing his son's growth, otherwise, he would just end their spar there and then.

There was actually two ways that could give Issei a real chance of winning. One, was to improve his fighting technique. Saitama still clearly remembered that there was a martial-artist who wanted to be a monster that managed to give him some real fight. Even then, Saitama still had not managed to grasp the concept martial arts. So if by any chance Issei could understand the principal of martial arts, perhaps he could….

"Seems you're having a hard time, Ise."

When the two heard the new voice, Issei turned around to see his master along with her peerage. "O-ojou-sama?" Issei blinked at his friends.

"How mean, Ise-kun…. Having fun by yourself without us." Yuuto said with playful hurt expression on his face.

"You're not the only one who wants to get stronger to protect Asia, you know?" Xenovia said as she brandished her Durandal.

"I…. I'm a man of Rias Gremory's peerage too! I-I won't back down!" Gasper exclaimed despite his nervousness.

"Ise-senpai, Saitama-san." Koneko followed suit as she nodded at the father and son.

"Ufufufu… I hope you don't mind us joining the party…" Akeno said with her signature smile.

And that was the second method; gang up and overwhelm the stronger opponent by sheer numbers. As Saitama had spent most of his lifetime living alone, Saitama came to appreciate the company of his little friends like Genos, King and some people from Hero Association. Even when Saitama thought he would end up being alone again in this new world, Haruka and Issei came to his life, followed by many others.

If Saitama ended up attracting enemies and people that would hate him more than his allies, he was satisfied that Issei ended up attracting many people that would become his friends.

Issei looked over his friends one by one, and the look in their eyes alone spoke volumes. He then turned to Asia, who only nodded with resolute smile on her face. Issei then smiled in return as he turned towards Saitama and addressed his master. "Okay, then…. Orders, milady?"

Rias then took off to the sky, followed by Akeno. "Alright, everyone! Asia and Gasper will be our rear support. Yuuto and Xenovia, you two will be our all-rounder to provide openings. And Issei will be our vanguard with Koneko. Our opponent may be Ise's father, but hold nothing back! The Rating Game with Diodora Astaroth is drawing near!"

"YES!"

With that said, Issei finally finished re-equipping his Scale Mail as he covered his head in his face-plate, and with a war-cry, the young devils charged at Saitama, who was sporting a faint smile.

To be Continued…

* * *

**And there you have it, folks. I finally managed to finish this chapter despite I was catching a cold. Sorry if this chapter was not that long, but I'd rather to keep it simple.**

**Issei's bluffing towards Xenovia's attempt to flirt was inspired from Saitama's 'bluff' towards Genos in the original OPM series. I assume you guys know which chapter/episode I'm talking about.**

**You might find Saitama here was being OOC, but I'd rather calling him being **_**mature**_**. Many things can change in a span of 20 years in that story, bro. **

**Please look forward to the next chapter: Dragon of Domination's Imperial Wrath!**


	27. The Holy Maiden (III)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything!**

* * *

**Chapter 26: The Holy Maiden (III) - Dragon of Domination's Imperial Wrath**

"It's about time." Rias announced and she stood up from her seat.

Everyone was sitting in the clubroom, preparing and waiting for the time of the Rating Game against Diodora Astaroth to start. They had trained hard, and the sparring session with Saitama last few days ago left unforgettable experience for them, both good and bad. Everyone was wearing their respective combat gear and Issei was sitting in one of the couches with Koneko sitting on his lap, munching sweets. As the boy kept his eyes closed, his brain recollected all the lesson and training he had been through, as well as Diodora's performance in his previous match. He quickly opened his eyes with determination once Rias stood up.

As everyone was getting ready inside the teleportation circle, Issei tapped into his Boosted Gear. "Are you ready, Ddraig?"

**_[…Yeah.]_** Despite the reply, Ddraig could not help but feel a bad premonition for a while.

Then the magic circle glowed, ready to transfer the devils into their designated location.

* * *

Issei actualy felt something was 'off' during the teleportation sequence. When his vision got a hold of his surroundings, he found himself and his friends to be transferred to a spacious place with pillars, ruins and temple that seemed belong to Greek mythology. While it should have been fine if the place were to be the stage of the Rating Game, what was the 'off' feeling he felt earlier?

"…Something is wrong." Rias' words caused everyone to go on high alert. But the most concerning part was…

"Where's Asia?" Xenovia asked as she realized the absence of the Bishop.

Just when everyone just acknowledged Asia's disappearance, Diodora appeared not far away from them with unconscious Asia in his arms.

"…Asia! Diodora Astaroth, what's the meaning of this?!"

Rias shouted while Issei was sporting an enraged expression as he summoned his Boosted Gear. "Let go of her, you bastard…!"

"Rias Gremory and Red Dragon Emperor… I shall take Asia Argento with me." Diodora calmly spoke as numerous magic circles glowed around Diodora.

"None of those are the symbol of Astaroth…. And all of them are different from each other. Could it be…!"

As figures began to appear from the magic circles, Yuuto stated his suspicion while brandishing his sword, while Akeno finally confirmed it as she coated her hand with lightning and thunder. "They are devils….. But they are supporters from Old Satan Faction of Khaos Brigade."

As the devils of Old Satan took their positions, one of them spoke up while glaring at Rias. "The blood relative of the annoying fake Satan, Gremory... We will have you perish here."

Diodora then took his turn to speak and he showed the army around him. "As you can see, all of you will die here by their hands… The agents of Khaos Brigade. No matter how powerful all of you are, you won't be able to take on this many number of High-class devils and Mid-class devils right? Hahahaha, so die! Perish right away."

"I'd like to see them try, you little shit…!" Issei glared at Diodora as he was about to attack at any moment. However, Issei hesitated as he never knew what kind of stunts Diodora might pull on Asia if he were to charge recklessly.

Rias then glared as well at Diodora while her aura started to build up. "Are you telling me you are connected to the Khaos Brigade? What a scum….! And you even defiled the game, so death would be fitting for you! More than that, you try to take away my adorable Asia away from me…!"

Diodora only laughed in return. "Fuhahahaha…! If I were to stay with them, then it seemed like I can do anything I want to whenever I want. Well, struggle as much as you want. I will become one with Asia while you are busy with them then. You know what I mean? Red Dragon Emperor, I will make Asia mine. If you are able to follow me, then come to the depth of that temple. You would be able to see something magnificent."

Issei gritted his teeth as his anger increased. However, Xenovia suddenly dashed forward with her hand outstretched. "Kiba, the Ascalon!"

Yuuto immediately summoned the Dragon Slayer and tossed it towards Xenovia. The girl caught the sword skilfully, and she immediately charged at Diodora with rage burning in her eyes. "Let go of my friend!"

It was an arsenal that Xenovia and Yuuto came up with after they had discussed how volatile Durandal could be with its wielder to be someone who relies on destructive force like Xenovia. With Asia as a hostage, using Ascalon instead of Durandal could avoid the risk of collateral damage.

Diodora immediately released his demonic power to intercept Xenovia, resulting the girl to lose her stance. However, Xenovia managed to release an arc of holy aura towards the devil. But alas, Diodora managed to dodge it swiftly up in the air. The space near Diodora then distorted as the man made his escape with Asia in his captive.

Seeing Diodora and Asia's figure started to disappear, Issei finally took a step. "Oh, no, you don't!" The boy charged forward, but suddenly several devils from Old Satan Faction appeared and got in his way, obscuring Issei's view from his target. They brandished their swords and spears, ready to impale the boy.

"Get out of the way!"

Issei roared and he instantly delivered bone-crushing blows on the devils as the enemy were slammed to the ground and launched to the air. However, when the obstruction had been dealt with, Diodora and Asia had vanished from sight. "Dammit all!" Issei cursed as he missed the chance to rescue Asia.

A hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder just when Issei was about to run towards the temple Diodora mentioned earlier. "Ise-kun!" The boy turned to see Yuuto was giving him a reprimanding look, followed by Rias who finally caught up with them. "Ise, I know you are angry. All of us are. But you have to stay calm! Going blindly like this is exactly what Diodora wants! Take care of the enemies here first and we can focus on rescuing Asia!" As if reading Issei's line of thought, Rias chided his pawn with her reasoning.

Issei looked over his friends, who also gave him the same pleading and reprimanding look as Rias. Looking at the temple one more time, Issei took a deep breath and turned his attention towards the devils that were surrounding the Gremory group.

The devils then proceeded to activate their magic. Taken aback after had seen Issei easily defeated several of their peers, the devils of Old Satan Faction decided to use ranged-attacks.

While everyone was prepared to retaliate and Issei was about to use his Balance Breaker, Akeno's scream suddenly was heard. Everyone turned around and saw a one-eyed old man in a robe was lifting up Akeno's skirt and looking at her panties.

"Hmm…. Nice ass. More than that, the curviness only the young ones have is irresistible." The Chief God of Norse, Odin, commented at Akeno's assets with lecherous, yet analytical eyes.

Issei quickly pulled Akeno away from the old god and gave a glare. "Where the hell did you pop out from?!"

"Lord Odin! Why are you here?" Rias asked with surprised expression.

"Hmm. It will be long if I explain it, but to put it simply, this game has been taken over by the Khaos Brigade." Odin replied while stroking his beard. "The game committee and those from different factions are cooperating to take them on. Well, we know up to the fact that Diodora Astaroth was allied with the Old Satan faction behind the shadows. He must have received the snake from Ophis, which resulted in his sudden power increase. Then it will be dangerous for you guys right? So you needed some help. But this game field has been covered by a powerful barrier. So it would be hard for normal people to break or go through the barrier. Especially destroying it would be really hard. We can't do anything unless we stop the one who turned the barrier on from the inside."

"Then how did you get in?" Issei asked.

"When I gave one of my eyes to the Mímisbrunnr, I became familiar with these types of demonic-powers, magics, and other spells. The same applies for barriers too." Odin replied and showed his supposedly missing left eye. Crystal was filling the eye socket and magical letters ingrained in the crystal glowed and popped up. The occurring symbol caused chills to run down everyone's spine upon sight.

"The enemy is the Chief God of the Norse! Our name will rise if we take his head!" one of enemy troops declared, and blinded by false self-esteem, the army of Old Satan Faction began to fire numerous blocks of demonic power.

Seeing the incoming attack, Odin just hit his rod onto the ground, and the attacks were repelled and perished in result. Odin then turned his attention back to the now-astonished Gremory group. "Hohohoho, Normally, I can break the barrier with my power but I could only enter here….. Hmm, so what kind of enemy did this? Though I was told by that brat, Azazel to give this to you. To be making an old man work this much, what should I do with that brat afterwards….." The elder god gave communication devices to the young devils.

"Go, leave this place to this geezer and run towards the temple. I'm saying this geezer will be standing in the battlefield to cover you young'uns. This is a big privilege you know?" Odin then pointed his rod towards the youngsters and the Gremory group was enveloped in a small divine aura. "That should protect all of you for a while. Now go, go."

Odin turned towards the enemy army again, and his rod transformed into a spear. The god then pointed his spear towards the army and he released a single word. "…Gungnir."

BOOOOMM!

Large amount of devils from Old Satan Faction perished into oblivion from the sheer blast of Odin's divine power. "What are you waiting for? Go! Old geezers like me need to work out sometimes too, you know!?" Odin said one more time to Rias Gremory's peerage before he addressed the enemy forces. "Now then, terrorist devils… Come at me with all your might. This geezer here is stronger than you can imagine."

After seeing Odin's display of power, the enemy forces had lost good deal of their morale. Rias herself did not waste any more time as she quickly remembered what she had to do. "I apologise! I will leave this place to you!" she bowed towards Odin and she addressed her peerage. "Let's go! We will run towards the temple!"

"YEAH!"

* * *

While the team was making their way towards the temple where Diodora and Asia were, they received a transmission on the communication devices they got from Odin.

**"Are you guys alright? This is Azazel. Looks like you received this from that geezer Odin."** A familiar voice said. **"I know that there are things you want to say, but hear me out. This Rating Game has received an assault from the Old Satan faction of the Khaos Brigade. The field you guys are at, and the special field where the VIP room is, are flooded with devils from the Old Satan faction. But this is something we anticipated before hand. Currently, all the pantheons within alliance are working together to defeat the Old Satan faction."**

Everyone finally arrived at the entrance to the inner temple as Azazel continued his briefing. **"Lately, those who are related to the current devil kings started to die mysteriously. The ones who were behind it are the Old Satan faction of the Khaos Brigade. It was told that the heir of the Glasya-Labolas died in an accident, but in reality the Old Satan factions got a drop on him. And the master-mind behind those deaths are the descendants of the original Beelzebub and Asmodeus. Just like Katerea Leviathan that I defeated, the hatred the Old Satan faction has towards the current devils government is great. By terrorising this game, they tried to shake the World as a start by killing and showing the dead bodies of those related to the current Satan. There isn't a better occasion to attack than this. Bad anticipation's could be seen, ever since the match between Astaroth and Agares."**

Everyone took in the information as they finally figured out that the Rating Game that day had been targeted since the beginning. The terrorist also marked the leaders of the alliance, as well as their relatives as their targets. That also included Rias Gremory, the little sister of current Lucifer who was supposed to show up on stage. "Then have you found the reason behind Diodora's sudden increase of demonic power?" the said young woman asked to Azazel.

**"He must have borrowed Ophis's power. They also must not have thought that Diodora would have used that power during the game. That's why by adding that with the incident with Glasya-Labolas, we anticipated that something would happen in this match. But they didn't change their plan at all."**

Everyone then grimaced at Diodora's dirty play on his previous match against Seekvaira Agares.

**"To them, as long as they can finish us off, anything else is a free-game. Even for us, this is a chance we can't normally hope for. It's a good time to crush the Old Satan faction who seems like they will give negative influence to the world. Odin, Greek Gods, and Gods from Sakra's side are also planning to annihilate the terrorists. We told the bosses of each faction in secret about the possibility of a terrorist attack occurring, and we asked them whether they would participate for this plan. All of them decided to cooperate. All the pantheons are thinking about winning. Right now, everyone is rampaging against the devils of Old Satan faction."**

There was a pause, as Azazel gave the youngsters some time to let the information soaked in, then his spoke again with rather regretful tone. **"I'm sorry Rias. I said War wouldn't happen that often, but look at what's happening now. We made you guys fall in such danger. We wanted to have them move before the start of the game. We thought they would appear then, and like we thought it did. But it's certain that we sent you to a dangerous zone. I thought of this plan by persuading The Four Great Satans and Saitama. I wanted to bring out the Old Satan faction no matter what."**

Knowing that his father was also taking part in this plan, Issei then asked. "What would have you done if we died in the process?"

There was another pause, before Azazel spoke up again. **"…Then I'll have to face everyone's anger, including your father's. I was planning to take proper responsibility for it. If my life is needed to make up for it, then I would have done that."**

Putting Azazel's determination to put his life on the line aside, Issei had to tell Azazel about what happened earlier. "Sensei, Asia was taken away by Diodora."

From the other end of the line, Azazel was surprised at the development. **"…I see. Either way, I can't have you guys stay there any longer. Leave Asia to us. It will turn into a battlefield over there. The devils of Old Satan faction are continuously being teleported there by the magic-circle. There is a hidden basement in that temple. It's made to be very sturdy. Hide there until things settle down. We will eliminate the rest of the terrorists. This field is made by the Longinus possessor who belongs to the Khaos Brigade. You can somehow enter inside, but it's near impossible to leave from there. Longinus 'Dimension Lost'... It exceeds among the Sacred Gears that are related to barriers and space, so even that geezer, Odin, who specialises in that department can't destroy it."**

"Are you also in the battlefield, sensei?" Issei asked again.

**"Yeah, I'm inside the field. It is a really big field, so I'm far from you guys. Oh, and your dad is also here. But I can't let him steal the thunder after we had managed to gain a lot of supporters, so I sent him to another area with some of our subordinates to keep an eye on him."**

Issei looked at his friends, whom nodded in return with resolute looks, then he replied to Azazel. "Alright, then we will go ahead and save Asia."

**"…Do you know what kind of situation is taking place right now?"** Azazel's voice was mixed with anger this time.

"Yeah, we do. And you want us to sit down and do nothing while our own family is in danger? That's just not in our book." Issei replied with steel in his voice.

Rias also gave her own two cents. "Azazel-sensei. I'm sorry, but we will continue to go forward inside the temple to save Asia. The game is cancelled, but I won't agree to it if we don't settle this with Diodora. I need to teach him how foolish it is to take my servant away from me!"

Azazel did not say anything in return so far, signifying that he was contemplating. Meanwhile, Akeno also gave her own input. "Azazel-sensei. We have the right to use our power against those who do suspicious actions within the Three-Great-Power alliances correct? You know Diodora showed rebellious actions towards the current government?"

Azazel finally relented. **"….Sheesh, you all are such a stubborn brats… Fine, then. There won't be any restrictions this time around. That is why there isn't anything that will hold your powers back. Go and rampage to your hearts content! Especially Ise! Show the power of Red Dragon Emperor to that traitorous brat, Diodora!"**

Everyone chorused with heated voice. "YEAH!"

**"One last thing, and listen well. They started this while knowing that we started to get the gist about their plan. In other words their plan is something that won't be affected even with us knowing about it."**

"Does it mean…" Issei trailed off, and Rias finished the sentence. "The terrorists finally attacked because they have something up their sleeve?"

**"Yeah. We don't know what it is, but it is certain that this field is dangerous. The game has stopped, so there isn't any retiring. Even if you guys get in a dangerous situation, there is no way to help you so keep that in mind; so be careful."**

The communication ended, then Rias turned to her Rook. "Koneko, can you locate Asia?"

The petite girl then activated her Nekoshou mode after using her abilities, she pointed towards the end of the building. "I can sense Asia-senpai and Diodora Astaroth from there."

Everyone then ran again, and while on the move, Issei wondered. _"Are you fighting too, right now… Dad?"_

* * *

Inside an endless, spacious space filled with giant pillars of the temple, Rias Gremory's peerage made it to their first checkpoint as they encountered 10 small-built people wearing robes.

**"Greetings, Rias Gremory and her servants." **Diodora's voice then came out and echoed across the hall. **"Currently, I'm waiting at the end of another temple for all of you. So, let's play. It's a substitute for our cancelled Rating Game."**

Issei could not care less about Diodora's challenge and would rather to storm the place and reach where Asia was being held as soon as he could. But one look from Rias was enough to tell him not to risk Asia's safety and Issei would have to follow whatever Diodora was planning for now.

**"Let's have a match while using our 'pieces'. The rule is that you can't use the same pieces again until you reach where I am at. Other than that, anything is fine. For the first match, I will be sending my 8 Pawns and 2 Rooks. By the way, all of my Pawns have promoted to a Queen. Fufufu, it's 8 Queens from the beginning but that should be fine for Rias Gremory who possesses powerful servants."**

As if on cue, the 10 individuals took off their robes, revealing themselves as 10 young women clad in their battle gear.

"…Very well." Rias replied. "I will play along with your nonsense. I will carve into your head, just how powerful my group is."

Issei was expecting his master to send him out, instead…

"Yuuto, Xenovia, Koneko and Gasper. You four will go out there." Rias declared. Receiving a look from Issei.

However, before the pawn could have said anything, his shoulder was patted by Yuuto, whom was sporting a confident smile. "Just leave this to us, Ise-kun."

Xenovia also followed suit. "We didn't train with you and Saitama-dono for nothing, you know?" she then brandished her Durandal.

"Ise-senpai." Koneko did not say anything else much as she only nodded at Issei before she proceeded towards the stage.

"I-I will do my best! I'm also a man of Rias Gremory's peerage!" Gasper, albeit nervous, had gathered his courage to fight along side his friends.

Issei could not help but smile at his friends. For some reasons he just could not see that Yuuto, Xenovia, Koneko and Gasper would definitely win. But speaking of Gasper…

"Ah, wait a second, Gasper!" Issei placed his hand on the dhampire's shoulder. Issei then bit the skin of the tip of his thumb, and he offered his now bleeding finger towards Gasper. "Here, you go. Consider this for good luck."

Gasper hesitated for a second, but he then drank Issei's blood. Soon his body was letting out a strange aura, his red eyes shone mysteriously, signifying that Gasper's power had increased.

Everyone was ready. Those who were chosen from Rias' side were now arrived before the enemy forces, with the following order: Koneko, Yuuto, Xenovia and Gasper standing side by side, Koneko and Gasper were slightly behind the two knights as Yuuto and Xenovia served as the tip of the spear. The battle immediately started once everyone got into position. For starters, the two enemy Rooks were the ones who lounged first towards Yuuto and Xenovia.

For Yuuto and Xenovia, time seemed to slow down around them as they found that the incoming Rooks were painfully slow in their perception. Yuuto, having been taught discipline and the way of the sword since young age, closed his eyes in concentration as he intended to defeat a female Rook in front of him with a single blow. He placed the sword in front of him, and he focused _everything_ he could offer into the blade as he breathed in and out.

Xenovia, however, while she was also focusing her intention into the blade, something else was also occurring in her mind.

_"…I never had someone whom I could call a friend. That's because I thought I could live without such people. I thought I could live if I had the love of God."_

The female Rook in front of the blue haired knight kept closing the distance, albeit still in painfully slow pace.

_"Then friendly people started to come around me… Especially Asia. She called me her 'friend' with her smile always there… Even after I had treated her horribly in our first meeting, she kept coming and talking to me as if nothing happened, and she still sees me as her friend even now…!"_

Xenovia's aura began to increase its density, as well as her Durandal's holy power.

_"If Asia were to disappear, if I lose Asia, I…! That's why! Give me the power to save my friend! Respond to my feelings…!"_

It was the moment when the two enemy Rooks were entering Yuuto and Xenovia's range. Both knights then snapped their eyes open and unleashed their counter-attack.

"…DURANDAL!"

SLASH!

Everything happened in a blink of an eye as Xenovia roared the name of her sword. At one second, everyone was looking at Diodora's two Rooks attacking the seemingly defenceless Knights of Rias. One second after, everyone saw Yuuto and Xenovia had cut down the two Rooks with their swords. In addition, while Xenovia was taking down the Rook before her, she also sent an arc of Durandal's aura towards the group of Diodora's Pawns.

BOOM!

The destructive attack caused an explosion that echoed across the hall as it hit its intended target. Unfortunately, the enemy Pawns managed to dodge in a nick of time thanks to their Queen enhancements. On the cue, all 8 girls began to scatter around the hall in high speed, making a certain pattern, then changed their movement pattern again periodically.

"Regroup!" Yuuto called out and the other three immediately gathered around in triangular formation with Gasper in the centre of them.

The enemy pawns began attacking by firing off some demonic power at Rias' Knights, Rook and Bishop, but Yuuto and Xenovia defended themselves easily with their swords, while Koneko was not affected by much thanks to her trait as a Rook.

Soon some of the pawns began to launch some guerrilla attacks. They sent some punches and kicks at Yuuto, Xenovia and Koneko before they immediately leapt away and ran around the hall again. The latter began to fire her Senjutsu towards the enemy as she was the only one with a real means for long-ranged attacks. However, the enemy Pawns could easily dodged Koneko's shots.

"Hmm… Coordinated attacks… With their movement as if they were united as well as the speed enhancement from promotion, things could get ugly. Any ideas?" Xenovia voiced her concerns.

Yuuto did not reply as he assessed the situation around him. Should they break the formation and deal the enemy individually? The enemy still possessed superior numbers, and Gasper was not a combatant type. But if they kept their position for too long, things could get ugly for them as Xenovia had said. "In that case, let's use 'that'. Just as we've practiced." The handsome Knight finally voiced his idea.

"'That', huh? Well, that can work. But with the preparation we'll have to go through, the enemy might anticipate it. We need a distraction, a diversion."

"L-leave it to me!" Gasper volunteered as he prepared to use his power. "K-Koneko-chan, cover me!"

Albeit scared and nervous like nobody's business, Gasper activated his vampire ability as his body transformed into a flock of bats and began to fly around, storming the enemy forces in the process.

Vampires possess an ability to turn themselves into a bat or flocks of them, and the size of the flock is determined by the size of the vampire's body itself. This ability allows them to be somewhat 'intangible' and to disorient as well as distract the enemy by the sheer numbers of the bats. There were cases where a vampire was outnumbered, and to increase the size of his/her 'flock' of bats, the vampire would summon and manipulate the wild bats in the area and fused them with his/her body, making the size of the flock looked bigger than its supposed size.

However, there were some 'worse' cases when a vampire was completely on his/her own, and in order to appear as a bigger flock of bats, the vampire would sometimes use magic to make illusory bats.

Being a Mutated Bishop, Gasper had already possessed a massive amount of magic reserve and talent. When he turned into a flock of bats, his petite body made the size of the flock far from enough to affect 8 enemy Pawns that had promoted into Queen. Thus, Gasper used the magic enhancement from his Bishop piece and created illusory bats to make the flock of the bats looked bigger. At the moment, the size of the flock of bats that was swarming around the stage was comparable to the flock of bats belonged to 2-3 grown adult vampires.

"Wha-!? These amount of bats… Where did they come from!?"

"How annoying… Tch! I can't hit them!?"

Illusions as they were, it was enough to shock the enemy forces even for few seconds. The Pawns that were about to cast some spell to attack Gasper, were interrupted by Koneko's Senjutsu as the Rook kept throwing balls of blue flame towards them.

However, Gasper and Koneko's combination of distraction would not be able to keep the enemy at bay for too long, as the Queen enhancement gave the enemy Pawns enough to overcome them. Yuuto and Xenovia had already been working to unleash their intended move. Yuuto focused his power to his Sword Birth's Sword of Betrayer, while Xenovia was channelling her Durandal's holy aura to fuse with Yuuto's Holy Demonic Sword.

"It's ready, now! Gasper, Koneko! Clear away!" Koneko immediately ceased her firing and regrouped, followed by Gasper who had returned to his original form. Yuuto then stabbed his Holy Demonic Sword to the ground.

"DURANDAL BIRTH!"

Durandal Birth. It was the technique that Yuuto and Xenovia had acquired from the sparring with Saitama. By fusing Durandal's holy aura into Yuuto's Holy Demonic Sword, the power of the Sword Birth would increase tremendously. Holy-demonic blades with the holy power equalling Durandal sprout out from the ground, littering the whole stage around Rias' representatives and impaling every shell-shocked enemy Pawns in the process.

Issei, Rias and Akeno who were watching from the side-line was amazed at the damage done by Yuuto and Xenovia's combined attack.

"That's a nice attack as always, Kiba." Xenovia complimented with satisfied expression.

Yuuto nodded with a smile. "Yes. When you and I work together again, we can make more holy swords bloom."

"That was amazing, Kiba-senpai! Xenovia-senpai!" Gasper voiced his awe. Koneko only nodded while giving a thumbs-up, which the two Knights returned in kind.

"Good work, all of you." Akeno complimented with her genuine smile.

"First victory. Way to go, guys." Issei also gave his two-cents.

"All of you did a great job. Now, let's get going." Rias then led her peerage again to proceed to the next stage.

oXo

When they entered the next hall, Rias Gremory's peerage was met with three figures in robes. Then, the figure in the middle stepped forward, took off her robe and revealed herself as a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"We were expecting you, Lady Rias Gremory. I shall fight you here as my master's Queen, behind me are Lord Diodora's Bishops."

Issei took the appearance of the woman as he recalled her performance in the Rating Game video he saw on the other day. The two Bishops at the back did not reveal their faces, but that was irrelevant.

"My, very well, then. I will go." Akeno volunteered herself as she stepped forward.

Rias also stepped forward. "Ise alone will be more than enough to fight the remaining two Knights later, so I will join this round as well."

Issei was about to voice his objection, but Akeno seemed to beat him to the punch with her own way. "Oh my, buchou. It would be enough with just me."

"You know that you can't overuse your holy lightning, don't you? So rather than receiving damage here, it's better to go at them with more power to minimise our damage." Rias replied with her own reasoning.

Everyone seemed to have to agree with the King at the moment. Issei himself could only hoped that the two great ladies would end the match shortly with least damage as possible. However, as soon as the combatants were in position, the enemy Queen immediately unleashed a large stream of demonic power, catching Rias and Akeno by surprise as the latter two quickly put up their defensive magic.

BOOM!

Since the Queen and the Bishops did not show much in the video, courtesy of Diodora's power boost; not much could really explain the real strength behind the Queen and the other servants. And apparently, the Queen was not a pushover.

Rias and Akeno occasionally fired off their own attacks from behind their magic barrier, but the enemy Bishops behind their Queen quickly did their job as their magic power flowed into the Queen, serving as support and alternative fuel, followed by even more magic seals that fired even more demonic powers.

This kind of combo was not shown in the video recording of Diodora's fight with Seekvaira, thus everyone did not expect that the Queen and Bishops alone could produce that kind of fire power. Akeno and Rias might be able to overpower them, but to conjure such powerful attacks would require them to dismiss their defence to focus their magical reserves, and the enemy forces surely would not give them a chance to do so.

While Issei and the others started to get worried for their King and Queen, the former found Koneko was poking at him.

"Hm? Koneko-chan? What's wrong?"

The Nekomata gestured the boy to bend down, then she whispered something to his ear.

Issei nodded as he took in Koneko's words. "Uh-huh. Yes, yes… Wait, what?" Issei then jerked his head away and looked incredulously at the Rook. "Seriously?"

"Yes." Koneko affirmed. "If we want to save Asia-senpai sooner, doing this will boost-up Akeno-senpai's power, and this match will end sooner."

Issei contemplated, but he had to make a choice as soon as possible as the match was about to start. Then he let out a breath as he decided upon action. "Akeno-san!"

The Priestess of Thunder and Lightning turned around enough to take a glance at Issei, curiosity in her eyes.

Issei paused for a second before carrying on. "Err… if you were to defeat those people easily, let's have a date on the next Sunday!" The boy highly doubted that saying that kind of proposal would have done anything to gain advantage, but he was sorely mistaken.

Issei noticed electricity began to spark around the stage, and his eyes finally landed on Akeno whose body was enveloped by holy lightning. And damn was the woman did not stop giggling like crazy.

Magic, especially devil magic, worked based on the user's imagination. When Akeno heard that proposal from the man she fell for, it was more than enough stimulant to boost her magic through imagination alone. The imagination was, what sort of things the woman would and could do to the man when the day comes.

"Ufufufu….. Fufufufufu…!" As Akeno giggled, her holy lightning kept increasing its power and intensity, despite Akeno herself was still mostly focused on her defence. "I can have a date with Ise-kun!"

Rias, however, was aggravated as her eyes were tearing up. "You are horrible Ise! You have me, and yet you only ask Akeno out!"

"Ufufu, Rias. This is proof that my love has finally been received by Ise-kun. Seems like you have to give up now, yes?" Akeno chided, as her power kept increasing little by little.

Rias herself did not want to lose as her demonic power's intensity was increasing as well. "W-W-What are you saying! I don't want it to be said from the vulgar Akeno who sparkles her lightning from just a single d-d-date!"

Watching the two young women quarrelling, everyone especially Issei could only stare in confusion (mostly amusement from everyone else).

_"Say, Ddraig…. Am I really… Y'know, that great to have a date with? I mean, I literally blew my first date up with my body impaled and all."_

**_[…Well, that was the fallen being a total bitch on you. You're actually kind of a decent boyfriend material if I have to say.]_**

Issei only nodded inwardly at the Welsh Dragon's opinion as Rias and Akeno kept quarrelling with each other.

"What did you say? I don't want it to be said from you, who doesn't seem like you will be getting love from him anytime soon." Akeno provoked this time.

"T-That is not true! E-Even a while ago he…..!" Rias retorted, but she hesitated for a second.

"…Hm? What happened a while ago?" Akeno goaded.

Rias averted her gaze as she started to get embarrassed. "…He embraced me so tight and indulged himself with my breasts a lot."

**_[Whew. She got you there, partner]_**

That comment caused Issei to flinch as it was technically true, much to the boy's shame. Everyone was turning to look at Issei, with Koneko giving him a dirty look.

"Isn't it just that Ise-kun tend to move around in his sleep?" Akeno reasoned.

"W-we also kissed!" Rias rebuked. "E-even last time we… F-f-flirted…. And doing a bit this and that…." Her face became even redder as she muttered the event from the night when her brother came to visit.

That part Issei flinched again, this time his face was also flustered at the memory. Xenovia this time was raising her eyebrows and Koneko was scowling at him. In return, the boy could only look away awkwardly.

**_[Shit, she really holds nothing back with her claims]_**

_"Yes, thank you very much, Ddraig! That was very enlightening!"_ Issei inwardly and sarcastically rebuked the dragon.

Akeno blinked, did not expect that kind of come-back from her best friend. Then her smile returned. "…My, then I need to make my move on him much sooner than I thought. If possible, while you're watching, Rias."

"Oh, no, you don't! I don't even want to imagine your hands feeling up that boy's nook and cranny! He's mine!"

Issei was now embarrassed beyond help at the heated arguments. While the two great ladies' aura and magical power was still spiking up from their emotional outburst, the enemy Queen finally snapped, not able to endure the situation any longer.

"You two…! Stop this nonsense for goodness' sake! Ignoring us for fighting over a man…!"

Rias and Akeno turned towards the enemy Queen, and the former two's expressions were definitely not amused.

""SHUT UP!""

With that rebuke, Rias and Akeno fired an attack, which was a combination between the heightened Power of Destruction and Holy Lightning. The stage was utterly destroyed when the attack hit its target, and when the dust and smoke cleared up, the enemy Queen and Bishops were laying on the ground with burns covering their smoking bodies.

Even then, Rias and Akeno were still quarrelling despite the victory.

"To begin with, do you even know all of Ise's body, Akeno!? I know it even to the tiniest details you know!?"

"You just know it, but you haven't touched it or received it. Rias is always talk! I'm already prepared to accept him whenever and anywhere!"

Rias grunted in irritation, but she took a deep breath as she remembered the objective at hand. "…Let's stop for now. We will discuss this again after we save Asia. Her rescue comes first."

Akeno nodded. "Agreed. I also see Asia-chan as my little sister."

Issei could barely care any more. At least the quarrel had stopped and everyone could focus again on what they intended to do in the first place.

oXo

When Rias' group arrived at the next room, they were greeted by a familiar sight of a man with white hair. "'Sup? It's been a while, folks."

Everyone saw the crazy rogue priest who made his last appearance back during the Excalibur fiasco. Everybody present was caught in surprise as they believed that he had been either dead or imprisoned.

"….Fried Sizzle!" Issei pointed at the psychotic man.

However, the mispronouncing name instantaneously broke the tension in the room as the priest twitch and veins were popping out on his face. The others only rolled their eyes, some of them snorted at how Issei addressed the enemy.

"It's Freed-! You know what, I don't give a fuck anymore." The man known as Freed Sellzen rolled his eyes and waved his arms in resignation.

Rias decided not to waste anymore time as she put her hand on Issei's shoulder to give him a subtle command to let her do the talking. "So, Freed Sellzen…. Your appearance here is quite… unexpected. How come are you here?"

Freed's face returned to his usual jovial expression. "Oh, are you perhaps expecting the two Knights of that Diodora kid?" Freed replied with a sickening smile, then he proceeded to chew something in his mouth and spit them out. "The thing is…. I ate them." Freed revealed had spitted a couple of human fingers.

Rias narrowed her eyes in disgust. "I see… So you're…"

"He has quit being a human." Koneko finished what Rias was about to say with disgusted tone.

"Hyahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!" In return, Freed only laughed maniacally. "Right after I was slashed down by you guys, I was retrieved by that shitty Vali! And I got fired by that fucking Azazel!"

As Freed said his words vulgarly, his body slowly transformed. His limbs began to swell up to the point of ripping his clothes, his skin began to darken in colour, appendixes akin to horns started to appear from his body, sharp fangs littering his mouth, a single wing and extra arm came out on his back, and his whole body finally became several times bigger.

**"The ones who picked me up after I lost my place are the guys from Khaos Brigade! They said that they would give me powers, and what did I get!? Kyuhahahahahahahaha! And that was turning me into a Chimera! Fuhahahahahahahahahaha!"** his voice finally became distorted as well.

The now disfigured Freed's appearance could only be said as grotesque, as everyone cringed in disgust at the sight.

**"Now that I'm feeling so good. Let me fill you in with a story; Diodora Astaroth's hobby that is. His hobby is beautifully crazy, and just listening to it makes your heart beat."**

Those words at least picked some curiosity from the group, as it might provide a bit more insight about Diodora's plan.

**"Diodora sure has some great taste in women. Apparently, the rich boy has fetish for girls affiliated with the Church, in other words, NUNS!"**

Issei's eyes widened at the information, as he recalled that Asia was a nun in the first place.

**"And the ones he preys on are the passionate and strong believers. Do you know what I am trying to say? His servant devils that Ise-kun and others defeated just earlier are all former believers of the Church! The same could be said for the girls who are at his house! All of them are famous nuns and holy maidens from various areas! His taste is really something, don't you think!? The devil rich boy seduced the women from the Church and made them into his toys! Oh wait, that's why devils exist! He speaks with sweet words to the passionate holy maidens and makes them fall for him! I guess that's what you call a devil's whisper!"**

Issei remained stunned as he began to connect the dots.

"Wait, then Asia was…." Xenovia trailed off with horror in her eyes.

**"HYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The one who wrote the scenario of Asia getting kicked out of the Church is none other than Diodora Astaroth himself!"** Freed laughed. **"The scenario goes like this. One day, a devil rich boy who loves to sleep with nuns found himself his very ideal, a beautiful holy maiden. He couldn't help but wanting to fuck with her ever since he saw her. But he thought it would be hard to take her away from the Church, so he used a different plan to make that girl his."**

Issei remained silent as his gaze moved downwards, causing his eyes to be obscured by his bangs.

**"The holy maiden is a very, very kind girl. I got advice from someone who is knowledgeable with Sacred Gear that 'The Sacred Gear possessed by the holy maiden can even heal devils'. So the rich boy put his attention there. 'Maybe she will get kicked out of the Church if another believer sees her healing me!' Even if a scar is left, it would still be alright if I can have sex with her! That's the way and is how that rich boy lives!"**

As he listened to Freed's story. He balled his hands into fists as he remembered what the smiling Asia had said to him one time.

_I don't regret saving that person back then._

_"For that reason…"_

Issei's fist tightened.

_"To fulfil some guy's sick fetish… Asia had to go through those terrible things?!"_

Issei's fist started to draw blood as he recalled those moments; the scorn from people, Freed's past abuse, and ultimately Asia's demise on Fallen Angel Raynare.

**"She will get exiled from the Church which she believed in, then her life will get ruined and she won't believe in God, and then she will come to me. That's what he was thinking. Hyahahaha! Even the painful experience for the holy maiden is a spice for that rich boy! He will save them from the depth of despair, and then rape them! He will rape both their body and heart! And that was the best and ultimate entertainment for him! He had been raping and making the girls from the Church his own! And he won't be changing even from now! So the rich boy, Diodora Astaroth-kun, is a devil who loves to fuck strong believers of the Church! Hyahahahahaha!"**

Yuuto, who happened to stand right next to Issei, noticed that the latter was about to walk forward. Knowing that the Pawn was about to do something reckless, Yuuto raised his hand to stop him. However, when he caught the sight of Issei's eyes, something from the boy's orbs stopped Yuuto from moving an inch. Was it because of understanding? Or perhaps fear? Nobody knew. But by the time everyone realized it, Issei had already separated himself from the group.

"Wait, Ise!" Rias reached out to Issei's back to stop him, but her words fell on deaf ears.

Issei was already standing right before Freed when the latter spoke. **"Hey, hey, hey! What's this?! So a shitty devil want to have the first taste!? Don't think that you can end me with one punch like we first met! Can't you see that I've gone through some remodelling and become a lot stronger? I even ate Diodora's two Knights easily. I also got their traits as well! So now I'm an invincible monster, nobody can stop me!"**

Issei did not say anything in return as Freed moved his giant arm that sprout blades from it, launching it towards the Pawn. The latter did not notice that the former was cracking his fingers.

**"HAHAHA! DIE- GABAH-!"**

BAM! CRACK!

Everything then happened in a span of few seconds. Before Freed could have landed his first strike, his head was hit by a force strong enough to break his cheekbone, shattered his fangs, and snapped his neck in the process. However, Issei's attack did not stop there.

WOOSH!

He advanced forward, causing the ground his foot stepped on to cave in, and his arms flowed and blurred into numerous punches that hit Freed's body from head to toe. Each blow was enough to shatter bones, and those blows were targeted towards all of the monster's bones, joints and vitals as blood was splattered around.

By the time Issei had finished, Freed was lying in his own pool of blood, with all parts of his body were bent in unnatural way. Dents were also littering the said body as the result of Issei's punches.

**"Keh…. What the hell…."** Despite the damage that had been done on the head, Freed somehow still retained an ability to speak. **"You are too overpowered…. Well, it's not like you can stop Diodora's plan or the guys backing him…. You still know jack-shit about the true horror of Longinus possessors…. Hahahaha-"**

SPLAT!

Issei finally finished Freed off by crushing his head under his foot. When everyone got the sight of blood staining Issei's clothes and a bit of his face, as well as the boy's still-cold expression; Rias, Akeno, Yuuto and Koneko were reminded again of the night when they recruited Asia.

Issei was barely containing his anger, and his Boosted Gear had been manifested in response of his own fury. Seeing that Issei's eyes were still brimming with rage, Rias decided she had to step in.

"Ise!" Rias placed her hand on her Pawn's shoulder to turn him facing her. Then she slapped him across his face. Issei blinked at the stinging sensation on his now reddening cheek. Rias' slap seemed to do the trick as Issei's eyes returned to normal. "Are you awake now?" Rias asked with stern voice.

Issei was about to speak, but somehow the words died in his mouth. He was not sure what the slap was about. However, Rias did not give Issei any chance to talk back as she kept her expression strong. "Don't lose yourself, Ise. You're not the only one who is angry about what happened to Asia."

Those words made Issei blinked again, and when he looked behind Rias, he could see his friends were looking back at him with similar expression with Rias, albeit Gasper was rather afraid as well.

"It's fine to be upset. Rather, it would be strange if you're not. However, use them instead of losing to them. Focus that anger of yours to Diodora later." Rias chided her Pawn.

Issei then looked down in shame and understanding as Rias' words reached him. He looked at his comrades again, whom this time seemed to be relieved and nodded at him, then Issei bowed his head to his master. "I… I'm sorry."

Rias smiled softly in return. "It's fine… Now that you have returned to us. Now, everyone! Let's go!"

At her command, everyone chorused affirmatively at Rias and they moved on.

oXo

Everyone finally arrived at the grand hall that seemed to be the throne hall of the building. When the group got in, they were greeted by the sight of Diodora sitting on a throne. Behind him was a large structural device with jewels embedded on various parts, with Asia restrained on its centre.

"ASIA!" Issei called out the girl's name, as he was kind of relieved to see that the girl looked unharmed.

"….Ise-san?" Asia replied as she looked at her comrades. However, everyone noticed the red swellings on the Bishop's eyes, signifying that the girl had been crying.

"So you finally came." Diodora greeted Rias and her peerage with his usual smile.

Seeing Diodora irritating smile and Asia's sad expression, Issei asked with dangerous tone. "…What have- No, how much have you told her?"

Diodora only laughed in reply. "Fufufufu… Everything. I want to show you as well, the moment she had the best expression." Diodora revealed that he had told Asia about everything of his scheme. "The face Asia had when she found out everything was going according to my plan was simply the best. Look, I even left the video of it. Should I play it? She really had a splendid face. The expression of the women affiliated with the Church falling, no matter how many times I see it, I never get bored of it." Diodora said with mocking and provocative tone.

Issei did not say anything when he heard Asia started sobbing again, as his previous rage was slowly returning.

"But it was still not enough. Asia still has hope; she still has all of you, especially the filthy Red Dragon Emperor over there. Do you still remember that fallen angel Raynare?"

At the mentioning of that name, Issei's eyes hardened at the bad memory.

"After that woman killed Asia, I was going to kill her and give Asia an Evil Piece." Diodora revealed, causing Rias to widen her eyes in shock. "Who would've thought, that the newly reincarnated devil, Red Dragon Emperor alone managed to kill all of those fallen and rogue exorcists at the vicinity? I made the mistake of waiting, thinking that you wouldn't be able to do so." Diodora commented, as he honestly was rather unnerved at Issei's display of power that time. "And to top it off, you came in and snatch her up, Rias."

"So you're the one behind of it all…" Rias said with venom in her voice.

"But I shall forgive all of you. Thanks to you, I'll be able to throw Asia even deeper into despair..." Diodora declared. "…I'll destroy any hope she has left by killing you all in front of her eyes."

At this point, Issei had heard enough and he began to walk forward with Boosted Gear equipped. He took a glance at the others and his comrades gave a nod. While Rias did scold him about getting angry and all, right now Issei deserved the most right to show Diodora what it meant to harm one of their comrades.

"Asia is still a virgin, correct? I prefer virgins, and I will hate it if she was already 'used' by the Red Dragon Emperor." Diodora did not even care when he saw the said 'dragon' was slowly made his way towards him, confident that he was the more powerful one.

Issei tightened his fists again as his rage had returned by folds. Not only his own, but the rage of his comrades as well.

"Ah, but it might be fun in its own way to take her away from you, Red Dragon Emperor!? It will be fun to rape her while she's screaming your name! Fuhahahaha! " Diodora kept his taunting without any care. Then he sneered at Issei, who was getting closer. "Do you think you can defeat me?! You are not the only one with power!" Diodora's body then was enveloped in a deep-black aura. He then took a glance at his palm, where the seal of Ouroboros appeared on it. "I also have received a power-up from Ophis' snake! With this, I can kill you instant-!"

CRASH!

Whatever Diodora was about to say had been cut-off when Issei's Boosted Gear suddenly gripped his face, and the latter smashed Diodora's head so hard that it destroyed the throne Diodora was sitting on.

"…Ghk-!" Diodora let out a strangled cry and Issei threw Diodora away from the now ruined throne, away from Asia.

"Shut the fuck up, will ya?" Issei said with cold tone. He then proceeded to walk towards Diodora to continue his assault.

While clutching his bleeding head, Diodora grimaced as he tried to get up. "Guh…! I'm a high-class devil! I'm the blood relative of the current Beelzebub!" Diodora then turned towards Issei and fired numerous demonic powers from his hand. "There is no way that a noble high blood like myself will lose to a lowly, filthy, and vulgar reincarnated devil like you!"

The spot Issei stood on exploded from Diodora's attack, raising smoke and dust. However, Issei suddenly came out from the smoke and had already donned his Scale Mail. The armour was activated through his sheer rage alone. Diodora quickly attempted to gain more distance, but it ended up in futile as Issei immediately closed the distance with his superior speed. When Issei was about to launch another punch, Diodora then conjured layers upon layers of magic barrier to defend himself, which Issei easily broke through, breaking Diodora's nose in the process.

"Weak…" Issei simply commented at Diodora's magic barrier.

"Aaaahhg! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" Diodora cried clutching his bleeding nose. "My demonic power…! I was supposed to have had my power increased drastically with Ophis's power!" Diodora cried in pain as his body slammed on to the ground. Issei then picked Diodora up by collar from the ground, and he proceeded to assault Diodora's stomach.

Diodora then coughed up blood as Issei's punch made contact with his abdomen. However, before Issei could have continued his attacks, Diodora lifted up his hands. "There's no way I can lose to a rotten dragon like you!" The devil then gathered his demonic power and conjured a large magic wall, forcing Issei to let go of him and took few steps back.

"Hahahahaha! Did you see that?! My demonic power is much stronger than yours! A power idiot like the Red Dragon Emperor can never-!"

Diodora's sentence was cut-off again as Issei easily walked through the magical wall, tearing it as if it was made of paper. The devil gasped in shock, and the red dragon was already right in front of him again. "Don't you dare to make Asia cry…!" Issei growled as he launched his punch again. Diodora raised his left arm by reflex to futilely block Issei's punch, and the said arm was broken once Issei's fist connected, sending Diodora's body flying towards the wall.

Diodora whined in pain, clutching his broken left arm, and he could only watched in horror as Issei came to his way again, the green orbs on his face-plate glowed dangerously.

The trashing kept going on for several minutes more. Issei relentlessly assaulted Diodora, while the devil kept trying to retaliate with his demonic power, which Issei easily overcame like it was nothing. When Diodora was flung again towards a wall, his face was now swollen and his head was bleeding profusely, his body also suffered several fractures from Issei's strikes. Apparently, Ophis' snake did at least enhance Diodora's body to be more resilient, much more than Freed's Chimera body.

"No way… This is impossible…!" Diodora muttered as he struggled to get on his feet again. "I have won against Agares! And I'm planning to defeat Sairaorg Bael next! There's no way I will lose to the Gremory household… whose only quality is having strong affection towards their servants! I'M DIODORA FROM THE HOUSE OF ASTAROTH!"

With that loud declaration, Diodora glared at Issei and raised his still-working right arm. Then, Diodora gathered every ounce of his remaining power and fired it from his hand towards Issei. "TAKE THIS!"

Issei remained on his spot, not attempting to evade the incoming attack as he chose to charge his own power instead.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!] **

Once Diodora's attack was within the range, Issei punched the demonic power, sending it hurling back towards Diodora. The devil did not have any time to do anything as his own demonic power flew past his head by hair's breadth, destroying the wall behind him in the process. Diodora then sweated bullets, knowing that his head would be blown off if the attack were to be one inch closer.

Issei then walked towards Diodora, who was now shaking in fear and he picked him up by collar again. Through the devil's terrified expression alone, even Ddraig did not need to tell his host that Diodora could not fight anymore. Issei then dismissed his face-plate, and placed his face an inch away from Diodora's. "Don't you ever go near Asia again. Next time I see you, I'll tear you to pieces...!"

Diodora only replied by nodding his head furiously with fear filling his eyes. Issei then dropped Diodora to the floor and made his way back to his comrades, who were now gathering around Asia.

"Ise, aren't you going to finish him off?" Xenovia asked while gripping her Durandal tightly, ready to strike Diodora at any moment.

"Nah, I think he got the message." Issei waved off. "Besides, even if he's assisting the terrorist, he's still a blood relative of one of the current Satan. I believe Beelzebub-sama has the most right to hand out the punishment."

Xenovia then sighed in agreement, with everyone else also accepted Issei's reasoning. Then the group focused on their real objective; releasing Asia from her restrains.

"Ise-san!" Asia called out in relieved tone.

Issei then gently patted Asia's head in return. "It's alright now, Asia. Just wait a bit longer and we'll get you out of this." Issei said with reassuring smile.

"…I can't take off the restrains on her limbs…!" Yuuto said with a frown.

Issei then took a shot. He tried to pry off the restrains, but they would not budge despite the strength of the Red Dragon Emperor. "…What the hell? What is this stuff made of?"

"…It's useless." Everyone turned to Diodora who was muttering those words. "That is a special seal that a certain Longinus user made for me… 'Dimension Lost', the ultimate barrier-type Sacred Gear. The user promised me it would disarm after everything was over. However, on the off chance I lost, the seal would be set to consume her instead…!" despite the fear and damage Diodora had attained, the man still somewhat refused to go down.

"What did you say?!" everyone widened their eyes as the device holding Asia started to glow.

"I'd rather have her disappear than hand her over to you all!" Diodora shouted again.

"A person like you…!" Rias hissed, even Xenovia was about to lash out to Diodora. However, they had a more important issue.

Issei looked over the construct that was holding Asia as he turned to the girl again, whose life force was slowly being sapped away. "Asia, look at me."

The girl weakly opened her eyes and she stared at the boy. "I will save you. Please trust me." Issei said, receiving a weak nod and smile in the process.

"Ddraig, can you do something? Anything? You're a fellow Longinus, after all." Issei inquired the Welsh Dragon.

**[I'm afraid not. Dimension Lost is a higher rank Longinus than the Boosted Gear. And when it reaches Balance-Breaker, its power is near limitless. Don't forget, Longinus more powerful than the Boosted Gear does exist.]**

Issei remained silent for a second before he spoke again. "How much is the difference in rank between you and this Dimension Lost?"

**[…Hm? Only one rank different, I think?]**

Then Issei sported a smirk. "Then, it won't be that far off to push your power to that level, right!?"

Ddraig blinked at the notion, then he sighed as he had no way to stop his host at the moment. **[…Fine, go ahead. But I doubt this will work.]**

"Alright, here we go!" Issei then cocked back his fist and charged his power.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Issei then slammed his fist towards the construct, resulting a clash of power between Boosted Gear and Dimension Lost. However, the device created from the latter Gear did not even budge when Issei hit it.

However, Issei refused to give up as he kept pushing. "Come on…! Break!" The clash continued on for a minute.

_"This is not enough…"_ Issei thought. _"More….! Stronger…! Give me more power…! I have to save Asia! I promised that I will protect her…! I swore that I won't let her go through anything sad again! So…. GIVE ME MORE POWER!"_

Inside Issei's soul, Boosted Gear was doing its hardest to respond to Issei's wish for power. Ddraig himself could only supply his host everything he could offer, but the dragon remained skeptical about his host's attempt to overpower Dimension Lost.

_BA-BUMP_

A soft pulse. Ddraig suddenly felt a soft pulse coming from the deepest part of Issei's soul. It was the anomaly that he felt when his host was about to activate the Forbidden Move during the fight with the Vanishing Dragon, the foreign signature that caused Issei's Evil Pieces to react violently. However, the pulse just now was noticeable, but its presence was not enough to gain any reaction from the Evil Pieces, however, Ddraig could feel its surge of power coursing through Issei's being.

Back in the real world, a crack finally appeared on the metal, then the crack began to spread out through out the device. Everyone widened their eyes hopefully while Ddraig widened his eyes in disbelief. Even Diodora could not believe his own eyes in defeat.

CRACK! CRACK! BREAK!

Finally, the device broke under Issei's fist and Asia was automatically released from its grasp. The girl fell towards Issei, who quickly dismissed his Scale Mail and caught the girl in his arms. As Issei embraced Asia, he whispered, "I'm sorry for the wait…"

Asia only snuggled into the man's chest as she returned the hug. "I believed in you… No, I always believe that Ise-san will come to rescue me."

The two then broke away and Asia turned towards the others. Xenovia was the first one to come at her with tears of joy in her eyes. "Asia! I'm glad! If you're to disappear, I… I…!"

Asia only smiled kindly and she wiped away Xenovia's tears. "I won't go anywhere. Since Ise-san and Xenovia-san will protect me."

"Yeah! I will definitely protect you! Always!" Xenovia's expression brightened as she said so.

Then Asia felt someone hugged her from behind. Her eyes trailed and spotted Rias. "Buchou-san…."

"You can stop calling me that…" Rias replied. "After all, I think of you as my little sister."

Asia's expression brightened up at those words. "Y-yes! Thank you very much, Rias nee-sama and everyone!"

"Thank goodness! I'm so glad that Asia-senpai is safe!" Gasper cried in happiness and Koneko proceeded to comfort him by patting his head.

Asia then turned again towards Issei, who was smiling at her. It was the smile that she loved so much, which she also returned with her own loving smile. Then from that man's smile, words came out. "Let's go home."

"Yes…!" Asia nodded, then she stopped as she remembered something. "Ah, but I'd like to pray first before we go."

Issei blinked rather oddly at the request. "…Not that I mind, but what are you going to pray about?"

"…That's a secret." Asia winked as she walked away from the others to have some privacy.

Asia then kneeled, and she clasped her hand together as she began her prayer.

_"Dear Lord, will you please listen to my wish?"_

Then it came all of sudden. The others failed to notice it, but Issei felt something in the air when Asia just started praying.

_"Please continue to protect Ise-san, now and forever…"_

Issei then dreadfully recognised the sensation in the air. It was killing intent. His senses were immediately put on high alert and the boy looked around to find the source. No, it was not supposed to be his priority, because Issei found who the killing intent was targeting. It was then, when Issei saw lights began to gather on the spot where Asia was praying.

_"And also… From now on, and forever…"_

Time seemed to slow down drastically as Issei began to move towards Asia, his hand outstretched to reach her when Asia's body was enveloped in bright light. Adrenaline was rushing through Issei's body as the boy desperately wished that he could make it. Alas…

_"Please allow me to live happily together with Ise-san…"_

* * *

When Issei arrived at where Asia was, it was too late. The girl had disappeared within the light as Issei embraced empty air, his body tumbling and he fell on his fours.

"Wha… What happened? Where's Asia?" Xenovia was the first to speak while everyone was still trying to process what happened.

It happened so fast. At one time Asia was praying, then when her spot was engulfed in bright light, Issei suddenly dashed forward reaching out towards Asia, who disappeared soon after.

"H-hey, Ise… What was that all about? What happened to Asia?" Xenovia's tone began to be filled with fear.

Issei on the other hand, did not say anything in return as his body was still on crouching position.

Suddenly, a new presence made itself known in the room. "An object made from a Longinus perishes from the attack of another Longinus, huh... What a blunder of that mist-user... It appears to be necessary to readjust the plan."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice that appeared to be a man dressed in black armor with a cape. He had long brown hair that goes to his hips with many bangs covering his right eye.

"…Who are you?" Rias asked with cautious tone as everyone else could feel the immense aura coming out from the man's person.

The man then gazed disdainfully towards Rias. "It's my first time meeting you, sister of the annoying fake Satan. My name is Shalba Beelzebub, the true successor of the Great Original Beelzebub. I'm different from the relative of the fake one you fought earlier." Then he turned his gaze to Diodora. "Diodora Astaroth, I lent you my power and look at the situation you are in. In the match against Agares, you used Ophis's snake without my authorisation and had the enemy predict our plan. You are very foolish indeed."

Diodora looked down for a second in shame before he looked up again towards the newcomer who introduced himself as Shalba Beelzebub. "Shalba! Please help me! If it is with you, we can kill the Red Dragon Emperor! If the Old Satan and Current Satan were to join forces…..!"

Shalba did not let Diodora to finish his sentence as the latter found a hole on his chest, with traces of light element adorning his wound. "Pitiful, and addressing me as 'Old Satan' is already your downfall." Shalba sneered, revealing a strange device latched on his arm as Diodora's body disappeared in the similar manner as Asia earlier.

Everyone began to connect the dots between Shalba's ability to use light element and Asia's disappearance, and Xenovia's body trembled in rage.

"Now, sister of Sirzechs…" Shalba then turned towards the Gremory group again. "It may be sudden, but I will have you die here. The reason is simple, that is to destroy every blood relative of the current Satan." Shalba declared his intentions in cold tone.

Rias only narrowed her eyes at descendant of Beelzebub. "So you intend to kill Glasya-Labolas, Astaroth, and us, the Gremory?"

"Correct. To be called the 'Old' by you people, the relatives of the current Satan… while we are the true and rightful successors, is simply displeasing and hard to endure." Shalba then sighed. "But our plan now ends with this. I never thought that the Boosted Gear, a mid-tier Longinus, would win against the Dimension Lost, a high-tier Longinus. I can only say that this was something we didn't anticipate. Well, we got significant results for future terrorism, so I have to be satisfied with it. I'm not certain of what happened to Cruzerey, but it won't be a problem. As long as I'm active, we can still progress even without Vali. That is the greatness of the True Beelzebub… Now, as my souvenir before I return…. Sirzechs's sister, I will have you dead."

"Such a cowardice… To attack the relatives instead of directly challenge the current Satans themselves…!" Rias glared at Shalba.

"That's fine with me. I shall kill the family of the current Satans first. It won't mean anything if we don't have them taste despair."

Shalba waved off, resulting a spike of demonic power from Rias.

"You scum…! For you to kill Asia of all things…! I absolutely won't forgive you for this crime!"

Rias raged, followed by the others as Akeno started to envelope her body with holy lightning, Yuuto brandished his holy-demonic sword, followed by the rest as everyone was enraged of what Shalba had done to Asia.

However, the tension was interrupted when Issei's voice was heard.

"Asia….? Asia…?"

Everyone seemed to forget their rage, and when they turned towards the voice, they found Issei was walking unsteadily without any direction as his voice was trembling.

"Asia…. Where… Where did you go…? Mom and… Mom and that baldy are waiting for us… Come on, please…. Show yourself…"

Everyone's heart ached when they looked at Issei's face. The boy's face was a sobbing mess as tears were flowing freely from his empty eyes.

"We… We gotta go back home… You don't need to worry about a thing anymore… You still have to do the three-legged race for the sports festival with Xenovia…"

Seeing the broken expression, Gasper and Koneko began to cry, while Akeno looked away while crying silently. Yuuto could not bring himself to look at Issei's face, and Rias quickly hugged Issei from behind to comfort him anyway she could.

Issei then turned his head around to look at his master with his teary eyes. "R-Rias… I… I can't find Asia… Our important family…" Issei could barely say any incoherent words, as the boy actually knew that he had once again failed to protect Asia, while a part of him still adamantly refused to acknowledge such things.

Xenovia, however, snapped as she roared and dashed towards Shalba. "I won't forgive you…! I won't forgive you! I will cut you! I WILL CUT YOU UP AND KILL YOU!" the female Knight then jumped towards the Beelzebub with both Durandal and Ascalon in her hands, aimed to end the devil.

"Futile." With that single word, Shalba used his own magic to conjure a barrier that easily withstood the power of two holy swords. Then, the devil proceeded to strike back at Xenovia with a blast of demonic power, sending the girl to fall back to the ground.

As Xenovia tried to get back on her feet, she glared venomously at Shalba. "….Return Asia… She is my friend…! She is a kind girl… Kinder than anyone…! Why…!?" Alas, Xenovia could not gather her spirit back from despair.

Seeing that Xenovia could not fight any time soon, Shalba then turned to Issei.

"Vulgar reincarnated devil and the dragon which is the same as garbage. The princess of Gremory seriously has bad taste indeed. That girl disappeared beyond to the dimension. Her body should have perished by now…"

As Issei took in Shalba's words, his eyes that were previously empty in sadness, now started to brim with rage as he realized the one who took some precious to him away.

"….It means, she died."

At those words, something shattered inside Issei. Then, Rias who was still placing her arms on Issei suddenly leapt away out of instinct. It was the same time that the atmosphere in the room suddenly began a lot heavier as _it_ hit them.

Rias blinked at herself. Why did she leap away from her servant, from her precious Issei? She looked at her palm that was sweating profusely. Her action earlier was nothing more than her own survival instinct that screamed at her to move away from danger.

The others felt… terrified when they looked at Issei's back. Whatever fury that was running through Issei's person was nothing like when he mercilessly beat down Freed Sellzen and Diodora Astaroth, who were the cause of Asia's misery.

It was nothing like when he confronted Xenovia who was about to smite Asia during their first meeting.

It was even nothing like when Issei was enraged about Asia's demise on the hands of Fallen Angel Raynnare.

Even Shalba Beelzebub himself, an ultimate-class devil, could not help but taken aback when he saw Issei's hateful glare at him. The boy did not care of anything else at this point. He vowed to always protect Asia, yet he failed. There won't be another chance like Evil Piece reincarnation or anything alike, as Asia's body had been disappeared, perished away at god-knows where.

There was only one thing that Issei wanted to do like nobody's business, which was to utterly destroy the bastard in front of him.

Boosted Gear then manifested on Issei's left arm, and Ddraig's voice was heard from the green gem of the gauntlet.

**[Rias Gremory…]** Ddraig's voice in solemn tone was able to gain the attention from everyone, especially Rias. **[If you don't want to die, you'd better take everyone and leave this place at once.]** Then Ddraig's voice was directed towards Shalba. **[And that devil over there, Shalba Beelzebub, correct?]**

Shalba did not say anything in return as Ddraig took the silent as 'yes'. The Welsh Dragon then solemnly gave his final warning of the impeding doom through Issei's own mouth, as he could do nothing but to minimize the damage as much as he could**_. _**

**[You have made the gravest mistake]**

BOOOOOOM!

Then Issei's power exploded in a burst of blood-red aura. The explosion was powerful enough to cause the whole complex of the temple to tremble under its force, as well as throwing Shalba back to hit against the wall and fell to the ground.

Everyone then saw Issei was donned in his Scale Mail again, and small orbs of light started to gather and floated around him. From those orbs, cries of humans could be heard.

"I, who is about to awaken…"

Yes, Issei was about to use that Forbidden Move, just like the one he and Vali used during the Kuoh Treaty. However, if the aura everyone felt during that time was oppressive, right now Issei's aura was downright suffocating.

Rias and Akeno were barely able to stand, as cold sweats were freely flowing on their skin when they felt Issei's ominous aura were hitting them like waves.

Yuuto and Xenovia were gripping their swords like dear life as they set their eyes upon Issei's terrifying visage.

Koneko had it worse. She was hugging herself as her legs gave out. The traits of Nekoshou force her to take in every malice, every negative energy that came out from Issei's person. Gasper himself had collapsed as he was trembling, ready to wet his pants at any moment.

"Wh-what in the…!?"

Shalba, however, had it the _worst_. After he fell to the floor, he raised his head and snapped his eyes open, only to find himself looking upwards despite his height should be taller than Issei. Before his eyes, instead of armoured Issei, Shalba was looking at a massive red western dragon that was glaring down at him. Flames were leaking out from the gap of its fangs and nostrils, and its body was radiating power. Small orbs of light were also floating around him, letting out cries of humans, as words of power could be heard from the dragon, as if the monster was going to declare its presence.

* * *

_It was the manifestation of mankind's curse, the curse named 'carnage', and everything etched in the hearts of those who fell before its power._

**[Looks like it is about to begin this time…]**

"...Am the Heavenly Dragon who has stolen the principles of domination from God."

**[Yes, it truly has begun.]**

As Issei spoke those words, the orbs of light around him also spoke out, signifying the beginning of terror.

_The sorrowful despair of those who were destined to fight against their adversaries on the bloody hell called battlefield, of all warriors of the past, young and old, women and men, fully exposed to the madness, and yet who still cling to desires: 'to dominate' and 'to annihilate'._

**[It has always been like this….]**

"I laugh at the Infinity and grieve at the Dream…"

**[Indeed, it has always been so.]**

The orbs, or should had been said the souls of the past possessors of the Boosted Gear, voiced their lamentation of the tragedy that kept happening from generation to generation.

Shalba Beelzebub had been living his life long enough to witness many things. During the Great War, he witnessed the display of the power of his kings and ancestors, as well as the leaders of Heaven and fallen angels alike. Later on, he also witnessed the might of the Two Heavenly Dragons rampaging across the battlefield, followed by the demise of the leaders of the Three Great Powers. In the following Underworld Civil War, he witnessed the power of the new generation: Falbium Glasya-Labolas, Serafall Sitri, Ajuka Astaroth and Sirzechs Gremory, the latter two had achieved the power surpassing the original devil kings that allowed Shalba's reign along with his peers to be overthrown and forced them into hiding. And during his encounter with Ophis and his recruitment into Khaos Brigade, he witnessed the soul-crushing might of the Infinite Dragon God itself.

_It was born from large masses of energy, and through millennium it was later sealed inside the God's Artefact. Nevertheless, its power being unleashed is mankind's greatest horror given form_.

When Shalba witnessed the hulking red dragon that was Issei, he could tell that the thing before him could only hold a candle against Ophis' power. However, for some reasons he would rather faced Ophis' wrath many times over than facing whatever the monstrosity he was facing at the moment.

**[The one the World desires…] [The one the World rejects!]**

"I shall become the Red Dragon of Domination…!"

**[It has always been power!] [It has always been love!]**

The souls of the past possessors then clearly mourned the fact about the maddening power, and the reasons why they had embraced the very power that caused their downfall. Then finally, every soul of the past possessors, men and women, young and old; shouted their thoughts about the impeding disaster, as they also said Issei's last chant in unison.

**[No matter how many times, you people always choose the path towards destruction!]**

**"AND I SHALL SINK YOU TO THE DEPTHS OF CRIMSON PURGATORY!"**

**[JUGGERNAUT DRIVE!]**

The transformation had been completed, and Rias' peerage took in the form of Issei's Juggernaut Drive. The size of Issei's armour was bigger and rather gigantic; with claws, horns and spikes grew from its greaves, arms, feet and wings. Jewels were also adorning the said wings as well. The helmet also altered its appearance with fangs adorning its mouth, or rather, it became similar with a dragon's head. Overall, Issei's form was quite different than Vali as it was more draconic in terms of size. While Vali's Juggernaut Drive was somewhat still retained its humanoid posture, Issei's posture was more feral, akin to that of beast.

Rias eyed the dragon for a second before she tried to call out to the man inside the armour. "…Ise?"

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

It suddenly let out an earth-splitting roar, causing the surrounding walls to collapse and everyone to cover their ears while Shalba was snapped out of his hallucination. To everyone, the thing that roared was neither Issei nor Red Dragon Emperor. It was more akin to a beast, an abomination that usurped the form of red dragon.

Shalba was now terrified beyond relief. When the abomination set its eyes on him, the devil knew that he had no chance to win against it, that any attempt to fight back would only result with his imminent death. Shalba's brows and temple was sweating like crazy, as for the first time in his life, Shalba Beelzebub finally learned about new meaning of 'fear' and 'terror'.

With deranged expression, Shalba put up his last bravado. "You…! You monster! I will not forget this humiliation! By the end of this day, I shall show you that us the true descendant of original Satan are the most superior compare to filthy-!"

CRASH!

"…Aahgk…!"

Whatever Shalba was about to say, the beast had already moved and obliterated Shalba's left-half of his body from neck to toe. Having missed a large part of his body, Shalba could not breath nor say any words, as the beast's onslaught did not stop there. The abomination had already moved again at blinding speed, used its massive arm to throw what remained of Shalba Beelzebub to the air, and it shot a large red beam from the mouth of its face-plate. Shalba did not even have any strength left to shout as the red beam engulfed him entirely, erasing him from existence.

It happened so fast in front of everyone else. One second Shalba was terrified and spouting some swearing words, then a second later Issei had moved past him, leaving Shalba lost a good half of his body. Then Shalba was thrown into the air and Issei destroyed him with a blast of red light.

However, even with the demise of the person who had earned his ire, Issei's (or what was supposed to be him) rage had not diminished even one bit. The abomination then let out a sad howl while trashing its surroundings and clawing its own face.

Seeing her Pawn had fallen into such a state, Rias then dashed towards him with worried and sad expression on her face. However, before she could have advanced any further, a hand grabbed on her, preventing Rias to go forward.

"Akeno, let go of me!" Rias commanded her Queen, who stopped her.

"No, Rias! What do you think you're doing?!" Akeno kept grabbing her King's hand despite Rias' struggle to break free.

Soon Yuuto also joined to prevent Rias to approach the now-berserk Issei. "Buchou, it's too dangerous to approach Ise-kun like this! We need to retreat for now!"

Rias then struggled more to break free, her gaze remained on Issei's draconic form. "No, no! He's hurting! I have to go to him! I promised that I'll be there for him!" Rias reached her hand out towards Issei. "ISE!"

However, when Rias shouted her beloved's name, the beast that had Issei as its core then turned its attention towards the group of young devils.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

As it roared again, no one had time to react as the monster was already moving towards Rias with the same speed it used on Shalba, its arm raised ready to crush them. Rias, along with Akeno and Yuuto who were next to her could only widen their eyes at the ominous looming figure.

Then, when the beast slammed its arm to the ground, it found nothing. Instead, it saw a blur sweeping the devils away right before its arm made any contact.

When Rias and the others returned to their senses, they were already at a good distance away from the rampaging Issei. In front of them was a bald man wearing a yellow suit, complete with a pair of red gloves and boots and a white cape.

"S-Saitama-san?" Rias stuttered at the man who just saved her life and her peerage. The man just arrived and simultaneously took everyone away to avoid Issei's strike.

"…Yo." Saitama greeted casually before he shifted his attention towards the beast, who did nothing else but glaring at him. "Care to tell me what the hell is that?" Saitama pointed at the unfamiliar abomination.

"That's… That's Ise." Rias said while her head was hung low in shame and despair.

Saitama looked around, and indeed he did not see his son around. However, Saitama also could not find a certain girl. "…Where's Asia?"

Rias did not say anything as she and the others only closed their eyes in regret. Saitama then somehow managed to put the two and two together. "…I see." Saitama closed his eyes for a moment then he turned towards the abomination that was his son.

"…Wait, Saitama-san?! What are you doing!?" Rias, along with others widened their eyes when they saw Saitama walking towards the monster in red armour.

"My son is mopping around in that thing, right? Then it's up to me to snap him out of it." Saitama replied as he fearlessly faced the monstrosity that still glared at him hatefully. "It's my job as his dad, after all."

"Hey, Ise!" Saitama then shouted to his son when he was closer. "How's it goin'?"

The beast only let out an angry growl in return before both of them moved.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And… there you have it! Sorry for the cliff-hanger, but I need to think things through before proceeding.**

**For Issei and Yuuto's swapping roles during the fight against Diodora's peerage, I did it because I wanted to do that epic rage moment with Freed, yet at the same time I don't want to steal anyone's spotlight. **

**I actually planned to have Issei kept angry after killing Freed all the way to defeating Diodora, but then I found that the scene was kind of too dark to my taste, hence the scene when Rias scolded Issei.**

**As for the device that restrained Asia, I've re-read the Light Novel again and found something about it. The reason of why Khaos Brigade managed to build a device that can reverse Asia's healing power was because the brigade was able to gather enough data of Reverse spell from the Rating Game between Sona and Rias in volume 5. However, since my version of Rating Game did not involve any use of Reverse spell on Asia's Twilight Healing, I decided to resort to anime version instead.**

**And yes, I decided to kill Shalba Beelzebub there and then, so I can work on some plot-twist during the events of volume 11.**

**And for those who wondered about Issei's form in Juggernaut Drive, I used the one from the anime for the time being. Why? You'll find out on the next chapter. Next chapter also showed what happened when Rias' peerage was fighting Diodora, as well as the reason why the roar I used on Issei was different from the preview.**

**And sorry that I did not use the description of Juggernaut Drive on Vali Lucifer during previous arc, because that was something I came up with just recently. I'm sorry as well for the poor exposition. That one was particularly difficult, and I hope I still did justice about it.**

**All in all, please review! And look forward for the next chapter, which you people could guess about what will happen. Next chapter: Father and Son!**


	28. The Holy Maiden (IV)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man.**

* * *

**Chapter 27: The Holy Maiden (IV) – Father x Son**

_(Flashback, human world)_

It was a fine weather with some clouds on the blue sky when Saitama was sitting on a pier facing the ocean, with fishing rod clutched in his hands. The man had been waiting for a fish to take his bait some time now, perhaps for hours. However, the man did not show any sign of discomfort nor impatience as he simply yawned while remained vigil at any movement from under the water.

Hours passed, and Saitama began to suspect that the bait he put on the hook had already dropped and drowned somewhere at the bottom of the sea. His worry was spot on, after he had pulled back his fishing strings, the bait he placed on the hook previously was nowhere to be found. Sighing to himself, Saitama prepared another shot as he took another bait from the cooler box beside him.

Suddenly, the wind blew, and Saitama immediately sensed someone behind him. He turned around, and he saw someone was standing behind him. That someone was a girl; that of a cute young girl with long black hair down to her hips and grey eyes. Her ears differed from a normal human's as they had pointed tips, although her long black hair made this feature difficult to notice. Her attire consisted of black dress Gothic Lolita fashion.

Saitama took in the appearance of the little girl as he noted that he did not sense any presence coming at him until suddenly the girl just appeared out of nowhere. But for most importantly, Saitama could somewhat tell the most defining trait of the stranger before him, as his eyes unusually sharpened into his more serious looks.

"_This girl… is strong."_

However, Saitama's intuition also told him that whoever or whatever the girl was, had no hostility whatsoever as she only stared until her lips twitched into a smile.

"You, are strong." The girl began to speak. "Strong enough…. That you stand a chance to kill that stupid red…"

Saitama only blinked at the girl's speech and her tone. Despite her looks, Saitama had already half-expected that she would be unlike other girls her age. Then the girl suddenly closed their distance and inched her face closer to Saitama's.

"Yes…. You, are what I need for my goal." The girl said with a grin, as the tip of her nose almost touched with Saitama's own.

Alright, Saitama honestly thought that the girl before him was starting to creep him out with the way she talked, how she measured him with that smile of hers, and the void look in her eyes that was peering into his own.

"You, make an oath to me. Serve me, and I shall grant whatever you wish for."

And there was what she talked about, suddenly asking him to be her lackeys right during the first time they met each other. Saitama only regarded the girl with slightly narrowed eyes for a second before he replied. "….Who are you, anyway?"

The girl's grin only grew even wider.

"I, am Ophis."

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

When Issei, Rias and co. were on their way to save Asia, another battle was taking place.

A young man with black hair and muscular built launched his fist upwards, causing a massive blast of shockwave that sent a good number of devils from Khaos Brigade up to the air.

The man, Sairaorg Bael, watched the enemy troops fell to the ground and he inspected his surroundings once more, only to confirm that he had pretty much cleared the area out of any hostiles.

Nodding in satisfaction, Sairaorg then heard another booming voice and he turned his head to see a familiar man walking towards him. The man was bald as he walked, leaving a mounting pile of unconscious enemy devils in his wake.

"Saitama-sensei." Sairaorg straightened himself before he gave a respectful bow. "Thank you for the hard work."

"Seriously, Sairaorg. Will you stop….. Uh, never mind." Saitama was about to chide Sairaorg to stop calling him 'teacher' but he quickly knew it would be futile to do so. Instead, Saitama simply looked over Sairaorg's handiwork and he nodded to his self-proclaimed disciple. "Yeah. You too, good work."

"Yes!" Sairaorg replied with his face beaming with pride.

A flash of light was caught from the corner of their eyes, followed with another explosion causing the two men turned to see a woman with silver hair and ornate armour, consisting a white breastplate with gold and pale blue accents and matching, fingerless gauntlets, boots, hip guards, and wing-shaped hair clips. She also wore a black leotard underneath her breastplate, black thigh-high stockings, and a pale blue cloth wrapped underneath her hip guards, all of which were clad with pink lacing along with her hair clips. The said woman was flying on the sky before she descended and landed near Saitama and Sairaorg.

"A Valkyrie from the Norse…" Sairaorg muttered in recognition.

"Sairaorg Bael, am I correct? My name is Rossweisse, from Asgard. I was sent here to see if this area needs reinforcement." The Valkyrie introduced herself and she looked at her surroundings. "Though it seems that you have everything under control."

Sairaorg only nodded in return, then Rossweisse blinked her eyes when she recognised the other man beside the young devil. Her face then flushed as she looked around anywhere but Saitama's direction.

"Rossweisse?" Saitama asked in slightly worried tone at the Valkyrie's awkward manner. "You okay there?"

"Eh?Ah! Err… Y-yes, I'm alright, t-thank you." Rossweisse stuttered in return. "L-long time no see, Saitama-san." Rossweisse said with her head bobbed downwards while her eyes looked up shyly at the man.

Some people might saw the scene as a girl meeting again with her crush, but if one were to take a better look, it was more like a girl meeting again with the man she once offended, and the girl was still feeling somewhat embarrassed and guilty about it.

The three soon fell into an awkward silence. Sairaorg felt that he should have not said any word, while Saitama narrowed his eyes at Rossweisse's odd behaviour. After few seconds that felt longer than it supposed to, Saitama raised his eyebrows as he somehow managed to catch on what this was about.

Letting out a small sigh, Saitama then spoke. "Look, Rossweisse… About-"

"**Rossweisse, are you there?"**

"**Sairaorg-sama, please respond!"**

Rossweisse and Sairaorg was about to listen to what Saitama wanted to say when their communication link suddenly came up and the former two had to stop the conversation in order to hear of what their other end had to say.

Few moments later, Rossweisse then turned to Saitama and Sairaorg. "I'm sorry that I have to cut this short, but the angels are in need for reinforcements." The Valkyrie said, putting on her resolved expression once again despite her curiosity of what Saitama was about to say.

"I also have to go. My peerage needs me." Sairaorg also voiced his news.

Saitama then rubbed his head as he decided to let go of his intended talk for another time. "Well, then I guess I'll go meet up with Azazel."

The three then said their farewells and good-lucks to each other before they split up on their own ways.

* * *

Somewhere at the Rating Game field that had turned into a battlefield, Azazel was soaring on the sky with his twelve jet-black wings after he had taken care of good numbers of devils from Old Satan Faction.

"Hm… Okay, I've sent you the coordinate of my position. I'll see you later, Saitama." Azazel turned off the communication function that was equipped on his artificial left arm. As the Governor of Grigori and fallen angels continued on his way to his next destination, he stopped when a young girl appeared before him.

Azazel immediately recognised the petite figure before him through the sheer power radiating from her being, as well as the reaction he got from the Gigantis Dragon Fafnir that was residing within Azazel's artificial sacred gear.

"…I never expected you to come here personally." Azazel spoke first, his eyes hardened and glared at the little girl.

The girl only smiled as she calmly regarded the Scapegoat. "Azazel, it has been a while."

"You sure have changed a lot. Last time I heard, you're an old geezer." Azazel mused as he took a good look at the girl's appearance. "…Now that your appearance have become that of a beautiful girl, you definitely have my respect. What are you planning, Ophis?"

The girl, the Infinite Dragon God, the Ouroboros Dragon Ophis; only looked at the distance in return. "I, am here only to observe."

"Well, this place is sure the best spot for sightseeing…" Azazel replied with a light sarcasm. "But for the big boss to appear here… Will the world be peaceful if I defeat you here?" Azazel said while pointing his Downfall Dragon Spear at the Dragon God.

"Impossible. Azazel can not defeat me." Ophis replied as she regarded the fallen angel with uninterested look. Her reply was not a mere confidence. It was an undeniable fact that Azazel could never match someone on Ophis' level even with the power of a dragon king.

"**Then how about with the two of us?"** A new voice made itself known and the two turned their attention to see a massive purple dragon flying towards them.

"Tannin..." Azazel regarded the former dragon king as the said dragon addressed the dragon god.

"**The young devils are betting their future, standing at this very battlefield. I will not tolerate the fact that you came to interfere!"** Tannin glared at Ophis. **"You, who had no any interest in the world suddenly became the leader of terrorists?! What is your purpose!?"**

Azazel shared an agreement with Tannin's opinion add the question with his two-cents. "And seriously, don't say something boring like 'killing time' or some shit like that. Many people are dying and getting hurt thanks to your actions."

Ophis only stared at Azazel and Tannin before she looked up to the sky. "…The silent world."

"…What?"

"I, wish to return to the dimensional gap and obtain silence. That, is my only reason." Ophis expressed her reason more clearly this time.

Azazel's mind then began to work to analyse Ophis' answer. _"Dimensional gap… A world of nothingness, an empty dimension, that exists between other worlds like the human world, underworld and heaven…. Her birthplace…"_ Then Azazel snorted at Ophis. "What the hell… So your reason is home-sickness. Dimensional gap, huh… If I recall, in the dimensional gap there was…"

Ophis then concluded Azazel's sentence. "Yes, Great Red is there."

Great Red, the Dragon of Apocalypse, The True Dragon of Dragons; an existence whose power was rumoured to be on par with, if not stronger than, the Infinite Dragon God itself. Nobody truly knew its history other than the fact that it suddenly appeared in the dimensional gap, preventing Ophis, who happened to have left the empty world, to return to her home.

With that information, Azazel finally found one possible conclusion. _"I see… Now I understand your objective, Vali…!"_

Suddenly, a magic circle appeared near Ophis and someone teleported to the scene. That someone was a man wearing noble clothes, along with black with dark red belts and motifs, as well as a cape. The man had black hair tied up to a small ponytail, as well as a pair of pointy ears and pale skin.

"I am the one who carries the blood of the true Asmodeus, Creuserey Asmodeus." The man introduced himself. "I came here to ask you whom are the Governor of fallen angels for a battle as I am the member of the True Satan faction of the Khaos Brigade."

"Looks like the Asmodeus from the old government finally showed himself." Azazel commented, which was replied by a black demonic aura pouring out from Creuserey's body.

"It's not the 'Old'! I am the blood inheritor of the True Devil King! I will avenge Katerea Leviathan right here!"

Playfully assuming that the Asmodeus was sort of Leviathan's lover, Azazel lazily ran his hand through his hair as he prepared himself for a fight. "Alright, alright, I'll take you on. Tannin, what will you do?" Azazel then turned towards the purple dragon.

Tannin replied with a snort. **"Hmph, I'm not that rude to interfere in one-on-one. I shall keep an eye on Ophis in the mean time."**

Azazel chuckled at Tannin's warrior-personality. "Fine, I'll leave it to you. It has gotten chaotic, but my students should've been confronting Diodora by now."

"I also gave my snake to Diodora Astaroth. If you consume it, your power increases drastically. Defeating him won't be easy." Ophis voiced her mind when she heard Azazel's words.

Azazel then laughed in return, causing Ophis to tilt her head. "Why are you laughing?"

"Your snake, is it? Sure, it's powerful… But unfortunately for you, it won't be nearly enough." Azazel replied.

"Why? My snake, grants enormous power for those who consumed it."

"Still, it won't be enough. You have no idea who Diodora is messing with." Azazel replied to Ophis, before he returned his attention to Creuserey. "Anyway, Fafnir. We have the true descendant of the Asmodeus as our opponent, so let's get at it again, shall we?" Azazel said as he pointed his sacred gear, ready to unleash its power.

However, before anyone could have done anything, a magic circle in crimson colour appeared, intruding the combatants. From the teleportation circle, a man with crimson-red hair appeared.

"Sirzechs, what are you doing here?" Azazel asked as soon as he recognized the man as the Crimson Satan, Sirzechs Lucifer.

"…For this plan I got my little sister involved in the political matters of us adults. So I need to come forward as well. I thought it would be bad if I leave everything to you every time. I also want to persuade Creuserey. If I can't even do that, then I won't be able to face my sister." Sirzechs replied with narrowed eyes.

Azazel sighed good-naturedly at Sirzech's answer. "…Really, you just that nice of a man. But it will be likely pointless, you know?"

"Even so, I wanted to ask them directly as the current King of the devils."

Azazel then retracted his spear back, allowing Sirzechs to handle things. Creuserey, however, was outraged when he laid his eyes on the Lucifer.

"Sirzechs! The hated fake existence! To appear here personally…! Because of you… Because of you people…!" Creuserey lashed out, his black demonic aura intensified.

Sirzechs, however, simply regarded the Asmodeus calmly. "Creuserey, will you lower your arms down? If it is now, I can still prepare for negotiation. For having the descendant of the previous Satan be further away from the spot light, and drove them to the corner of the Underworld…" Sirzechs said with somewhat melancholic look. "…Even now, I wish that there might be another way at times. I want to prepare a negotiation with the descendant of a former Satan. More than that, I would like you to talk to the current Asmodeus, Falbium."

At Sirzechs' polite persuasion, Creuserey's rage only increased even further. "Don't speak nonsense! Not only the fallen angels, but you have allied with the angels! I don't want to hear you, who have become a filth, talk about devils! Not just that, but are you telling me to talk to an impostor!? That is enough with your nonsense!"

Azazel only sighed at Creuserey's argument. "That's rich coming from you guys, who mingled with bunch of rag-tags like Khaos Brigade."

Creuserey then sneered. "We are not cooperating, we are using them. The hated fallen angels and angels are beings who are only tools that we use for us devils. Understanding each other? Peace? No! We, the devil kings, are the ones who have to become the Leaders of the World! By using Ophis's power, we will destroy the world, and create a new world of devils! For that, you Satan impostors are in our way!"

With the thought that the devils were already closing to the brink of extinction, and the clashing, un-reparable beliefs with the old hierarch, Sirzechs attempted to negotiate once again. "Creuserey. I just want to protect the seeds of devils. I need to protect the civilians, or else our kind will not prosper. I don't care whether you call me naïve. I want to lead the children with the future. A war is the last thing we need in the current Underworld."

Creuserey only spat Sirzechs' ideal in return. "Naïve! More than that, it is a foolish reason! Do you think that will be the end of devils!? Devils steal the souls of humans, we lure them to hell, and we exist to eliminate God and angels! There is no need for negotiation anymore! Sirzechs, The fake King with the fake kindness, a Lucifer! A devil king! They are beings which annihilate everything! Even though you have the power of destruction, why don't you use it against the fallen angel beside you!? Like I thought, you don't have the right to call yourself a devil king! I, Creuserey Asmodeus, who am the true devil king shall annihilate you!"

Seeing that his negotiation with the Asmodeus had failed miserably, Sirzechs then turned to Ophis. "Ophis, is it possible to negotiate with you?"

Ophis only stared at Sirzechs before replying. "Only if you consume my snake, and make an oath to me. And one more thing, hand over the ownership of the dimensional gap around the Underworld. I, will take all of it."

Seeing that he could not meet such demand, Sirzechs closed his eyes in resignation at the only possible outcome of the negotiation. When the Crimson Satan re-opened his eyes, Creuserey immediately noticed their shared conclusion as he fired a large block of demonic power with both of his hands.

"Yes! That's it! That is easier to understand, Sirzechs!" Creuserey bellowed.

BOOM!

Only to be easily repelled by Sirzech's Power of Destruction. With an orb of highly condensed power of destruction floating on his palm, Sirzechs addressed Creuserey once again with strong tone. "Creuserey, I shall eliminate anyone who becomes a threat to the Underworld as a Satan."

Seeing that his attack was easily overpowered, as well as hearing the declaration, Creuserey's anger built up even higher as he unleashed even more of his demonic aura to his surroundings. "You…! DON'T YOU DARE TO USE THE NAME OF THE SATAN!"

As the demonic aura started to steadily increased and condensed itself, Creuserey's appearance also started to change as well. His body mass bulged, making him taller and bigger, and extra appendixes were likely to jute out from his body. His skin began to get covered in scales, making it akin to the body of a dragon. As Creuserey let out a roar, a head of a bull came out from his left shoulder, followed by a head of a ram on his right. A pair of horns was also jutting out from his head.

Looking at Creuserey's transformation, Sirzechs remained impassive while Azazel only whistled. "Whew, just how many Snakes did the guy take into him? Now he's trying to imitate the true form of his own ancestor."

Sirzechs then readied himself to fight the monstrous form of the descendant of Asmodeus, until suddenly, Creuserey's body bulged up and exploded like a balloon, leaving the latter screamed in agony for a second before the life finally gone from his eyes.

Sirzechs, Azazel and Tannin only blinked their wide eyes at the unexpected outcome until their eyes caught the sight of familiar face.

"Azazel, and Sirzechs with Tannin, too." Saitama said as he walked amongst of what remained of Creuserey Asmodeus.

The trio only silent at Saitama, resulting the man to stare back, wondering what the three before him was staring at. Then he finally caught on the situation after he looked at his handiwork.

"Oh, err... Sorry…" Saitama blinked in realisation. "Well, I was on my way to meet Azazel there… Then this thing suddenly showed up and roared at you. I thought it was an enemy, so…"

Sirzechs only let out a soft breath as he then smiled warmly at the man. "It's good to see you here, Saitama-kun."

"…I'll never get bored of this." Azazel snickered, still looking at Saitama's handiwork.

Tannin only shook his head in amusement, as he knew that Saitama was just that kind of man.

However, Saitama's attention was brought to the little girl floating on the sky. The man's eyes met with the dragon god's, and silence fell, as Saitama just stared at Ophis impassively as ever while the latter stared back with small smile on her face.

After moments passed, Ophis finally spoke first. "It has been a while, Saitama."

"…Ophis." Saitama replied with even tone.

However, before the conversation could be carried out any longer, _it_ hit everyone.

oXo

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

At the other side of the battlefield, Sairaorg who just finished regrouping with his peerage snapped their heads towards the source of the massive roar and tremendous surge of power that suddenly came out of the blue.

Standing along with Sairaorg's group, there was a large lion with golden fur. When the roar was heard, the lion suddenly growled and went to a fit, surprising everyone else, as it glared daggers towards the direction where _it_ came from. It wanted to do its duty to protect its master by running towards the source and confronting whatever that caused its senses and instincts to go haywire; but at the same time, it was terrified, its instinct kept screaming at it to just run away as far as possible from whatever the thing was.

"Regulus!" Seeing that the lion was like ready to pounce at anyone at any moment, Sairaorg immediately went to its side and ran his hand through the beast's mane, as well as putting some pressure on the its body in order to keep it down. The administration managed to calm the lion a little bit, but it did not stop the beast from kept growling warily towards the source of the roar.

Looking at the state of the lion, Sairaorg himself only set his sight upon the source of the roar, wanting to know what the hell was happening and what the hell could possibly roar like that.

oXo

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

At another side of the battlefield, the angels from Heaven, now together with reinforcement from Norse's Valkyries, were startled out of their minds when the roar was heard. The roar also came together with bone-chilling pressure that made them shuddered.

"What in blazes…?" Rossweisse could not hide her shock.

Irina, who was happened to be beside her, could not hide her fear. "W-what the heck was that?!" At the same time, the reincarnated angel could not stop the gnawing feeling in her heart. She could only pray to her Lord, not only the archangel Michael, but also her deceased god, that her bad feeling was simply paranoia.

oXo

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Sirzechs, Azazel, Tannin and Ophis turned their heads towards the source of the tremendous aura that came from far distance. The former three could not really make out of what it really was, but it unnerved them, especially the former Dragon King.

"**What… was that…?"** the purple dragon asked to nobody in particular. He had never encountered that kind of pressure after his previous feud with a certain red dragon.

Even Ophis was showing a flicker of interest and curiosity on her expression as she stared at the direction where the aura came from.

Saitama, while he did not possess the actual ability to sense or perceive aura, his sixth sense told him that whatever hit him was awfully familiar.

While everyone could not make out who was the owner of the said roar; Saitama, however, narrowed his eyes as he had a hunch about where the roar came from.

"…Ise?" Muttering his son's name, Saitama then turned back to the dragon god. "Ophis, can we talk later? I need to take care of something."

Ophis did not say anything, and she did not do anything to stop Saitama from leaving.

The three males who overheard Saitama's words were a bit perplexed of how casual Saitama just talked to the known strongest existence. The latter then turned to address the three. "Sirzechs, Azazel, Tannin. I gotta go. See ya later!"

"Ah! Saitama-kun, wait-!" Sirzechs was about to ask what was going on, but the man had already blurred away.

Azazel only sighed and turned to Sirzechs. "Now it comes to this, I guess we have to trust that guy for now. Ophis, what are you going to do now?"

"I, shall have a look as well." Ophis replied before she simply vanished from her spot.

The three males left then decided to settle the matters at hand first before they would catch up with Saitama.

* * *

Back at the present time, Rias Gremory and her peerage were speechless, as they watched the fight between a man and a dragon. It was kind of surreal for them to see that the hulking figure of Issei in Juggernaut Drive could move with such a speed that made him looked like nothing more than a streak of red light. It was even weirder that the human could also move at equal speed, matching and keeping up with the dragon blow-to-blow.

The fighting had become a game of cat and mouse for a while, with Saitama seemed to be pushed back by the Juggernaut's relentless assaults. However, Saitama's face did not show any sign of fatigue nor distress. He simply let his son to chase and attack him around.

The group that was watching the fight could not do anything but watch with worry etched on their expressions. Then, a crack appeared on the air behind them, and everyone saw a familiar face came out from the said crack.

"So it really is Juggernaut Drive…" Vali Lucifer made his presence known. "Looks like you guys are in a tight spot."

"Vali?!" Rias did not expect the arrival of the White Dragon Emperor. Everyone else then tensed up in anticipation for a fight.

"Relax, I'm not here to fight. I came here to observe after I sensed Hyoudou Issei's aura all the way to our location while we were travelling in dimensional gap." At the mention of 'we', two more figures appeared following Vali; Arthur Pendragon and Bikou.

"This girl is one of yours, isn't she?" Arthur stepped forward, carrying the unconscious Asia in his arms.

"Asia/Asia-chan/Asia-senpai!" Everyone then gathered around the girl, when they found that Asia was still breathing, everyone was immensely relieved with tearful eyes. Even Xenovia immediately cried in joy as she hugged Asia's body.

"That girl was really lucky, you know? We found her flying around in the dimensional gap. If we did not take her with us here, she would've been exposed to the nothingness and her body would've perished." Bikou explained.

Vali on the other hand, only stood as he observed the fight. "…So that's Hyoudou Issei's Juggernaut Drive, huh?"

"Yes, and he's our only problem now…" Rias said as she turned towards the battlefield again.

"You have nothing to worry about." Vali said impassively. "That form is incomplete."

Rias only gave a questioning look at Vali, who then began to explain again. "Looking at the situation here, I assume that girl of yours was the cause of Hyoudou Issei's transformation, correct? Juggernaut Drive that is triggered by sheer emotion like rage alone; tends to be premature, thus making it incomplete. It also happened to me during my first times using mine of Divine Dividing."

"So it's possible to revert him back?" Rias asked with hopeful tone.

Vali only let out a sigh. "To begin with, it's not impossible to forcefully dismiss even the complete form of Juggernaut Drive…" Then Vali pointed at the ever-impassive Saitama, who was still moving around in the battlefield in high speed. "And Hyoudou Issei's case of his incomplete form only makes things easier. Saitama will end this soon enough. He'll be fine."

oXo

Meanwhile on the battlefield, Saitama was still running and dodging around his son's hulking figure as he occasionally would block and redirect the draconic monster's attacks on him.

However, due to Saitama never took most of his fights seriously, the man averted his attention from his opponent when his eyes caught the sight of Vali and his team standing with Rias' peerage.

"…_Vali?"_ As he lost his guard for a moment, Saitama then failed to anticipate that the beast seized the moment to fire a dragon shot from its maws. Saitama only blinked back as the massive red beam enveloped the area where he stood on, causing a huge explosion.

BOOM!

Everyone on the side-lines immediately put up a protective barrier to block the shockwave and some flying debris. They covered their eyes to block the blinding light from the explosion, and when they opened their eyes again, the battlefield was in flames.

They watched with their eyes wide, worrying that Saitama might have been grievously injured, then they caught the sight of a man walking out from the flames.

It was Saitama, with no injuries or damage whatsoever on his person, save for some dust and dirt on his body, as well as his cape sustaining some damages. The man only walked with his ever-plain expression, looking around for the sight of his berserker of son.

From the enormous inferno, Juggernaut Issei's giant figure suddenly appeared behind Saitama and the beast threw his fist towards the unsuspecting man.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

BOOM!

Saitama was barely able to turn around when the beast's fist collided right to his front, resulting a shockwave upon impact, the gust of wind extinguished the blazing inferno from Issei's previous attack on the field, and the sheer force of the impact caused Saitama's body to fly away.

While Saitama's body was still air-borne, Issei had already moved to anticipate where Saitama's body was thrown to, and the beast struck, hurling Saitama's body elsewhere; only for Issei was already moved into the predicted spot. The sight of things was similar to a game of pinball, with Saitama as the ball.

The said game of pinball did not last long, as when Saitama was hurled to the ground, the man managed to stop himself as he skidded across the ground. However, Issei was already at his blind spot as the Juggernaut then threw a barrage of punches towards the man, destroying the ground beneath in the process. Saitama simply guarded himself as he took the brunt of his son's onslaught, while the said son was letting out another earth-splitting roar.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

oXo

"Saitama-san!" seeing that the man was under consecutive attacks, Rias shouted in worry as she prepared herself to join the battlefield, along with her peerage.

However, Vali outstretched his arm, preventing Rias and the others to advance. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The young man said with serious, yet relaxed tone.

"But Saitama-san…!"

Rias was about to protest, but was interrupted by Vali again.

"Like I said earlier, there's nothing to worry about." Vali waved off before he turned his sight back to the battlefield. "It's just Saitama's bad habit acting up."

Rias only furrowed her eyebrows as she took a look at the battle. No matter what kind of claim she had heard regarding the bald man, all she could see in the battle was one-sided beating with Saitama as the receiving end.

oXo

Meanwhile, Saitama remained on guard as his son kept attacking him while letting out his roar.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

As the voice kept hammering on his eardrums, Saitama finally lost his patience as he just threw his fist forward. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

BAM!

Everyone, sans Vali team, had their jaws dropped and their eyes widened as wide as saucers when they saw Saitama punched and hurled Issei's massive body towards the ruins of what previously had been the temple for rating game.

Saitama, however, blinked few times when he narrowed his eyes at the dust cloud that had been raised from the force of the impact, though he could not exactly see, Saitama could vaguely make out the body of his son that was laid against the wall.

Vali only blinked at the sight, but not about the fact that Saitama just easily counter-attacked and overpowered his rival with a single punch. And whatever Vali was insinuating had been shared by Saitama as well.

"…_He survived."_

Vali on the other hand, also smirked at the development. _"Remarkable… Even with the incomplete form, Hyoudou Issei was still able to survive that hit… But that doesn't change the outcome of this battle."_

Saitama kept staring at the shadow of his son's prone form. The draconic beast let out a growl as it attempted to get back on its feet despite his heavily-damaged armour. Saitama then prepared to launch one final attack for a good measure.

Rias and the others still tried to make sense of things, but at least they knew that the current crisis was going to be settled.

Vali also believed that show was over and prepared to leave with his companions, when another thing was occurring on Issei's end.

* * *

Within Issei's mindscape, Ddraig sighed in relief as he saw that Saitama would still make it in time to land a finishing blow on his host's prone form. For the entire time, the dragon had been doing his best to use his host's magical reserves as the alternate fuel instead of his life force. Saitama's finishing blow just came on time when the reserve was about to reach the limit.

But something was off. During the fight against the Vanishing Dragon, Ddraig recalled that there was a surge of unknown power when his host was activating the Juggernaut Drive, and the said power was causing the consciousness of the past souls to go wild like crazy, as well as causing a violent reaction from Issei's mutation evil pieces.

However, when Issei was activating the Juggernaut Drive against Shalba Beelzebub, the power surge was… significantly weaker. He could feel it, but it was weak enough to cause barely any reaction from both past possessors and the evil pieces. What actually happened? Ddraig pondered, but in the end, it did not matter, as the life of his current host was the top priority.

The said host, on the other hand, had a different thing going on despite the current state of his own mind.

oXo

When Saitama began to move towards him, time seemed to slow down, to the point that the time seemed to stop rather than slowing down, as Issei, trapped in the armour and madness of Juggernaut Drive, opened his eyes to find everything looked so hazy. The cries, shouts and urging from his predecessors only made things more difficult to understand.

"…_What?"_

It was the first thing registered in his brain.

"…_What's happening?"_

Issei then tried to look around, but around him was nothing but tempest of what could be described as negative emotions; hatred, grief, anguish, agony, pain, rage, etc.

"…_.Asia…"_

He remembered something when that name came to picture. He remembered that he swore to always protect her, yet he failed.

"_Asia…"_

This time, tears began to flow from his eyes as he grieved again over his loss.

_[Crush! Ravage! Show the world your rage!]_

"…_Wha-?"_

Issei then heard voices around him, but he could not make out where they came from. Then through his hazy eyes, he made out a figure of a man, charging at him with his fist ready to launch.

"…_Who's that?"_

Issei tried to find the answer as the man in front of him was closing the distance. After few seconds that seemed to be like forever, Issei found his answers.

"…_Is that… Enemy…?"_

_[Show him our power! Your power!]_

The voices then urged him again, causing his head to wince in pain.

"…_.But… He's crazy strong… I can't even scratch him after everything I threw at him."_

Issei remembered how outmatched he was during the fight with the man. However, the voices did not relent in the slightest.

_[Then give him more! We are more than ready to fight with you!]_

_[Fight! Awaken, Hyoudou Issei! We, together shall be the Dragon of Domination that sink our foes into the crimson purgatory!]_

In the end, Issei surrendered himself to the voices.

"_Yes… I must overcome him. I must surpass him. Must defeat him. But… how…?"_

_[More!]_

"…_More? More what…? Um…"_

_[MORE!]_

_Attacks? Speed? Strength? Power? Technique? Tactics? Wits?_

_No. Not only those. More…. More…._

_BA-BUMP..._

With the pulse, Issei came up with his conclusion.

_BA-BUMP! _

_EVERYTHING._

oXo

**[What the-!?]**

_BA-BUMP!_

Back to Issei's soul, Ddraig suddenly felt it again, the _pulse_, the same pulse that helped his host destroying the seal of Dimension Lost, followed by a power surge that was caused by a spark, a tiny spark that was enough to send a ripple, which then grow into a wave of unadulterated power, or to be precise, a fraction of Issei's hidden _potential_, washing over the past possessors, the evil pieces, and him.

The past possessors then began to scream even crazier than ever, as if they were having over-doses, getting high on the power.

The evil pieces also crackling like mad, like a generator being overloaded when the wave of power engulfed them.

**[This…! This surge of power…! Grrrrhh…!]**

Even Ddraig's own mind and senses was being clouded and overwhelmed by the sheer strength of the power that enveloped his every being.

**[GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!]**

* * *

Vali widened his eyes as he snapped his head back towards the battlefield, his sight was particularly aimed at the dust cloud with Issei hidden behind it. The reason of Vali's concern was the sudden spike of power that came from Issei's exact position.

"What in the…?!"

It was when Saitama had closed the distance between him and his son. The man launched his fist forward, only for an arm covered in red gauntlet suddenly shot out from the smoke…

And caught Saitama's punch, as the impact blew the smoke away, giving everyone a new sight to behold.

Everyone else was showing an expression of pure shock etched on their faces, while Saitama only blinked several times while his eyes were darting between the trembling hand that was cupping his fist and his son.

"What….What the hell is happening now?"

The question was pointed at the Issei's new appearance. While the draconic features of the Juggernaut Drive such as the spikes and fangs were still there, Issei had become noticeably smaller. One could say that his whole appearance had become closer to Vali's own complete Juggernaut Drive. The colour of the armour was leaning towards crimson-red rather than the previous blood-red, and on the wings of Issei's armour, the gems adorning them were bluish white in colour, unlike the rest on the armour that were sporting their usual emerald.

The look might not as imposing as the previous one, however, the sheer pressure exuding from his person was on a whole different level, like a pitch-black darkness, able to cause everyone to be on constant edge. Even those who were veterans on battlefield from Vali team could not help but drop a cold sweat.

From the green gems of Boosted Gear, an announcement was heard.

**[CRIMSON OVERBOOST! JUGGERNAUT FULL DRIVE!]**

Before Saitama could have reacted from the turn-out of events, the newly-looked Issei suddenly yanked his arm, causing Saitama to get lifted up from the ground, as Issei then proceeded to slam Saitama several times around the ground before finally threw him away.

Saitama landed on his feet, then he turned towards his son again, who was now staring at the hand he used to stop Saitama's punch earlier.

The said hand was still shaking, presumably from the strain of blocking Saitama's attack head-on. However, Issei only clenched his fist tightly before he let out another roar.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Everyone was forced to cover their ears again, because if the previous roar was that of a beast, this roar was like something straight out of nightmare.

"Are you kidding me?" Vali then muttered, receiving questioning glances from the others.

"What are you talking about? What is happening to Ise now?" Rias enquired.

"Hyoudou Issei just forcefully completed his Juggernaut Drive… Which wasn't supposed to happen at this point."

"What did you say!?"

Vali did not bother to turn at everyone's shocked expression as he continued his explanation. "While it's still in the realm of possibility for such a thing to happen, if your mind was too clouded by madness like the one from Juggernaut Drive, it should've been impossible to properly regulate your power. During my first few times on controlling my own Forbidden Move, I had to maintain my sanity by using my magic reserve instead of my life force, then I would be able to complete my Juggernaut Drive. But in Hyoudou Issei's case… His mind was still heavily influenced by the madness, yet he was able to complete his form…."

Then Vali let out a laugh, resulting incredulous looks from everyone. "Fuhahahaha! This is just too incredible to be dismissed! Albion, this is Hyoudou Issei's true power!"

Albion then replied in somewhat begrudging tone.

_**{I hate to admit but… If the red one were able to fully activated his Forbidden Move in our fight from before… We could have lost.}**_ Then the Vanishing Dragon grimaced at the sight of his rival. _**{But still… Is that even Juggernaut Drive at this point?}**_

"Is it because of the Welsh Dragon, along with the past possessors' will, responded to the current threat towards the wielder of Boosted Gear?" Vali hypothesized. _"Or is it because Hyoudou Issei himself that forced his Juggernaut Drive to complete itself, somehow?"_ that part was not vocally expressed.

"This is not a joking matter! Isn't this dangerous for Ise now?" Rias voiced her displeasure.

Vali's smirk remained, but his expression had shown some wariness as well. "You're right in that regard. By now, his transformation should've begun to sap his life force away. If Saitama did not end this fight soon, Hyoudou Issei might eventually die from the curse of Juggernaut Drive."

Then, Akeno and Koneko proceeded to approach Vali. "I know we are not in a position to ask, but please… Please help us to save Ise-kun. If it's you, the White Dragon Emperor, can you at least give Saitama-san your support?"

Koneko also voiced her intentions. "…Please. We will also help with all our power, so please lend us yours."

Vali then closed his eyes. "It's not that I don't want to help, but it would be suicidal to do so. One doesn't simply dive into the fight between those monsters of father and son." The man replied with a sigh and little regret in his tone.

With the only reliable person had refused to help, everyone began to despair, as they were too powerless to do anything at this point. Vali, however, remained calm as he kept looking at the battle with great interest in his eyes.

"_What are you going to do now, Saitama?"_

* * *

Meanwhile, Saitama was staring with somewhat incredulous look at his son. He tilted his head in confusion as he kept staring at his son. The first thing that came up with his mind was, that this fight might be one of _those_ days.

The now completed Juggernaut Drive was standing while its sight was glaring straight at Saitama, and unlike the usual green, there was another glint of different light glowing from the two orbs that were Issei's eyes. From his fanged mouth-piece, a steam came out as Issei exhaled.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Issei caved in, turning into a small crater, and the armoured figure had already closed his distance towards Saitama with his fist launched at the latter's face. The two then immediately found themselves in a fierce exchange of blows and attacks that even blew away the air around them, as well as wrecking the surrounding ground. From the side-lines, Vali and his team quickly reinforced the protective barrier that Rias' group had erected to protect themselves and other spectators from the sheer shockwaves that were produced from the clash.

They were evenly matched for few minutes, as Issei was able to keep up with Saitama's strength and speed, then Saitama decided to step up his game.

Before Issei could have been overwhelmed by Saitama's increase of power, he put his own power to work.

**[Boost!]**

Suddenly, Issei steadily picked himself up as the two then began to run and leap around the battlefield while they kept continuing their exchange of blows. Saitama then threw a straight at Issei, and the latter suddenly moved aside, avoiding the punch perfectly. Saitama then quickly proceeded with a kick, but Issei immediately jerked his body enough to have Saitama's kick merely passed him, as Issei then quickly proceeded with a punch towards Saitama's jaw.

The man then quickly leapt away before the Issei's strike could have hit him, and as soon as Saitama landed, he dashed again towards his son and the two once again, went into another fierce exchange of blows.

Saitama and Issei fought in awfully similar manner; trying to overpower each other in every single aspect. However, when Saitama threw another punch at Issei, the dragon then sneaked his way through Saitama's extended arm, by-passing his guard, and launched another strike towards Saitama's chin.

Saitama blinked, and he was able to avoid at the last second through his speed and reflex alone. As the exchange of blows kept going, Saitama blinked as he noticed something.

Issei dodged better from Saitama's strikes, it could be that Issei's boost from earlier allowed him to keep up with Saitama's movement, but Saitama's hunch said it was something more than that.

"_He's reading my movements… No…"_

The way Issei dodged and blocked Saitama's attacks were still way too crude, and were only done rather occasionally, but the former's moves were gradually improving. It was as if before Saitama could have fully launched his attack, his son was already moved away from Saitama's trajectory.

"_He's trying to read me?"_

Issei's movement became better, despite his mind was still clouded by the madness of Juggernaut Drive. In his previous form, Issei's assaults and moves were more akin to a crazed beast, as the boy had even tried to mow Saitama with his jaws. And now, his movement was clearly leaning towards that of a human fighter. In addition, some of his strikes were aimed towards his eyes, head, and his other vitals instead of simply intended to cause large-scaled destruction. Those kinds of move were awfully familiar for the bald man.

"…_It's still sloppy, different, and nowhere nearly as good as Garou, but… Martial arts? He's trying to use martial arts techniques?"_

However, few minutes of blows-exchange later, the bluish-white jewels on Issei's wings suddenly shone, then Saitama suddenly felt like his muscles 'twitched'.

**[Divide!]**

oXo

A familiar sound was suddenly heard, surprising Saitama and everyone else, whom were watching from the side-lines.

**[Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide!]**

Everyone from Gremory group then glanced towards Vali, who was looking with slightly widened eyes in interest at the development.

"I see…. Hyoudou Issei is using the power he took from me from our previous fight. Those are terrifying combination, however…" Vali then narrowed his eyes analytically. As the Red Dragon Emperor had once wondered of how many times would he have to boost himself in order to reach Saitama's level, the White Dragon Emperor had also once wondered how many times would he have to 'divide' Saitama enough to bring him to the dragon's own level. "Will the combined ability of Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing be enough to even the scales?"

oXo

Saitama felt his muscle kept twitching as his son's wings glowed brightly. Not that it affected him much, but looking back at his son's condition, the man kept reminding himself that he had to end this fight sooner than he thought, or things would only deteriorate. He then leapt away, breaking himself from his son, and he stopped some distance away as Issei expectedly charged to pursue him.

Saitama then set his feet firmly on the ground, and prepared himself to launch his punch to finish things up. It won't kill Issei, but it should have been sufficient enough to stop him. When Issei was entering his range, Saitama then shot his fist forward.

WHOOSH!

The surrounding air was blown away again as a shockwave was trailing straight behind Issei, mowing down the ground. However, Saitama blinked again at another unexpected.

Issei was standing, with his feet stood firmly on the ground. His head-piece was cocked back slightly, and Saitama's fist was only inches away from Issei's face-plate. Issei's both hands were gripping tightly at Saitama's extended arm.

"_He stopped and grabbed my arm in the last second to prevent a direct hit…_" Saitama mused, staring at Issei's trembling hand; struggling to keep Saitama's fist in place. _"…Barely, but he's finally able to read me."_

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

With another roar, Issei then did an over-head throw to slam Saitama to the ground. After the ground cracked and caved in from the force, Issei then dashed, dragging Saitama's body while pressing the man's head across the battlefield, as if trying to squash the man's head in the process.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Few moments after having his face being pushed down and skidded against the ground, Saitama's eyes twitched in annoyance as he used his limbs to forcefully stop himself and pushed Issei away, followed by a hook. Issei managed to dodge by leaping away, evading Saitama's swing by a hair's breadth; but the force was enough to chip away some parts of the armour around the waist.

Issei then landed, leaving the father and son on another stalemate as the two stared at each other.

Saitama was cleaning out some dust and dirt that managed to get inside his mouth, nose and ears. "Really, Ise? That's a pretty dick-move you pulled on me..." Saitama chided his son. The said son only growled in return as he exhaled another steam from his mouth-piece.

Saitama then let out a sigh as he came with a decision. "I guess I have to get a bit serious on him…"

The man then looked down to the ground and much to his convenience, the condition of the wrecked ground would do enough for what he intended to do.

SPECIAL MOVE, SERIOUS SERIES…

The man then dug his arms through the ground, with his eyes never left his son. The others from the side-lines were looking in confusion of what Saitama wanted to do, while Vali's expression was akin to an anticipation. Then Saitama brought his arms up.

SERIOUS TABLE FLIP!

At first, everyone was looking at the landscape where Issei and Saitama were having their showdown. However, when Saitama brought his arms up from under the ground, or to be precise, from under the rubble, a large amount of landmass was erupted from the ground, the eruption kept spreading towards Issei like a wave; as if Saitama was throwing the whole landscape in front of him, where his son was standing on.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

With that roar, Issei did another unexpected feat as his eyes were glowing red before the incoming landmass.

oXo

Everyone was not sure about what they should have gawked at. Was it the fact that Saitama just 'flipped' the entire ground towards Issei with his bare hands alone? Was it the fact that Issei was using the ability of Gasper's Forbidden Balor View? Or was it the fact that the said power had been used to freeze the entire landmass that Saitama threw on him?

"That-! That's the power of Gasper-kun's Sacred Gear!?" Yuuto exclaimed.

"E-even my power too?!" Gasper gasped.

"But to stop that amount of landmass… How wide is his range of vision… No, how powerful can Ise utilize that power?!" Rias voiced her thoughts.

"_There's no end of surprises from you, Hyoudou Issei…. Or is it just the thing between you father and son?"_ Vali thought, trying his hardest to supress his gleeful grin to creep up on his face.

oXo

"…Okay, I didn't see that coming." Saitama simply said as he stared at Issei's handiwork.

There was never once anyone, who could stop Saitama's serious series. However, that case was referring to a direct hit. In case of Table Flip, the landmass itself was nothing more than rocks, but who could actually stop such amount that Saitama just hurled? Apparently, his son could.

Issei exhaled another steam from his mouthpiece, and he took a stance that caused Saitama to raise his eyebrows. The armoured figure had his body lowered to the ground, and his arms were digging through the rubble.

Saitama could barely believe what he saw. He knew what his son was going to do, the stance and the position alone spoke volumes of what was about to happen. In front of one surprise and another, Saitama could not help but think of one word.

"…_.Damn."_

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

With another roar, Issei brought his arms up and an avalanche consisting of the mass on the battlefield was making its way towards Saitama. The amount was so small compared with the amount Saitama just sent towards Issei, but the former would never mistake of what he witnessed.

Hyoudou Issei in his Juggernaut form just immitated Saitama's table flip. As Saitama stared at the landmass that was thrown at him, he did not even realize that the corner of his lips was twitching upwards.

"…Well, that's cute." Saitama could not help with that sarcastic remark as he simply forced his way through the avalanche, expecting that Issei would be right before him once Saitama got passed the landmass.

However, when Saitama launched his punch, Issei was nowhere to be found. Then, he suddenly sensed that his son had moved behind him. However, Issei had already vanished again just when Saitama just moved his sight, and Issei suddenly had appeared right in front of him.

Saitama then did not waste anymore time and launched his attack forward. However, instead of hitting Issei, Issei's figure suddenly blurred; signifying that what Saitama hit was just an after-image of his target. The real Issei was not behind, or anywhere from Saitama's blind spot; Issei simply left his after-image by taking a far step back, exactly on a straight line in front of Saitama.

Then, before Saitama could have proceeded to his next move, Issei immediately dashed and sent his fist straight at Saitama's face. Upon impact, a massive shockwave and explosion were erupted, obliterating the land behind Saitama in the process.

BOOOOMM!

The spectators widened their eyes, some who had not enough fortitude was blanched at the sheer destruction that had been caused by a single blow from Issei's strike.

Saitama himself was launched backwards, gliding through the air at high speed. Issei did not waste anytime as he quickly chased after Saitama's flying figure and by focusing all his power, Issei used every strength and speed he could muster to launch continuous combo-attacks, not giving the bald man any chance to breath, to recover, and to retaliate.

On mundane eyes, Saitama's body was akin like shaking in the middle of the air. Issei was moving so fast that Saitama could not even move anywhere from his spot as he received all hits from head to toe. Not to mention that each hit was enough to cause a massive shockwave and destruction to the surrounding area.

oXo

Issei kept continuing his relentless, devastating assault on his father's body across the battlefield, destroying everything on its wake, forcing Rias Gremory's peerage along with Vali team to move away even further to avoid being collateral damage.

Fear and worry began to fill everyone's mind as they could not do anything to help Saitama, who was being Issei's punching bag, thrown around in the air like a rag-doll.

They only saw the streak of red light, which was Issei, launched a high-kick on Saitama's abdomen, sending the man straight up to the sky. As Saitama's body was rocketing upwards, Issei immediately moved pass him even with greater speed than before. When Issei had reached even a higher point than Saitama's position, the armoured boy quickly went down with both of his fists stretched out. The Juggernaut finally met again with Saitama, his fists dug right into Saitama's centre of his body. The two then fell back to the ground, with Issei kept pushing his fists deep into his father's body all the way until they reached the ground, erupting even bigger explosion and destruction upon impact.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

BLAAAAAAAARRR!

This time, even Arthur and Bikou had to lend their hands to Vali to reinforce the barrier protecting the spectators on the side-line. When the smokes and the dust cleared up, when the noise had become quiet, Everyone saw an enormous crater on the battlefield, with Issei still clad in his Juggernaut Drive hovering above it.

The red dragon exhaled another steam as he landed on the mouth of the crater. As he let out a growl, as his body trembled, implying that the body under the Juggernaut Drive had had begun taking its toll.

"…_Is it over?"_ Vali wondered. He had to admit that even himself in his full-power, even in his own Juggernaut Drive might not be able to survive that kind of attack. However, Vali could not help but feel that there was still something else going to play out.

Fear and worry began to cloud everyone's mind from Rias Gremory's peerage. They feared that Saitama, their last hope to save Issei had perished on the battlefield. At that very moment, Asia's eyes began to flutter as the girl slowly regained her consciousness.

"….Asia!" Xenovia called out as she was the first to notice Asia's awakening.

"Xe-Xenovia-san? Everyone?" Asia drowsily made out everything around her. Xenovia only hugged the former nun's body in protective way. The others were relieved that Asia had been confirmed to be completely fine, but they had even more pressing matters at hand, namely the still-rampaging, and slowly dying Issei.

The boy in question had noticed the presence of the onlookers and began to make his way towards them menacingly. The group plus Vali team quickly put themselves in a high-alert, preparing to fight a battle that they would most likely lost. They had an option to flee, but they just could not imagine that they could escape the red-armoured monster that was coming their way.

"…Ise-san?" Asia muttered in confusion as she was looking at the state of her beloved. She could not look at the face behind the armour, but she somehow could tell that the boy was hurting and needed help.

However, before anyone could have made any decision, Issei suddenly stopped. Looked back to the crater as if the beast had sensed something else.

oXo

Saitama blinked as his body was flatly pressed onto the ground. Dust still covered his vision as he slowly got up to seat himself. However, when he tried to stand, he felt something.

It was a sensation that Saitama had not felt for a very long time. So long that Saitama almost forgot about it. The sensation was akin to stings and some twitches around his head. There was also some numb feeling around his neck as well.

The man moved his neck around, and he felt his bone _clicked_. He shook his head around and he felt another jolt stung his nerves. He felt pain.

…Pain?

While Saitama was still registering the sensation in his brain, he felt something inside his mouth. Something was moving, mixed with something that tasted like iron. He spat it out to his palm, and he stared at a small object in pale-white colour.

…His tooth.

Time seemed to slow down as Saitama tried to make heads and tails of his current state. When was the last time Saitama feeling something like pain? A pain that was caused by his enemy, nonetheless? During the course of Saitama's life, the man himself was not sure about the mechanism of his seemingly invincibility. It was so strange; the mightiest and deadliest attack of the most fearsome being could barely itch him, yet scratches or bites from some house-pets and insects could irritatingly hurt him so bad.

But never-mind those, because Saitama finally experienced something that had never been happened to him before.

He had been hurt.

He had received damage.

He had received damage during a battle.

He had received an actual damage during a battle from an enemy.

As if to make everything even more surreal, it was his son of all people to deal an actual damage on his person.

Clenching his knocked-out tooth in his fist, Saitama let out a chuckle, a dry, ironic chuckle.

Saitama thought that Issei would be just another particularly 'strong' individual. Saitama thought that the time when the worthy opponent was still a long way to come.

He was wrong, and had been correct at the same time.

Issei was not just another decent fighter in Saitama's book. Issei was the one that could actually beat him. Issei was the answer of Saitama's little wish of finding a worthy opponent.

It was his own offspring of all people that possessed the true potential to surpass him.

However, looking back at the current situation, Saitama arrived at a conclusion. _"No…"_ Saitama thought. _"…Not like this."_ Saitama thought again as he stopped chuckling.

The current situation was far from ideal. If he wanted to settle everything, he was sure as hell that he did not want it to be this way. Right now, Saitama had to stop Issei lest he would die.

They would fight each other again, but that time was still yet to come; Later, but soon enough, in more proper and preferable circumstances.

Saitama then steeled himself once again as he climbed out the crater he was in.

oXo

When the dust cleared up, everyone had their eyes widened and their mouths gaped at the sight of Saitama who made his appearance known once again. The man's appearance had seen better days, much to Vali's shock, that a trace of blood could be seen around the edge of his lips.

The armoured Issei could not help but frozen at the sight of his 'enemy'. His attacks connected, but that insignificant damage was as far as all of his power could manage.

Frustration.

That was what Issei felt when his still somehow working mind acknowledged that Saitama was still more or less fine and healthy. What made it more frustrating was the look on the bald man's face, as if he still had not recognised the situation with him to be 'difficult', as if he still had not taken Issei 'seriously'.

The dragon-armoured Issei then let out another growl as he kept glaring hatefully at his father. With his mind and body being overwhelmed by the curse of Juggernaut Drive, Issei could no longer properly things like before.

Issei then walked, then he ran, then he dashed at blinding speed towards Saitama as he unleashed another roar.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Saitama then stood his ground firmly, guarding himself as a streak of crimson light flying around and landing many deadly strikes on his body. The beat-down did not last very long, as Saitama kept taking the brunt of his son's mindless attacks, the man focused himself as he finally saw an opening.

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

When the question was spoken, Saitama landed his fist straight towards Issei, who happened to be right in front of him, destroying the chest-plate in the process, revealing a large green gem latched to the armour.

The dragon spewed out blood from its mouthpiece, as its body was launched backwards. It took considerable amount of effort for Issei to stop himself and returned its sight towards Saitama.

"It hurts, doesn't it?!" Saitama asked again with louder voice and his smoking fist outstretched, as if the man wanted to give some kind of lecture instead of keep fighting. "…Not being able to protect those who meant a lot to you!?"

Saitama could only imagine what kind of things were running inside his son's mind. He had a fair share of experience about something similar with what Issei had, but even then, those people who Saitama could not save and protect were in the end, strangers. Issei and Asia had been inseparable, according to Rias, thus Saitama could only imagine the burden, the pain, and the suffering that Issei was going through when the boy believed that he had failed to protect what actually mattered to him.

Seeing that his berserker son had taken a considerable damage, Saitama then initiated his own counter-attack by dashing forward.

"Seriously, just move on already!"

Despite being a father and actually cared deeply for his family, Saitama never believed himself to be the best father around, especially when it came to give a heart-touching speech. Clicking his tongue, Saitama then decided to let his fists to speak the rest of his message.

TWO-HANDED CONSECUTIVE NORMAL PUNCHES!

Seeing the barrage of punches that Saitama threw at him, Issei also returned the gesture in the same manner.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

oXo

"W-what is going on? What happened to Ise-san? Why are those two fighting?!" Asia voiced her confusion, since she was not available for most of the time.

"There must be something we can do!" Rias said as she bit her nails. "If we can have Issei to know that Asia is fine and alive, he might be able to come back!"

Asia was still not sure of what exactly was happening, but if calling out to Issei could solve the problem, then she was more than willing to help out.

The others also understood Rias' idea. Their caring feelings towards Issei were enough to make them began to shout out Issei's name, hoping that their voices would reach the rampaging red dragon.

Vali wanted to scoff. The completed Juggernaut Drive could not be reverted back by that kind of method. But he decided to stay quiet, letting the devils of Rias Gremory's peerage to conduct what he deemed to be futile.

oXo

Dusts were blown off, shockwaves were erupting one after another, and the battlefield was being destroyed at steady pace as Saitama and Issei were locked in a fierce, full-blown, high-speed fist-fight. The two kept trying to overpower each other through sheer strength and speed alone, with Issei being forced to keep boosting his power in order to keep up with seemingly increased-pace of Saitama.

"Ise!"

The two combatants heard the crying voice from the side-lines, but they did not bother to turn their heads as they kept focusing on pummelling each other.

"Ise-kun!"

"Ise-senpai!"

"Ise-san! Please stop!"

"Ise! You have to stop! There's no more reason to fight anymore! Asia is safe and sound!"

Saitama caught something from the red dragon when that one particular sentence was heard. Issei's body twitched ever so slightly, causing him to waver and growled in irritation. Seeing that his son was losing his ground, Saitama seized the chance to slowly overwhelm him.

oXo

In the midst of the chaos in the battle field, when the Juggernaut Issei was slowly being overwhelmed by Saitama's continuous punches, something was taking place inside Issei's soul. The boy who was falling and trapped into despair suddenly looked up when he heard those words.

_Asia is safe and sound!_

_Ise-san! Please stop!_

_Ise-senpai!_

_Ise-kun!_

_ISE!_

"….A….Asia…?" Issei sobbed with tears kept flowing from his eyes. "…Asia…? She's alive….?"

It seemed that the despairing boy had seen a glimmer of hope in the middle of the tempest of souls of his predecessors, who along with Ddraig, were screaming in ecstasy from the spark of foreign power from before.

"But… I saw her vanished right before me…. She disappeared back there…. And I could not do a damn thing…." However, a part of Issei refused to believe those words due to his own grieve.

While those two parts of Issei was struggling to take control, the battle that took place in reality and the damages that were done on his physical body were disrupting Issei's rationale.

Clutching his head in pain, Issei then let out a scream.

oXo

Saitama was pressuring Issei, who seemingly had enough as he could no longer keep up with Saitama's consecutive attacks.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The crimson berserker then let loose one more roar as it decided to take off high to the sky, avoiding anymore of Saitama's hits. The dragon's armour had been heavily damaged from the last clash of punches; the spikes, grieves and wings on the armour were falling apart, the chest-plate that Saitama shattered earlier had yet to regenerate itself, the large green gem then began to glow with power as Issei charged his remaining reserve into one last feat.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! BOOST!]**

oXo

Everybody was thrown out of loop at the sheer power Issei was emanating from his body. Sparks and lightning were flickering around as the green jewel at the centre of Issei's chest-plate was glowing brighter by seconds.

**{Impossible…! He can still conjure that much power in that state?! Does he want to destroy everything in this dimension!?}**

"This is bad…!" As if understanding Albioin's comment, Vali quickly turned towards his team. "Arthur, Bikou! Get everyone, we're leaving!" The aforementioned two quickly worked as they had been instructed to prepare tranport.

Vali knew well about himself not being the most noble person around. He and the Gremory group might be enemies, but he did not have any grudge against them. Despite their hostile relationship and Vali's sole love for fighting, the Strongest White Dragon Emperor still possessed a sense of moral and honour that he would not want to break any time soon. He would be damned if he were to let the Gremory group to be casualties when he could help it.

"What do you mean?! We are not leaving!" Rias protested, not wanting to leave her beloved servant behind.

"I'm afraid we do not have much choice here." Arthur interjected as he created a tear in the air with his holy sword. "If we stay here, we will get caught in the Boosted Gear's strongest attack."

Bikou also put in his two-cents. "Look, we know that you love that Red Dragon Emperor and all, but we sure as hell don't wanna stick around while that guy was gathering that kind of fire power!"

"If you want to die here, I won't stop you. Otherwise, get inside the barrier quickly! We're running out of time." Vali said towards the still-hesitating Gremory group.

"But… WHAT ABOUT SAITAMA-SAN!?"

oXo

"Oh, come on!" Saitama whined out. "Are you kidding me, Ise!?"

Saitama did not possess any in-depth perception to measure the exact fire-power his son was gathering, but the looks alone was more than enough to warn the man that if he did not do something, the damage would definitely spread across the entire damn place, not just the battlefield, and everything would be annihilated beyond repair.

While Issei's power was still charging, the time seemed to slow down again as Saitama's mind began to process everything around him.

He turned towards the side-lines, looking at the sight of Vali team preparing themselves to escape along with everyone from Gremory group. Saitama was relieved for a second when he saw Asia was standing among them, but that was not the main concern.

Rias' peerage and Vali would likely be fine, since the latter seemed to be able to take care of things on their end. Sirzechs, Azazel, Tannin and other leaders would probably be fine on their own….. Probably.

"_But what about the others?"_

Sairaorg, Rossweisse, Irina and other soldiers and troops of the alliance had no means to protect themselves from Issei's attack. Saitama could not tell whether they were still fighting or had already left. There was too much on the line for Saitama not to resort using _that_ move.

Time was definitely not on his side as Saitama saw that the gem on Issei's chest was radiating so bright with unadulterated power, that whatever Issei had gathered for the entire time was ready to be unleashed at any moment.

Cursing under his breath, Saitama clenched his fist as he made his choice. He prepared himself to make a gamble; A gamble that might cost the life of his very own son.

"▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

With that last roar, The Red Dragon of Domination finally unleashed his final attack.

**[LONGINUS SMASHER!]**

An energy beam of immense destructive power was launched from the armour's chest, making its way towards Saitama, who remained on his spot and put up a stance with his fist cocked back as the Longinus Smasher closed the distance between them.

SPECIAL MOVE, SERIOUS SERIES…

"_You'd better survive this, Ise!"_ Saitama then threw his fist forward once the beam was within the range.

SERIOUS STRIKE!

When the fist connected with the energy beam, everyone had to cover their faces as the gust of wind, followed by a bright light, suddenly slammed into their faces.

X

When everyone's vision became clear, _destruction_ was the simplest way to describe what in front of them. They only remembered Hyoudou Issei, in his Juggernaut Drive, was launching the Longinus Smasher, the most powerful attack of the fifth Longinus, the Boosted Gear: Red Dragon Emperor's gauntlet. The other party, the man who claimed himself as a hero for fun, Hyoudou Saitama only retaliate the said powerful attack with a single blow of his fist. Their vision became white, and when they got to see everything again, everything was… well, destroyed.

The suffocating aura of the Red Dragon Emperor in Juggernaut Drive was no longer filling the air. However, everyone's attention was directed towards the large crack at the sky, revealing a part of the Dimensional Gap to behold. The place where the crack appeared was around the direction Saitama was facing when he confronted his son's final attack.

"W-what happened…?" Rias asked.

"This is just surreal that it became ridiculous…" Vali said while grinning from ear to ear. His two comrades were also sporting disbelief looks.

"What do you mean, Vali?" Yuuto asked this time.

"Didn't you see?" Vali replied with rhetoric gleefully. "Saitama just overpowered Hyoudou Issei's Longinus Smasher with his punch alone!"

The others could only stared at what remained of the battlefield with disbelief looks in their wide eyes. They wanted to voice their denial of such notion, but their minds aand bodies were too exhausted to do so. Not to mention that by the state of things, Vali's 'unbelievable' answer was the only thing that made sense in their minds.

oXo

On the remains of the battlefield, Saitama was approaching the form of his son who was lying motionlessly on the ground.

"Hey, Ise. Wake up." Saitama said as he tapped Issei's cheek couple of times. "Come on, kid!" Saitama pressed on as he inspected his son's condition.

Issei's body was miraculously still in one piece. Blood, wounds and nasty bruises were littering the boy's body. His eyes were closed in content, and his body was completely still.

For the first time in a while, dread was filling Saitama's mind as he feared for the worst outcome to happen. Never once he imagined he would have to use that move on his own son. If anything were to happen to him, could he still face his friends? Could he still face his wife? Could he still call himself a father? Could he still call himself a hero? He had failed to protect and save what mattered to him once in the past, and he would be damned if he could not even save his own family.

He then ran his hands through Issei's body, searching for any sign of vitals. He honestly never do any sort of medical treatment, he was only doing what he had seen from television and stories from more experienced people. He placed a finger on Issei's neck, wrist and temple, looking for a pulse. He even landed his ear close on Issei's chest and near his nose.

Fortunately, after few minutes, Saitama sensed a pulse, followed by a small flowing air from Issei's nose and mouth, followed again with slight, steady movements from the boy's chest. The pulse itself was weak, barely noticeable, yet steady.

The bald man sighed in relief that his son would live, at least for now. Issei was still in a dire need of medical attention.

The girls from Gremory group, followed by Vali team behind them finally arrived at the father and son.

"ISE!"

The group shouted in worry and relief at the sight of Issei's pitiful state. Asia also immediately used her Twilight Healing on Issei's body, while Akeno, per Rias' orders, was tapping into her communication link to call for help. Rias herself was managing her group, who was worried so bad towards Issei that they were circling around him, to make sure that the boy had enough room to breath.

As he watched over the kids, Saitama then turned towards Vali and his team. "Vali." The man greeted.

"Saitama." The silver-haired teen returned the gesture. "It seems that you had a hard time."

"Yeah… You have no idea." Saitama said as he took a glance at his son before he turned to Vali again. "So, what are you doing here again?"

"I just came to look for something in the Dimensional Gap until I ran to her." Vali pointed at Asia, who was still busy healing Issei. "Then I saw you fighting my rival…" Vali's lips then turned into a grin. "I know that you're strong, but I never thought you would be _this_ powerful."

Saitama only replied with a snort before he realized what actually happened with Asia. "I… guess I should thank you. For saving Asia-chan, I mean."

"No need to sweat it. I simply did it on a whim." Vali waved off. Then the White Dragon Emperor looked towards the sky, particularly at the crack that showed the sight of the void world. "By the way, that's the one I wanted to see. Go take a good look."

Everyone then turned around to look at something that appeared from in the sky, as if they were alerted of its presence alone. It was a gigantic creature in a form of a true-red coloured western dragon. It had a horn on its snout and possessed two sets of wings. Its overall length measured around 100 meters.

"….It's him." Was what Saitama said at the sight of the dragon that saved him in the past.

Vali's shifted his gaze towards Saitama. "….I'm somehow not surprised that you know him. But yes, it is indeed him. The True Red Dragon Emperor, the Apocalypse Dragon, the Great Red. The dragon who is also known as the True Dragon of Dragons. Since this field for Rating Game is a dimension created within the dimensional gap, me, as well as Ophis, have come to confirm its existence within the gap. Shalba's plan was just him taking an opportunity, it's not important to us."

"…And why do you want to confirm that Great Red's existence?" Saitama asked.

"Because he is another being aside from you I want to defeat. It's just who I will able to surpass first. If I can kill the Great Red, I will become the True White Dragon Emperor, and that also means that I have a good chance of defeating you. And if I can defeat you first, that also means I'm a step closer to defeat the Great Red. Either way works for me." Vali replied with a smirk of determination.

"Is he really that strong?" Saitama could tell that the red dragon was strong, but for Vali and Ophis to team-up, building an army and all made Saitama curious.

"He is. In fact, even with Ophis' power could match him, that Ouroboros still wants to gather an army in order to ensure victory. And speaking of Ophis…"

On cue another voice was heard.

"Great Red, it has been a while."

Another powerful presence made itself known as everyone turned their heads towards a little girl in gothic-lolita dress. Ophis, was standing on top of a rubble while making a posture of shooting a gun with her fingers aimed towards the Great Red.

"I shall, definitely get my hands on silence." The Ouroboros said with a hint of finality in her tone.

It was the same time that Rossweisse, Irina, Sairaorg, Tannin and Azazel also arrived at the scene.

"You guys…" Saitama was the first to notice the arrival of the others.

"I see that everything has been taken care of." The governor of fallen angels commented at the state of things around him. "And is it really that kid of yours who released the Juggernaut Drive? His aura could be felt all across the field, not to mention that one hell of a roar of his."

Saitama only shrugged at Azazel's question and pointed at Issei.

"And it seems that the two stars of the event have shown up..." Azazel commented at the sight of the two most powerful dragons ever existed.

"Great Red…How nostalgic." Tannin commented as he was looking at the massive dragon.

"Oh, You met him before?" Azazel asked in curiosity. "Did you fight him?"

Tannin only snorted in return. "Let alone fighting. He did not even look at me no matter what kind of attack I threw at him."

"Azazel, it's been a while." Vali greeted the fallen. "I take that you have defeated Creuserey Asmodeus?"

"Well, it was actually Saitama who took care of him. You know… As usual." Azazel replied and snickered while making a punching posture.

Vali blinked and snorted. "Yeah, that's definitely something that Saitama would always do."

"And it seems that Shalba Beelzebub had also been taken care of by Ise's Juggernaut Drive." Azazel turned his attention at Issei, whose body had been healed by Asia's Sacred Gear.

"Azazel, where's my brother?" Rias asked.

"Sirzechs has to go back to the observation room since the barrier of this dimension collapsed." Azazel replied, then he looked at Saitama's wound again. "Still, though… Never thought the day would come that I will see you getting hurt... Damn."

"Yeah, this is thanks to Ise. I gotta say that it's still kind of hurt." Saitama rubbed his head. "The kid was really strong. I even had to go serious back there."

"Hmph…" Everyone turned to see that Ophis just snorted after Saitama said his words. "Spare me the modesty, Saitama. I, know that you're still holding back in that strike. Otherwise you'd end up killing your offspring as well."

Everyone had various reactions on Ophis's answer. Most of them were disbelief, shock and awe. For those who were watching the fight between Saitama and the Juggernaut Drive, the fact that Saitama's punch had overpowered the Longinus Smasher, as well as making a hole in the dimension was already too much for them to take in. Everyone swallowed a lump when they imagined what would happen if Saitama were to go all out.

The man in question only remained silent while staring impassively at Ophis before he finally addressed her. "Well, what are you gonna do now?"

Ophis hummed for a second before replying. "Hmm… I guess we can continue our talk from earlier." Ophis then walked a bit towards Saitama. "Saitama, will you join me now?" the Ouroboros outstretched her hand towards the man.

Everyone then tensed up at Ophis gesture and all eyes were on Saitama, waiting for an answer that might determine the entire outcome of the war with the Khaos Brigade. The man, however, remained stoic as he let out a sigh. "My answer is still the same as before."

If Ophis was disappointed, she did not show it. "I see. However, now that the Great Red is here, should I send you to him? That way, you can repay your debt with him, then you will have nothing left that can prevent you from joining my cause."

Everyone was shocked again at the notion. Ophis had been planning to recruit Saitama into Khaos Brigade? Debt? With the Dragon of Dragons of all things? Just what was the deal with Saitama and powerful beings?

"It's not that simple, Ophis."Saitama only let out another sigh as he massaged his temple. "Look, I'm tired, and I just wanna go home and spend some time with my wife. If you keep harassing me like this I'm gonna get angry, okay? Now buzz off!"

Everyone could only gaped at the sight of a human chiding the Infinite Dragon God as if the latter was just a mischievous child playing a prank. In return, Ophis pouted, but did not do anything else.

"…I, shall withdraw." Ophis then turned around and sent one last look towards Saitama. "Saitama, I still have not given up on you…" Then Ophis glanced at Issei before disappearing. "…And you should take care of your offspring."

Everyone was too baffled at the interaction between Saitama and the Ouroboros that nobody could have done anything to stop Ophis from escaping. Saitama on the other hand, was a bit nerved at the way Ophis regarded his son.

Vali was the first to recover with his team as he also prepared to leave. "We will also retreat. Saitama, make sure that Hyoudou Issei will be able to fight again once he recovers." Then the White Dragon Emperor vanished into the portal created by Arthur and Bikou.

Once all signs of enemies had disappeared, Azazel then turned to Saitama with a dry look. "…I knew that you left off few things about those dragons during our first meeting in China. You'll have a lot of explaining to do for me and the others, Saitama."

Saitama let out another breath as he raised up his both arms in resignation. _"Honestly, I never thought myself things with Ophis would turn out like this… Oh, well."_

The Gremory group and some others turned back towards Issei who was still unconscious. His body had healed, and he would live. Everyone was gathering around and smiling in relief with Asia was holding his hands and Rias was cradling his head. "…Alright, let's go home." Rias announced to her peerage.

Thus, the battle that day had ended.

X

While travelling within the emptiness of the Dimensional Gap, Bikou was slumped on his bottom as he letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Sheesh… That was really one hell of a fight, don't 'cha think so?"

At the youkai's enquiry, Arthur only gave a knowing smile, while Vali was still standing with his back on them.

"…Vali?" Arthur then called out as their 'leader' did not give any answer. Bikou was about to stand up and approach Vali, but he stopped on his track as he and Arthur caught on something.

"…_He's at it again…"_ The two thought as they understood what was going on with their leader.

Vali was sporting a fierce grin on his face. In his mind, he was imagining the upcoming battles and interesting events that would happen as more powerful opponents had shown up.

The Great Red, Hyoudou Saitama, and the list went on with a new addition, Hyoudou Issei. The obstacle on Vali's path to be the True White Dragon Emperor had increased by one, but it only fuelled his spirit even more.

X

Ophis was by herself inside of what it seemed to be her temporary lair. The Ouroboros was born from the emptiness of Dimensional Gap, thus she represented Infinity, Chaos and Nothingness. She had not shown any interest whatsoever towards practically everything since the dawn of time, safe for exterminating the Apocalypse Dragon and returning to her silent home.

Imagine if someone were to come into the room where Ophis was, and that someone suddenly caught the embodiment of nothingness was _giggling_ softly.

She could not help it, after years and centuries of amassing power to confront the _thing_ that had claimed her home, she had finally found a key that could help her to reach her goal. The key took form of a human who once introduced himself as a hero for fun. The bottomless, immense power that leaking out from the man's person was giving her a similar feeling of her own home. That was one of things that attracted her so much towards the man.

The human who had surpassed and removed all limits, and in addition, much to her glee, he had an offspring. Not only the said offspring was housing the spirit of the Welsh Dragon, the fight that she spectated earlier had clearly shown that the current host of the Welsh Dragon possessed a potential that could allow him to stand on the same realm as his own father.

One was good enough, two were even better. In case of recruiting the human father, patience was essential. It was not like he blatantly refused her invitation, it was just he had something that kept him to at least 'consider' of joining her ranks.

Using cunning tricks like those humans called as blackmail was out of option. Ophis was too prideful to resort to such petty tricks. Using force to recruit him would only cause more harm than good in a long run. Having him to join and swear his loyalty to her willingly was the best option available.

She could think about recruiting the 'offspring' for some other time as she needed to grasp a better understanding about the newly developed situation. But most likely, patience would also played the big role for Ophis to complete her objective. If she played her cards right, she would not have only one, but two valuable assets when the time had come where she would settle her grudge with that stupid red once and for all.

So she waited. If time was what she needed to seal a deal with her target of recruitment, she had plenty of it, and she was willing to be patient.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Whew, this chapter really took a lot out of me! Here's some notes from the lowly me:**

**Special thanks for those who have helped me in creating the climax. I'll never forget this favour.**

**It was really difficult to describe the fight between Saitama and his own son, issei in his Juggernaut Drive. I hope I did the entire fight justice. And strangely enough, describing everybody's reaction of Saitama's feat was even harder.**

**It might be bullshit about Issei survived Saitama's Serious Strike. Then again, I'm showcasing Issei's potential that the guy actually has a chance to be on par with Saitama.**

**Those who are wondering about what the hell was going on inside Issei's soul and during his transformation, everything about that mysterious power will be unravelled in future arcs. That, I promise to you all.**

**And about Creuserey's transformation, his monster form was inspired from the text I found about the Asmodeus. You can find it in Wikipedia. I originally planned to have Sirzechs to have his original spot-light, but I ended up giving the spot-light to Saitama instead.**

**Overall, please review! And spare me the flames, nobody likes to have them. Constructive criticism is acceptable. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	29. The Holy Maiden (V)

**Dragons and Heroes: Legacy**

* * *

**Allow me to apologize in advance for this short chapter, considering this is just an epilogue for The Holy Maiden arc. There will be a small announcement at the end, so please R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 28: The Holy Maiden (V) – Aftermath**

* * *

_(Capital City of Lilith, Underworld)_

In the meeting room of the Alliance HQ, Saitama was sitting on a chair at one end of large table with several leaders from the Alliance staring at him. Following the event of Old Satan Faction's attack during the Rating Game of Rias Gremory vs Diodora Astaroth, Saitama had to explain himself after the founder of the Khaos Brigade, Ophis, had asked Saitama _again_ to join her group of terrorist. Currently, Saitama was facing the Four Great Satans, Azazel, Michael, as well as Odin since his assistant, Rossweisse, had witnessed the last conversation between Saitama and the Ouroboros.

Saitama remained indifferent as he had finished explaining his past encounters with the Infinite Dragon God, while all the leaders were sporting various expressions. Sirzechs Lucifer, Ajuka Beelzebub, Azazel, Michael, and Odin's expressions were rather calm, Serafall Leviathan was regarding Saitama with slightly narrowed eyes, while Falbium Asmodeus was seemed to be dozing off, with one eyed opened ever so slightly to keep his attention on the only human in the room.

"It is quite fortunate that we are the only ones who knew about your past interactions with Ophis, Saitama-kun." Michael sighed, as the archangel was the first one to speak after Saitama had ended his story.

Saitama blinked, not really yet aware about the situation he had gotten himself in. "It is?"

"Yes, it is." Serafall replied. "In the first place, some prominent people in the alliance, as well as our potential allies, such as leaders from Mount Olympus, Mount Sumeru, and Takamagahara have been rather sceptical about having you, a super-human without a clear background to join this alliance. If the word that you were once scouted into the rank of terrorist, many people would suspect and even see you as a potential threat. And if what you have told us earlier had been the truth, it would even tip everyone off as the possibility of you defecting will go even higher. You're lucky that Lord Odin here is willing to keep your 'affair' with that Dragon God secret." The Leviathan said with her uncharacteristically serious attitude.

"But you guys know that I won't join them, and I honestly never intended to do that even if I had settled my business with that Great Red…" Saitama replied towards the leaders. "…Don't you?"

Azazel sighed as he was going to explain his piece. "If we're talking about those in this room, then yes, maybe you're right. But that's because we've been friends and have known each other for as long as we could remember. But those from other pantheons might have different answers, since they still haven't known you yet. Not to mention, I heard that you have ended up causing some troubles in their turf during your past travels. If they ever found out that the one who once gave them hard times was you, building alliance with them would be even harder with you in the equation."

Saitama stared at the table, taking in the leaders' explanations. "But still though…" Then he raised his head up again for another question. "Let's say, if… I were to accept Ophis' invitation and go to defeat this Great Red, isn't that enough to make her consider disbanding this terrorist group?"

"It's not that simple, Saitama…" this time, Odin the chief-god of Norse was the one to join the discussion. "Putting aside the idea about fighting against the True Dragon, we cannot just remove him from the Dimensional Gap. There's a reason why the Great Red appeared and has been occupying that void world ever since."

Saitama only furrowed his eyebrows, and as if knowing that the human wanted to ask the reason, Azazel quipped in, taking the initiative to explain again. "This is kind of related with the fact that Great Red chose to save your life and sent you to this dimension. Apparently, there is a chance for inter-dimensional travelling for other beings that originated from somewhere even further beyond dimension. For example, like unknown alien race that wanted to invade other dimension like ours, igniting an inter-dimensional war in the worst-case scenario. However, these invaders won't be able to cross over dimensions that easily because the Great Red is there to guard the Dimensional Gap, which he deems as his home. In a way, it can be said that Great Red has been keeping the balance between dimensions."

"I don't really get it, but at least I got the big picture. Basically, that great dragon's existence is necessary, right?" Saitama asked, resulting nods from the leaders.

"Now that everything had been made clear for us and Saitama-kun, let's move on to the next topic." Sirzechs declared. "There's another intel that said about a group of humans possessing Sacred Gears, as well as being the descendant of legendary heroes to partake in act of terrorism. It's highly possible for them to be affiliated with Khaos Brigade as well."

Saitama only let out a soft sigh as he had already gotten an idea about the group Sirzechs mentioned.

* * *

Issei opened his eyes and the familiar ceiling of his own bedroom was the first thing he looked upon. The boy grunted as he attempted to seat himself, but upon waking up, jolts of pain suddenly ran through his entire body, causing him to wince and hiss while clutching his chest.

After some wheezing and couple of deep breaths, the boy finally felt that the pain had subsided into bearable level. Taking another deep breath, the boy did a quick meditation to tap into his soul.

"_Ddraig? Are you there?"_

_**[Finally awake, I see.] **_

The Welsh Dragon sounded relieved, but there was a hint of exasperation in his tone.

_**[How do you feel?]**_

"…_Like a shit. What happened? And how long have I been asleep?" _Issei asked as he caressed his still-somewhat throbbing head.

_**[…About a week.]**_

"…_W-wha…? A week?!"_

_**[Yeah, you heard me. And before I explain to you the details… First, what was the last thing you remembered?]**_

When Issei was recalling the past events, he suddenly froze when the image of Asia came to his mind.

Yes, the last thing he remembered was the time where he failed to save Asia as Shalba killed her by 'dumping' her body to be destroyed into the Dimensional Gap. The rest of his memories were fuzzy, with some blurry images of noises about Asia was still alive and all, but he clearly recalled that the former nun did vanish in front of him.

"Asia…" His expression fell as Issei buried his face into his hands. Tears began to gather in his eyelids as he mourned his loss over the girl again.

However Ddraig interrupted his mourning.

_**[Ah… About that girl, actually…]**_

"…Ise-san?"

As if on cue, Issei turned his head towards the door, where he saw Asia was standing, looking at him with concerned eyes. She then approached the boy while carrying a basin of water and a towel.

"A…sia…?" Issei choked out as he could not believe his own eyes.

"Thank goodness that you're finally awake. Everyone's been worrying over your health-!"

Before Asia could have finished her sentence, she yelped as Issei suddenly pulled her into a hug, startling the girl as she dropped the basin of water to the floor in the process.

"I-I-Ise-san?!" Asia stuttered at the proximity as Issei was burying his face into her shoulder, with his arms tightening around her smaller frame. However, before Asia could have made out what was going on, she noticed that Issei's body was trembling, followed by occasional sobbing noises, as well as something wet and damp on the fabric covering her shoulder.

"Asia…. Asia….!" Issei said between sobs. The aforementioned girl hesitated for a second, but she then proceeded to return the boy's embrace. She smiled softly as she ran her hand over the boy's back in comforting way.

As Issei embraced Asia, the boy let out all of his relief in his tears. He made sure that the body of the girl in his arms was real, and he tightened his embrace ever so slightly, as if the girl would have disappeared again if he were to ever let her go; and it felt so right for him.

Asia then caught the boy mumbled something, but she could not really make it out. "Ise-san…?"

"Please…"

Asia blinked at that word that came out with Issei's voice, then, as the boy broke away so the two could look at each other faces, Asia felt her heart to ache when she saw the boy's face was marred with tears, his expression was pleading.

"Please… don't ever disappear on me again…"

After the girl had heard the boy's plea, it was Asia's turn to shed tears of her own. She gave Issei a loving smile, then she put her forehead against his, which Issei returned in kind. The two then took in the warmth they felt from each other through the contact with their eyes closed.

"Yes… I won't leave, ever again. Because I love Ise-san." Asia then broke away and she looked through Issei's eyes after she had finally conveyed her feelings.

"…I love you." Then, with a look of longing, she asked, "…Can I stay by your side forever?"

In that moment, Issei pondered and processed Asia's words towards him. Since when he had felt so strongly towards the girl? Was it when he encountered her for the first time? Was it when he sealed his friendship with her? Or was it when he decided to take her under his care after he learned about her past? He would probably never know. However, one thing was certain for him: Asia had been a part of his life. And now, somehow, which he was deeply grateful for, Asia was alive, here in his arms, and he would never let her go, nor let her to experience anything sad again.

Then, after a minute, Issei smiled. His tears flowed again as he gave a shaky, yet resolute nod.

The two smiled to each other, looking through each other's eyes. Then, it was Asia who was inching her face closer to Issei first. The latter also leaned in closer. The two paused as they hesitated, but few seconds later, Asia was the one to close the distance as she pressed her lips against Issei's.

The boy closed his eyes and leaned in, deepening the kiss, as his and Asia's lips were meshing and overlapping each other. Time seemed to stop around them as the two took in and learned everything they could get through the lip-contact: the sweet sensation that the boy tasted from the girl's lips, the warmth that the girl felt on her skin when the boy's fingers lightly gliding down her cheek; as the two kept exchanging their feelings in many forms through the kiss.

The two finally broke away, their faces flustered. The two stared at each other with clouded eyes. Issei's fingers that was still resting on Asia's cheek, slipped and made its way until it was rested just below her ear, his thumb brushing across the flushed skin on her cheek, before the boy leaned his forehead on the girl's own, the tip of their noses touching each other ever so slightly. "Yes… Let's be together from now on." The boy said, receiving a content hum from the girl.

Issei did not know what took over him to say something that could be interpreted as his own confession, but it did not matter. Asia was safe, he could hold on his promise again, and his feelings towards the girl are genuine.

**[Um… Partner?] **

Ddraig, who had been watching the whole thing with great amusement, finally decided to speak up out loud.

**[As much as I hate to interrupt… Perhaps you want to greet the others by the door.]**

The boy and the girl snapped their heads towards the said direction, and they saw Saitama and his wife, Rias and the rest from her peerage, plus Irina, had been watching them with amused expression on their faces. Some of them were even shedding tears of joy, especially the Hyoudou matriarch.

Both Issei and Asia's faces were literally sweating bullets and flushing crazy like Rias' crimson-red hair, as steam could be seen rising up from their heads. Asia could not mutter any coherent words, her legs gave in as she stumbled and had to lean on Issei for support, making their situation even more embarrassing to look at. The boy himself was doing barely any better.

"W-w-w-w-wha-wha-wha-wha…!" Issei tried to ask some obvious question, but failed miserably due to embarrassment.

As if had read his son's mind, Saitama replied. "Well, we just wanted to check-up on you. Though, it seems that you're doing just fine… Good job, Ise." the man flashed his thumb.

"S-s-s-s-s-s-since w-w-w-when-!?"

This time, it was Haruka to predict and answer her son's next question. "Hmm…. Since the part, 'please don't ever disappear on me again'." The woman then sniffed. "….Mommy is so proud of both of you!" then Haruka proceeded to put her arm around her husband's waist, which Saitama returned by putting his arm on her shoulder. "You see, dear? We're going to have a grandchild!"

At his wife's ecstatic cheer, Saitama only let out a soft breath and gave his wife's shoulder a squeeze.

"I guess we have to give this one to Asia…" Rias sighed in resignation, albeit good-naturedly.

"My, my, ufufufu…" Akeno giggled in complete amusement. "Asia-chan really has grown up into a fine woman… Well played, Asia-chan. Well played…"

Xenovia was nodding her head in approval. "Fufu, I guess Asia does deserve to be the first one."

"I wish both of you can have everlasting happiness, amen!" Irina prayed with her own tears of joy.

Yuuto only stifled a giggle of his own, but he gave Issei an expression that said, 'congratulations' with his own thumbs-up.

Koneko's face was stoic as ever, but she also gave her thumbs-up with her head nodding in approval.

"Cong…! Gongradulationz…!" Gasper was crying while saying congratulations in slur words due to sobbing.

Issei and Asia were now looking away left and right in order to hide their fuming faces out of embarrassment. However, when their eyes met again, they could not help but to smile pleasantly at each other, their hands never left each other as their fingers intertwined.

* * *

"So that's what happened…" Issei said as he was now sitting in the living room with everyone minus Haruka, the Hyoudou matriarch would always moved to make herself busy in the kitchen in order to give everyone and her husband some privacy to freely talk about things that were 'too dangerous for her to learn'. Sirzechs and Azazel were present as well in holographic transmission via magic.

Apparently, Issei had been unconscious for exactly one week, thus he completely missed the school festival (although he heard that Asia and Xenovia managed to win the three-legged race). But what bemused him was what Ddraig had said during Issei's fit of rage, which led to his transformation, as well as his fight with his father; about how it put a heavy strain on his body despite the immense power that came along with it, and more importantly, the fact that there was something powerful hidden within the boy, powerful enough to stand against Saitama himself.

When he was filled in about Ophis, funny enough for Sirzechs and Azazel, Issei had also asked a question similar with his father's regarding Ophis's goal to kill the Great Red and return to the Dimensional Gap, which had been answered in similar manner as well.

"…And you are now forbidden to use that move ever again, Ise." Azazel said his piece after those explanations. "Thanks to the curse of Juggernaut Drive, your life had been considerably diminished. Currently your lifespan is no different than average human…. If not shorter." Azazel said the last part with bitter tone.

Everyone stared sadly at Issei, who was looking down, staring at his hands. He then closed his eyes, contemplating about his choice afterwards. He had no intentions to go into that form ever again. He had no intentions to die, he had no intentions to let anyone around him got hurt, he could not die, not when he had met so many people he could cherish. It was a good thing that his mother was not nearby, otherwise she would be having a breakdown. As the boy clenched his hands into fists, he made his decision.

Everyone then showed relief when Issei looked up again, nodding with unflinching resolve in his eyes.

"Now that most of the descendants of the original devil kings are dead, The Old Satan Faction of Khaos Brigade has collapsed. Vali also refused to take the mantle of leader despite his status as the descendant of the original Lucifer. The remaining members of the faction are either surrendering, or hiding in darkness." Sirzechs carried on, then his expression went grim. "….But the House of Astaroth has suffered some considerable damage…"

Because of Diodora's betrayal, the Astaroth household had lost all their trust. Now that the next heir had been caught cooperating with the terrorist, the current head of house of Astaroth was dismissed, and the family would not be allowed to have their member to be anointed as devil king for a while. Ajuka Beelzebub, who was previously from the house of Astaroth, had been asked to take responsibility for the incident. The reasons why the Lord of Flies had been off the hook were because the other three Satans had defended him, and the fact that he was also under-attacked by the supporters from Old Satan Faction.

"…Right now, losing Ajuka Beelzebub who is the current Beelzebub will be fatal for the devils. He is a man talented in technological programmes. He is also the one who created the basic theory of the Rating Games. Most of all, you can't find someone of his calibre." Sirzechs finished his explanation.

Issei took in the information, and he reviewed about Ophis before he glanced at his father, who apparently had been scouted to join terrorist ranks. Scoffing at such incredulity, the boy then decided to figure something out regarding his condition after using the Juggernaut Drive, as well as the mysterious power hiding inside him, if what Ddraig had said was true.

Sirzechs then voiced another of his concerns. "We need to reconsider about the Rating Games for young devils in the future as well. It will be too dangerous if they are all being interfered with by the terrorists."

"So you're gonna call it off?" Saitama asked.

"We probably have to restart it. But there is a match which we want to see no matter what. The people who live in the Underworld and those from other factions are saying strongly that they want to see this certain match definitely."

"A match between who and who?" Issei asked this time out of curiosity.

This time, it was Azazel who replied. "… The match between Rias Gremory and Sairorg Bael."

Everyone tensed up at when Azazel said the name of the future enemy in Rating Game. Issei also recalled what Sairaorg had said to him, about his wish to fight him.

Sirzechs quipped in. "There's also the match between Sitri and Archduke Agares, which is desired strongly as well. If we were to have the match played then it will be the matches of Power vs Power and Tactics vs Tactics."

While everybody was contemplating about the said future Rating Game matches, Sirzechs then turned towards Issei. "I'm really looking forward to see you performing again, Ise-kun."

Everyone looked up, especially Issei who blinked at Sirzech's notion. "Eh?"

"The Rating Game has been lacking children audience because the matches between adult devils tend to be not appropriate enough to be watched by young audiences. So far, the only matches that have high number of children audience are those with reincarnated devils like Tannin, dragons, Monsters, Youkai and the match with those without human form. For the children, it would be like monster films with lots of impact."

Everyone nodded the logic behind Sirzechs' explanation. Issei, being able to don himself in a dragon armour, could be seen as some sort of superhero shows.

"In the future I don't mind if it is just during the game. If possible, I would like children who will carry the future of the next generation to see your fights." Sirzechs ended with a smile.

"So basically…" Saitama butt in. "You want Ise to be the hero of the brats in the Underworld?"

Ignoring the crude term Saitama used to address the devil children, Sirzechs nodded. "Yes, but it's just my hope. But it's Ise-kun who will decide what he wants."

Everybody turned towards Issei again, expecting something from the boy. Sooner than everyone had anticipated, Issei smiled confidently at the holographic Crimson Satan.

"Sure, why not?" Issei's reply made everyone blinked. "I have become a devil, part of the underworld's society, might as well gonna make myself known. Besides…" Issei then glanced at his father. "I always want to become a hero."

Saitama then recalled the past days, way back to the summer vacation when he was tasked to train his son. He remembered that one time clearly, when he and Issei were having their usual 'banter' after hard days of training. He remembered the resolute expression of his son as the boy stood right in front of him, his fist outstretched as he stated his target. Saitama saw his son's eyes were containing fire, and those orbs were not reflecting the bon fire that was placed between them.

"_I will become a hero that surpasses you!"_

Saitama's lips twitched into a faint smile, while everyone was smiling pleasantly at the boy.

"Well, then. I guess that will be all for now." Sirzechs wrapped up the conversation, with Azazel also waved his hand at everyone else.

"I'll see you guys later. We have to return to our other work right now." Azazel's image then vanished.

"Have a good day, everyone." Sirzechs said his goodbyes and his holographic image vanished as well.

As if on cue, Haruka also stepped into the room, making her presence known. "Alright, everyone! The food is ready!"

* * *

Later that night, Issei was walking across the hall of his house while everyone else had fallen asleep. Perhaps his body did not want to be put to sleep again after being unconscious for a whole week, not to mention, his body was still aching all over, the pain was nothing he could not handle, but still enough to keep him away from getting a good night sleep.

He trudged on the stairs, working his way up towards the open-air garden on the roof, thinking that a bit of fresh air might be able to make him feeling better.

The boy finally arrived at the open space on the rooftop. He looked up, viewing the stars and the moon at the night sky. The boy also took a look at his surroundings, feeling at ease for some reason when he saw at how well the plants had been taken care of and growing nicely. When he was still taking in the greenery around him, his eyes landed on a back of familiar bald figure sitting on a bench at the edge of the garden, staring at the distance.

Issei blinked at the sight of his father just sitting there with two cans of drink placed beside him, with one of them had already been opened. The boy let out a small breath and made his way until he reached his father's location.

Saitama took notice of his son's presence and glanced at him. "Can't sleep?"

Issei shrugged and let out a slight grunt. "…Yeah, my body is still kind of aching." The boy replied as he tilted his neck left and right, eliciting some sound of popping bones.

Saitama regarded his son briefly, then he tapped the empty spot beside him without saying anything. Issei who quickly caught on the gesture then accepted the offer to sit beside his father.

"…Here, have some." Saitama then offered his son the spare drink he brought along. It was supposed to be for him as well, so Saitama was glad that he actually brought a canned green tea instead of alcohol. He'd already had enough of his son's drunken stupor.

Issei took the drink, popped it open and took a sip. The two then fell into a silence, and after few moments, the younger man spoke up. "…Thanks."

"Don't sweat it, I just happened to bring one more along when I came here." Saitama waved off as he took a sip of his own drink.

"No, no, no. I mean back then, when I went berserk." Issei rebuked Saitama's reply.

Saitama blinked until what his son was implying came to his mind. "…Oh." At the moment, neither of the two turned towards each other. "…Yeah, still. No need sweat it."

Issei only let out a small snort and smiled, before the two fell into another silence.

"Well, it was still kind of surprising to me…" Saitama started off this time. "For you to actually make a move on Asia-chan." The reaction was instantenous.

Issei's face was flustered immediately and he shot his father an embarrassed glare. Saitama who caught his son glaring at him, quickly carried on before the boy could have retorted. "No, seriously. I'm surprised that it took this long for you two to step-up your relationship, but it also kind of surprised me for you two to… y'know, going _that_ far already."

Issei only looked away with a huff. "It just…. It just happened, okay?"

"Do you regret it?"

Issei turned again to see his father was sporting a rather serious expression. They stared off at each other for few seconds before Issei replied with utmost certainty. "No, and never will."

"Are you sure?" Saitama pressed on. Despite not being related by blood, the man could not help but to care too much for the former nun. He would not have the girl to date someone, his son or not, only to be heart-broken later on.

"I…. honestly don't know since when I got these feelings about Asia." Issei mused, his mind trailing back towards his meeting and interactions with the girl in question. "She's just… I don't know." Issei let out an exasperated sigh. "I used to see her as my little sister. But after going through many things, I suddenly found myself cannot live without her. Weird, right?"

Saitama stared at his son again before he replied, "No, I don't think it's weird at all." His reply resulted an odd look from his son.

"The same kind of happened to me when I met your mother." Saitama said again. "At first I jus saw her as a sweet, kind female Samaritan who was willing to give me shelter and food when I had nobody else to turn to." Then he smiled fondly at the memory. "And before I realized it, I've already fallen for her."

Issei then scoffed. "Heh, then you'd also knocked her up before you realized it…"

"I _married_ her." Saitama retorted. "…Pretty big difference."

The two smiled as they fell into now slightly more comfortable silence.

"Well, anyway… Make sure to take good care of Asia-chan, or else…" Saitama then turned to look at his son again. "I'm gonna gang up with everyone else to grind you to the ground."

"You don't need to tell me that." Issei quickly replied. "…I've promised myself that I won't let her going through anything sad again."

"Good, good…" Saitama nodded in approval. "….Say, Ise…" Saitama then asked again. "What do you think if, you can date more girls than just Asia-chan?"

"…What?" Issei blinked and turned to his father with furrowed eyebrows.

"Y'know, a harem. With Asia and several more girls of your own choosing."

Saitama came up with the question when he recalled his one conversation with Rias regarding Issei having a harem.

"That's…" Issei scoffed. "….That's crazy."

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Issei replied incredulously at his father's question. "Asia won't let me to date another girl!"

"Well, then let's say if she allows you to?" Saitama asked again.

Issei started to get impatient. "Wha-!? That's just…!" The boy then scoffed again. "Why are you asking me this, anyway?"

"Err…. No real reason." Saitama replied awkwardly. "Okay, let's say that you ended up falling for another woman while you're still dating Asia-chan, what will you do?"

"Falling for who… For example?" Issei returned asking.

"Let's say…. Rias-chan, Akeno, or some girls from your club."

Issei found himself not able to come up with a definite answer. After few seconds of contemplation, he finally looked straight at his father. "They are… wonderful girls… You know what? I'll just cross that bridge if that ever happened."

Saitama stared at his son after hearing the answer for few seconds before shrugging. "…Fair enough. Alright, this talk is actually getting out of hand. What do you say we toast for you and Asia? Cheers?" The man took up his canned drink, inviting his son for a toast.

Issei gave it a thought before he also shrugged and raised up his drink as well. "Cheers."

The father and son then downed their respective drinks in one go.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Whew, finally done. And yes, as you have seen, I have decided to advance the relationship between Issei and Asia, because I just like seeing those two together more than Issei x Rias. **

**Please tell me what you think about the drama/romance I've put in this chapter. I hope I was doing justice in that department. And I also hope that I've done another justice with the conversation between Saitama and the leaders of the alliance.**

**And another note, due to the plans I've prepared for this story, it is highly likely that I will change the title of this project. The content will be the same, but I'm just going to change the title into something more suitable.**

**Until then, Ahsoei, over and out. No flames are allowed.**


	30. Ragnarok (I)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

**Hello there, folks! As you can see, I have changed the title of this project from Dragons and Heroes into One-Punch DxD. Of course, the side/prequel story will have to undergo the same change as well. Then, without further ado, here's the opening of the new arc!**

* * *

**Chapter 29: Ragnarok (I) – (Ab)Normal Days**

* * *

_(Flashback, Unknown Parts of The World)_

On a land that people could only describe as battlefield, numerous bodies were laid down on the ground. Those bodies had appearances of soldiers from various heteromorphic races; some resembled elves, orcs, ogres, giants, etc.

Walking on the battlefield through those dead bodies, were soldiers in ornate armour. The soldiers possessed more humanoid appearances, carrying various weapons such as swords, shields, and spears. Even there were dozens of those female soldiers in the same ornate armour who were flying in the air through magical means.

These were warriors and Valkyries of Asgard, the best of Valhalla could offer. They had been sent out to supress a rebellion from some renegades who refused to follow the rules and policies of Asgard. Among these ranks of warriors, there were two _peculiar_ individuals.

One of them was a newbie Valkyrie, a young woman with a long silver hair. She was considered by her peers to be the nerd-beauty, stuck-up to rules, Valkyrie who had been single for like, forever. The woman was considered to be academically exceptional, but that was about all. She was not the most capable compared to others who were selected to join the campaign, but this particular young woman, had been selected by Odin, the King of Asgard himself; although the reason was unknown. There were rumours that Odin had intended to make her into his personal assistant, and this campaign would be her 'grand-audition'. So far, everyone in general had concluded that she was capable enough despite her young age.

The other individual was, not actually nobody from Valhalla. The man had been sent by Grigori, an organization consisted of fallen angels from Christianity pantheon, as a token of good-faith in forging alliance with Asgard. Nobody in the army could understand why would their King, Odin, was willing to include a man, a human to add, to join this campaign that required veteran soldiers to complete. The man did not look to amount much, his look was awfully simple thanks to his bald head; his outfit even looked ridiculous that garnered some laughs and even mockeries during his introduction. But out of pity, most of the troops had agreed to be kind enough to put this man at far behind instead of the front-lines, so he would not need to pointlessly kill himself in a battle that was not supposed to be his business.

It was during the battle that some troops finally began to grasp why Odin had agreed to include the human into the army. The man was apparently more competent than he let on as he used his bare fist to send some stragglers flying left and right. However, the fact remained that he was just a mortal that merely packed some punch. At least the mortal deserved some friendly pat on the back, as well as a cup or two of mead when they were held a banquet later on.

At the aftermath of the battle, everyone was scavenging anything that could serve as a worthy souvenir when they returned to Asgard, making sure that there were no stragglers that feinting death, as well as making sure that rebels who surrendered were lined up properly for imprisonment.

The leader of the campaign, Thor; the champion of Asgard, the god of thunder, lightning and storm; the wielder of the mighty hammer Mjolnir; was watching his soldiers rounding up prisoners of war and looking out for any stragglers. Believing that he could leave his subordinates on their own devices, the god of thunder then decided to reclaim his divine hammer, which he ended up throwing to a distance during dispatching some 'tougher' enemies in the war. Using the bond that had been forged between him and the Mjolnir, the god commanded the hammer to make its own way back to its rightful wielder.

Somewhere on the battlefield, the hammer responded the call of its master, started to levitate and flew with high speed towards its destination. As the hammer made its way towards its wielder, everyone on the battlefield noticed that the mortal was standing right in the line of the hammer's flight. They decided to keep silent, wanting to see some hilarious sight of the mortal getting surprised of a hammer suddenly hurled towards him.

The said mortal seemed to notice at the incoming projectile coming his way, and the only one who showed concern was the newbie Valkyrie, the one named Rossweisse, who reacted at the sight of the Mjolnir coming at the bald mortal.

"Watch out!"

Alas, it was too late for her, nor anyone to do anything as the hammer was getting closer and closer to crash at the man. The said man only blinked and raised his hand, his fingers warped around the hilt of the hammer in attempt to capture it.

Everyone was expecting some hilarious sight of the man to be dragged across the ground with his hand kept clutching at the flying hammer. However, what actually transpired caused their jaws to drop, as the sight would be forever ingrained into their hearts.

Mjolnir, the divine hammer of the great thunder god Thor, was no ordinary hammer. Forged by divine hands from the greatest metal in Valhalla, and enchanted by Odin himself to be powerful enough to easily summon lightning and thunder on its beckon and level mountains, the Mjolnir was believed to choose its own wielders. Those who were not deemed to be worthy would never be able to make it budge, let alone lift it, no matter how strong they were. So far through millennia, the great Mjolnir had only deemed Odin and Thor to be worthy enough to wield it and summon its power.

Imagine everyone's utter shock, including the thunder god himself, when the Mjolnir suddenly stopped its flight as soon as the mortal grasped his fingers around the hammer's handle, as if the divine weapon had landed itself on its wielder.

The said wielder, remained indifferent as he blinked at the hammer, then turned to look at Thor, whose face was still that of shock, confusion, and curiosity. The mortal wielder then seemed to realize about who was the original owner of the divine weapon in his hand.

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" The man, who had been introduced as Saitama, jogged towards Thor while easily waved the Mjolnir around before he handed it over to the thunder god. "This hammer belongs to you, right? Again, sorry about that, I just caught it by pure reflex."

Thor only took back his hammer stiffly as his curious and confused gaze remained on the mortal, causing the latter to furrow his brows in confusion as well.

"Is something wrong?" and when Saitama looked around and found everyone, allies and enemies/prisoners alike, even those who were busy playing dead, were staring at him with dumbstruck looks, he began to feel nervous. "Err… Why is everybody looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

And so, the Mjolnir had found itself another worthy wielder.

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

It was a new day when Issei finally came back to school. Currently, in the room of Occult Research Club at the old school building of Kuoh Academy, the members were watching the unfolding scene before them with various expressions.

Rias was staring with utmost curiosity.

Akeno was covering her signature smile with a hand, and her overall expression was terrifyingly pleasant at the scene in front of her.

Koneko was eating her snack as usual, but the girl was sporting a dry look.

Gasper simply observed with worried look on his face from his cardboard box.

Irina was sighing with her arms folded under her breasts at the scene.

Xenovia was scratching her cheek lightly, wanting to interfere but not sure how.

Yuuto had his right hand under his chin, with his left hand was supporting under his right elbow. The handsome man was wondering how the scene in front of him would conclude.

The said scene in front of the devils were Asia and Issei facing each other, with the former sitting on the chair and the latter was prostrating with his head down on the floor. The girl's expression was definitely not amused, shown by Asia's puffed out flustered cheeks and her teary eyes. The boy's expression was not visible due to his head remained bowing down.

Everything began when everyone was assembled for the morning club activities. Everyone had accepted the fact that Issei and Asia had become a couple, and the couple had accepted their feelings towards each other. However, the ever-obnoxious Akeno could not help but to put up some cute and slightly hurt expression that Issei could not refuse, while mentioning the 'promise' that Issei had made during the battle with Diodora. The boy was frozen when he recalled the particular promise, and began sweating profusely. It was originally Koneko's idea, but in the end, a promise is a promise.

Asia, who was not around during the time when the promise was made, innocently asked her boyfriend about what sort of promise that caused such reaction.

It only took a second for Issei to decide being honest and began explaining to his girlfriend about what happened during the battle with Diodora's peerage, how dire the situation was and how he had to resort, on Koneko's suggestion, of 'motivating' Akeno so the Queen and Rias' victory could be ensured.

And here they were, Issei was on his fours, knees together, his hands were placed on the floor and his head was bowed down deep until his forehead touched the floor, begging Asia to understand, forgive and let him off just this once to keep his promise with their upper-class-man.

However, being a sweet girl with heart of gold she was, Asia could not bring herself to stay angry despite her boyfriend was about to 'cheat' on her after the two had recently been dating. After what it seemed to be 5-10 minutes, Asia glanced at Akeno for a second before she sighed and returned her gaze at Issei.

"…Okay."

Everyone blinked at Asia's answer, and Issei was looking up from the floor with wide eyes. "…Eh?"

"I…. I'd prefer if Ise-san not going out with another woman, even if it's Akeno-san, but…. I'll allow it this time." Asia said bashfully.

It was an expected answer, but everyone still a bit surprised that Asia actually allowed her first boyfriend to have a date with another woman. The said girl then turned towards Akeno.

"A-Akeno-nee-sama…" Asia started shyly before she bowed. "Please take care of Ise-san until then!"

"My, my, ufufufu…" Akeno giggled. "If Asia-chan said it like that, even one such myself could not help but feel bad… But I'll definitely take good care of Ise-kun…. Ise-kun as my boyfriend… Ufufufu…."

Note that until Issei had properly ended his 'affair'/promise with Akeno, the fact that Issei and Asia were going out would have to be kept secret from public in order to avoid further complications.

* * *

"Alright, so it's been decided!" Kiryuu Aika said with tone of finality. "The perverts plus Hyoudou, Asia, Xenovia-chi, Irina-san, and me will be in the same group on the upcoming school trip!"

"YEAH!" Everyone chorused in affirmative, with Asia and Issei particularly, hugged each other's shoulders. Of course, this resulted funny looks from the 'humans' in the group.

Aika, being the perceptive girl she was, fixed her glasses as the glass' frames reflected a glint of light and her eyes studied Issei and Asia. "Seriously, what happened between you two? First Hyoudou was absent for about a week, missing the whole sports festival in the process, and suddenly, you and Asia just became even closer than ever. Are you two officially a couple or something?"

"We are always together. Isn't that right?" Issei smoothly replied as he fed an egg-roll from his lunch to Asia, which the girl returned with her Vienna sausage. True, the two did not intend to reveal that they were officially going out just yet due to Issei's 'promise' with Akeno, but as long as they did not blatantly announced their status, people would just make assumptions of their own, which happened to work in Issei and Asia's favour.

After all, it was better to let people to make up their own stories instead of making some lies that were easily seen through.

"Suspicious…. But I guess we can leave it for another time." Aika decided to drop the topic for the time being, much to Issei's relief. "Then, in this school trip to Kyoto, I can leave Asia in Hyoudou's care. Irina-san and Xenovia-chi can also serve as back-ups. Are you two fine with it?"

The two in question nodded at Aika's proposition.

"Yeah. I also want to be with Ise."

"It will be more fun with Ise-kun!"

"Goddamn you, Ise! Why do you always have all the babes for yourself!?" Matsuda whined.

"O, God! Why hath thou forsaken us!?" Motohama also screamed towards the heavens while bawling his eyes out.

Issei did not want to bother to point out his friend's perversion to be the cause of their predicament, while at the same time, he also sweat-dropped at the irony that a certain god had already died long time ago.

Ignoring the perverted duo's misery, Aika then concluded the meeting. "Just like that, let's move as a group with these seven people. Kiyomizu-dera! And Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji are waiting for us!"

The group let out a collective affirmative, while Issei thought of something and contacted the Welsh Dragon. "Say, Ddraig. I heard that Kyoto has this place called _Tenryuu-ji_ (Heavenly Dragon Temple). You wanna check it out? It's probably your temple."

_**[It's obviously from entirely different pantheon, but…. Sure, why not. It's been forever since the last time I went to sightseeing in Kyoto.]**_

oXo

Issei, Asia, Xenovia and Irina then proceeded to bring the discussion about the school trip to the clubroom after school. Apparently, Azazel, who was in charge as the advisor of the Occult Research Club was absent due to some important meeting in the underworld.

"That's right. It's nearly the time for the school trip for the second years." Rias approached the topic with a cup of tea in hand.

"Where did you and Akeno-san go last year, buchou?" Issei asked, then his question was replied by Akeno.

"We went to Kyoto as well. That time we both visited Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji and other locations together."

Rias nodded and continued where Akeno left off. "Yes. But there are only a limited number of places you can visit within three days and four nights. You should think of going everywhere and make a plan beforehand and move accordingly. If you don't include the time to eat and for sight seeing, you will regret it. You will mainly transport from one place to the other by using buses and trains, but lots of time would be wasted while you are travelling on transport."

Akeno then took over again in giving their juniors some advices about the trip. "It was bad that we didn't think about transport duration. Buchou wanted to go everywhere, so we lost the time to go to the Nijou-jou which we were planning to see last. So she was stomping her foot at the railway station." The raven-haired woman finished with a small laugh.

Rias' face then turned red in embarrassment. "Geez, you promised me you wouldn't say that remember? I was in high spirits. For a Japan lover like me, it was Kyoto that I admired so much. So I had my eyes taken by the town and souvenir shops more than necessary." Rias chided her Queen, who did not show any sort of remorse nor apology on her face while kept her signature smile.

"Hadn't you been to Kyoto before the school trip? You could have used the transport magic circle." Issei asked hypothetically to his King.

"No, no, Ise. You don't understand." Rias replied while wiggling her finger. "One doesn't simply travelling to Kyoto with magic. It's tasteless. For the place you long for, like Kyoto in my case, you should walk around with your own feet and feel the breeze with your own skin." Rias argued with sparkling eyes and dreamy expression. "Moving on, while it's important to prepare for the school trip, we also have to prepare for the school festival."

Issei nodded thoughtfully. "Hn, that's true. The time-span between sports festival, school trip and school festival is rather short. Second years like us are going to be busy in this semester."

Rias then received a sheet of paper from Akeno, which apparently was an idea submission form of Occult Research Club for the school council. "That's why we need to discuss about the school festival now and prepare for it. If decided before hand, the third year and first year members can prepare for it while all of you are away. There are so many members this year so it will be a big help."

"I'm looking forward to this school festival!" Asia cheered out enthusiastically.

"Yeah. I enjoy high school events too. The sports festival was also great." Xenovia also agreed with calmer expression, though her sparkling eyes said another thing differently. Apparently, Issei heard that Xenovia had dominated the sports festival in his place, resulting all sports club to scout her for membership.

"It will also be my first for these sorts of things so I'm looking forward to it. I sure did transfer in at a good time! This is also the guidance of Michael-sama!" Irina also put her two-cents with praying pose. It was official to everyone in the clubroom that the church-trio were looking forward to the school festival.

"Last year….. I heard it was the haunted house, right? I wasn't part of the club then, but I heard it looked realistic and was a hot topic." Issei asked, as he apparently did not visit the haunted house during his first year.

"Yes. We did use real ghosts after all, so it should have been scary." Rias replied as plainly as day.

"…Seriously?" Issei asked with slightly incredulous expression.

"Yes. I asked some harmless youkai to have the role of scaring people, those youkai were having some trouble for having no jobs, so it was a win-win for us. The haunted house last year was a great success." Rias declared with pride in her tone, followed by some elegant laugh from Akeno as well.

"We were scolded by student council, though. Sona, who was the vice-president last year, yelled at us about going overboard by using real things."

"Huh…" Issei replied with half-lidded, dry look. "…So, is it gonna be haunted house again this year? Or should we do a circus show including a Vampire-in-a-box?" the pawn snickered while glancing at Gasper.

The said vampire proceeded to hit Issei's head while making funny faces, making Issei laughed despite the assault. "Senpai is a meanie! You always use me as a joke!"

Rias was about to propose a different plan, but before she could have said anything, everyone's phones rang at the same time. As if on cue, everyone's expressions went serious, knowing what the ring meant, and Rias took a breath and gave her command. "…Let's go."

* * *

The sun had set and the sky began to get darker. The Occult Research Club: the Gremory group plus Irina, had made their way towards an abandoned factory within the town. As they walked within the complex, they sensed several presences.

However, those within the group who possess sharper sensors felt something was wrong. The presences, not only they were humans, those human presences were gradually fading. Not to mention that they heard some noises from the deeper parts of the factory, they were the sound of grunts, painful groans, and some bashings when two things collided.

Everyone became even more alerted at the irregular development. They kept following the noises until they arrived at a large warehouse in the middle of the complex. Strangely enough, it became quiet when the group were assembled. Taking the initiative, Issei glanced at his comrades, who returned with affirmative nods. Then, without wasting any time, the boy equipped his Boosted Gear, even preparing himself to unleash his Balance Breaker if needed, and prepared to bust the entrance door down with a his foot…

BAM!

Only to have the door to be flung right before him all of sudden.

"Oh, shit!" Issei dodged the flying doors at the nick of time while everyone letting out collective surprised shrieks and covered their ears from the loud noise and their eyes from the dust. Issei, however, realized that he did not just dodge the doors. There was something else that flew past him along with the doors.

It was a man in a black coat. As soon as the man hit the ground, he lost his consciousness and did not move anymore. The Occult Research Club was absolutely baffled at the unexpected development that took place right in front of them, and immediately turned their heads towards the building's inside, only to see a familiar figure standing with his fist outstretched.

Saitama was standing plainly with his smoking fist outstretched right in front of him, pointed at the direction of the entrance door. Around him, was several bodies of men with foreign, native clothing.

Everyone blinked at the sight of the bodies on the ground; Not only that they were all humans, they were all out-cold as well.

The group then turned to see Saitama, and it was Issei who was the first to speak. "What the hell are you doing here?" the boy asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

Saitama blinked, regarding all of the youngsters in the room, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "….Working?"

Issei narrowed his eyes when he heard uncertain tone in his father's voice. "…Okay, then why weren't we notified about this? We basically just wasted our time going all the way here!" Issei surmised and turned to Rias, who immediately began to contact their higher-ups in the alliance, presumably to ask about the current development.

"Well, it's not exactly work…" Saitama only shrugged as he looked away. "…I was just walking around the town when I suddenly felt this…. Weird sensation in my gut and I wandered around here… Then I found these guys were snooping around. They attacked me, and I took care of them."

"…Do you know who these guys are?" Issei asked again, gesturing towards the amount of bodies that were either sprawled on the ground, or had been thrown to some random craters.

"Some members of terrorist group, from what I heard during the meeting." Saitama shrugged. "Apparently, there is this bunch of humans who calls themselves as Hero Faction."

"Hero Faction… I see…" Rias trailed, having finished her report with the higher-ups. "Another faction in the Khaos Brigade aside of Old Satan Faction. The group consists solely of humans; possessing Sacred Gears and legendary weapons, as well as being the descendant of famous heroes…"

Xenovia and Koneko listened to the conversation occasionally while they were rounding up the unconscious bodies of terrorists. Gasper was also helping by preparing a magic circle to transport those bodies to the Underworld.

However, just when the teleportation magic that Gasper conjured up began to work, one of the humans began to stir.

"Ugh…"

Everyone became alerted when they noticed that one of the terrorists regained consciousness, but apparently the said human did nothing more than just stirring and fluttering his eyes weakly. However, what caught everybody's attention was that the human was glaring weakly at Saitama, and his mouth let out a barely audible sound before his body disappeared into the circle along with his comrades.

"Trai...tor…"

Everyone blinked at the word. Issei, who noticed that the human was looking at his father earlier, turned towards Saitama with narrowed eyes. "…Was he referring to you?"

Everyone else from Occult Research Club also turned towards Saitama with curious looks. Saitama's face remained stoic and plain as usual, while his expression looked rather serious. After few seconds, he closed his eyes while letting out a breath before replying. "…Nah, I think he just got a wrong person."

That reply garnered a sceptical look from Issei, while some others seemed to accept Saitama's reasoning. The said man only returned his son's look with a dry glare. "What? You think I'm the only man with bald look in the universe?"

Issei's pursed his lips and scoffed, decided to drop the topic for the time being. Yuuto however, seemed to be contemplating about something as his mind reviewed of things that had taken place.

"Humans with Sacred Gears… Things certainly had become troublesome…" the knight muttered before he turned towards Saitama. "Saitama-san, did you happen to see what they're capable of?"

"Err…. Well, nothing much. Their abilities are kind of like elemental powers. Some of them were shooting light arrows, flames, although…" Saitama paused, as if he recalled something peculiar. "The guy in black coat, who I just threw out earlier… His power was rather tricky."

The last sentence garnered everyone's attention, as the Gremory group plus Irina stared at Saitama with undivided attention, curious of what Saitama had experienced.

"He could conjure up and manipulate shadows. I saw he used his shadows as weapons, shield, even as a medium to redirect his friends' attacks elsewhere. It really gave me a hard time to land a hit on that guy."

Everyone nodded in understanding at Saitama's story and went into a deep thought.

"Light arrows…. Fire attacks… And shadow manipulation…" Issei mumbled. "The former sounds like designed to oppose devils like us. Say, pops… Did you get to know what they want in this town?"

Saitama blinked, he did not replied immediately as his gaze went to the ground for a moment. "…No, not much. They only said things about purifying this place or something."

Issei felt that his father was hiding something else, but chose to focus at the information at hand. It was Rias who spoke up next.

"….Purifying? What did they mean by that? It's as if they're seeing us as the bad guys here."

"Hero Faction…. Huh." Issei lightly scoffed, garnering everyone's attention as if the pawn had something to say. "This is just my speculation, but I don't think it's not that far-off the mark if they believe that they, _heroes_, are doing some good by killing us, _devils_, who tend to be seen as evil existence."

Everyone seemed to understand Issei's point, but it did not make them happy in the slightest.

"But for those who wanted to play hero… They're being way too reckless." Yuuto commented.

"Yeah, as if they don't really care of their own well-being…" Irina followed. "There's been so many opinions about this Hero Faction, yet we could not find anything concrete about them."

Everyone let out collective sighs as they knew that they had reached a dead-end. They decided to wrap-up and prepared to return to the clubroom via magic circle.

"Saitama-san, would you like to join us?" Rias offered with a small smile.

Saitama only waved his hand as he began to walk away. "Nah, thanks. I have to go somewhere else. I'll see you kids at home."

With that, the Occult Research Club and Saitama went on their separate ways.

oXo

When the Occult Research Club returned to their clubroom, Akeno began humming and singing happily while everyone else was preparing to go home.

"Ara, Akeno. You seem to be in a good mood. Did you find something which will satisfy your S-personality?" Rias asked her Queen.

The said Queen only replied with a big smile on her face. "No, that's not it. Ufufu. It's tomorrow. I can't help myself from smiling. The date. Tomorrow Ise-kun is my boyfriend."

At that statement, the girls, especially Rias and Asia (_especially_ the latter), were sending glares towards Issei, who flinched slightly as he was aware that his official girlfriend was glaring with teary eyes. While the boy still chose to uphold his promise to be Akeno's boyfriend for tomorrow, he also somewhat relieved that Saitama did not choose to follow them, otherwise he would got a hold of this particular 'affair'.

Issei's deal with Akeno had been enough to get his hands full, and Saitama was surely one of the few last people that Issei wanted to get a hold of the situation.

* * *

It was during the evening at the Hyoudou Residence. In Issei's bedroom, two figures were huddled against each other. One was a figure of a male, the other was a figure of a petite female. Bluish aura akin to a flame was surrounding their bodies together.

"…How is it?" the petite female, Koneko, asked as she pressed her body against the male figure, Issei.

"Yeah, it feels good." Issei replied as he let out a breath in content.

Despite such intimate position, and Koneko's rather flustered face, the girl was deeply focused and the boy was relaxed, as the bluish aura was seen to be flowing from the girl into the boy's body.

At the moment, Koneko and Issei were having a healing-session using senjutsu. The girl was only wearing a thin white cloth, saying that it had been purified and allowed the 'ki' to flow easier; while the boy was topless, only wearing a pair of shorts.

It was an alternative to restore Issei's life-span after the boy had used the Juggernaut Drive during the fiasco with the Old Satan Faction. As Azazel and Ddraig had stated, thanks to the curse of the Forbidden Move, Issei would not be able to live past 65 years, if not shorter, despite being a devil that could have lived for thousands of years.

"While I'm removing the fatigue you have, the life energy which was consumed by Juggernaut Drive can be healed bit by bit if I use the healing-type senjutsu on you." Koneko explained while kept focusing on controlling her aura.

"…Yeah." Issei simply replied as he contemplated about his condition.

The thought of dying faster than he was supposed to kind of terrified him. He had been forbidden to use Juggernaut Drive, as well as Dividing Gear, since those two techniques took a great deal of Issei's power (not that he could use the latter again). And according to Azazel, using senjutsu could help restoring one's life-span as long as the core of life had not completely broken. So as long as Issei kept doing the senjutsu healing session on regular basis, his life could be prolonged although not by much.

"There will be many people saddened if Ise-senpai were to die…" Koneko spoke again. "…I would also hate it if senpai dies. That's why I am doing this to retrieve the life energy which has been lost, bit by bit… Even if it would take the rest of my life. So please…" Koneko looked up to Issei with teary eyes and begging looks. "…Don't ever turn to that form again."

Issei looked at Koneko's pleading expression, then few seconds later, he simply ran his hand on Koneko's head gently, stroking Koneko's spot as he pulled Koneko into his chest. "…Yeah, I got it. I'll make sure that I won't use that move again and worrying everyone… definitely."

"…Yes, please do." Koneko said with a soft purr, a smile crept up to her face as she hugged Issei tightly in return. The two maintained their position in a comfortable silence.

Few minutes later, with her face flustered slightly more, Koneko spoke up again. "…Actually, there is a faster way."

The sentence caused Issei to blink at looked towards Koneko. "Hmm? Really? How do you do that?"

"Bo…Bouchuujutsu…"

Issei blinked again at the funny-sounding name. The silence prompted Koneko to explain further. "A woman who specialises in using the 'ki' has to share her 'ki' to the man, and it heals the life core greatly."

"That…. Doesn't sound much different than what we're doing right now, does it?" Issei commented.

"No… It's different." Koneko replied with the red hue on her face darkened. "It… would be my first time to do that technique as well…"

That caused Issei to narrow his eyes slightly. "Err…. By you mean 'first time', how do people actually perform this… Bouchuujutsu in the first place?"

Koneko's body wiggled against Issei's bare body from embarrassment as her face started to fume. "…The man and woman… have to become one. It's a technique where the woman has to send her 'ki' directly to the man's body…"

"_Man and woman…. Become one… different… Koneko's first time… Her flustered face…"_ Issei put the pieces of the puzzle together until his eyes widened in realization and slight horror.

"Wait a minute, that's sex!" Issei exclaimed.

Koneko quickly covered Issei's mouth with her hands. "I-Ise-senpai, your voice is too loud."

Issei realized his blunder as he removed Koneko's hands from his mouth, cleared his throat and took a deep breath before speaking again. "Um, Koneko-chan… Let's not… go to that idea, okay?" Issei tried to reason with the little girl. He had a girlfriend for fuck's sake! Having an intercourse with a girl like Koneko alone was already bad enough for the boy.

"W-why…? Are you perhaps… Dissatisfied with me?" Koneko said with sad expression, which also happened to be insanely cute in Issei's eyes.

It took everything for Issei not to lounge and embrace Koneko with his lean muscular body.

"No, that's not the point!" Issei replied. "This is just wrong, and… Look." Issei took another breath as he tried to reason. "Koneko-chan, I'm grateful that you're willing to go at such length for me, but we… we just can't. I mean, what if you got pregnant?"

Koneko looked down for a second, then she looked up again with still-shy, yet slightly more determined look in her eyes. "M-my body and breasts are small… But I should be mature enough to have s-sex with you… I-I'm fine having your babies… Even by force, I won't mind."

This time, Issei pinched his nose together in order to stop his blood from gushing out of it. "No, no! Seriously, Koneko-chan! You shouldn't be saying those kind of things! Besides…" Issei tried to pick the right words. "I… already have a girlfriend, remember?"

"B-but if I live in this house, it seems I have to know about those kind of things. Even Asia-senpai is trying her best. Besides…" Koneko looked away slightly, while placing her hands on her red cheeks. "…I heard that Haruka-san doesn't mind about who is giving her a grandchild…"

"_GODDAMMIT, MOOOOOM!"_ This made Issei twitching as he could imagine his own mother of all people, influencing the more innocent girls in the house to after inside his pants. His hands were already full with Akeno and Rias, who were becoming more and more daring.

Before Issei could have said anything more, a new voice was heard in the room.

"What the hell's going on here?"

Issei and Koneko quickly turned towards the door, where Saitama was standing with slightly incredulous expression on his face. Rias and Asia were present as well, much to Issei's horror. Rias had her eyes narrowed at him, while Asia was desperately holding back her tears.

"What is this I heard about Bouchuujutsu?" Rias asked, raising one eyebrow.

"I-Ise-san…. So you will make babies with K-Koneko-chan?" Asia said between her sobs.

"Shame on you, Ise. You already have yourself a girlfriend like Asia-chan here." Saitama said as he put his hand on Asia's shoulder. "…And you have the gal to lay your hands on Koneko-chan. I thought this is supposed to be a healing-session."

"I-It _is_ a healing session!" Issei stuttered, while Koneko only blushed while averting her gaze.

Rias then put on her 'smile' as she turned to her Rook. "Koneko, are you done with Ise's treatment?"

Koneko, who was scared by Rias' too-sweet smile, simply nodded her head quickly, and immediately left Issei and bolted out of the room with a quick, stuttered 'goodnight'.

Then, Saitama also prepared to leave as well. "I… guess I'll leave you three young'uns to settle your differences." Saitama said as he also felt slightly awkward of the situation. Although, before he closed the door, he turned one last time to his son and made a slit-throat gesture.

In return, Issei only twitched his eyes as he wanted to just lounge and punch his father in the face, or at least just giving him a finger. However, the thought was immediately forgotten when he took another look at the girls who were still glaring at him.

As the girls began to interrogate Issei, the night went on.

* * *

It was the day when Issei had to fulfill his promise with Akeno. The boy was standing at their meeting point, which was near the train station at Kuoh town. He would be lying if he said that he was not nervous, but he quickly calmed himself down with a single deep breath and resumed waiting for his date patiently. That morning Issei was wearing a casual outfit consisting of dark blue polo-shirt with matching trousers and a greyish purple dress-shirt as a make-shift jacket.

"Ise-kun!" a familiar voice was heard and Issei turned his head, only to have his eyes widened and found his breath taken away at the sight of black-haired girl who was approaching him. "Sorry if I made you wait too long…"

Akeno was wearing a casual red dress with short, white sleeves; it framed her slim waist perfectly and covered her to her knees. On her feet, she wore a pair of black slip-on shoes. Her long raven black hair hung loosely down her back, falling to her thighs easily. Around her neck, she wore a silver necklace with a heart-shaped accessory.

Issei's heart was racing like crazy as could not take his eyes away from the sight of Akeno's appearance.

_**[Partner…] **_

Ddraig suddenly spoke up in his mind. His tone was rather teasing.

_**[Keeping a promise might be one thing, but to get smitten with another girl when you are already seeing someone? Shame on you.]**_

"_Fuck off, Ddraig! I can't help it! Akeno-san is just so… so… Adorable!"_ Issei furiously replied in his mind as he swallowed a big lump in his throat.

Noticing the flustered expression on Issei's face, Akeno asked with flustered cheeks. "H-How do I look? Do I look weird today…?"

Issei immediately snapped up from his reverie as he shook his head, cleared his throat to gather himself, despite his cheeks were burning. "Ah, err, no! Y-you look amazing, Akeno-san! Absolutely cute!"

Akeno giggled in return, as she put on a relieved smile. In Issei's eyes, Akeno's reaction was entirely different than her everyday attitude as Kuoh Academy's Two Great Ladies. That day, Akeno behaved just like any other teenage girl on her first date.

"Today Ise-kun will be my boyfriend for the whole day." Akeno told herself pleasantly before she looked shyly at Issei. "...Can I call you Ise?"

At Akeno's expression, Issei's heart skipped a beat once again. "Y-yes, of course. P-please do…"

Akeno's expression brightened considerably as she proceeded to hug Issei's arm, burying it into her bosom. "I'm so glad! Thank you, Ise."

Trying his best to suppress the blood from rushing to his face, Issei smiled as he led Akeno ahead. "Well… Shall we get going?"

The girl nodded happily, and the two walked towards the town.

oXo

Issei and Akeno were having a great time for the duration of their date. They visited various places; clothes shops, cafes and crepes store, souvenir shops, even Issei almost ended up bringing Akeno into a 'speciality' shop that was hidden from plain sight, much to the boy's relief. And during that time, Akeno was in perfect bliss, having fun together with the man she fell for. Issei on the other hand, while he only saw the date as an 'obligatory' one, he felt that seeing unknown sides of Akeno that he never seen before, where she acted just like girls around her age, to be a refreshing experience. Now that he was supposed to have fun with his senior, he would take it to the fullest.

Issei then took a hold of Akeno's hand gently, much to the latter's surprise and excitement, and proceeded to head towards the next destination in mind.

"Come on, Akeno-san. Let's go to the Aquarium, there are many fishes that are fun to make faces at." Issei asked with some joke in his invitation.

"Yes!" Akeno quickly agreed with her 'ultimate' smile.

oXo

The date in the Aquarium went on without a hitch. Both Issei and Akeno were enjoying the entire tour of admiring various kinds of sea creatures. Issei was about to invite Akeno to go to the game center before he spotted something that, as a matter of fact, he had noticed ever since the start of the date.

It was a crimson hair.

When Issei met up with Akeno that morning, Issei, presumably Akeno as well, had caught Rias, Asia, Xenovia, Gasper and Koneko had been stalking them. Issei was somewhat thankful that Irina and Yuuto had enough decency to give Issei and Akeno privacy, but that was beside the point.

Issei had to question the five stalkers' sense of disguising themselves, then again, perhaps their stalkers put too much work in their disguises that ended up making them stuck out like sore thumbs.

Rias was clad in a thick coat, wearing a fedora and putting a sunglasses on her face to conceal her face, but her crimson hair was still a dead give-away.

Asia only wore a simple casual dress with a pair of glasses. It did not do anything to disguise herself. In fact, Issei found she looked good with those glasses.

Xenovia, Koneko and Gasper's disguise had made them completely out of place. The former was wearing a medical mask on her face, making her looked no different than regular stalker, the middle was wearing a tiger-themed wrestler's mask, while the latter was covering his head with paper bag.

The five stalkers had been giving Issei and Akeno some intense pressure through their gaze, Issei himself could have sworn that Rias was gripping a electric pole so hard that it broke within her grasp. After throwing one last glance at the stalking group, Akeno put on a mischievous smile and grabbed Issei's hand.

"Let's shake off Rias and the others!" Akeno said as she immediately ran away with Issei in tow, the boy only followed by sheer reflex.

"Darn, we've been spotted!" Rias exclaimed when she saw the two running, not aware that she and her cohorts had been busted since the beginning. "Everyone, after them!" she commanded as she bolted out from her hiding spot.

Thus, the game of cat and mouse began with Issei and Akeno running to left and right, trying to lose Rias, Asia, Xenovia, Gasper and Koneko, who were hot on their tails.

Issei glanced behind him as he ran following Akeno. Behind the two, Rias and Xenovia were chasing them with fairly fast speed, followed by Koneko, Gasper and Asia in tow. Thinking that he could not afford himself and Akeno to be caught, Issei decided to step-up his game as well.

"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, Akeno-san!" Issei apologized in advance as he began to increase his own speed.

"Ise-kun, what are y-! Kyah!" Akeno yelped as she was swiped right from her feet.

Issei was now carrying Akeno bridal-style and started to increase the distance between him and his shell-shocked pursuers. He took another turn towards an alley, and saw an opening when he looked up.

"Akeno-san, don't talk for a moment! Otherwise you'd bite your tongue!" Issei said as he suddenly began to literally run upwards and jump around against the wall.

"Y-Yes!" Akeno let out a quick, stuttered reply as her face flustered in bliss. She suppressed her excited giggles as she took in everything she could feel while she was still cradled in Issei's arms; his smell, the warmth exuding from his body, his heartbeat, everything.

With his superior speed and agility, Issei managed to easily lose his pursuers as he finally landed on the road. "Huff… Looks like we lost them…" He said as he let Akeno back to her feet, much to her disappointment. The girl would not stop at nothing if she could have stayed even a little bit longer in Issei's arms.

Though the boy on the other hand, felt 'complicated' as he was not sure if it was the right thing for him to just left the others be, especially there was also the fact that he just 'ditched' his girlfriend.

"…_I hope everyone will at least listen to me later…"_ Issei hoped.

_**[Sure, go ahead and hope.]**_ Ddraig scoffed. _**[Though…. Right now I suggest you to move somewhere else.]**_

"_Ddraig, what are you-… Oh."_ Issei's question about Ddraig's warning was answered immediately when he looked at his surroundings.

There were bunch of buildings with collection of signs, all colorful and filled with lights, attached to them; and each of them saying basically the same thing: Love Hotel.

Issei's eyes were widened as he knew the complications that would follow if he did not do something. "Akeno-san, let's leave this place! I actually wanted to bring you to this game center I know…" Issei began to walk away while looking towards Akeno at the same time, making sure that the girl was right next to him.

However, Issei was stopped when Akeno squeezed his arm with her own, preventing him to move further. With bashful expression, Akeno then slowly looked towards Issei right in the eye.

"I…I'm fine."

Issei blinked at the barely heard voice from Akeno. "…Excuse me?"

"If it's with you, Ise-kun… I don't mind." Akeno said as she tightened her hold on Issei. "As long as it's you, I don't mind to give up my chastity…"

Issei had to swallow a lump at Akeno's declaration. His mind was in turmoil, his face was sweating, flustered, and his head was fuming. Looking at Akeno's pure, determined and cute expression was just too much for his mind.

However, before Issei could have said anything, another voice interrupted them.

"Good grief, trying to make love with a woman this middle of the day? You are not as reserved as your father, Red Dragon Emperor brat."

Issei and Akeno turned towards the source of the voice and saw an elderly man with rough casual clothes and a hat. The monocle on his face made Issei felt familiar with the old man. However, it only took few seconds for both Issei and Akeno to recognize the elderly man through the divine aura leaking out from his body.

"Lord Odin." Issei said in greeting, both him and Akeno quickly straightened themselves in the face of the Chief of Norse Gods. "It's strange to see you in this town. What business do you have in Japan?" Issei asked as he tried to sound as polite as possible.

Before Odin could have replied, another voice was heard, followed with the appearance of a young woman with long silver hair, clad in a formal business suit.

"Lord Odin, you are the Head of the Norse God! Please stop wandering to places like this!" Rossweisse said as she made her way towards Odin.

At the Valkyrie's scolding, Odin only let out a small scoff. "Get off my back, Rossweisse. You are a Valkyrie that will eventually have to take care of heroes. You should learn and get used to these kind of places."

At Odin's rebuttal, Rossweisse looked taken aback and her eyes suddenly got teary. "I-I'm just a Valkyrie with no appeal, after all!" she said as she was about to cry, then she turned towards Issei and Akeno. "And what are you two doing here? Aren't you two supposed to be high-school students? You should go home and study instead of being in a place like this."

Issei and Akeno were taken a bit from Rossweisse's sudden mood-swings. At first the Valkyrie was scolding her superior, then she cried about herself, then she suddenly berating them, albeit with understandable reasons.

However, another voice was suddenly heard.

"Lord Odin, I implore you not to stray too far from me…" the one who spoke was a middle-aged man with black hair wearing black business attire not unlike Rossweisse's. When Issei looked at the man, he could tell that he possessed a large, strong body under those thick suites.

"Y-You are…" Akeno, however, widened her eyes as if she was looking at a ghost.

The said middle-aged man also froze when his eyes met with the girl's. "…Akeno, what is the meaning of this?" he asked with rather angry tone.

"It's none of your business! More than that, why are you here!?" Akeno replied with a yell, as well as with another question. Issei also noticed that Akeno was glaring with hateful eyes at the middle-aged man.

"That doesn't matter!" The man made his way towards Akeno. "Regardless, you should leave this place. It's far too early for you." He then proceeded to grab Akeno's arm.

"No, let go of me!" Akeno fought back to release herself from the man's hold.

Sensing trouble, Issei quickly grabbed the man's arm, causing the latter to let go of Akeno's own and the boy proceeded to place the girl behind him, shielding her from the middle-aged man.

"I don't know what's going on, but I must ask you to leave her alone." Issei said with a careful look. He also prepared himself if things turned out for the worse.

"Ise…"

When Akeno muttered Issei's name, the man regarded the boy for a moment before he calmed himself. "…I see, so you are Hyoudou Issei."

Issei blinked at the fact that the stranger recognized him. "…And may I ask who you are?" he started to feel that he did not like the way things were heading to.

"I am one of the leaders of Grigori, Baraqiel. Currently serving as Lord Odin's escort, and I'm also Himejima Akeno's father."

"_No wonder he knows me. I guess it's because he also knows _him_…"_ Issei grumbled in his mind as he thought of Saitama's mentioning the fallen angel's name in the past.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**I apologize if you somehow find this chapter unsatisfactory. I'm actually still hyping myself up to write the whole events of volume 7. Anyway, please review! Of course, flames are not allowed. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	31. Ragnarok (II)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

**Chapter 30: Ragnarok (II) – Emissaries from Valhalla**

* * *

_(Flashback, Kuoh, the night before Issei's date with Akeno)_

In the deeper parts of the town, a small stall was operating, selling some snacks and liquors for people who were fatigued from working late.

However, there were only two patrons in the stall with the owner was silently cooking and watching his goods as usual. One patron was a middle-aged man with slightly bulky body wearing a suit, while the other was a bald man wearing a T-shirt and sweat-pants. Couple plates of snacks, two glasses and a bottle of Japanese Sake were served in front of them.

"So that old man Odin is coming to town? And you're assigned as his escort?" The bald man, Saitama, asked the middle-aged man who happened to be Baraqiel, a fallen angel cadre of Grigori.

"Yes, it appears to be so." The fallen angel replied, taking a sip from his liquor. "Lord Odin will act as the representative from the Norse to finalize the terms of alliance between the Asgard and the Three Factions."

"I see, I see…" Saitama nodded in understanding. "By the way, since you are here and all… Are you going to see your daughter?"

Baraqiel did not say anything for few seconds before letting out a sigh. "I… would love to, but I'm not sure. Last time we met, she's still angry at me."

"Hmm… That's too bad." Saitama took a sip of his own drink. "But hey, don't let that stopping you from trying."

"I can only hope…." Baraqiel downed the rest of his drink in his glass. "Speaking of… I've been hearing from Azazel that Akeno has been… infatuated with your son… Hyoudou Issei, is it?"

"Seems like it. I still haven't gotten used to how popular my kid is…" Saitama downed his drink. "He practically has women left and right throwing themselves at him."

"A harem… Huh." Baraqiel huffed slightly, refilling his own glass before he proceeded to refill Saitama's glass as well, receiving a quick thanks from the bald man. "Having my daughter to be with a man who also courts other women… Doesn't sit well with me." The fallen angel grumbled. "Tell me, Saitama-kun. Considering your son has become a devil and is integrating into their society… Do you have anything to say to him?"

Saitama understood what Baraqiel was implying. "Not really… I just know that at least he won't mistreat anyone close to him. Besides…" Saitama's gaze softened, seemingly to have a far-away look in it. "I think I've lost the right to tell him what to do in his life, after neglecting him for over 15 years…"

"But you are still his father." Baraqiel retorted. "I… also have done something unforgivable to Akeno, but that doesn't stop me to worry about her well-being. Perhaps she won't look at me as her father anymore, but in the end, I can't see her as none other than my own flesh and blood… who I've sworn to protect ever since she was born."

"….Flesh and blood, huh…" Saitama muttered as he lightly twirled his glass, playing a bit with his reflection on the liquid's surface. Then, Saitama took a drink and he decided to change the topic. "Anyway, do you guys need my help during Odin's stay?"

"It's only finalization of the alliance between Three Factions and the Asgard. Lord Odin won't stay for long, so we should be fine on our own."

Hearing Baraqiel's reply, Saitama nodded to himself once before he turned to the fallen again. "I see… Then, Baraqiel. I have to go. There's something I need to take care of, so can you relay this message to Azazel?"

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

Following the abrupt end of Akeno's date with Issei in the late afternoon, everyone from the Occult Research Club was sitting in the VIP room of Hyoudou Residence along with Odin, Rossweisse and Baraqiel. As Issei observed the guests, he found that while Odin was being his laid-back self, Rossweisse seemed to be exhausted to keep up with her superior, the boy found the fallen angel to be looking, or rather, lightly glaring between him and Akeno, whom was not even smiling as usual and kept her eyes from meeting her father's.

Issei had heard that Akeno did not really have a good relationship with Baraqiel, if he looked back when Akeno told him a part of her past. Issei had also heard that Baraqiel was one of Azazel's most trusted comrades, as well as one of the strongest combatants in Grigori in terms of fire-power thanks to his Holy Lightning. The fallen also happened to be Saitama's drinking buddy, despite how odd it sounded to Issei.

"Here's your tea." Rias politely served a cup of tea to the Chief of Norse Gods.

"Hohoho, you don't need to do that, but you have my thanks." Odin replied. "Though… seriously, it is indeed huge… That one is also huge~". Odin said as he looked at two particular ladies with perverse grin.

Issei felt a tick mark on his forehead with his eyes twitching when Odin ogled Rias and Akeno, particularly their breasts. Issei also noticed that Baraqiel's eyebrows were twitching profusely as his daughter was being ogled at.

"Seriously, Lord Odin! Please stop looking at girls with such lecherous gaze! She is the sister of the lord Satan Lucifer!" thankfully, Rossweisse immediately hit Odin's head with a fan before Issei, and possibly Baraqiel as well, could have taken any offensive measure towards the eldest man in the room.

The King of Asgard simply massaged his head, not perturbed at the fact that his own subordinate had just blatantly hit his head. "Geez, you are so hard headed. Sirzechs's sister is famous for being a beauty with a glamorous body, so it can't be helped if I end up wanting to stare at her breasts…" Then Odin addressed everyone else in the room. "Oh, yes. This fellow here is my escort Valkyrie, Rossweisse."

Having been introduced, Rossweisse then made her official greeting towards everyone. "It is a pleasure to meet you all. I will be under your care during our stay in Japan."

Now that Issei took another look at the Valkyrie, the boy noticed that Rossweisse seemed young enough to pass off as a high-school student.

"She is a virgin girl where her years she didn't have a boyfriend equals her age." Odin added, much to Rossweisse's chagrin as the woman started to contort a panicked expression.

"T-t-that has nothing to do with this! I never choose to not having a boyfriend! It's not my fault that I'm still a virgin! Uuuhh…!" Rossweisse cried and weep as she fell on her knees and began smacking the floor in anguish.

"…Oh, actually…" Odin appeared as if he remembered something. "She did kind of have a boyfriend, though…" the god made a sly grin as he threw a quick glance at the still-oblivious Issei.

"Nooooo!" Rossweisse then cried even harder. "Please don't mention anything about _that_! I'm begging you! Uuuuh…!"

Ignoring the wailing Valkyrie, Azazel then proceeded with the meeting. "During the time when geezer will be staying in Japan, it's decided that we will be your guard. Baraqiel is a back-up support member from the fallen angel's side. I also have been busy lately, so I only have limited times I can stay here. During then, Baraqiel would be looking after all of you in my place." The fallen governor gestured towards his old friend.

"I look forward to work with you all." Baraqiel gave his short, yet formal greeting.

"Say, geezer. Isn't your arrival kind of too early? I thought you're gonna come here by the next few days." Azazel asked.

Odin took a sip of his tea before replying. "I plan to talk with the gods of Takamagahara as well, thus my early arrival. Also, I need to finish things up here early if possible because there's also another problem from my country… One of my lads doesn't really agree with my ways. With times keep moving around us, it's also time for us to expand our connections."

"I see…. Then, Michael and Sirzechs can be our middle-men while I would be sitting with you during the meeting." Azazel nodded in agreement. "And what is this trouble from your side? Should I call Saitama back here?"

"No, I don't think there's no need for that…" Odin replied while stroking his long beard. "Speaking of, where's that baldy?"

Issei blinked, recalling that he actually had not seen his father ever since the morning.

"He's out of the country at the moment." Azazel replied. "He said something about confirming his suspicion, in the light of Khaos Brigade's recent activities."

"Sacred Gear possessors that have achieved Balance Breaker, huh…" Odin followed. "Does that lad have some leads?"

"Seems like it. After all, he used to be a part of that group…"

"Wait, so… sorry, time out." Issei suddenly interrupted Azazel. "What is this about that guy being a part of the group?"

Everyone was looking at Issei's expression that demanded nothing but answers. Azazel only stared at Issei for a second before sighing. "I see, so Saitama still hasn't told you." Azazel then noticed that everyone has contorted curious expression on their faces. "Well, I guess you kids have the right to know, since you're likely gonna fight this group eventually."

Everyone did not expect what Azazel had to say next.

oXo

It was at night when Issei was walking alone towards the open-air garden on the roof while everyone else had retired for the night after the meeting.

The meeting had ended with Odin and Azazel wanting to go to what was called as 'Oppai-Pub' (apparently it had been established by Azazel himself, following his desires for woman's breasts), much to Rossweisse's frustration, since they had nothing to do until the time of the meeting between leaders of the alliance and pantheons. The discussion regarding Khaos Brigade could not be carried further due to still-lack of leads and evidence. However, what weighing the boy's mind was the information that Azazel had revealed about his father.

_Saitama used to be a member of the Hero Faction._

According to Saitama's testimony in the previous meeting, Saitama once encountered the leader of the said faction and effectively joined the group soon after. At first, the man believed (more like he was told) that the group's objective was to 'protect' mankind from the threat of supernatural world like monsters and other evil beings that could be harmful to humans.

When Saitama joined the Hero Faction for the first time, Hero Faction could not really be considered as a 'faction'. It was more like a small group with very few members consisting descendants of historical, as well as legendary figures, and Sacred Gear possessors.

As the group steadily grew and getting more members, Saitama began to see that the so-called Hero Faction had been attacking and killing supernatural entities indiscriminately under the name of 'justice', an act that Saitama never approved upon. It did not take long until Saitama had enough and decided to defect.

Presumably, it was shortly after Saitama's defection of the Hero Faction that the latter joined the Khaos Brigade, growing into the second largest faction in the Brigade after the Old Satan Faction. It was by then Ophis started to scout Saitama to join the ranks as well.

Looking back at the event that took place earlier, Issei understood why one of the Sacred Gear possessors called Saitama as a 'traitor'.

Saitama had given some names of the members of Heroes that he could remember. The leader was the descendant of a famous figure from Chinese history, as well as the wielder of the ultimate Longinus, True Longinus. Not only the True Longinus, there were other descendants of other prominent figures who also wield high-tier Longinus, legendary weapons, and sub-species Balance Breakers. The name that Saitama had mentioned had been put into the wanted list.

However, there was one issue: lack of concrete evidence. Despite of Saitama's testimony and information about the Hero Faction, it was all speculations and assumptions; Saitama himself did not know that the group he was once a part of had been a part of terrorist ranks. Putting the dangerous method they had been using to strengthen their members with Balance Breakers aside, there was a fact that the Hero Faction was not the only group that had Sacred Gear wielders within their ranks. There were other groups that house Sacred Gear wielders such as Grigori, and several registered and unregistered magician organizations all over the world.

With that fact, the leaders could not ignore the possibility that the Hero Faction that had been causing troubles might not be the same one that Saitama once a part of; hence Saitama decided to travel abroad. Azazel said that Saitama might have an idea or two about who, where and how to find the one who might have orchestrated the entire thing behind the assault by Sacred Gear wielders. Until Saitama's return with something _useful_, the alliance would not be able to take any effective action.

Issei sighed as he finally arrived at the door that led him to the open-roof garden. However, just when he was about to reach for the door handle, Issei's senses kicked in and he was just on time to move out of the way, avoiding Akeno who burst out from the door and ran past him. When the boy caught a glimpse of the girl's face, the boy saw tears were running down on her face.

"Akeno-san?" the boy tried to call out, but the girl had already out of his range of sight and vision. The girl ran fast enough to completely miss Issei in the hallway.

He took a quick look at the garden, then he spotted Baraqiel was standing at the edge of the garden with his back facing the boy. Issei recalled that after the meeting, Baraqiel asked Akeno that he wanted to talk privately as the two left the meeting room. Issei was curious about what actually happened between the two and was about to go after Akeno, but the girl's expression earlier clearly stated that the girl would be best to be left alone for the time being to calm herself down. Thus, Issei decided to take another approach.

The fallen was gazing at the night sky and Issei just caught him letting out a sigh. When Baraqiel turned around, his eyes found Issei and the two fell into silence as if they were measuring each other.

It was Issei who was the first to break the silence. "Baraqiel-san." The boy greeted with a polite nod. The fallen regarded the greeting for a second before he returned the nod as well.

Issei then proceeded to walk towards the older man and when the two were standing next to each other. Baraqiel then addressed him. "Hyoudou Issei-kun… I would like an explanation about what you're doing with my daughter."

Issei could not help but feel that a cold sweat trailed down on his skin. With how the fallen usually carried himself and the warrior-personality he possessed, Issei had to be careful on choosing his words, lest he would end up as Baraqiel's personal lightning rod.

"It was… a complete coincidence, as well as an honest mistake from my part." Issei admitted, before he turned so he stood facing Baraqiel. "But it was never my intention to bring Akeno-san to that kind of place in the first place. I apologize for that." The boy finished with a bow.

The fallen stared at Issei for a minute, before he nodded once. "…Very well, I believe you."

Issei managed to prevent himself to sigh audibly as the two then fell into a silence that was _slightly_ more comfortable than before. "Tell me, Issei-kun." Baraqiel then spoke again. "Are you seeing my daughter?"

Issei blinked at the question. "…No, I'm not." The boy then replied truthfully.

"Then what were you two doing together in the broad daylight?" Baraqiel asked again.

"It was… Well, a date." Issei replied while carefully picking the correct words. "But it was a one-time promise I once made with her. I do like her, she's a great person, but we are not in that kind of relationship."

"….I see." Baraqiel nodded once again after taking in Issei's answer, leaving the two in another still-uncomfortable silence. "Issei-kun, what do you think of Akeno?"

"I… she's a very kind person." Issei began as he tried to recall all of his past interactions with Akeno. "She carries herself very elegantly on daily basis, and while she might has her own perks that may caused us some troubles, she has shown us for many times that she is a very caring person towards her friends." Issei said with a smile, a hint of pride could be heard in his tone. Although…

"…But in the end, I still know next to nothing about her." Issei's tone then suddenly became rather solemn. "She _is_ a caring and gentle woman, but only during our date that I recently found that she's also a teenage girl, just like the others from her peers. And she's been strong for too long." Issei then closed his eyes, recalling Akeno's expression when she was revealing her painful past. "I'm angry at myself that I couldn't… No, I still can't do a single thing to help her from her real troubles."

During Issei's explanation, Baraqiel's eyes never left the boy as the fallen took in every word and tone that came out from Issei's mouth. The corner of the older man's lips twitched upward ever so slightly when he learned that the boy was completely sincere about his opinion of his daughter.

"….You really care about her, don't you?" Baraqiel asked the question that borderlines statement.

"Well, how can I not?" Issei smiled sheepishly while rubbing his head and the face of his comrades appeared in his mind. "It's just that… the days we've been spending with everyone else; school, club activities, training, even rating games… I just love them so much when everyone was smiling, laughing, facing the day and the days to come with their heads held high together…. I just want to protect their smiles… As well as those fun and peaceful days…"

Baraqiel felt relieved that his daughter was on good hands as he took in Issei's words. "…I can see why your father has so much faith in you."

Issei blinked at the mention of his father, his cheek became slightly flushed as he looked away with a small pout on his face.

"Saitama-kun and I have been friends for sometime now…" Baraqiel said. "…He has done a favor to me… A favor that I probably could never repay." He said with small, imperceptible smile.

"What did he do…?" Issei could not help but feel curious.

"That… is something that I cannot share yet." Baraqiel then turned to Issei. "I'll leave my daughter in your care, then… Hyoudou Issei-kun."

Baraqiel then left Issei alone in the garden. The boy looked at the fallen's retreating figure until he vanished from his sight, then Issei sighed. There was nothing he could do for now, he could approach Akeno tomorrow, or another day, and if everything else failed, he would just have to suck it up and get his answer from his father instead.

* * *

It was the next day when three men were occupying the underground special training room. There were two training grounds, one was everyone's usual gym with fitness tools and equipment, while the other one was a spacious hall with reinforced wall, designed by Grigori and team of Underworld's researchers, that the walls and the floors could withstand an attack of Satan-class powers, so the people could train their powers and abilities to their heart's content. Of course, Saitama was the only person so far that could easily destroy the walls, thus when Saitama, and especially with Issei were about to have their own training session, the two would be led to an isolated area on the planet to prevent any collateral damage and casualties.

**[Boost!]**

Currently, Issei, Yuuto and Gasper were training themselves in that special training room with the former two sparring against each other with the latter watching.

Issei and Yuuto were moving around the stage with the speed that made their spar seemed as blurs with occasional sparks and shockwaves. The Knight was equipped with his signature holy-demonic sword, while Issei only had his Boosted Gear on his left arm. However, if one took another look, Issei's body was coated with Touki.

The two exchanged blows with Yuuto throwing swing after swing with his sword at Issei, whom would block with his red gauntlet and dodged the Knight's blade by hair's breadth. The Pawn himself threw his punches and kicks from various angles and Yuuto easily evaded the attacks with graceful ease thanks to his trait as a Knight. The two were seemed at a stalemate, but Yuuto was actually able to gain an upper hand.

While Issei was able to easily evade a direct hit, whenever he had to block Yuuto's holy-demonic sword with Boosted Gear, the holy element from the Knight's blade would seep through the gauntlet and burned his skin beneath the gauntlet. Currently, Issei just inwardly winced when he felt another burn.

In addition, when Issei managed to gain some distance, Yuuto would not give any chance as the Knight would produce several smaller holy-demonic swords and threw them like projectiles towards the Pawn. The conclusion was while Issei possessed more raw power and strength, Yuuto possessed more techniques and arsenals thanks to his Sword Birth.

When Yuuto held his sword high and slammed it to Issei, the latter parried the blade with his crimson gauntlet and Yuuto was barely able to jump away to avoid a straight fist from the Pawn.

The two were now facing each other, seemed to be slightly out of breath. With another deep breath, Issei smiled at Yuuto. "You are… really picking up, aren't you? I can't even brush you."

"I am. That's just my style." Yuuto replied with smile of his own. "While you've become stronger and faster, sadly you still need to work on your fighting techniques."

"Easier said than done, you know…" Issei huffed. "Well, let's turn this up a notch, okay?"

While it was true that Yuuto managed to push Issei thanks to his techniques and swordsmanship, Issei remembered something that Xenovia once argued during the summer training with Azazel.

While it sounds rather stupid, it was still possible to overwhelm techniques with absolute power.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

Issei's aura's intensity burst up at the moment Boosted Gear's jewel shone brightly. At the sight of Issei's power-up, Yuuto only snorted with a nervous sweat trickling down his temple.

"…Great." Yuuto half-sarcastically muttered, as he brandished his holy-demonic sword and thinking several possible scenarios. Because it was supposed to be a spar, the Knight did not count how long the time had passed since Issei had begun boosting his power. Keeping up with Touki-enhanced Issei was already taxing enough, but to keep up with the Pawn after his further enhancement from Boosted Gear? Kiba Yuuto's real training had just begun.

"Here we go." With those three words, Issei suddenly vanished from Yuuto's sight.

The Knight widened his eyes that just barely managed to catch the movement from behind him. By the time Yuuto moved away, the back of his clothes had been torn as Issei threw several punch-combo. However, just when Yuuto barely regained his ground, Issei had already gone too close for comfort and the Knight forced his body to move away again in order to evade Issei's flurry of strikes. Yuuto jumped and maneuvered to gain distance, but Issei suddenly had appeared behind him again.

It happened for several times like a cycle. Whenever Yuuto evaded Issei, the latter would have appeared right behind him, never giving the former any chance to recover. This cycle made Yuuto raised his eyebrows. Why would the pawn bother to keep appearing behind him? Such repetitive actions could be his undoing… Until Yuuto caught Issei's playful smirk.

It only took few seconds until Yuuto understood what Issei had been insinuating and also smirked in return. If the training had become something akin to contest of speed, then the Knight of Rias Gremory's peerage would happily oblige the challenge.

Yuuto then suddenly blurred away from Issei's sight as the former pushed his speed to the max. Soon the Knight returned the gesture as he appeared behind Issei, his sword ready to be swung. However, Issei only disappeared again, and appeared behind Yuuto and delivered his own counter attack. Yuuto also only vanished and retaliated from Issei's back.

They repeated the cycle as the two kept disappearing and attempting to ambush each other from behind. However, Yuuto's stamina was not as tenacious as Issei, forcing the former to think of a way to end this 'silly' debacle soon. After all, contest of speed might be one thing, but the Knight had no way to win against the Red Dragon Emperor in a contest of endurance.

That was why when the Pawn vanished to avoid Yuuto's blade once again, the Knight did not move much from his spot. Instead, he planted his sword blade-first to the ground. "SWORD BIRTH!"

Several holy-demonic blades sprout out from the ground, exactly where Issei appeared for his ambush. However, the blades only managed to nick several places of Issei's body as the Pawn guarded himself well and quickly jumped away to gain some distance.

In retaliation, while still in mid-air, Issei charged his demonic power and fired his dragon-shot towards the Knight, who easily moved out of the way as explosion occurred across the training hall.

Gasper had to cover his ears from the exploding noise before he turned his attention back to the occurring explosion. Issei then landed, while he could not see Yuuto anywhere from the smoke from the his dragon-shot, the Pawn knew too well that even with the enhancement of Boosted Gear, a dragon-shot of that level was not nearly enough to defeat someone of Kiba Yuuto's caliber.

When Issei caught the slightest movement, he dashed straight towards the smoke and as if on cue, Yuuto also came out from the cloud of smoke and the two fighters ran towards each other at high speed. Yuuto then thrusted his blade towards Issei's head, which was easily evaded, as the Pawn was too close for the sword's range, the Pawn threw his left arm into a punch towards Yuuto's face while Yuuto quickly conjured a holy-demonic dagger and thrust its point towards Issei's face as well.

Just when Issei's Boosted Gear and Yuuto's blade were about to land on their targets, they immediately stopped when a ringing sound was heard across the room.

"T-Time's up! That's all for now! L-let's take a break~!" Gasper announced as he went to the ringing clock and turned it off.

Issei's knuckle was an inch away from Yuuto's cheek while the latter's blade-point was also an inch away from Issei's eyes. The two then let out a loud sigh as they dropped to the ground.

oXo

"You really have become more and more of a monster, Ise-kun…" Yuuto drawled out, went to grab a sports drink nearby and took down its content down his throat. "Huff… I'm surprised that I can keep up with your training loads this far."

"That means that you also have become stronger, Kiba." Issei replied. After the practice match, the Knight took a break while Issei chose to do another push-ups, and Gasper took his turn to train his Sacred Gear with practice drones. "And you still outclass me in terms of techniques. I was still having a hard time following your movements." The Pawn added.

"But still not good enough if you're to go all out in Balance Breaker…" Yuuto replied back. "…I don't mean to be rude, but our overall combat capability have surpassed buchou, Akeno-san and average high-class devils."

"Hmm…" Issei only hummed in agreement. "But thanks to the Rating Game with student council, many people have learned what we can do. So expect some hardship ahead. Enemies will most likely prepare a counter-measure against us."

Yuuto only nodded in agreement. There were many viable threats for the Pawn and the Knight. Holy element attacks were obvious, given their race. Yuuto had been training his physique, but he still could not last long if he were to be attacked by a heavy-hitter. An ability that had been designed to slow or freeze movements was Yuuto's natural enemy.

Issei himself had been refining his fighting style and techniques, but in the end, they were still rather sloppy compared to Yuuto and several others. Enemies that had been more experienced in outsmarting and outmaneuvering their opponents were still Issei's natural threat; there was also the threat of dragon-slayers as well, due to Issei's dragon-type Longinus.

"W-W-W-Will I be of any use...?" Gasper then timidly joined the discussion.

Issei and Yuuto blinked at the Bishop before the former smiled in return. "No offence, Gasper. But you're definitely a support type. But because of that, we'll have to count on you in future battles. Are you up for it?"

Seeing that his friends were putting their trusts on him, Gasper felt his confidence sparked up. "Y-Yes! I'll do my best!"

"It's good thing that most of rating games are team-battles, right?" Issei grinned.

Yuuto nodded. "True, true. While becoming stronger on your own is good, you also need to learn how to work with others."

Suddenly, a new voice joined them. "Seems you're doing well with your training."

The three male devils looked up and saw Azazel was approaching them with a package in hand. "Here, eat up. These are hand-made rice-balls made by the girls…" then Azazel wink at Issei. "…And by your girlfriend, of course…"

Issei blushed slightly before he and the boys indulged themselves with their well-deserved lunch.

"Hey, Gasper-kun. Let's have a taste on Asia-san's hand-made." Yuuto smirked playfully as he inched his hand closer towards one particular rice-ball, only for his hand to be slapped away by Issei.

"No, fuck off! Those ones are exclusive for me!" Issei rebuked, receiving an amused laugh from Azazel while Gasper shrieked.

"Eek! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I never wanted to take Asia-senpai's hand-made rice-ball!"

"Ahaha, calm down, Gasper-kun…" Yuuto gave a small, mirthful laugh. "I was just joking. Of course that one is only exclusive for Ise-kun." The Knight winked at the Pawn, who was still flustered.

Issei took a bite of the food, and that one bite allowed Issei to confirm that it was indeed Asia who made that rice-ball, as Issei blissfully indulged the taste in his mouth.

"By the way, I happened to overhear some of the girls chatting…" Azazel said. "And I heard that Asia and Xenovia want to join your peerage once you have become a high-class devil and receives your own set of evil pieces."

"Really?" Issei raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I can see that it's only a matter of time." Yuuto shrugged, as if he had seen this kind of thing coming from a mile away.

"Yeah, those girls have made up their minds." Azazel nodded. "And another thing; there's been a talk about granting Hyoudou Issei the promotion into a middle-class devil."

At this news, the boys widened their eyes. "…What?"

"It's not yet made official, but there are several agreements." Azazel clarified.

"Wh- wait, wait." Issei interrupted. "Me? A middle-class? Are you talking about taking a test?"

"No, no, not a test, but an actual promotion." Azazel replied. "Try to look back. You stopped Kokabiel from sparking another Great War, you played a big role of defending the peace conference at Kuoh Academy from terrorist attack, as well as repelling the Strongest White Dragon Emperor in the process, and you also the key player during the recent incident of Diodora Astaroth."

"Well… I mean…" Issei seemed flustered again, looking around between Yuuto and Gasper. "Everyone also helped… right?"

"It's true, Ise-kun." Yuuto put in his two-cents. "It's undeniable that you were the key player of our several battles with powerful enemies like Kokabiel and Khaos Brigade in the past, as you have saved us in many occasions. If it weren't for you, all of us wouldn't be here by now. You should be proud of yourself." The Knight then gave encouraging pats on Issei's back.

"Congratulations, Ise-senpai! Isn't that amazing?" Gasper congratulated Issei with his eyes filled with admiration.

"Although…" Yuuto then thought again. "I sense a 'but' in that news. I mean, it's already been sometime now, why has Issei's promotion not been made official?"

Azazel sighed with a small frown. "That's the thing. It's related with Ise's Juggernaut Drive."

The boys tensed up as they recalled _that_ terrifying forbidden move of the Heavenly Dragon.

"Ise's stunt about almost activating the Juggernaut Drive during the fight with Vali had already been bad enough, and when you actually pulled it off during Diodora incident…" Azazel paused. "… Let's say that you managed to scare the shit out of many people from the alliance. That's why there are still doubts from the ranks."

The boys looked rather disappointed at the news, despite Issei was still not sure about the whole middle-class promotion thing.

"Oh, well. We just have to see what's gonna happen later." Azazel waved off. "If worse comes to worst, you'll just have to take the formal test…. And the same goes for you as well, Kiba."

The Knight blinked and pointed at himself in question.

Azazel nodded at the Knight. "Yeah, with your growth and achievements, it won't be that long for you, Ise and most likely Akeno to receive a missive about middle-class promotion test."

The eyes were widened again at the news Azazel had relayed. But Issei was still in doubt of something. "But are you sure about me being a middle-class? I still feel that it's too soon for me."

Azazel rubbed his goatee before explaining. "Well… while it sounds condescending, in a way, middle-class devils in the devil society are not that different than low-class. Middle-class devils will begin to learn about leadership, advance strategy, and even basic politics that will prepare them to step up to high-class. And with your wits that easily learn, you'll be fine."

While the boys were taking in everything that the fallen angel governor had told them, the latter spoke again. "Oh, and one more thing, Ise… About Juggernaut Drive."

Issei quickly interjected. "I know, I can't use it again. I won't."

"Well, that's a given. But there's another thing…" Azazel's tone became rather grim. "During that one week period when you're unconscious, I've communicated with Ddraig with Fafnir's help."

Issei then leaned forward in curiosity. "…And?"

"…Ddraig said that there is…. _Something_ inside you."

At Azazel's response, Issei's expression turned into a frown. Yuuto was frowning as well while Gasper seemed confused. "…What thing?" the Pawn asked again.

"I don't know. Even Ddraig himself still can't tell what the hell he just ran across during your fight with Saitama." Azazel shrugged. "But Ddraig knows one thing: whatever sleeping inside you was insanely powerful, that dragon described that thing as colorful flames. When the Welsh Dragon got exposed to some amount, he was immediately drunk with power along with all the souls of your predecessors."

The boys only blinked a couple of times, still trying to make sense out of Azazel's story.

"I'm serious." Azazel said. "And let me tell you this, Ise. According to Ddraig, when you entered Juggernaut Drive, and followed by that…. Power hidden within you… You managed to hurt Saitama."

"…Huh?" That was the only word that Issei could give in return.

"Um…" Yuuto raised his hand. "I know Saitama is strong, but isn't it normal for people to get injured during a fight?"

Azazel only shook his head. "You still have no idea about Saitama's true power... Well, neither do we." The fallen then sighed. "There are so many feats of that guy, that had to be kept secret for the sake of power balance, but let me tell you this: in terms of raw power, Saitama is most likely on par with Ophis, even Great Red as well. And as I said, these are still mere speculations."

The boys were showing various expressions. Issei's expression was still incredulous; Yuuto's expression was frozen, while Gasper's face became even paler than his own race. The latter two recalled how Saitama had fearlessly scolded the Infinity Dragon God to 'buzz off', like an adult to a child. And they could not help but acknowledge that Azazel was not lying.

"Anyway, that's not my point." Azazel shook his head. "There's still too little information about the true nature of the power hidden inside you. We don't know if this… power is safe to be used around or not. Until we and Ddraig can learn something more, you should stay alerted."

Issei then went silent, taking in Azazel's words.

"But put that problem aside, there's still the problem in Juggernaut Drive itself." Azazel added. "Ise, you need to master the power of Red Dragon Emperor and find an alternative to Juggernaut Drive. Ddraig, will you help him out?"

**[Absolutely. Though, I must warn you that the thoughts of the past possessors are covered in deep darkness that even I can't approach them.]**

The Welsh Dragon replied from Issei's left arm.

**[Also…. This is a good opportunity for my partner to take a look at the deeper part of his soul.]**

"What do you mean by that?" Issei asked.

**[That foreign power you had during the fight with Saitama… It's located at the deeper, possibly the deepest part of your soul. I hate to say this, but even my instinct is telling me to stay away.]**

"Hmm….. Yeah, that's bad." Issei concluded. "Okay, so I have to somehow communicate with the soul of my predecessors and make contact with some eldritch alien power…. Sounds fun."

"Well, there you have it." Azazel smirked and he prepared to leave. "I'll leave you boys back on your own again. See ya later."

After the fallen had left, Yuuto and Gasper took another worried glance at Issei. What had transpired during the talk was still too much for them to take in.

"Ise-kun, are you sure you're fine with this? Whatever is happening within your body sounds very dangerous to me." Yuuto asked.

"No use of worrying about it." Issei shrugged. "In the end, we all just have to do what we all have to do."

Issei then walked a bit and he turned back towards his two friends. "So, let's have one more session and call it a day, shall we?" the Pawn asked with confident smile.

Yuuto and Gasper could not help but to smile in return. However, Issei blinked as he remembered something. "Oh… Actually… Sorry, can you two start off without me? I forgot to ask another thing from Azazel-sensei."

Issei did not wait the two to reply as he immediately ran out from the training room and went after the fallen angel. It did not take long until Issei caught up. "Sensei!"

Azazel turned his heels and saw Issei was approaching him. "Ise? What is it?"

"Sorry, I forgot to ask you one more thing." Issei took a second to catch his breath.

Azazel only nodded wordlessly and Issei looked around, as if to make sure that nobody else would be around to listen. With a deep breath, Issei steeled his mind to ask the fallen angel one particular question.

"Azazel-sensei, can you tell me what's been going on between Akeno-san and Baraqiel-san?"

* * *

Days have passed since Odin's arrival at Kuoh.

On one particular night, Odin, Rossweisse, Azazel, Baraqiel and the Occult Research Club were riding through the night sky with the wagon of the legendary, eight-legged warhorse Sleipnir. Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina and Baraqiel were flying outside the wagon with their respective wings, serving as guards in case of any sort of ambush.

"The Japanese ideal beauty sure is good~ Geisha girls are the best~" Odin said with satisfied expression while laughing on his seat.

The Chief God of Norses had been dragging his escorts along with the Occult Research Club across Japan for sometime now. So far, they had visited various amusement parks, restaurants, and other tourist spots for Odin to entertain himself with. But Odin's favorite type of places just happened to be red-light districts. Many times that most of Odin's bodyguards who were 'under-aged' had been forced to remain stand-by outside while Odin was enjoying himself with Japanese girls and hostess.

Issei sighed in exasperation as the ride went on, while Asia was sleeping with her head leaning on Issei's shoulder due to exhaustion. The boy took a quick glance around him, and he could not help but feel worried when his eyes laid upon Akeno's out of characteristic. The boy inwardly grimaced as he recalled his previous conversation with Azazel.

During the conversation, the fallen governor had been hesitant at first, before he decided to take his chance with Issei and began telling the boy – from his point of view - about what the tragedy that befell Akeno's family in the past which resulted the current estranged relationship between the girl and her father.

Issei closed his eyes as he could not imagine what Akeno had been through. He just found out they were a bit similar in a way. However, Issei was much more fortunate compared to the girl. The boy then wondered, perhaps Akeno's past related to the reasons why Issei was angry at his father for neglecting his family for 15 years. If something were to happen to the boy and/or his mother, would Issei be experiencing the same feelings Akeno was having now? Issei honestly did not want to imagine that kind of thing to happen. If the boy still wanted to help his senior, it would not be easy. But that sure as hell would not stop him from trying.

But in the end, Issei chose to deal with Odin's shenanigans with everyone before he would do something about Akeno.

"Lord Odin." Rossweisse spoke. "It's almost time for the meeting with the Gods of Japan, so please lose that mindset of being on vacation. At this rate you will be yelled at by other people when we return to our homeland…" The Valkyrie chastised her superior, as she had been doing for the past few days, which caused her patience to get thinner and thinner.

"Sheesh, you're really a woman who doesn't know how to lighten up, aren't ya?" Odin replied with a scoff. "You really should learn how to relax a little. This is why you can't even get a single man."

Rossweisse finally began to tear up. "T-that has nothing to do with my love life! It's not that I want to remain single like this in the first place!"

Everyone started to get tired of such repetitive actions: Odin fooled around, Rossweisse chastised him, then Odin retaliated by teasing her about not having a boyfriend, and the woman would get frustrated.

KAKUN* HIHEEEEEN!

The voice of screeching horse was heard, followed by the wagon suddenly stopped moving without warning, causing everyone to lose their balances.

"What is it? A terrorist attack?!" Rossweisse was completely on alert.

"Beats me!" Azazel was tensed as well. "But I can tell that this is nothing good!"

When Issei looked out through the window, he found that Yuuto, Xenovia and Irina were forming battle positions with Baraqiel at the center between them. Without another word, Issei sprout out his devil wings and joined the frontlines. Issei's flight had become better over the past few months. Thanks to his experience of flying with his Scale Mail, the boy had gotten a better feeling of flying on his own.

Issei then spotted someone was hovering above them on the sky. It was a young man with good-looking appearance with sharp looks, wearing a robe similar with Odin but with different ornate markings. The man also possessed a light blue hair that floats behind him with two small bangs. There was also a blue jewel on his forehead and yellow earrings.

When Rossweisse got the sight of the newcomer, her expression went shocked. Azazel himself clicked his tongue in distaste. The stranger then weaved his robe to introduce himself.

"Greetings, everyone!" The man said with pride and confidence in his voice. "I am Loki, of Asgard!"

Everyone minus Issei, who did not have that wide knowledge about Norse pantheon, widened their eyes as they were completely, caught off-guard with the appearance of another god from Asgard, the infamous evil god to add.

"Loki…. The Evil God of Mischief from Norse…" Issei heard his master muttering from beside him. From the title alone, the boy could tell that the man- god in front of him is anything but friendly.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Lord Loki." Azazel flew out from the wagon with his twelve jet-black wings to face the evil god. "To meet you in a place like this… Do you have some business with us? On this wagon is the chief-God of Northern Europe Lord Odin. Your action is something done with that knowledge, no?" the fallen asked calmly.

"Nothing much. Our chief-god left our organization to make contact with another pantheon… And that is very painful for me to endure." Loki replied while crossing his arms.

Azazel's manner of speech then changed drastically. "You are quite arrogant to say that up front, Loki…" the fallen's tone was laced with anger.

"Fuhahahaha!" Loki laughed in return. "As expected of the governor of the fallen angels! Normally I wouldn't want to meet you or the devils, but it can't be helped. Along with Odin and the others, you shall receive my punishment."

However, before anyone could have replied, Loki's eyes then darted around, as if he was looking for something before returning to Azazel. "…Actually, I've been expecting _him_ to be here as well… Tell me, where is Saitama?"

"Unfortunately, that guy is taking care another business elsewhere. So you have to make do with us at the moment." Azazel replied without dropping his glare towards the Evil God. "…Or rather, didn't you approach us at this very moment exactly because you knew that Saitama won't be around?"

"Call it whatever you wish. But in any case, I do not approve of this idea of peace. It is your religion which stepped foot on our soil and spread the bible after all." Loki said with venom in his tone.

Azazel snorted at Loki's reasoning. "Well, then you should've gone and complained to Michael or the deceased Biblical God instead of me."

Loki only carried on with his speech. "Either way, there's still a problem about the All-Father Odin negotiating with Gods of the Far East. At this rate, Ragnarok would never come. What is it you wish to obtain that by trading the information regarding Yggdrasil, _father_?" there was a hint of sarcasm in the last word.

Before Odin could have replied, Azazel interrupted by pointing his finger accusingly at the Evil God. "I will ask you one thing! Are your actions connected with Khaos Brigade?" Then the fallen snorted. "Pssh, who am I kidding? Expecting an honest answer from Evil God like you…" he berated himself.

"How dare you mix me with those foolish terrorist." Loki shot back. "I came here on my own free-will. The Ouroboros has nothing to do with this."

Upon hearing the answer, Azazel became slightly less tensed. "I see, so you are not affiliated with Khaos Brigade, but the fact remains that you're here without any peaceful intentions. I guess this is the Norse's internal problems, huh…"

Azazel then noticed at the corner of his eyes that Odin and Rossweisse stepped out from the wagon and flew via magic. "Indeed this is the current problem we are facing, Azazel… There are still stubborn fools like this one who will come out like this." Odin said while stroking his white beard.

"Lord Loki!" Rossweisse raised her voice. "Your actions exceed your authority! Such transgression by raising your arms towards the Chief-God is unforgivable! You should express your opinion through official means!" the woman's formal suit then transformed into a set of armor.

"I know you…. While I heard that you're excellent by your peer's standards, a mere battle-maiden shouldn't get in my way. I'm talking to Odin here." Loki merely dismissed the Valkyrie and returned his attention back to the elder god. "Are you still planning to involve yourself with matters outside Asgard and Valhalla?"

"Yes." Odin replied without hesitation. "Talking to Sirzechs, Azazel and dealing with Saitama is ten thousand times more interesting than dealing with you. I want to know about Japanese Shinto, they also have an interest in our Yggdrasil. After we make peace, I'm thinking of exchanging our cultures by sending out each of our emissaries."

Upon Odin's answers, Loki only smirked as he slowly unleashed his divine aura. The aura could only be described as 'malicious', matching his legend as an Evil God. "I have confirmed your foolish plans… Very well, then; Let's have a display of powers right here."

Everyone then became even more high-strung than before. For the youngsters, they were not just facing some enemy on ultimate-class devils level, they were facing a real god, a famous one on that. However, those on the frontlines could somewhat tell that Loki was aiming for Odin.

"I take that this is your declaration of battle?" Azazel asked, the fallen was ready to act at any moment's notice.

"Take it as however you want it to be."

As soon as Loki said those words in reply, the god was suddenly hit by a wave. Everyone turned around to find that the wave was an attack of Xenovia's Durandal; the blade was exuding a massive amount of holy aura.

"Victory goes to one who makes the first move." The blue-haired knight said. The others blinked and somewhat disapproved at Xenovia's recklessness, but they approved of the initiative, especially during a fight against someone on Loki's caliber. "…Though it seems like it didn't work. To be expected from a Norse God." The Knight continued with her eyes never left the target that she just hit.

As the girl had said, Loki remained floating in the air without any damage whatsoever on his person. "A holy sword, huh… It has impressive power, but it isn't enough to take on a God yet. That attack earlier is no different than a gentle breeze."

Yuuto and Irina then proceeded to prepare their own weapons and pointed them towards the Evil God: a holy-demonic sword and a sword of light. Loki himself only laughed at the spectacle. "Fuhahaha! Haven't you already realized that I'm a god!? Attacks from a mere devil and an angel are nothing to me."

Loki then slowly pointed his hand forward. Issei quickly realized the danger, and he turned his head towards the wagon. "Ojou-sama, allow me to use promotion!"

Rias only gave a nod upon Issei's request, but it was enough to allow Issei to turn into a Queen, and he immediately went on full-throttle towards Loki.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Loki did not get intimidated in the slightest at the sight of Issei in his Scale Mail marching towards him with high-speed. "Ah, of course! I forgot that the Red Dragon Emperor is here as well. That is some power you are showing, but…." Loki then gathered light particles in his outstretched hand, compressing an overwhelming power on his palm. "It's still too early for you to take on a god!"

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!] **

Issei immediately charged his own power and he released his dragon shot when Loki was about to unleash his own divine power.

BOOOM!

The explosion from the collision of force occurred, obscuring everyone's vision with smoke and a blast of wind. When the smoke cleared up, Loki was seen with his hand smoking from Issei's attack. "How very amusing…. Fuhahahaha! Even though I have put up some power in that attack earlier, you're still able to keep up! As expected from the Heavenly Dragon!"

Issei only clicked his tongue, sensing that the Evil God before him was not a push-over either. Rias and Akeno then joined the battle with their devil wings outstretched. Rias especially was leaking crimson aura from her body.

Loki's eyes then gleamed in recognition upon seeing Rias' crimson hair. "Crimson hair… I see, the House of Gremory, correct? You must be the blood relative of current Satan. Two leaders of the fallen angels, an angel, a group of devils, and on top of that, the Red Dragon Emperor is with you…" Loki re-assessed his opponents once again before turning to the Norse Chief-God. "Odin… Saitama might not be here, but isn't this too overboard for bodyguards?"

"Considering your visit here, it turned out to be… Well, not exactly the right decision. Perhaps I should have asked Saitama to stay around a little bit longer." Odin sighed.

Loki only smirked at Odin's answer. "I see… Then, I shall summon it." the Evil God then spread his robe and bellowed with loud voice. "Come out, my adorable son!"

A moment later, a rift was created in the air. From the distortion, something crawled out.

It was a massive, 10 meters-tall wolf with ash-grey fur. The wolf then peered around its enemies without any movements, and upon the sight of the wolf, everyone even the veteran ones felt chills ran down their spines in the face of overwhelming pressure. Even Issei could not bring himself to pry his attention away from the wolf, as if the wolf would tear his neck off at the second he looked away.

"_This thing is bad news…"_

**[Partner… Whatever you do, don't go near that thing as much as possible.] **

Even the Welsh Dragon warned his host with cautious tone.

"This is bad… You guys, don't lay your fingers on that giant wolf! Especially Ise, keep your distance!" Azazel ordered with alarmed and nervous tone.

"Seriously, sensei! What the hell is that thing?" Issei asked in return.

"…Fenrir." Azazel replied, rather, he let that one word slipped from his mouth.

Everyone's eyes widened upon recognition of the name. Yuuto and Rias were particularly familiar with the name Fenrir. "…This is really, really bad."

Azazel then turned to Issei once again. "Ise, that is one of the worst and strongest creatures! It possesses the fangs that can kill even a god! Those fangs can definitely pierce through the scales of the toughest dragons as well, even your dragon armor!"

Issei could not help but swallow a lump as he still paid his full attention towards the Fenrir for any possible movements. "Heh, this wolf is definitely a Longinus material…" the boy muttered under his breath.

"That's right. You should be careful. This one is among the highest class of the worst monsters that I have created. After all, this one's fangs are something that can kill any god. I haven't tried it, but it should be effective against gods from other religions. It can give mortal wounds whether you are a high-class devil or even a legendary dragon." Loki explained while patting the god-devouring wolf.

Fenrir, the god-slaying wolf, the monstrous beast that had been prophesized to kill Odin during the Norse's end of days, Ragnarok. According to legends and old scriptures, due to the gods' knowledge of prophecies foretelling great trouble from Fenrir and his rapid growth, the gods bounded him, and as a result Fenrir bit off the right hand of the god Týr, the Norse God of War. From that story alone, all pantheons who heard the name Fenrir had acknowledged that the wolf, son of Loki was one of the strongest beings in the world. And it seemed that at some point later on, Loki had somehow severed Fenrir's bindings and prepared his plans to kill Odin as soon as he got a hold of the information about alliance.

"I honestly didn't want to use Fenrir's fangs on those who are not from Norse, but I believe this child needs to taste a new kind of blood for the sake of his experience." The Evil God then turned his gaze towards Rias. "The blood relative of Satan… I believe her blood will be a good treat for Fenrir here."

Issei's eyes went wide at what the Evil God intended to do towards his master.

_He was aiming for Rias Gremory._

"…Kill her."

Time seemed to slow down when Loki gave out the order. Despite the words that had come out from Loki's mouth, Issei's mind was still processing of the thing that had begun to dread him the most.

_He ordered the god-devouring wolf to kill her._

The legendary wolf then unleashed a loud howl under the dark night sky.

_Fenrir is going to kill Rias._

The wolf had already moved like a gust of wind towards the Gremory heiress, whom would probably not even know what had hit her by the time Fenrir had done with her.

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!_

_BA-BUMP._

oXo

Meanwhile inside Issei's soul, Ddraig quickly turned his head towards the source of that familiar pulsing noise.

_BA-BUMP! _

**[What the fu-!?]**

It hit the dragon so fast that he could not react properly, but the dragon felt a massive wave of colourful flame just washed over him, the soul of his past possessors, and the eight mutation evil pieces inside Issei's soul.

oXo

"LEAVE HER ALOOOOOOONE!"

With furious anger in his tone and the irises of his eyes seemed to be _flaring_; Issei, donned in his Scale Mail mustered all of his power into his speed and made his way towards the path-line of the charging Fenrir. The wolf had its fangs and claws ready to rip Rias' body apart, while the girl was attempting to fly away backwards in order to evade, but before the beast, her speed was no different than a snail's.

For beings who were moving at immense speed like Fenrir, who was about to pounce at Rias, and Issei, who _desperately_ wanted to protect Rias from getting hurt, everything around them almost stopped moving.

* * *

When the Red Dragon Emperor roared those words, Fenrir suddenly felt something _terrifying_ was coming at him. The wolf picked up the scent that was heading towards him, and it recognized the signature as the dragon's, the wolf had remembered its scent all the way back when the wolf was measuring up its father's foes.

The wolf's hair was completely rigid, frozen in fear; and for the first time, the wolf did not dare to turn its head and confirmed what was coming to it. However, the beast's curiosity won over, and upon turning its gaze towards its…. 'attacker', the wolf's eyes widened in terror.

That thing was no dragon. It was…. Something else.

It was something far greater, greater than the god-devouring wolf, and possibly even greater than the god itself. Clad in red, its body that was speeding at his direction, particularly its clenched fists were screaming DEATH all over it.

At that moment, Fenrir's mind went haywire. While possessing a certain level of human intelligence, the wolf's brain to process information was completely jumbled with unadulterated fear and survival instinct.

**_WhatisthatThatisnodragonThatisnodevilThatisnohumanThatisnogodIt'sdangerousdangerousdangerousdangerdangerndangerdangerhavetogetawaygetawaygetawaygetawaygetawaygetaway… _**

**_GET AWAAAAY!_**

The wolf used all the strength it could muster to stop its body from moving, contracting and flexing its muscles and bones of its limbs as much as it could to mobilize and maneuver its body in order to escape its incoming doom.

By the time Fenrir just managed to pull away its body from Rias, Issei had already arrived within range and threw his fist forward. The boy's knuckle just brushed over the wolf's skin under the thick ash-grey fur, and what happened afterwards would be (most likely) forever engraved in everyone's memory.

WOOOOOOSSSHH!

"KYAAH!" Rias had to shield herself when she was met with powerful blast of wind and shockwave, while Fenrir was letting out a painful whine as its massive body was flipped high to the air like a rag-doll.

"Fenrir!"

Everyone else, including Loki, who was barely able to catch the wolf in mid-air via magic, had to cover themselves from the incoming shockwave that was resulted from whatever Issei did in his attack, and when they regained their vision, everybody could not believe what they saw.

At the direction where Issei's fist was launched at, the surrounding clouds had completely blown away, creating a straight and clear path as the clouds were still moving away from the empty space in the sky. The path kept going all the way until the horizon.

Scientifically and hypothetically speaking, for an object or something to be able to render clouds to clear away in the sky like that, it requires at least the speed of Mach 4, which is four times the speed of sound, to achieve a similar feat as what just occurred before the Occult Research Club, Rossweisse, Odin, Azazel, Baraqiel, as well as Loki.

And speaking of the Evil God, Loki took few seconds to gaze upon Issei's handiwork, and when he turned his eyes to Fenrir, the wolf was in grievous state where there was a deep, nasty gash on its torso, bloods were leaking out profusely. The canine itself was heaving, desperately clinging to life.

Issei on the other hand, retracted his fist and let out a breath, thinking that he had prevented the worst-case scenario. The boy did not bother to look at his handiwork as he immediately turned to his master instead. "Are you alright-!?"

The boy's eyes widened as something else happened to his body.

oXo

**[What the hell was that!?]**

Ddraig, startled out of his wits, was darting his head left and right as the wave immediately disappeared as fast as it came upon him. The rest of the past possessors were still restless while they gradually calming down. The evil pieces however, showing some static and began to crackle in electricity.

Ddraig found himself out from the wave of fire into a wave of what appeared into a scarlet storm as all the eight evil pieces were emitting and firing electricity everywhere like generators being overloaded.

**[Aw, what the fuck now!?]**

oXo

"AAAAAARRGHH!"

Issei suddenly screamed in pain, the boy felt like his body, from head to toe, was being burned alive, torn apart, and electrocuted from the inside out. He could barely breath, he felt like puking, and his Scale Mail crumbled apart, Boosted Gear vanished, letting his body to immediately fall freely to the earth.

"ISE!" Rias, followed by Akeno, did not waste any time as the two great ladies quickly dived down and caught Issei's falling body. When Rias examined the boy in her arms, Issei was grunting, wheezing and clutching his seemingly hurting body.

"UUUUGHH…! GRRRHHH…!" Issei grunted as his body was having a seizure, sweats were profusely soaking his skin along with his clothes as his body was like burning hot, and Rias and Akeno could have sworn that Issei's muscles were so tense that veins and nerves were visible on his skin.

"Ise, what's wrong!? ISE!" Rias tried her best to calm her servant down, but Issei only toned down his grunt into pained wheezing while his entire body was obviously still hurting all over.

"Asia!" Rias called out, and on cue, Asia, being escorted by Xenovia, approached them and the Bishop quickly put her Twilight Healing to work.

"Ise-san?! What is happening to him?" Asia asked as her tears started to form up. The Twilight Healing had begun to heal and fix all sorts of possible damage inflicted on Issei's body, but there was one problem: there was no injuries to begin with.

Issei finally took several deep breaths and tried to talk in order to calm his friends down. Pushing down the massive pain and ache that had been torturing him for the past minute, Issei gave out a weak smile.

"I… I'm alright… I'm okay now… Thanks, Asia, everyone." Issei said between heavy breaths.

"…Who are you?"

Everyone looked at the one who asked the question. Loki was wearing an incredulous expression with a hint of anger laced on. The Evil God had just finished teleporting the heavily wounded Fenrir somewhere else.

"Even if you are the Red Dragon Emperor, you're not supposed to have enough power to defeat my Fenrir. Just who… What are you?" the question had a hint of curiosity as well. Fenrir was Loki's most prized possession, his trump card to kill Odin and eventually usurp the throne as the new King of Asgard. "Boy, what is your name?"

"It's Hyoudou…. Hyoudou Issei." Issei managed to reply while maintaining a glare.

One minute passed, and nobody said a word until Loki began to giggle, and soon his giggles turned into a full-blown laughter. "FUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Everyone was just nerved at the Loki's laughter despite the bizarre development. The laugh that escaped the Evil God contained what it appeared to be a mixture of amusement, surprise, and wonder.

"Oh, truly! One surprise after another!" Loki finally spoke out between the laughs. "The new champion of Valhalla has a son! The Red Dragon Emperor, nonetheless! Even my precious Fenrir had been badly injured, I can't help but seeing some merit in tonight's event!"

Everyone from alliance was sure as hell not enjoying this. Loki's laugh could mean that the Evil God still had something else under his sleeve. Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor, did not seem to be able to fight for the time being, which left Azazel, Baraqiel, Rossweisse, Odin and the Occult Research Club to be the only ones to fight the Evil God. With one of their biggest guns (Issei) succumbing into some unknown condition, there was no telling what would happen next if the fight went on.

Loki on the other hand, was contemplating whether to retreat or to push his attack. Both sides were on similar condition; while his trump card would be out of commission for a while, but it was not like he did not prepare something else. In addition, the people from alliance were probably still shaken from what had occurred on their prized Red Dragon Emperor, who appeared would not be able to fight for quite sometime.

"Well, I sure didn't see this coming."

Before Loki could have decided his next course of action, another voice joined the fray. Everyone looked up and they saw a figure clad in white armor equipped with wings of light.

"…Vali?"

Vali Lucifer, the White Dragon Emperor, descended down between Loki and the alliance and turned to Issei. "Hyoudou Issei…. That was quite something you did earlier… But never-mind that. Can you still fight?"

Issei only gave a smirk as he tried to regain his balance. "Heh… Of course I-!" only to wince in pain again and supported by Rias and Asia.

"Wow, it seems the Red Dragon Emperor is in a really bad shape here." Bikou, who was riding a golden cloud, also appeared next to Vali.

"My, my, if it's not the Vanishing Dragon." Loki greeted, the amusement never left his tone.

"How do you do, Evil God Loki." Vali returned the courtesy. "I'm the White Dragon Emperor Vali. I came here to eliminate you."

Loki only grinned at Vali's declaration of war. "…This has been a satisfying opening act for tonight, but unfortunately, I'm afraid that I have to withdraw." Even Loki was not that stupid to take on the Strongest White Dragon Emperor and the alliance while his most powerful pawn had been taken out of commission. The reserve that he had prepared would not be enough if there was another Heavenly Dragon to fight with. "However! On the day where the gods will meet in this country, I shall come here once again! Odin, next time I and rejuvenated Fenrir will definitely tear your throat off your head!"

With that declaration, Loki disappeared into a space distortion. At the same time, Issei finally lost his consciousness, succumbing into the extreme pain and fatigue.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a certain country of the east, deep in the mountains, far away from human civilization, there was a natural hot spring, hidden from plain sight as its location was in the deep forest of trees and bamboos. Some monkeys were spotted loitering around the spring, peeking and observing from tall trees, as there was an occupant inside. In the hot spring, a figure of a bald man was dipping his body inside the steamy fresh water as he enjoyed the warmth and the heat permeating into his body, washing away his accumulated stress.

Saitama let out a soft breath as he sunk his nude body deeper into the water until his mouth was a bit of his nose was dipped in the water, playfully made some bubbles with his breath in the process.

"This is really nostalgic, isn't it?"

The man stopped his bubbles and raised his head out of water, his ever-plain face scanned around the area when he found that he was not alone.

"Back in the day, all of us will be enjoying ourselves in this hot spring after days of hard work and battles."

At the other end of the spring, a figure's shadow could be seen within the steam of the hot water. Saitama blinked as he kept staring at the figure, until the steam somehow cleared up slowly, revealing a man with short black hair and charismatic face. The man then looked at Saitama eye-to-eye as his smile widened ever so slightly.

"It's good to see you again, Saitama."

Saitama's expression did not change one bit as he only nodded in greeting.

"…Cao Cao."

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And there you have it! Please review what you think about…. Well, if I did justice in this chapter: the twist, development, conversation, narration, exposition, fighting scenes, etc.!**

**And let me point out few things, so put down your flamethrowers: **

**I never toned down Saitama's strength or anything. In fact, I'm trying to create fights, conflicts and other events where Saitama's immeasurable strength and power alone won't be enough to solve them.**

**If you think that Fenrir was supposed to be dead in this chapter, then too bad. First reason, Issei's power level is still far below Saitama and Fenrir is by no means any sort of weakling beast/push-over. Second reason, I personally like Fenrir and I can't bring myself to kill-off such a likeable character.**

**And about Issei… Well, simply put that I plan to have Issei 'surpassing' Saitama in a way, thus I decided to make his case of 'awakening' to be worse than Saitama. **

**Another heads-up, as well as a little spoilers. For this arc, I'll be more focusing on the progress between Akeno and Baraqiel, as well as how things will end up between Saitama and Rossweisse. Since there is no nonsense such as bilingual or any kind of telepathic ability, I have to think extra hard to figure out how Issei will mend the relationship between the father and daughter.**

**That will be all. Ahsoei, over and out. **


	32. Ragnarok (III)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**I just want to say again that this story of mine contains OOC elements. And there was one guest reviewer said that I should do some math about power levels and stuff. I get the point, however, since when did calculations apply to **_**the**_** One-Punch Man? Just saying. Anyway, onward with the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 31: Ragnarok (III) – Prelude to Battle**

_(Flashback, Asgard)_

It was at late night in the main palace of Asgard. The moon and stars were shining the dark sky, illuminating the land beneath them with bluish white light. Sounds of music and revels could be heard vaguely across the night sky. At one of balconies of the palace, Saitama was standing alone; while he was not physically tired, what happened to him earlier with a certain battle maiden had taken some toll on his sanity, as a sigh escaped Saitama's mouth.

"Enjoying the night?"

Saitama turned to see a man with light blue hair behind him. Judging from the blue jewel embedded on his forehead and his ornate robe, Saitama assumed that the stranger before him was another Asgardian.

"Yeah, but… Um… Have we met?" Saitama asked politely.

The man only snorted and chuckled softly at Saitama's response. "Now where are my manners? I am Loki, a pleasure to be your acquaintance."

At the Evil God's introduction, Saitama also returned the gesture. "The name's Saitama, nice to meet you too."

"Why, of course." Loki said as if he had known Saitama's name all along. "Everyone has known about the man who had been deemed worthy to wield the Mjolnir."

Saitama only shrugged at Loki's words. Ever since the day when Saitama had lifted up the Thunder God's hammer, everybody in Asgard had been hailing him as the new champion of Valhalla. Apparently, being able to lift up that hammer was quite a big deal, and not everyone could even make Thor's hammer to budge even an inch.

"_Heh, I sure have become a lot more popular ever since I come to this world…"_ Saitama mused as he compared his current life-style with his past one.

"Well, did you also enjoy the night, Loki?" Saitama asked back to Loki.

"I'd be lying if I said I did." Loki replied. "While I'd been invited, apparently everyone made it clear that I'm not my father's favourite."

"Oh… Sorry to hear that." Saitama replied awkwardly.

"Please, don't be." Loki replied dismissively before he took a quick glance around him. "I… thought that you're with Odin's newest servant girl. Where is she?"

Saitama scratched his cheek as he darted his gaze nervously, as a bead of sweat trailing down his temple. "Err…. In one of the rooms, I think. She passed out from too much drinking." Saitama replied as he ended up recalling the awkward moment that just happened between him and the Valkyrie.

Loki blinked at Saitama's behaviour but he chose not to dwell much into it. After all, he had a more important matter to address. "Tell me, Saitama. I heard that you are…. A hero. Why did you become one in the first place?"

Saitama stare at Loki in silence for few moments. "…It's a hobby." The man replied just like how he usually answered that question.

Saitama expected Loki to reply with some snarky or sarcastic remarks, anything that implied that the god did not take him seriously. However, the man was wrong when Loki only blinked for couple of times before sighing. "…I think I can understand why you, a mortal, could lift up Thor's Mjolnir… Or more importantly…" However, Loki then hardened his stare towards the man. "Are you even a mortal human to begin with?"

Saitama only stared impassively in return and silence fell on the two on that night. The god and the mortal simply stared at each other with measuring gaze, though the measuring gaze was more likely from the former. The Evil God of Mischief found that either Saitama was being honest, or that Saitama was just that good in maintaining his poker face.

After a while, it was Loki to be the first breaking the silence. "…So you are telling me that you became a hero simply because you like being one?"

Saitama blinked before replying with a shrug. "…Yeah, you can say that."

"…I see." Loki then turned his gaze towards the night sky. "Saitama, do you know how legends of heroes work?"

Saitama raised his eyebrows before simply replied. "…The hero defeats the bad guy and get praised by the people over time?"

Loki only shook his head as he let out another sigh. "It's not that simple, my bald friend."

Saitama narrowed his twitching eyes at the bald remark, but he chose to listen nonetheless.

"You see here, people will wish for heroes when there is a conflict like war, famine, terror, catastrophe…" Loki began. "And let's say that you want to be an eternal hero, forever remained in people's hearts and the course of history…" then Loki's lips turned up into a smirk. "You need an eternal struggle and battle… Like Ragnarok, for example."

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

"How long has it been? Five? Six years?" The man called Cao Cao casually asked to Saitama as he enjoyed the hot water.

"Long enough." Saitama simply replied with a shrug.

"You seem to be doing well." Cao Cao spoke again.

"So do you."

"We heard that you've become a part of this new alliance of Three Great Powers."

"…Yeah, kind of." This time, Saitama then started to look at his surroundings.

"...If you expect Jeanne to suddenly jump out of nowhere and join us here, I'm afraid that you'd be disappointed." Cao Cao quickly commented as if he was reading Saitama's mind. "…After all, I believe you hurt her feelings."

Saitama only sighed at the comment. "…You, or rather, everybody should've known that Jeanne is always being a kid."

"And kids still have feelings." Cao Cao quickly countered.

"…Are you really on your own here?" Saitama asked back, changing the subject while his gaze was still darting around every now and then.

In response, Cao Cao only gestured his hands at his surroundings with a smirk on his face. Saitama blinked, and when he looked more carefully, the surrounding view had not been obscured by _steam only_.

"Okay…. At least I know that Georg is around." Saitama commented at the mist mixed with steam around him.

"As well as Leonardo, for your information." Cao Cao added.

"Hmm…" Saitama turned his gaze back to Cao Cao again. "Alright, I'll go to the point. What are you planning, Cao Cao?"

"What do you mean… _exactly_?" The young man only quirked his eyebrows at the question.

"You know what I mean." Saitama's tone had gone serious. "All the attacks with all of your new recruits with Sacred Gears. They're all yours, right?"

Cao Cao closed his eyes for a second before he looked straight to Saitama with confidence. "…Yes, I'm the one behind them all."

Saitama blinked, as the answer was not something he expected right off the bat. "….I honestly thought you'll dodge the question a bit longer."

"Why should I?" Cao Cao replied. "After all, consider this my declaration of war."

Saitama only let out a silent breath. "…So you still don't get it, do you? I've told you that what you're doing here-"

"No, you're the one who still doesn't get it." Cao Cao interrupted. "'Making enemy out of everyone'? Yes, you have made your point all those years ago." All playfulness had disappeared from the atmosphere around him.

"Exactly, and you're still being an idiot." Saitama pressed on.

"You also said the our greatest power as human beings is that we can change ourselves on our own_._ And this is what will happen; we will show those devils, gods and even dragons alike that us mankind is not their inferior, that we can surpass them."

"And I'm pretty sure that this is not the way you should do it." Saitama tried to reason.

"It's easy for you to say. You, the one who possess enough power and strength to go toe-to-toe against the whole world, yet you still left us behind on that very day." Cao Cao said with slight venom laced in his tone.

Saitama did not say anything in return for a while before opening his mouth again. "…Just… Just give it up, Cao Cao. You're not gonna win."

"…Tell me, Saitama. What is your definition of us winning and losing?" Cao Cao replied with another question.

This time, Saitama chose to remain silent and kept his gaze at Cao Cao, who continued speaking. "We don't have to necessarily defeat you in order to win. Our goal is… not as petty as you think. We're not that reckless to confront every single pantheon in this world…. At least not intentionally." The Chinese descend then turned towards the sky. "Our goal… Our current aim, is something beyond this dimension."

Saitama blinked at the hidden meaning behind Cao Cao's words. However, before the former could have said anything, the latter had already stepped out from the water and began to put on his clothes. "That's all I have to say. The next time we meet will be on the battlefield, Saitama."

"You know that I'm gonna stop you here and now, don't you?" Saitama also stood up, getting out from the water.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, big guy." Cao Cao taunted. "Apparently, to increase the odds of our plan succeeding, we have to conduct some experiment here."

Saitama then quirked his eyebrows. "…And?"

In response, Cao Cao only jerked his head, implying Saitama to look around, and the latter found shadows of horde of monsters coming out from the mist. "…Right, Leonardo is also here." Saitama impassively regarded the monsters surrounding the hot spring.

"Please enjoy the spring while playing with these fellows. We'll meet again, Saitama."

After Cao Cao said his farewells, Saitama turned his eyes back towards the last position where the young man was at, only to see that the man was no longer around. The bald hero only sighed and the monsters jumped and lounged at him simultaneously.

* * *

Issei opened his eyes and found himself to be sleeping in his bedroom. He woke up and took several deep breaths, trying to get the feel of his body as well as remembering the events that had occurred. The last thing he remembered was Loki's ambush, a giant wolf tried to kill Rias, he attacking the wolf, and that immense pain. He could vaguely recall Vali's arrival, but the rest was a blank.

Issei looked at his body and he felt…. Strange, as if his body was not there. Perhaps it was the after effect of the eye-blinding pain that inflicted him before. Issei then glanced at both of his hands, clenching his fists for couple of times.

"Ddraig? Are you there?" Issei tapped into his Boosted Gear.

_**[Glad to have you back.]**_

"…_What happened? How's everyone? What about Loki?"_

_**[Calm down. Ask questions one by one. Or rather, I think it's supposed to be me questioning you. Partner, what the hell was that?]**_

"…_What the hell was what?"_

_**[The stunt you pulled earlier on Fenrir! Did you see that everyone's jaw dropped at what you did back there?]**_

"_I.. I don't know." _Issei replied. _"…I only recall… That Rias was in danger and… that scared the hell out of me."_

_**[….Is that so?] **_Ddraig said after a moment of silence._** [And you really had no idea of what happened with you back then?]**_

"_Beats the hell outta me."_

_**[How's your body? How are you feeling?]**_

"_I feel fine. A bit light-headed, but I'm gonna go back to top-shape after few minutes."_

_**[…I see.]**_ Ddraig finished with resignation tone. _**[Well, I guess there's nothing we can do for now. Just make sure to be careful next time. Now, you should go and meet the others downstairs]**_

The Welsh Dragon had said so, but Ddraig still felt edgy as he would look around cautiously within the confine of Issei's soul. Even now, the dragon could sense the lingering presence of the _power_, whatever it was. Who knew when this _power_ would suddenly burst out again, eliciting some more violent rebound to his host's body.

oXo

When Issei opened the door to the basement where everyone was having a meeting, Issei was met with Asia, who seemed to about to open the door as well.

"Ise-san!" it only took a second for the Bishop to immediately lounge herself to hug her boyfriend.

"Ise!" Everybody from Gremory group plus Irina also stood up to approach the boy.

"Hey, everyone." The boy greeted back while returning Asia's hug. He saw that the Student Council was also present in the meeting. "…And it's good to see you again, Asia." He said as he gently stroke Asia's hair before pressed his lips on top of her head. The girl in his arms simply smiled blissfully at the administration.

"You really made us worried, you know that?" Rias chided her pawn, but relief was obviously written on her face.

"Yeah. I'm sorry about that. I'm fine now, though…." Issei trailed when his eyes landed on one particular individual in the room. "…Why is Vali team sitting in this room?"

"'Sup, Red Dragon Emperor?" Bikou cheerily greeted, while Vali only smirked and Arthur bowed respectfully. Although Issei flinched when his eyes met with Kuroka, who was giving a mild glare.

_**[Um…]**_ Ddraig then made a contact in Issei's mind. _**[Sorry, I forgot to mention that the White One and his team just offered a truce for this battle]**_

Issei only sighed at the late information, and then he was approached by Azazel. "Alright, I'll explain. But we don't have much time, so listen carefully."

To put it simply, Issei learned that not only they were facing a god-level opponent, the god-devouring wolf along side him was an opponent with a power on par with Two Heavenly Dragons during their prime. Issei might had inflicted some significant damage on it, but it was better to assume that Fenrir would return in 100% capacity by the time Loki struck again.

It was also the part where Vali team got in the picture, much to everyone's dissatisfaction. With a god-level opponent and a legendary beast that was on par with a heavenly dragon, both Red and White Dragon Emperor would have to join forces if they wanted to reduce any potential casualties in the upcoming battle. What made Vali's proposal to be rather infuriating was the fact that the truce offering was also laced with a threat; should the alliance refused Vali team's 'generous offer', the team would crash the battle with Loki, which could potentially turn the current conflict into a whole new cluster-fuck for everyone. At least Vali had confirmed that his team had, and did not intend to involve themselves with the Hero Faction if they could help it. Of course, using the Juggernaut Drive was out of question.

Other pantheons that were parts of the alliance would not be able to send any sort of back-up because their hands were already full with the relentless assaults and attacks by Sacred Gear wielders of Hero Faction.

"Okay, I understand the situation…" Issei said with a grim tone. He seemed to want to say something, but he found himself hesitating for a moment before scoffing. "…I can't believe I'm saying this, but what about that baldy? Where's Saitama now?"

If Issei was willing to ask his father for help, it just showed how dangerous the current problem everyone was facing at the moment.

Azazel sighed as he showed his cell-phone. "That's the thing. We still cannot reach Saitama; he's not answering our calls. We've tried to send a message, but there's no reply whatsoever, nor there is any indication that he's receiving our message by now."

"…Well, then what are we gonna do now?" Issei asked.

"Just rest up and be sure that you'll be on your top form… Wait a minute." Azazel then paused. "I almost forgot. You actually almost killed Fenrir back there. Can you do that again?"

Everyone then remembered the stunt that Issei pulled at the god-devouring wolf, and they proceeded to stare at Issei expectantly, whom was simply staring at his fist. "I…. I don't know."

"And I won't allow it." Rias stated. "Have you forgotten about what his body had become after he pulled that stunt before?" the Crimson-haired Ruin Princess glared at the fallen angel governor.

Azazel only regarded Rias carefully for a moment before he returned to Issei again. "Did you remember of what happened to you?"

"I had a talk with Ddraig earlier." Issei replied. "He said… When I charged towards Fenrir… That _power_ just suddenly burst out, enveloping my soul before it immediately disappeared."

"Hmm…. This is troubling." Azazel commented grimly. "Oh, well… We'll have to approach that issue later. Right now, I'm planning to ask a certain someone about the counter measure against Loki and Fenrir."

"A counter measure?"

"Yeah, there's someone who knows our enemies very well. So I will ask him some information."

"And who is this person?" Issei asked.

Azazel then smirked. "One of the Five Great Dragon Kings – The Sleeping Dragon, Midgardsormr."

Everyone blinked and letting out a collective 'oh', seemingly not expecting to have a dragon king aiding them.

"Well, that's a given. But how are we going to have him talk to us? Will he even respond to our call?" Vali put in his two-cents in the conversation.

"We will open the dragon gate with the Two Heavenly dragons, the power of the Dragon King Fafnir…" Azazel then showed his Downfall Dragon Spear. "Vritra, and Tannin." Azazel referred the former by glancing at Saji. "We will just summon Midgardsormr's consciousness over there. His actual body is sleeping in the depths of the ocean in North Europe."

All of the other dragon power – users nodded in understanding, except Saji. "Um… Am I also included? I mean, I feel really out of place; everyone else are monsters…"

"You're still a factor needed to summon the Sleeping Dragon." Azazel replied. "Just leave the hard parts to me and the two Heavenly Dragons and hold on with Tannin until I get in contact." The Scapegoat then took his leave. "For now I'll talk to Shemhazai about other counter measures. You guys remain in stand-by until I come back. Come on, Baraqiel."

As the two fallen angels left the room, the remaining occupants were The Occult Research Club, Student Council, and Vali team.

"Red Dragon Emperor!" Bikou suddenly called out, causing Issei to look at him. "Can I go to the indoor pool below this floor?"

Issei only blinked at the unexpected request. However, before he could have said anything else, Rias had beaten him into the punch. "This house belongs to me and the Red Dragon Emperor Hyoudou Issei. I won't allow you to do as you please."

"Now, now, come on…"

Before Bikou could have reasoned further, Issei placed his hand on Rias' shoulder in placating manner, sent her a reassuring smile before turning to Bikou. "I don't see why not."

"Ise-!" Rias was about to protest, but Issei cut her off.

"It's fine, isn't it? After all, I do trust them." Issei maintained his smile at the team, who actually did not expect such a degree of trust so quickly. "So… Yeah, Bikou. Go knock yourself out. Just don't make any mess down there."

"Gee, thanks!" Bikou quickly left the room.

Rias wanted to stop him, but since the monkey youkai had already gone, she could only looked back and forth between Issei and Vali team, before releasing a resignation sigh, deciding to believe in her beloved Pawn for the time being. The said pawn then caught Irina's voice in the room.

"So this is the last Excalibur! Amazing!"

Irina, Yuuto and Xenovia had already mingled easily enough and were discussing with Arthur about the Excalibur. The descendant of the King of Britain was showing his Excalibur Ruler. "Yes. Vali got information from his personal connections, and when we compared it to the scroll passed in my family, we were able to find it. Though the location of it is a secret."

When Issei was watching the discussion between sword-wielders, Issei felt the sleeve of his clothes was being tugged. He turned to see Asia was looking hesitantly between him and Vali.

Seeing what his girlfriend intended to do, Issei smiled softly and he gently guided Asia towards Vali, who was reading some random book alone at the corner of the room.

"Vali, can I have a second?" Issei asked as he and Asia stood in front of the White Dragon Emperor.

"What is it, Hyoudou Issei?" the silver haired teen turned his gaze from his book.

Issei then urged Asia, and the latter gathered her courage to take a step forward. "Um… Thank you very much for saving me the other day." She bowed shyly, but she was able to send her point across, loud and clear.

Vali only regarded Asia for a second before he returned to read his book. "…That's fine. I only did it on a whim. Don't worry about it much."

Asia blinked at Vali's nonchalant answer, but when she saw Issei was smiling at her, she just could tell that everything was, and would be fine, thus she could not help but smile in return as well. Then, Issei sensed someone was approaching from his back, and when he turned around, his eyes were met with a pair of cat-like, hazel-gold orbs.

It was Kuroka with Koneko in tow. The latter's cautious gaze never left her older sister while the former was staring right to Issei's eyes with unreadable gaze. "…Nyan." The black-clad woman meowed with imperceptible smirk.

"Kuroka-san…" Issei greeted as he tried to keep his cool. After few moment of silence, Issei felt that he needed to speak what he was supposed to say for a long time. "Look, I'm really sorry about what happened in the underworl-!"

However, before Issei could have said anything, Kuroka had grabbed a fistful of hair on the back of his head and proceeded to slam his lips to her open mouth, much to everybody's surprise. Issei's mouth was still opened from the talking when their lips made contact, and Kuroka immediately used that opening to invade his mouth without a second thought.

Issei's mind was going haywire as he felt Kuroka's tongue exploring every inch of his palate and teeth. He tried to break free, but in addition of Kuroka's iron grip, the running sensation just froze his entire body. He did not know what Kuroka was trying to pull, but he somehow could tell that from Kuroka's oral administration, there were no tender butterfly kisses, there were no shy licks, there were no innocent probes; this was _most likely_ a complete and utter dominance of a kiss, meant for one purpose and one purpose alone: to satisfy and quench whatever Kuroka had been containing inside her. As her lips never left his, Issei could have sworn that the woman even bit his lower lip, breaking the skin and drawing blood between their conjoined mouths.

Finally, Kuroka relinquished her grip and lip-lock from Issei. The boy's face was completely flushed as he wiped his lips from any lingering fluids. He blinked at Kuroka first, whom was licking her lips, as if she was having an 'after-taste' of a meal. "Hmm…. You'll do just fine, nya~."

Then Issei turned to see all of his comrades, as well as everyone from Student Council, were sporting shell-shocked expressions on their faces. Asia in particular was on a verge of crying. The student council was sporting blushing looks of confusion, with some of them were rather disgusted. Saji, however, was kind of scared of Kuroka and absolutely jealous of Issei at the same time. The boy wanted to make a comment or retort, but the words just died on his trembling lips. Instead, he only let out a nervous chuckle.

"Err… Heheh." Issei awkwardly reacted before he turned back to Kuroka again. "Um….. Does this mean….?"

"No, you're not forgiven yet, nya." Kuroka immediately replied. "I'm just checking if you're able to… compensate."

Issei only darted his gaze around, feeling that the rate of awkwardness inside the room just reached a new level. "…..Care to explain?"

"You see, we Nekoshou are sort of on the verge of extinction, so procuring off-springs and children is essential for our survival, nya." Kuroka began. "My point is, if you want me to forgive you for what you've done to me before, I want you to make babies with me." Kuroka said with seductive face. "…And I always want a child of a dragon… Like yours for example, nya."

Everybody was silenced at Kuroka's demand. Issei only stared at Kuroka for a minute before he took a deep breath, carefully picking the words he was about to say. "…Before I can answer your demand, let me ask you this; have you asked Vali?"

"He turned me down. And does it matter, nya?" Kuroka countered. "And after what you've done to my body in the underworld, you're bound to take a responsibility, no?"

"Um… Sorry, bear with me a minute." Ignoring the elicited gasps from around him, Issei only took a glance at Vali, who raised his eyebrows at the gesture. "You turned a woman like her down?" Issei asked Vali while pointing his thumb at Kuroka, who quirked her eyebrow.

"…What if I did?" Vali furrowed his eyebrows in return.

"Oh, boy… Who would've thought that the Strongest White Dragon Emperor is swinging for another team…." Issei said with a slightly pale face. The comment had made Kuroka to snort and Arthur to smirk in amusement. Even the students from Kuoh Academy had to raise their eyebrows towards Vali, who had put his book away.

"That's rude, you know." Vali replied _calmly_. "Just to let you know, I'm definitely _not_ swinging for the other team. And as for why I refused Kuroka back then, it's because she's not my type."

Everybody, especially Issei, regarded Vali's answer for a moment. "So… She's not your type." The Red Dragon Emperor said to Vali while pointing his thumb on Kuroka, before he turned to the older Nekoshou. "…You're not his type."

Kuroka only raised her eyebrows at Issei's serious expression. The boy seemed was trying to make some kind of end-conclusion.

Issei then took another glance at Kuroka's appearance. Kuroka's charm was her seductive and bewitching nature, complemented with her voluptuous body. If Vali claimed that women like Kuroka were not his type, then it was only logical to think that Vali's type to be the opposite type of Kuroka: sweet, innocent and rather pure. And among the other females within the room they were in, there were two individuals who more or less fit the overall criteria.

Issei then immediately put his body between Asia and Vali. Kuroka, who was watching the action, suddenly widened her eyes in realization as she took one more look at the confused Asia Argento's appearance. She then quickly put Koneko behind her in protective manner. Both Kuroka and Issei were glaring heavily at the rather confused silver hair.

"I really have misjudged you, Vali-chin…" Kuroka hissed. "You stay away from Shirone, nya."

"Well played, Vali. Well played…" Issei also put in his two-cents. "'Only did it on a whim' my ass."

The rest of the occupants within the room were now throwing shocked and disgusted looks at Vali, whose eyes were now twitching in agitation before he stood up from his seat. Vali was inwardly thankful that Bikou had left the room earlier, otherwise the monkey would never let him to live it down. "Now, you look here-"

"Pardon the intrusion!"

Before things could have escalated even further, the door was opened and the cheerful Hyoudou Haruka entered the room with a tray of snacks and refreshments. "Here's your treats, everyone."

"Mom/Haruka-san?" Issei immediately turned his attention towards his mother, who was setting down the tray and began to serve the guests, who could only respond by accepting awkwardly.

While Rias and Sona were still trying to cope up at the sudden arrival of the human woman, the said woman caught the sight of Vali team members. "Oh, hello there…"

The team could only behave to their utmost; Vali put on a stoic expression, Kuroka was giving a friendly smile (she could have hidden herself with her powers, but she happened to be too late after busy scrutinizing Vali), while Arthur straightened up; when Haruka approached them. "Ise, I don't know you've made some new friends here." The mother addressed her son.

"Well, they're… more like acquaintances." Issei said while awkwardly darting around. "…Sorry, mom. Do you have a second? Excuse me, everyone." Issei then went out of the room with his mother in tow.

Once they were outside, Issei then began to address his mother. "Err… Mom, aren't you supposed to be enjoying yourself at Bali?"

It was an arranged trip, or to be precise, 'evacuation' during such chaotic and volatile period where the war with Khaos Brigade could have sparked at any moment. Due to Haruka's status as 'civilian', the Gremory group had agreed to keep her out of the war zone under pretence of vacation, at least until things blow over. As far as Issei had recalled, it was decided to send Haruka away to the 'safe zone' during the period of Odin's visit.

"Why, yes." Haruka replied. "I'm not sure if it was either Rias-chan's family or Azazel-san who's setting up this vacation, but it was very nice of them. But for me enjoying myself without my boys and family around? No, I'd rather stay here, thank you very much."

"Well, but this kind of vacation doesn't come every day, y'know? Why not might as well as enjoy it?" Issei tried to reason with his mother.

"Aw, but I prefer spending time here with you and your father…~" the mother whined.

When Issei was about to retort on his mother's childish behaviour, Rias then appeared behind Issei. "Look, Haruka-san-!"

"Shh… Shh…" much to both Issei and Rias un-expectation, Haruka's hand suddenly shot out and blocking Rias' eyes, while the woman herself was closing her own eyes. "Rias-chan, you're free to persuade me, but I more or less know how things work around here. I'd be very displeased if you're attempting to hypnotize me."

Behind Haruka's hand, Rias' eyes widened, surprised that Haruka was being perceptive. It was true; Rias' eyes were actually glowing, ready to 'convince' Haruka to take vacation out of the country. Issei himself was not sure how to react at the fact that his mother was aware about magic.

It was for a minute that Haruka asked. "Have you put it away… Whatever trick you're trying to pull on me?"

Rias decided to deactivate the magic in her eyes and she gently pulled Haruka's hand away from her face. "It's fine. You can open your eyes now, Haruka-san."

"Good." Haruka opened her eyes and nodded approvingly. "Well, I guess I'll take my leave. You can find me either in the kitchen or my room if you need me."

As the matriarch walked away, Issei and Rias simply stared at her until her figure was out of sight. The former then turned towards the latter. "I'll try talking to her later."

Rias only nodded before urging him back to the room, since Azazel's stand-by order remained standing.

* * *

It was some time later that Azazel returned, and he took Issei, Vali and Saji to prepare the ritual to summon the Sleeping Dragon. Upon arriving at the ritual site, everyone was greeted by Tannin, who had been requested to aid in the summoning as well.

"**White Dragon Emperor… The moment you show any slight of suspicious movement, I won't hesitate to tear you apart."** The Blaze Meteor Dragon warned Vali, who replied with bitter smile as everyone took their respective position. **"On another note, will he actually come? Even I only met him for two or three times."**

"He will have to respond if there are Two Heavenly Dragons calling him." Azazel replied while drawing a magic circle.

"You guys seemed worried. Is this dragon difficult to deal with?" Issei asked.

"**Midgardsormr is called Sleeping Dragon for a reason, Hyoudou Issei."** Tannin answered. **"He basically never moves; one of the creatures that only makes a move when the world has come to its end. Unless his role is needed, he will keep sleeping. Even if he did end up coming up to the surface at some times, he'd still be sleeping. He finally declared from several hundred years ago, that he would continue to sleep until the end of the world."**

Issei only nodded in understanding as Azazel had finished preparing the summoning circle. The participants then took their respective position on the fallen angel's instruction, then Azazel began to ritual.

Shallow lights then appeared, filling the line of the magic circle and ran through towards participant's spots. Issei's spot then glowed in red, Vali's glowed in white, Azazel's position glowed in golden colour, Saji's glowed in black while Tannin's glowed in purple.

_**[Each of them reflects the colour of each dragon.]**_

Ddraig explained about the dragon gate summoning to Issei. Dragon Gate is magic exclusive for dragons. It allows them to summon one of their own kind. However, for the dragon gate to work, one side has to send a call, while the other side has to respond to it. In this particular Dragon Gate ritual to summon Midgardsormr, Azazel, Issei, Saji and Vali were more like mediums while the dragons possessing them were the ones that took care the majority of the work.

_**[Just for your information, Tiamat's signature would be blue, and Yu-Long's would be green.]**_

It did not take long until a projection started to appear, showing an image of a massive, serpentine-like body. The projection kept expanding, causing Issei and Saji to widen their eyes at the sight.

The projection finally showed the largest dragon in existence, Midgardsormr - the Sleeping Dragon.

"It's huge!" Saji did not bother to hide his astonishment.

"Holy shit..." Issei himself could not help but amazed at the sheer size.

"**Midgardsormr is known as the largest dragon ever existed. His size is around five or six times of Great Red's own size."**

Issei then turned to Tannin. "Um, sorry. How big is Great Red again?"

Tannin blinked his eyes at Issei before replying. "…Ah, that's right. You're unconscious when Great Red appeared during the battle of the other day. If you ask me, I'd say…. Great Red is around 100 meters long."

Issei only blinked, taking the answer into his head before he dumbly nodded at the Sleeping Dragon. "…Okay."

Forget huge. This dragon was absolutely fucking _gigantic_.

However, everyone present found that the dragon they summoned was letting out a snoring sound. Just when Issei was about to question whether he was sleeping…

"**As I thought, he's sleeping."** Tannin sighed before calling out. **"Hey! Wake up, Midgardsormr!"**

"**Hn? Wha?"** Midgardsormr looked startled at the sudden interruption of his slumber. "**Hmm…. This is a nostalgic pulse of a dragon…."** He said with a wide yawn before blinking at Tannin. **"…If it isn't Tannin. Long time no see."**

Midgardsormr then looked around to sense more familiar presences. **"What's this? Even Ddraig and Albion are here, Fafnir and… Vritra too? Is this the end of the world?"**

"**No, it isn't."** Tannin replied. **"****We came here today because there are things we want to ask you so we summoned your consciousness to this place."**

"**Hnn….."** Midgardsormr fell asleep again, despite he was just awoke around a minute ago.

"And… He's asleep again." Issei gave a dry remark. Vali and Azazel only rolled their eyes while Saji nervously turned to Tannin, whose eyes were twitching.

"**Hey, dont's sleep!"** Tannin roared. **"Seriously! Both you and Yu-Long are such slackers that get on my nerves!"**

"**Right, right, Tannin… Hater."** Midgardsormr opened his eyes again. **"So, what is this that you want to ask me about?"**

"**I want to ask you about your father and brother."**

"His what and what?" Issei could not help but questioning his own hearing.

"Midgardsormr is basically Loki's spawn." Azazel explained. "His enormous power is matched by his gigantic body, but due to his lazy attitude, the Norse Gods didn't have any other choice but to order to sleep at the bottom of the ocean, at least until the end of the world was to come."

Issei nodded in understanding while Midgardsormr regarded Tannin's question.

"**So it's doggy and daddy…. Okay, I don't really care about those two anyway. Though, Tannin… tell me one thing."**

"**What is it?"**

"**Aren't Ddraig and Albion going to try killing each other?" **The Sleeping Dragon turned his eyes towards Issei and Vali.

"**No, they aren't. Currently they want to join forces to defeat Loki and Fenrir."** Tannin replied.

"**Hoo…. Now that's new; Two Heavenly Dragons put aside their differences to fight common enemy…."** Midgardsormr commented, amusement was shown in his gaze. **"Well, go back to business, doggy is more troublesome than daddy. You'd be a goner if you were bitten by his fangs, but he has a weakness. The magical chain Gleipnir created by the dwarves can capture him. You can use them to seal doggy's movements."**

Azazel was the one to reply. "We have looked into that. But apparently, the reports from the Norse said that Fenrir himself had broken those chains, so they didn't work."

"**Hmm…. It could be that daddy enhanced doggy. In that case, go ask ****the Dark-Elves living in the certain land of the Norse. If I'm not mistaken, their elder knows a technique that can enhance the magic residing within the items that dwarves created. I'll transmit the location once where the elder is living to the Sacred Gears of Ddraig and Albion."**

"Send the information to the White Dragon Emperor." Azazel pointed to Vali. "He'll be the one to do the negotiation with the elves and the dwarves. The Red One has to remain to hold the ford in case of ambush."

Issei blinked at Azazel's mentioned about ambush, but with fighting someone like Loki, one could never be too careful.

"Alright, I've received the information." Vali confirmed after double-checking with Albion. "Azazel, activate the holographic world map."

The fallen angel governor complied, and the two began to exchange information between each other and to their other allies as well. Tannin on the other hand, kept conversing with Midgardsormr.

"**So how do we deal with Loki?"** the dragon-turned-to devil asked.

"**Just use Mjolnir against him. That's all…"** the Sleeping Dragon replied dismissively.

"Hmm… So good old-fashioned frontal attack, huh?" Azazel surmised. "But will the Thunder God Thor lend his hammer? I don't know if that Odin can persuade him to do so."

"**That's where the dwarves and elves I mentioned earlier come to picture again."** The Midgard Serpent said again. **"They should've received the replica of Mjolnir from Odin. Though, speaking of Mjolnir…."**

The giant dragon paused for a second. **"….Even in my slumber, sometimes I'll hear a rumor or two… And the latest I heard is there's a human able to lift it up. Have you guys heard about it?"**

When everyone present heard about a human lifting up a divine weapon, Issei, Tannin and Vali's mind automatically thought of Saitama, and the three of them turned to Azazel, since the fallen angel was the one who had been interacting with Saitama a lot. The said fallen angel only shrugged with knowing smirk on his face. At the gesture, the other three somehow seemed not bothering to be surprised anymore.

"Eeh!? Seriously?!" Saji was the only one to be surprised, since the boy was the least knowledgeable about Saitama. "I don't know much about Mjolnir, but doesn't that hammer picks its own wielder? And while so far only gods could wield it, there's a human who could do that too!?"

"**Sheesh, chill out, Vritra's host. It's just some silly rumor; although I'm curious to meet this guy should the words to be true…. Anyway, do you guys want to ask anything else?"** the Sleeping Dragon asked with another yawn.

"That should be all. Thank you for your insight, Midgardsormr. They are really helpful." Azazel replied with grateful smile.

"**Nah, no problem. Talking like this is fun."** Midgardsormr replied pleasantly. **"Well, I'll be going back to bed then. Wake me up again if something happens."** The Sleeping Dragon said his farewells before his image disappeared.

"Well, you heard the man. Let's get to work." Azazel adjourned the gathering.

"**Speaking of what that Serpent* said earlier…."** Tannin then turned to Azazel. **"Azazel, is there any news about Saitama's whereabouts?"** Tannin seemed to be on the same train of thought about using Saitama's strength to their aid. The fallen angel only shook his head and the former dragon king only nodded while letting out a muted sigh.

That kind of man just had to be unavailable when he was needed the most.

* * *

It was the next morning where Issei happened to wake up a bit earlier than usual. The boy just finished his routine morning training and was heading to the kitchen to start preparing breakfast. The morning training went… with few hitches; Not only that he felt his routine training to be harder to do, the boy also found few strands of his hair were falling off his head. However, when he asked Ddraig about it, the Welsh Dragon stated that other than the oppressive presence of the _power_, everything was pretty much fine. Shrugging off the current issue to focus on the future battle with the Evil God of Norse, Issei headed towards the kitchen.

As he expected upon entering kitchen, Hyoudou Haruka was already working. Issei then remembered about the issue of keeping his mother out of the battlefield. He did not want to pester his mom to go out of country just at the beginning of the day, but considering the current circumstances, now was as good time as any. Taking a deep breath, Issei stepped into the kitchen.

"Good morning, mom." Issei greeted his mother with small smile.

"Oh, good morning, Ise." Haruka replied while looking pleasantly at her son, before she immediately returned to her cooking. "How are things going?"

"It's good." Issei replied and began to rummage through fridge and cupboard. While his mother was cooking toast, miso and other hot stuff, Issei would usually help in preparing the coffee, tea and other drinks for the morning.

First few moments were spent in comfortable silence as mother and son worked together in the kitchen. While both of them were not facing each other, Issei felt that he needed to talk, now or never. "Mom, I-"

"I'm not leaving, Ise." Haruka immediately replied. "Why do all of you want to kick me out so bad?" her voice sounded rather sad.

"We're not…." Issei paused, only to let out a small sigh before he turned to look at his mother's back. "We're trying to keep you safe. It's going to be dangerous around here."

"…Safe, huh?" Haruka commented flatly. "So you kids want me to stay safe and enjoy myself, while all of you, my family, going out towards a battlefield where you probably will never coming back from?!"

The boy was taken aback at the sudden outburst of his mother's tone. When the woman turned around, all signs of mirth had disappeared. Issei was now looking at his mother's expression, who was holding back her tears. "I might have gotten used to keep waiting for your father whenever he goes out to fight battles that are not even his to begin with…." The woman then took a deep breath. "But now you just have to follow your father's footsteps as well… You're really his son, always making me worry like this."

Issei honestly wanted to make a retort about following his father. But considering his father also fought supernatural forces from time to time, and what he had been doing with his friends were more or less the same thing, the boy decided to remain silent about it.

"Look, mom…." Issei finally spoke. "I know that this is dangerous, all of us do. But in the end, if we're not to do anything, everything will disappear, and we don't want that. Just as you don't want us to get hurt, we also don't want you to get caught in this either." He then walked closer towards his mother. "I can't promise you that we won't get hurt, but I can promise you that we'll always come back here alive. So… Please?" the boy finished with pleading tone, trying to meet his eyes with her mother's.

Haruka only replied by pulling her son into a gentle hug, which the boy automatically returned in kind. "You know, Saitama also said those kind of words when both of us were dating…" Haruka said with nostalgic smile. "He looked so cute back then, flustered and all after saying those cheesy lines…" the woman giggled.

Issei's eyes just twitched, awkwardness and aggravation were mixing in his mind. The boy felt that his own mother just ruined the warm atmosphere between them from earlier. "Err…? Mom, don't. Just…. Don't."

The Hyoudou matriarch only giggled again in return. "Ufufu… Well, I guess I have to that vacation for the time being." Haruka then moved away from her son. "However!"

Issei straightened up out of reflex when his mother's tone suddenly sounded commanding.

"When I return, I expect all of you to be all accounted for, behave yourselves and make sure that our home will stay in one piece! Do I make myself clear?" Haruka pointed her finger at her son.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" Issei saluted, not knowing why and how, just found himself to listen and obey his mother's every word.

"Good." Haruka then nodded his head with satisfied smile on her face. "Well, let's get back to breakfast. Go get that hot water. Everyone else will wake up soon at any moment."

As the mother and son returned to their chores, they did not realize someone had been standing outside of the kitchen, eavesdropping their whole conversation without letting _her_ presence to be known.

oXo

The rest of the morning was spent with Azazel's briefing to everyone who would actively participate in the coming battle against Loki. Issei was entrusted to wield the replica of the Mjolnir, the divine hammer that had been imbued with Thor's lightning and thunder; and the Red Dragon Emperor was now having a quick test-run on the said hammer.

"Whoa, whoa. You put too much aura in that thing. Keep it down."

Azazel provided his own supervision as Issei tried to pour his own aura into that hammer. After few more adjustments, the hammer's size had become smaller, and when Issei swung the hammer for few times, the boy still felt the hammer's weight was still too inconvenient to be used for battle. For the time being, Issei decided to use the Mjolnir replica as final resort; though Azazel suggested him to go Balance Breaker if the occasion arose.

Vali on the other hand, refused any sort of equipment as he would rather rely on his demonic and dragon powers alone, in the hope of mastering the power of the Heavenly Dragon in the future. The claim made Issei into another thinking about the issue within his soul, as per Ddraig had informed.

In the end, the strategy was basically to ambush and separate Loki from Fenrir, the Two Heavenly Dragons would take the former on at a different location, courtesy of Sitri-group's teleportation magic; while the rest of the team would use the magical chain Gleipnir to restraint Fenrir and gang up on the wolf.

"Alright, while we're waiting for the chain to be delivered from the dark elves…. Saji." Azazel then turned to Sona's pawn. "Since you have begun to tap into Vritra's true power, I need to train you, as well as making few more adjustments on your Sacred Gears. That way, you should be able to last longer in your Vritra form." Azazel then glanced at Sona. "Sona, I'll borrow this guy for a bit."

The Sitri heiress nodded. "That's fine by me, but where are you taking him?"

"To the Grigori's institute in the Underworld. All of my tools and equipment are in there." Azazel then turned to Saji again. "Saji, are you up for it?"

"I've taken harsh training from a dragon king and ultimate-class devil, Tannin-sama. I can take on whatever you have in store." Saji replied with confidence.

"Hahaha, that's the spirit! Let's get going ,then!" Azazel then left with Saji.

Issei and Vali, however, thought that whatever Azazel had in his laboratory might be more dangerous than Tannin's meteor flame. The former could only hope that Azazel did not end up killing Saji by accident.

oXo

As the stand-by order remained until the day to fight Loki came forth, Issei decided to spend some time in the VIP room. Upon entering, he was greeted by the sight of Vali sitting on one of the couches, reading a book.

The White Dragon Emperor only glanced at him and nodded, which Issei returned in kind and the boy took a sit on the opposite chair across from Vali. It only took seconds for awkward silence permeating the room. If the two young men felt the awkwardness, they did not show it as Issei only closed his eyes as if he were napping, while Vali remained focus on his reading.

Issei was the one to finally break the silence. "…Have you ever fought a god before?"

Vali looked up from his book for a second before returning to read. "…No, this is actually my first time fighting one before. Is it your first time to fight a god?" the silver haired teen returned the question.

"…Yeah, it is." Issei blandly replied.

An awkward silence once again filled the room. However, this one did not last as long as the previous one as Issei raised his question again. "Say, Vali… Why are you doing… What you're doing?"

Vali blinked at the question. However, as if he understood what his rival was insinuating, Vali only smirked under the cover of his book. "I simply find this world to be boring. That's why I seek for battles, and I'm happy with this joint-battle."

Issei only smiled while softly snorted in return. However, Vali then carried on. "Especially after meeting your father… It only fueled my will even further to become stronger than anyone…"

"Is that so? Then get in line." Vali raised his eyebrows at Issei's reply. "That baldy is mine to defeat."

Vali could not help but chuckled. "Fufufu, it certainly is strange… Not only they are fighting together against common enemy, The Two Heavenly Dragons are now competing over a mere human."

However, Vali's smile then dropped as he then stared at Issei. "But… I almost forgot to approach you about this…. What was really happening during your fight against Fenrir?"

The punch of Issei that managed to grievously wound Fenrir in a single blow. Vali knew that move too well; it was the move that stemmed from Saitama's strength, which allowed the man to stand above all of his adversaries so far.

"Like I said before, I have no idea." Issei replied. "Ddraig only told me something about un-godly fire-storm inside my soul when it happened."

"…. I see." Vali replied. "Perhaps you've been advised to this, but I'll say this again as your rival. You should tap into your Boosted Gear, and ask the Heavenly Dragon, as well as your predecessors to cooperate with you."

"…What?" that was the only thing that came from Issei, who blinked at Vali's advice.

"There are many new things that can be achieved when a Longinus possessor can master every secret of their power." Vali stated. "As far as I'm concerned, none of my own predecessors had bothered to master the power of the Vanishing Dragon, thus they had been living unfortunate and unfulfilling lives. But I won't end up like them." Vali's eyes then hardened. "I'll master the power within me, both my demonic power and draconic one, and I shall become the True White Dragon Emperor, the next strongest existence."

Issei took in Vali's words into his mind. Tapping into his Boosted Gear. Of course he had considered about mastering the power of the Red Dragon Emperor. However, with his whole new situation about Ddraig's testimony of some eldritch power inside him? Nobody ever said that Issei was completely helpless in that regard. He had the Welsh Dragon himself as his partner. Mastering the power of Red Dragon Emperor in order to control the mysterious power? That was definitely a must.

"Well, I guess I have to thank you for the advice." Issei replied with determined smile on his face. "But still, in the end, I'm going to surpass you as well."

Vali returned the gesture in kind. "We will see about that."

"Yes, yes. It certainly is wonderful. I can feel the youth from you two." A new voice suddenly entered the room.

Issei and Vali turned to see the Chief of Norse Gods entering the room. "The red and white of this generation are unique. The ones in the past were all wild horses. They rampaged in every location, they started the battle between the red and white selfishly while destroying the surroundings, and then died. They activated 'Juggernaut Drive' as they felt like it. Just think how many mountains and islands were blown away." Behind the elder god, Rossweisse was following dutifully.

"One of those dragons is the son of a hero, while the other is the son of a devil who is also a terrorist, which makes a very odd pairing, but you two are calmer than I thought." The Valkyrie put in her two cents. "I thought fighting each other immediately is the way of the Red and White Dragon Emperor."

Issei and Vali only smirked at Rossweisse's opinion. Odin then turned towards the former. "Tell me, Red Dragon Emperor. I heard that Saitama had gone missing. Is there any news about him?"

Everyone's expression turned grim at the question, albeit for (sort-of) different reasons. "…None so far. Azazel-sensei has begun a search-attempt and he will give us an update if Saitama gave any kind of sign… Or so he said."

"Hmm…. I see. This is troubling, indeed. Oh well, no need to worry about him. There's one more important question I want to ask you two." Odin stroke his beard for a second before he turned his gaze towards the teenage boys. "You two Heavenly Dragons… Which part do you like?"

"Excuse me?"

"What are you talking about?"

Issei and Vali were not sure at what Odin was getting at. The said elderly only gestured towards the every bodily angle of his own assistant. "The women's body part that you like? You two are men, there should be one or two body parts that you like in your woman."

The two Heavenly Dragons only turned to stare at Rossweisse, who had exasperated expression on her face, giving them some apologetic gesture. The two then stared at Odin again, who seemed eager to hear the answer, before the two turned to glance at each other. After few seconds of silently staring at each other, Issei and Vali nodded as they somehow arrived at the agreement to just get this quickly over and done with.

"...I don't take interest in those kinds of thing that much. If I had to choose then it would be the hip. I think the line from their waist to their hip is the part which symbolises the beauty of a woman." Vali voiced his opinion. Odin only hummed and nodded in understanding before everyone shifted their attentions to Issei.

"Err…." Issei contemplated as he imagined the girls around him; Asia, Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Xenovia and Irina. All of those girls had their own redeeming qualities, and Issei was utterly lost of what to say. Eyes? All of them were attractive. Face? All of them were beautiful in literally their own way. Not to mention, if he were to be blunt, all of them were absolutely sexy.

Then, he decided to narrow it down to his current girlfriend, Asia Argento. The boy obviously was well aware of how Asia managed to worm her way to his heart. However, thinking of what kind of person Odin was, could he give such a mundane answer like face, or eyes? Are those even what Odin wanted to hear? He could not give the same answer like Vali's, he could not make himself sound hypocritical, and if he were to give some easy, mundane text-book answer, Odin would likely to push the topic even further until he achieved some satisfying result.

After racking through his brains for few seconds, Issei arrived at one answer. "….Breast, I think?" The boy still could not understand how in the world he arrived at such answer.

Odin on the other hand, simply hummed and nodded in acknowledgement as he sagely rubbed his long beard. "….I see. The red one desires breast, while the white one longs for buttocks." Then, Odin sported some perverted look and he pointed respectively at the Two Heavenly Dragons.

He pointed at Issei. "The dragon that loves women's breasts, Chichiryuutei (Breast Dragon Emperor)." Then he pointed at Vali. "And the dragon that loves women's butts. That makes you Ketsuryuukou (Butt Dragon Emperor). Hmm…. Sound matching, no? Breasts and butts; two legendary dragons compete to prove which one is the best."

**{Divide!}**

**[Boost!]**

Issei and Vali were staring incredulously at Odin when their Longinus suddenly flared up into existence, startling the two and Rossweisse. The Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing did possess consciousness, but to unleash themselves without their wielder's permission? Something mush had happened with the Two Heavenly Dragons within them.

**{VALI! LET'S DONE THIS OLD MOTHERFUCKER IN! HOW DARE HE CALLING NAMES ON US, THE TWO HEAVENLY DRAGONS?!}**

**[YEAH! THIS SHITTY GEEZER CAN'T JUST TALK SHITS ABOUT TWO HEAVENLY DRAGONS OUT OF NOWHERE! FUCK THIS ALLIANCE AND ASGARD! LET'S SHOW THE BASTARD WHY TWO OF US ARE FEARED BY GODS AND DEMONS ALIKE!]**

Everyone in the room absolutely did not expect such curses and profanities to come out from the supposedly dignified Heavenly Dragons, as they watched the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing were pouring out massive draconic aura.

"Hey, hey…. Come on, Ddraig. Cool down for a second." Issei attempted to talk the rampaging dragon out.

"Albion, keep your calm. What happened with your lecture years ago about not giving in to taunts?" Vali also did the same as the dragons of respective Longinus kept roaring their wrath.

"Hohohoho, as I thought; young ones are really good." Odin laughed, did not seem to be at least intimidated by the raging voices of Heavenly Dragons.

"Lord Odin, what are you getting at?" Issei asked, while inwardly, he was still trying his best to placate Ddraig's wrath.

"Nothing much, just the good old me wanting to confirm that what makes the world goes around is not the wisdom of our old generations, but it's the possibility of the young and future generations." Odin replied as his eyes became sorrowful. "This so-called wisdom of ours is nothing more than mere pride, and this pride has given birth to Loki, and he's giving hardships and troubles to the young ones."

"Isn't it fine?" Issei suddenly replied. "Just take one step at a time, no biggie."

At Issei's reply, Odin only let out unreadable chuckles before he made his way out of the room with Rossweisse in tow. "As I thought, being young is the best. How stimulating…. True, very true, Hyoudou Issei."

* * *

Issei sat cross-legged in his bedroom as he entered zen state of meditation. Inside his mind, the boy was standing in the white space where Ddraig and his predecessors resided in his soul. Upon entering, he was greeted by the Welsh Dragon himself.

"Okay, so I'm here now." Issei looked around at the soul of his predecessors; all of them were sporting hollow expressions on their faces. He actually wanted to communicate with his predecessors in the hope of finding a new way to master the power of the Red Dragon Emperor, however, there was one thing that Issei had to address.

**[Are you ready?]** Ddraig asked nearby.

"Yeah." Issei nodded and he turned towards a certain direction, which he could even feel _something_ was oozing towards his position. "So _it_ came from that way?"

**[Yeah. And…]** Ddraig strangely felt hesitant. **[That area really gives me creeps. Don't tell this to anyone, though. If Albion were to get any wind of this, he won't let me living it down.]**

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Issei replied with teasing grin. "The great Welsh Dragon actually has something to fear."

**[I'm serious!]** Ddraig retorted. **[So what if dragons have something to fear? That's completely normal to begin with!]**

"Okay, okay. Sorry." Issei placated. "Let's focus on the task at hand, shall we?"

Issei started to explore the space of his soul, with Ddraig acting as his guide behind him. As he kept moving, the space started to darken from white to black. Noticing the change in atmosphere, the boy stopped for a moment.

"…Ddraig? Can you hear me? Am I being kicked out?" Issei looked back behind him.

**[Nope, don't worry. You're still with us. Whatever power is probably the cause of the sudden change of atmosphere there.] **

Nodding in confirmation, Issei then continued moving until he arrived at something huge. The boy found it strange that despite the dark space with little light to illuminate his sight, Issei could see that he just arrived in front of a large double-door gate with ornate surface. What baffled him the most was there was _something_ leaking out from the small gap of the gate.

"Err…. Ddraig? Can you come over and take a look at this?" Issei called out as he kept his eye on the gate before him.

The Welsh Dragon slowly approaching and he finally got a hold of the gate. **[…I see, so this is where that power came from. Good job, partner.]**

"Seriously, were you really scared that you didn't bother to take a look?" Issei commented.

**[…Shut up. Anyway, that's really one helluva aura leaking out from the other side.]**

"Let's test the water, shall we?" Issei asked as he placed his hands on the gate's handle. However, when he touched the gate, _odd_ was the only thing he could describe about the feeling he sensed at that moment. He felt safe, powerful, yet terrified at the same time. Swallowing a lump, he glanced at Ddraig and both of them gave a nod to each other before Issei pulled the gate slowly open.

However, when the gate had been opened just for the slightest, Issei's view was suddenly enveloped in blinding light, followed with something akin to a wave washed over him.

oXo

"UGGHHH…!"

In the real world, Issei's body suddenly jerked violently backward as the boy felt the same pain, albeit much less intense than last time, ran through his body. In the simplest sense, his body felt like being destroyed and rebuilt from inside out. He tried his best to suppress his scream, as he clutched his chest and his arms hugged his painfully throbbing body. It was only because the pain was more bearable that Issei did not scream out loud. Minutes later, the pain subsided, and Issei found his body was drenched in sweat, his heart was still beating against his ribcage, and his breathing was erratic.

"….Holy shit." Issei could only come up with that comment as he recalled the events that took place in his soul. The gate, the power, and the sensation he felt for a fraction of seconds there. "…Draig? You there?"

_**[Fucking hell…]**_ a loud groan came from where Ddraig was supposed to be. _**[What the fuck was that?]**_

"_Beats the hell outta me…."_ Issei muttered. _"How are things down there?"_

_**[Um, right. Don't worry. I somehow managed to shut the gate close, your evil pieces had stopped reacting, everything's fine… for now.]**_

Issei let out a sigh. _"Alright, then. Let's… let's leave that thing for now, okay? Holy shit…"_ Issei wiped his sweating brow. It was a good thing that Issei was alone in the room, he did not know where he would have started to explain should the other girls were to find out.

The boy then got up, stretched his limbs to regain his body's sense of feeling, discarded his now-drenched T-shirt and cleaned his body from the sweating before he put on new clothes from his wardrobe. Letting out another breath, Issei decided that he should get some refreshment downstairs.

Suddenly, the door of his room opened, revealing Akeno in a white small kimono with her hair down.

"Akeno-san?" Issei did not expect his senior to suddenly come into his room. He wondered if the Queen needed something from him.

"Ise-kun…." Akeno called out with low voice as she slowly made her way towards Issei.

Before Issei could have replied, Akeno untied the obi of her kimono and she slid the cloth off her body, revealing her glorious figure for the world to see.

"A-Akeno-san!?" While Issei was still frozen at Akeno's sudden move and nudity, the latter had already pulled him into a tight hug, causing them to fall to the bed.

Issei was not sure what actually took place at that moment. One second Akeno was in his room, the next second she was as naked as she was born on top of his body. He could literally see and feel everything as Akeno embraced him; her smooth skin, her tender thighs, her soft breasts, everything.

"….Make love to me."

Issei could not believe what Akeno just whispered to his ear, as the boy felt a sense of deja vu. "…Excuse me?"

Akeno did not say anything as she moved so she could see Issei eye-to-eye. However, Issei found that the girl's eyes were rather devoid of life, as if she had fallen into despair. The said girl, only moved to close the distance between their faces, particularly their lips.

Just when Akeno's pink lips were an inch away from Issei's, the latter stopped the former's advance by placing his hands on her shoulders as he gently pushed her away.

"….Why?" Akeno asked as tears began to form in her eyes. "Am I not attractive?"

Issei did not say anything as he simply pulled the bed sheet over Akeno's body and hugged Akeno into his chest, as he rested his chin on top of her head. To be honest, getting emotional with his upper-classman was the last thing Issei needed after going through some eye-blinding pain. However, he could not just turn a blind-eye when Akeno was obviously in pain.

"…Ise-kun?" Akeno asked, not really understood of what the boy was doing.

Perhaps Issei should have just indulged Akeno's whims and had his way on her, going all the way. However, Issei had more than one reason to refuse. Other than the fact that he would be cheating on Asia, there was a line he would never cross when dealing with opposite gender, girlfriend or not. Taking advantage on Akeno's unstable mind and weakness just did not and would never exist in his book. "….I'm sorry. This is the only thing I can do for you." Issei said as his hands caressing Akeno's back.

"…Why?" Akeno felt her chest tightened at Issei's soft tone, and a tear escaped her eye. "Why do you have to be so gentle now?"

"…Because you have such a sad look on your face." Issei replied sincerely as he kept Akeno in his arms. "I don't know what's going on, but until you feel better, I'm going to stay like this with you."

Akeno smiled bitterly into Issei's chest as she basked herself in the boy's warmth. "I… saw your talk with your mother in the morning."

Issei looked down at Akeno's revelation, but did not say anything in return. He would simply listen and take whatever Akeno wanted to share.

"And I found myself… To be so jealous of you." Akeno carried on. "Seeing you smiling, and talking happily with your mother… It reminds me of my late mother… My own mother who I miss so much…"

Issei only closed his eyes in condolences as he recalled Azazel's story from the other day. The story about the encounter between a human woman named Himejima Shuri and a fallen angel named Baraqiel, an encounter that resulted with a birth of a girl named Himejima Akeno.

The happy times when Baraqiel fulfilling his role as a father and a leader of fallen angels at the same time, and spend a peaceful life with his new family.

A tragedy that came from the irony that Baraqiel also had enemies from his wife's own family. And when the tragedy struck, Baraqiel just had to be away due to assignment from his superior, Azazel. That tragedy resulted with Shuri's death and Akeno's estranged relationship with her father.

Even now, Azazel was still blaming himself, believing that he was partly responsible for taking Baraqiel away for duty when his family needed him the most.

"…I know that I need to move on, but I just can't bring myself to face him… That's why I'm here, trying to find some relief by making love with you and head towards the battle. I thought I can get rid of this feeling by doing this with you." Akeno buried her face into Issei's toned chest. "Such an idiot I am…"

"Then the same goes to me." Issei replied, causing Akeno to glance upwards. "I'm also an idiot for not being aware of your pain. But now, I won't hesitate anymore."

Akeno jerked her head so she could look at Issei's eyes. When their eyes met again, Akeno's eyes widened at the resolve and sincerity within Issei's orbs. "Even if it'd take forever, until you can make peace with your past, I'll always be there for you. I'll always have your back."

Tears were falling from her eyes again as Akeno dived her face into Issei's chest once again. "…Thank you." The girl muttered.

"_I love you so much…"_

Issei only smiled in content as the two remained within each other's embrace for a while.

* * *

It was night time when Asia, Issei and Rias (who was wearing a negligee instead of birthday suit) were sleeping on the same bed (again). As the two girls were asleep, Issei was still staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. His body was stationed right in between the girls who were leaning on him, and his left arm was circling Asia's figure. He took a glance at Rias, who was adamant of not able to sleep unless she was hugging him, despite her acknowledgement of Issei's status with Asia. The weirdest thing was, Asia was fine about sharing a bed with the crimson haired girl. Many things were also running through his mind; his father's where-abouts, the upcoming battle, the _power_ inside him, and about Akeno. He looked over the girls beside him, and he resolved himself that he would fight to protect them, he would keep moving forward, together with his friends and those he held dear.

"Can't sleep?"

Issei's thoughts were cut-off by the sound of his master. He turned his head to see Rias was smiling at him. "I saw Akeno had a bright expression earlier. Did something happen between two of you?"

Issei blinked at the question, before he only smiled and closed his eyes. "No, nothing happened."

"Really?" Rias pouted as she gave a skeptical glance. "….You two didn't do anything untoward, did you?"

Issei flinched, recalling that he and Akeno almost did the deed. "…No! Of course not!" the boy almost screamed and woke Asia up.

"Is that so?"

"Yes!"

It took several seconds until Rias dropped her pout. "…Very well, I believe you."

Issei inwardly let out a sigh of relief. However, he then felt a soft sensation on his hand, when he turned his gaze, Issei found Rias' hand was guiding his own to cup her breast. The boy's face immediately blushed at the soft and smooth texture of Rias' mound.

"W-wha!?"

"Can you feel it?" Rias' voice immediately snapped Issei out of his stupor. "My heart…. It's beating so fast. This is me feeling nervous since we're going to fight against a god."

Issei's eyes trailed towards his hand that was cupping Rias' bosom, he could feel the fast rhythm of the beating heart through his palm. Despite the position, Issei could not think the gesture as anything lewd or indecent, it was merely a girl trying to express her worry and feelings towards someone else.

"I, too… I feel nervous as you are, Rias." Issei blurted out. _"Hm?"_

"You probably are feeling even more nervous than everyone else. After all, you have a crucial role by fighting in the frontline." Rias reasoned as she placed her other hand on Issei's chest, feeling his heart-beat. "…Not to mention, there's also the issue with your own body, your father, and perhaps with Akeno as well."

"Yeah… You're right." Issei only looked down as Rias' guess was dead-on. "This role is an honor, but it's scary at the same time. I don't know if I can fulfill everyone's expectation. But still… what I afraid the most if I ended up cannot protecting you guys." Issei then smiled bitterly. "…If only that baldy was around…."

Rias stared at Issei, as if she was trying to read her pawn. Few seconds later, she closed her eyes before opening them again. "Silly Ise…" Rias commented. "You don't have to take everything on your shoulder alone, you know? Have you forgotten about the things I've promised you back in the clubroom?"

Issei's eyes widened ever so slightly as he recalled the conversation when Asia was first recruited. "Yeah…" Issei's smiled brightened. "Yeah… You're right, Rias."

"…And at least to me, you're not just Saitama's son." Rias' words caused Issei to look right into her eyes. When their eyes met, Issei saw nothing but convictions in her looks.

Unkown to Issei, Rias believed she just found that the two might have gained some form of similarity; insecurity of their own standing. While Rias always felt inferior since she had always been dubbed as 'Sirzechs Lucifer's little sister', Issei had begun to be dubbed as 'Saitama's son'. In that sense, Rias could understand how Issei felt about it.

"I don't care if you are the son of a hero, or just a son of normal human. You are my Ise, my pride. So get stronger, for I have faith that you'll achieve whatever dream you're aiming for."

"Rias…."

"And you just called me by name twice now." Rias softly giggled and she returned her gaze towards Issei's eyes.

At that moment, Issei just realized. Since when did he start calling his master by her name? And he did not even have any kind of difficulty in doing so. Everything between them just came naturally. Both of them trusted each other with their lives. And come to think of it, why was he actually terrified at the thought of Rias dying during Loki's ambush with Fenrir?

"…Right." Issei somehow felt himself to be embarrassed. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine. In fact, call me by your name whenever you feel like it." Rias replied with her smile. "And as long as I can become the source of your power, I'll gladly become one. When you feel doubt, whenever you feel yourself weak and insecure, I'll always be there for you. My adorable Ise."

Issei found herself to be speechless. There it was, her beautiful, loving smile. His heart pounded even stronger in his chest as he felt his face heated up gradually. He just could not win against her. The girl… no, the young woman was far too good for him. Seeing her beautiful face framed with her crimson hair took him back all the way to their first encounter on that very day. It made him want to know what she was thinking, what was making her feel so strongly. The way she carried herself; strong, dignified, yet gentle towards her servants that she viewed as her own family. It was her kind attitude that made Issei attracted to her. Her words that banish his insecurity during his early days of becoming a devil just what had made him fiercely loyal to her, the woman who still believed in him when himself did not. There were moments when he was with other girls, engaging them in conversations that got his full attention; like Asia, who he had come to care for so deeply.

But Rias Gremory was someone who could get his attention even she was not present. It was proven further when Issei felt an overwhelming drive to protect her, to keep her from any harm during Loki's attack. Now, he just could not stop thinking about her, about the slight dimple on her cheeks when she scowled; about the subtle twitch on her eyebrows whenever she felt awkward, the adorable expression when she was agitated from constant teasing. And at this moment, Issei just found himself to be entranced by the sight of her teal eyes, particularly the glittering that showed sincerity, he just could not take his eyes off them; he came to love the softness of her skin that was making contact with his own; he came to love the smell of her hair as he held her close.

And even now, as Rias' face was approaching his, until their lips overlapped each other, he came to love the taste of her lips; his free hand found its way at the back of Rias' head, and slowly moved to the side of her face, caressing her cheek as he returned and deepened the kiss.

When Rias broke the kiss, the two were staring at each other's faces again. That was the moment that Issei finally realized…. that he had fallen for her, perhaps even earlier than he thought.

When Rias noticed the blush on Issei's entranced expression, she just smiled devilishly as she whispered to his ear. "…To be kissing with another girl while your girlfriend is sleeping right beside you… What a handful child you are, Ise." the girl said teasingly.

When both girls by Issei's side had finally fallen asleep, the boy was still frozen awake at the revelation of his own feelings as well as Rias last teasing words.

"…_Draig."_ Issei, still staring at the ceiling, called out the dragon within him out of the blue. "_I'm the worst, aren't I?"_

_**[Bah, stop beating yourself, partner. Falling for girls and attracting them left and right is just natural for dragons. You just have to get used to it.]**_

It took four hours for Issei to finally get his own share of sleeping.

* * *

At certain region of wilderness in somewhere in China, a stark-naked man was searching through rubbles and ruins of rocks, stones, and dirt. The place where Saitama was enjoying the hot spring had been reduced into mass of rubbles. Around him there were numerous remains of monstrosity that were slowly disintegrating into ashes.

Saitama had lost track of time and had no idea of how much time he had been wasting. The man was infuriated enough that he had to fight a horde of Leornardo's monsters while wearing his birthday suit. The monsters' strength itself was nothing difficult, but the sheer, seemingly endless number caused the battle to take some chaotic turn, resulting Saitama to lose all of his belongings in the midst of the fight.

There was also an issue of the surrounding mist. God knows how long Georg wanted to keep Saitama inside the 'fake' world within his mist. Of course, he could try blowing the mist away with the shockwave of his punch, but there was a good chance that he would lose the bag containing his belongings forever should the dimension disappeared. After all, all of his travelling necessities such as passport, money, change of clothes, etc. were all inside his bag.

It was after who-knows how many more hours that Saitama finally found his duffle bag. He checked the contents, while his clothes, money and passport were all rumpled from being buried under tons of rocks and rubbles; they were all still relatively intact. Saitama then proceeded to cloth himself back and prepared himself to leave back to Japan. However, when he was preparing to deal with the mist, the said mist suddenly faded away, leaving Saitama alone at the middle of nowhere. The man looked around and he found himself to be anywhere but the hot spring where he conversed with Cao Cao. He looked up and found that it was already night time with the moon shining at him. He did not have a map nor compass, thus he had no way to find which direction he should go.

Then, Saitama remembered that he could use his cell-phone as his navigator. He then rummaged through his stuff…. Only to find that the cell-phone's screen was cracked, the buttons were totaled as the device itself had been crushed under the rubble.

"…Fuck." Saitama cursed his own luck as he realized that he would need some time to go back home.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**There you have it, folks! As the title said, I'm deeply sorry for the lack of action, since I intend to focus more on the development of: Issei's hidden power, Akeno's relationship with Baraqiel, and the thing between Rossweisse and Saitama; rather than the battle against Loki itself.**

**Speaking of Loki, what do you guys think of his view about how heroes are praised through stories and legends? Because to be honest, Loki in canon was kind of too simple for my taste despite being the god of mischief who is an expert in deception.**

**For the case of the scene of Issei's inner world, I just found the idea of ornate looking gate within someone's soul to be cool. What do you say?**

***For those who do not know, the 'serpent' Tannin mentioned in the story was Midgardsormr's nickname as Midgard/World SERPENT, which I learned from internet.**

**I hope I've done justice in making the growing romance between Issei and Rias, although if you want some more development between Issei and Asia, it would be more likely during events of volume 9. **

**And for the Oppai Dragon (some people asked me about it), while I don't think Oppai Dragon would not be realized in this story, but I honestly find the idea in the canon to be too funny to be dismissed. Thus, I decided to have it being mentioned for now.**

**As for Haruka's appearance, her debut and performances are more like foreshadowing, since I plan to be the key of development between Issei and Saitama in future events. **

**Next chapter will be the battle against Loki. Expect some twist, thanks to certain someone in the site, I was able to think of some new twist about Loki's next attack. Please review! No flames. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	33. Ragnarok (IV)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Thunder Dragon (Guest): I must apologize, because I can't answer your challenge about your crossover. I'm not familiar with Final Fantasy franchise, especially Final Fantasy VI. Thus, I won't be able to carry out its concept and development.**

**Without further ado, I present you the fight against Loki! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 32: Ragnarok (IV) – The Great Battle Against a God**

"So… What do you make out of this?"

Currently, Issei and Ddraig were standing in front of the ornate gate within the depth of Issei's soul. The two apparently were working on something to deal with power's occasional outburst. Both of them had learned what would happen if the power were to burst out and make contact with the evil pieces and his body.

**[As I suspected, this 'gate'… This **_**power**_**, the way this works is rather similar to Sacred Gears. They respond on the wielder's emotions.]**

"You say that the outbursts had happened before?"

**[Yes. If we're looking back prior to your fight with your father in Juggernaut Drive, the first time would be during the climax of your fight against the White One, around the time before Saitama downed you from behind.]**

Issei recalled that he had indeed almost unleashed his Forbidden Form during the terrorist attack on Kuoh Treaty.

**[The second time would be around… when you were struggling to release Asia Argento from the seal of Dimension Lost. The tiny fraction of the power was enough to break the seal of high-tier Longinus. But… If we counted the first occurrence, you did not particularly will that power to activate. Hell, you're not even aware of its existence.]**

Issei was not sure how to make the heads and tails of this predicament. Ddraig on the other hand, was in progress of making conclusion since he was the one with the most observation of what was happening in his host's body.

**[The only thing I can come up with is… That the power responds whenever your body and mind are undergoing some sort of urgent distress; such as when you desperately wanted to rescue Asia Argento, when you wanted to defeat a powerful opponent, and… when you wanted to protect Rias Gremory from fangs of Fenrir.]**

Issei found some logic behind Ddraig's explanation. The similar mechanism also applied to Sacred Gears. When the wielders became overflown with emotions, it did not take long for the Sacred Gear's true power to manifest in the form of Balance Breaker. The Welsh Dragon paused before he gave one last advice.

**[Well, my point is, try not to get yourself into positions where you can become very desperate.]**

* * *

It was the time for battle as the sun had come down and the night came.

There was a certain high-class hotel within the suburb where the meeting between Odin, Shinto gods and the Alliance was being held; the floor of the conference room and few floors below and above had been reserved few days in advance in order to keep mundane people away from the supernatural force inside the conference room. Protective barrier had been set inside the hotel itself, particularly at the conference room where the meeting was being held. That way, the leaders could carry on their dialogues without outside interference. Should the barrier of the hotel been breached, the meeting would be adjourned and all the occupants would be teleported immediately to another venue.

One floor above the meeting room, a figure was moving leisurely in a dark room before the light of the said room was suddenly switched on, revealing Loki in his glory, standing inside what it appeared to be a lounge. The governor of fallen angels and Grigori, Azazel, was standing near the light switch with calm smirk on his face.

The Evil God and the Scapegoat stared and smirked at each other for a minute before the latter broke the silence. "I'm just curious. How did you slip here in the first place?" Then the fallen angel narrowed his eyes. "…Although you're not exactly _here_, here…" he said as he was able to spot an anomaly on Loki's body.

The projection image via magic of the Evil God of Norse only widened his smirk. "I have my ways. Does it matter by now?"

"Mmhm." Azazel shrugged to himself. He then looked around before he hardened his gaze on Loki.

Loki then narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a step forward. "Do you have something to say? ….At least you look like you do have something to say."

Azazel opened his mouth to say something, but then he paused as Loki interrupted him. "And please don't bother to ask me to stop what I'm going to do. Ragnarok shall begin without avail."

Azazel only rolled is eyes in return and scoffed. "…Ah, fuck it. Since we can't do anything to each other anyway, I'm going to settle with threatening you."

"Is that so?" The answer caused Loki to raise his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Azazel then walked towards the mini bar and poured himself a glass of his choice of liquor.

Loki did not say anything in regards of Azazel's 'threat' as he walked to the window and gazed at the night sky. "Fenrir and my children will come here, kill Odin and put an end to this alliance farce. There's nothing will change that. What do I have to fear from this… threat of yours?"

"Us." Azazel simply replied as he poured himself a glass, receiving an odd look from Loki. "Well, I'm not included, since I have to stay here as a middleman. In fact, I came here to have one last drink before the meeting starts. The bodyguards we placed outside are the only counter-measures we have against you."

"Yes, I can see that." Loki grinned.

"But let's do head count here." Azazel carried on. "First, we have one of the most talented Valkyries from your own land." The man was referring to Rossweisse.

"And then, one of my oldest friends; the 9th watcher of leaders of Grigori, the Lightning of God himself." Azazel then thought of Baraqiel.

"Bunch of talented teenage devils and angels, which shows significant promises, the seed for the future." Azazel's thoughts then went to the Occult Research Club and the Student Council of Kuoh Academy. "Oh, and there was also a group of outlaws that consists some of the most dangerous individuals in the Underworld." Azazel almost forgot about the Vali team. "In addition, we also have several legendary dragons on our side, with two of them being Dragon Kings while the other two are the infamous Heavenly Dragons."

"And you on the other hand…" Azazel then pointed at Loki with a glare. "Managed to make enemy out of them, and I highly doubt that your attack will succeed."

"Indeed, especially that Red Dragon Emperor… Son of Saitama is not someone I can take on lightly." Loki begrudgingly conceded, recalling how Issei was able to gravely injure Fenrir with a single attack. "However, I have an army."

"And we have Saitama himself." Azazel interjected, concealing the slight surprise of the Evil God had gone far enough to bring an army.

"…Who is not here at the moment, and most likely won't make it in time." Loki shot back.

"Oh, believe me, he will." Azazel said with an absolute conviction. "As I said before, Loki… You have no chance."

At Azazel's claims, Loki only smirked challengingly before he allowed his own projection to gradually disappear. "Then I'll take this as a race then, whether I and my army can obliterate all of you, or will Saitama arrive here on time."

Once Loki had vanished from the lounge, leaving Azazel alone, the fallen angel only downed his drink before he stared at the outside of window. "…Sorry, Saitama. But you'd better come quick."

oXo

The Occult Research Club, Sitri group, Baraqiel, Rossweisse and Vali team were standing in their respective position on the rooftop. Azazel could not participate in the frontlines as he had to act as the middleman in the meeting, thus Baraqiel would take his position as the frontier. High in the sky above the hotel, Tannin was flying with invisibility spell surrounding area around him in order to mask his presence and appearance from the sight of mundane people.

The vanguards were on stand-by to ensure that the meeting would go smoothly, out of Loki's harm. All of them were both literally and figuratively, 'locked and loaded' with their respective arms, and some of them had been entrusted with a vial of Phoenix Tears each in case of emergency.

Rias checked the time and signalled that the meeting between leaders had officially begun. "…It's time."

Everyone else then braced themselves for Loki's attack in any moment. A moment later, Issei then sensed something as he looked up at the sky, with Vali made a bitter smile towards the same direction. "No tricks, huh? You have my respect."

The space of the sky above the hotel then distorted, creating a large hole in the process. From that hole, Loki appeared along with his spawn, the god-devouring wolf Fenrir. Everyone immediately entered their battle position in front of their adversaries.

"Target confirmed. Commence operation." On Baraqiel's cue, another protective barrier was erected around the hotel. The Sitri group, led by Sona, proceeded to activate another magic circle to teleport everyone along with Loki and Fenrir to another location.

* * *

After being enveloped by a bright light, everyone found themselves at a spacious wasteland that happened to be an abandoned old mine. Issei looked around and found his friends from Occult Research Club, Saji, Vali team, Baraqiel, Rossweisse and Tannin, were also transported along with Loki and Fenrir. The said Evil God and his 'spawn' did not look panic as the former regarded his surroundings with calm face.

"So you aren't fleeing." Rias addressed the Evil God with sarcastic tone.

"There's no need for me to flee. In fact, it is prudent of me to confront you, especially the Two Heavenly Dragons with my full might. As long as all of you exist, I won't be able to get my hands on Odin's life." Loki replied.

"That thought of yours…. Is dangerous." Baraqiel commented as he spread out his 10 jet-black wings.

"Please…" Loki retorted with rather exasperated tone. "Alliance between pantheons? Ever since the Judeo-Christian's Three Great Powers had started this alliance, everything became distorted."

"…So you have no intentions to talk." Baraqiel concluded as his hands were covered in his holy lightning.

Taking Baraqiel's gesture as a cue, Issei promoted himself to a Queen, and together with Vali, activated his Balance Breaker.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

**{VANISHING DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!}**

At the sight of the dragon armour, Loki was gleeful. "Wonderful, this is more like it! The Two Heavenly Dragons joined forces against me! I can't ask for more!"

The said two dragons then launched towards Loki. Vali was coming at him via flying through the air in zig-zag pattern, while Issei was flying closer to the ground. At the incoming assault, Loki immediately activated his divine enchantment and numerous magic circles covered his body.

The divine mysteries covering Loki's body then proceeded to launch its attacks towards The Two Heavenly Dragons, who easily dodged with evasive manoeuvres as they kept making their ways towards the Evil God. The Red Dragon Emperor was the one to draw the return-fire with his signature dragon shot, managing to break through Loki's defence. Without another word, the White Dragon Emperor followed up as he conjured his own attack, firing off his own demonic fused with Norse magic towards Loki along with Issei who happened to be closer than him.

Seeing the massive demonic power hurling towards his location, Issei quickly moved away in the nick of time, and Vali's demonic power levelled one-third of the battlefield and a large bottomless hole was created at the spot where Loki was standing before.

"Would a little warning hurt!?" Issei yelled at Vali after he flew up to the sky next to the White Dragon Emperor, who only shrugged in return.

"Fuhahahaha!" However, the voice of someone laughing caught their attention again as both Heavenly Dragons saw the Evil God was floating out from the hole with his body relatively uninjured, aside of his torn clothing. "The combination of Red and White is truly a force to be reckoned with! But I'm afraid it will be not enough to take me down."

Of course it would not be that simple, was the thought that ran through both minds of Two Heavenly Dragons. Seeing that Vali's attack did not work, Issei then proceeded to use his 'secret weapon' strapped on his left hip. When Issei brandished and sent his power to the replica of the Mjolnir, he did not expect that the divine hammer would be that _light_ when he was equipped in his Scale Mail.

"Mjolnir…. No, a replica?" At the sight of the divine weapon, Loki could only scowled. "That blasted Odin… does he really want to pull through this whole farce?!"

**[Transfer!]**

Ignoring the sensation of the now-easier-to-use hammer, Issei then ignited the booster on his back and shot straight towards Loki with Mjolnir replica at the ready. Moving in a blinding speed, Issei had already positioned himself right on Loki's blind spot, slamming the divine hammer that had been fused with his demonic power from his devilry and draconic power from the Boosted Gear. Snapping his head at the incoming attack, Loki was able to dodge the hammer's strike by hair's breadth, causing Issei's strike to continue all the way down.

BLAAAR!

It was akin to a massive lightning strike as the voice of roaring thunder was heard, along with the sound of explosion when the replica of Mjolnir made contact with unforgiving ground. Everyone got a look that a massive crater had been made on the ground, and Loki, much to his surprise, witnessed that electricity was running through the hammer's head.

Divine weapons; like Mjolnir for example, are peculiar instruments where they possessed a will to choose their wielders. The name 'divine weapons' came from the fact that only gods and/or immortals that had been wielding various divine weapons/instruments across history. However, there were two cases where a worthy wielder was chosen; One, where the wielder possessed a pure or noble heart that could 'appeal' for the divine weapon to give access to its power, such as when the original Mjolnir was given to Thor. The Thunder God was an embodiment of valour where he took an oath to maintain the peace and order in Valhalla to protect its people from harm, causing the Mjolnir to acknowledge Thor's worth to wield the power of divine lightning and thunder.

"I didn't expect the Red Dragon Emperor of this generation to be this strong…" Loki commented with a hint of excitement mixed with slight fear in his tone. "It's supposed to be impossible for a mere devil to utilise even a fraction of Mjolnir's power… Perhaps the influence of the Heavenly Dragon _does_ come in handy."

The second case was, such as Saitama when he managed to grasp and lift Thor's Mjolnir with ease, who despite supposed to be a mortal, the hero possessed _something_ that was _at least_ on par with divinity. Whatever power and strength Saitama actually possessed, it was able to forcefully 'overwrite' the code that had been programmed inside Mjolnir, making the hammer acknowledged Saitama as another worthy wielder.

Issei only stared back at Loki and the crater while the boy himself did not expect that the effect to be so tremendous. _"Wow… You see that, Ddraig?"_

_**[Well, I myself am technically not a god, but some region on Europe once worshiped me as some kind of deity, so… Yes, in that sense, I do possess something that **_**at least**_** close to a divinity.]**_

Loki on the other hand, inwardly glad that he actually had prepared something else under his sleeves. Regaining his calm, Loki then addressed the hindrances to his goals. "…Very well, I believe that was enough for opening act." The Evil God then clicked his fingers. On that cue, the god-devouring wolf took a step forward and growled at its adversaries. "Onwards, my son, Fenrir! Show these pitiful insects the power of your fangs and claws, which can kill gods in a single bite!"

Just when Fenrir was about to obey Loki's order, Rias raised her hand, which was responded with a meow from Kuroka. The Nekoshou in black immediately worked her mysteries, conjured her magic circles, and she summoned the magical chain Gleipnir. Without another word, all front combatants grabbed the chains and they moved accordingly in order to bind the chain on Fenrir's body.

Loki sneered at the action, believing whatever his enemies were attempting would be futile. "Fuhahahaha! It's useless! Even Gleipnir will not work…" However, he suddenly stopped talking, as he had been proven wrong.

Fenrir let out a pained howl as the beast found itself trapped within the confines of the magical chain. The Gleipnir, which had been forged by the dwarves and enhanced further by dark elves, worked their ways in order to make sure that the god-devouring wolf would not move a step from its position.

At the sight of the trapped beast, Baraqiel announced, "Fenrir, captured."

The Evil God narrowed his eyes ever so slightly at the unexpected outcome. However, he was not stupid to rely solely on Fenrir alone. After all, he had his fair share of war and conflict, having learned that nothing was definite in a battlefield. "Fufufu, not bad. I guess I have to resort to this." Loki then use his divine power to create another distortion in space. "Their specs are lower, but…. Together they are as formidable as Fenrir."

The Evil God then summoned another two wolves with ash-grey furs. Their appearances were almost identical with Fenrir, safe for their slightly shorter heights. The twin wolves landed and they gave out ear-shattering howls. Everyone was shocked at the sight of wolves that seemed exactly like Fenrir, Vali on the other hand, seemed like a child having an early Christmas.

"Allow me to introduce you Skoll and Hati, children of Fenrir."

Skoll and Hati; When the God-Devouring Wolf, Fenrir, began to run amuck, he first went back to the place where he was born. Tyr and the other Aesir had tried to keep him from going back to the Iron Wood, but one day he escaped and fled to his birthplace, and was reunited with his mother Angrboda, and his werewolf half-siblings. It is not known what happened to him there, save that when he left, his maddened devouring rage had begun in earnest, and a wolf-woman of the Jarnvidur had borne two wolf-pups, the very image of their father.

The two wolves began to run around the battlefield, eager to receive their master's commands while looking for potential prey. Baraqiel and Tannin decided to take the initiative to engage them by launching their respective attacks. Alas, the two wolves were agile enough to evade Baraqiel's holy lightning and Tannin's blaze.

As if to make things even dire for the members of the alliance and Vali team, Loki created even bigger space distortion. From the distortion, a horde of humanoid figures came forth and took into the air. They possessed some heteromorphic traits like long ears and sharp claws, while some of them were flying via magic, some of them were piloting flying vehicles. More humanoid figures came out and took the ground endlessly as they appeared to be what it seems to be foot soldiers. They were clad in armour with weaponries and appeared in various sizes, ranging from average human heights until 3 metres tall. However, the most disturbing part was that they looked like corpses: pale skin, even many of them had decayed bodies as their eyes were lifeless. They seemed to react at the sight of the alliance as they roared like mad men.

Everyone's widened in shock at the army that Loki had brought forth. Some of them were rather horrified at the sight of undead soldiers. Saji, Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina and Koneko began to march to intercept the incoming undead soldiers. Rias immediately ordered Gasper and Asia to stay close to her, while she provided support by firing her Power of Destruction.

"….Zombies?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of the walking dead.

_**[Draugar.]**_

Issei blinked at the comment of the Welsh Dragon. _"…Draugar?"_

_**[As you said, they're zombies. But Norse people know them as Draugar; undead revenant of fallen warriors and soldiers who still hold grudges towards the living.]**_

"_Please tell me that you can deal them just like your regular zombies from movies."_ Issei sounded half-pleading. After all, he sensed a 'but' from Ddraig's explanation.

_**[Don't worry, a good blow to the head, dismemberment, and burning their bodies can work just fine, so they are not much different from classic stereotypes. However, unlike mere living dead, Draugar possess a certain level of will and intelligence, enough for them to recognise their targets, utilise their weapons and armours rather than blindly looking for brains to eat I heard even some of them can use magic as well.]**_

"_That's good enough."_

True to Ddraig's words, the ones fighting the undead revenants were surprised that the soldiers were able to parry some of their attacks. They did not mindlessly biting around; instead, they utilised the weaponries in their possessions and attacked like how they used to do in their past lives. As if to catch them off-guard even more, some of the undead soldiers were able to cast magic attack on the alliance front fighters. Yuuto, Xenovia and Irina had no trouble of avoiding them, but the attacks managed to hit Koneko and Saji's blind spots; it was only thanks to Koneko's Rook trait and Saji's Queen promotion that allowed them to easily wither the ambush.

Rias herself was busy protecting both Asia and Gasper, where the formerly holy maiden was firing off her healing powers for those who needed it, while the Dhampir tried to immobilise as many enemies as he could with his Forbidden Balor View, while at the same time barely able to keep himself away from harm's way.

The members of Vali team were also engaging the undead soldiers without much difficulty. Bikou and Arthur were taking down the zombies left and right. Kuroka on the other hand, had to resort back to the combination between her Senjutsu and her good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat skills she possessed despite being a wizard-type. Her Youjutsu did not really do much against the already-dead army.

"Extend, Nyoi-bo!" Bikout commanded his Riyu Jingu Bang to do its work and kept delivering bone-breaking strikes on undead soldiers.

"Caliburn!" the power of Arthur's Holy King Sword easily purified the corrupt mysteries on the Draugar, as the soldier's body just dropped dead to the ground and disintegrated.

Rossweisse on the other hand, looked perplexed at the sight of the army. "Those dark elves…. The remaining rebels? Some of them are supposed to be prisoners of previous civil wars! And those draugar…. They are corpses of old warriors of enemies and comrades alike. Lord Loki, what have you done!?"

Loki then brandished his arms. "I actually prepared this army for Saitama. Everyone, dead and alive alike, are those who share the same sentiment against Odin's foolish desire. It was not difficult to bypass my daughter's system to have some access to her realm so I can get my hands on these souls. Everyone of those souls is more than eager to cooperate once I mentioned about having Odin's head on silver platter."

Clicking her tongue, Rossweisse immediately flew to the nearest airborne enemy and unleash her magical power, taking down dozens of them in mere seconds. Akeno also joined her, transformed into her signature shrine-maiden attire and started to holy-light the enemies up. The dark elves were not that strong as they were falling down left and right; however, despite the amount of enemies they had taken down, they were still outnumbered.

The situation was rather grim, where the alliance's vanguard was outnumbered and surrounded by Loki's minions. Those who were fighting the draugar were faring on their own. The small ones were no challenge, however, the ones with larger sizes turned to possess tougher and stronger bodies. Even Rias herself had to move away from the advancing enemy soldiers in order to keep the non-combatants – Asia and Gasper – away from harm, while firing her Power of Destruction to blast the large ones; that had not included the Fenrir and his children into account.

Issei then glanced at Vali, who happened to look at his way as well. Without another word, the Two Heavenly Dragons immediately flew towards Loki with their respective attacks ready to strike. Issei brandished his Mjolnir replica while Vali charged his demonic power. Once Loki had been taken care of, the god-devouring wolves would not be able to take any effective actions without someone directing them, or so they planned.

Loki, however, proven himself to be a god for a reason. At the incoming attack, the Evil God only smirked as his body suddenly blurred away, right when Issei and Vali swung their arms.

"What the-?! Projection magic?" Issei said incredulously. However, when the Two Heavenly Dragons were looking around for Loki, the Red One suddenly caught something was coming at their direction with immense speed. "Watch out!"

While Issei was quickly doing an evasive manoeuvre when Fenrir had its jaws opened at them, Vali just had to grab the shorter end of the stick as he got caught inside Fenrir's jaws. Blood was splattered as Fenrir's fangs pierced through Vali's body.

"Gahk-!" Vali cried as he tried to wrench himself free from the Fenrir's clutch.

"Vali!" At the dire sight, Issei quickly retaliated by slamming the Mjolnir at Fenrir's mid-section. The followed by the lightning made Fenrir howled in pain as the beast automatically let go of Vali, who immediately retreated with his remaining strength to regain his bearings.

When Fenrir set his eyes on the one who just struck him, his eyes widened at the familiar visage that almost killed him not long ago. The wolf then glared at Issei with a hint of fear and caution in his growl.

Issei only played around with Mjolnir a bit to intimidate the god-devouring wolf, recalling that he actually did almost kill the beast. "Remember me, bitch?" Issei taunted with a grin. However, the boy was quite sure that Fenrir was supposed to be immobilised. He took a glance around and caught the sight of one of Fenrir's children munching a huge piece of Gleipnir in its mouth like a chew-toy.

Apparently, while everyone was still distracted, Skoll and Hati had immediately used their fangs to wrench off the chain that was binding their father's body. With a quick command-link, Loki had directed Fenrir to retaliate at the Two Heavenly Dragons.

Baraqiel then landed next to Issei. "Forgive me. I could not keep that thing away from releasing Fenrir." The Red Dragon only nodded in acknowledgement. On cue, Issei spotted both Skoll and Hati had positioned themselves by Fenrir's side. Just when the two Fenrir's cubs were about to lunge again, they halted their movements as they turned to see a giant fire-ball was hurling right towards them, courtesy of a certain former dragon king. **"YOU SHALL NOT LAY YOUR FANGS UPON THEM!"**

**HOOOOOWL!**

The three legendary beasts literally just neutralised Tannin's flame, that was supposedly famous for its sheer power to be on par with a meteor strike, with just the sound-wave of their howls.

Seeing a new target, Fenrir did not waste any time as he leapt to the sky with god-like speed and carved a nasty gash on Tannin's torso with his claws, eliciting a painful roar from the Blaze Meteor Dragon. The purple dragon did not hesitate to take out a vial of Phoenix Tears and used it to heal his wound.

Issei, Baraqiel and Tannin were now facing off the three god-devouring wolves as if they were measuring each other. Fenrir was still wary on Issei, while his children were still reluctant to leave their father's side.

Vali, preserving through his wounds, appeared beside Issei. Even without revealing his face, everyone could vaguely tell that the Strongest White Dragon Emperor was downright pissed, as his damaged body was leaking incredible aura.

"Hyoudou Issei…" Vali drawled. "I'll leave Loki and the others to you, and everyone else."

"…What are you planning to do?" Issei asked in return.

Vali only kept his glare on Fenrir. "…Fenrir, I will definitely kill it if I have to."

Loki, who was still observing the battle, caught on Vali's words and laughed. "Fuhahahaha! How would you do that!? You are already on the verge of death, acting your bravado would only tarnish the title of the White Dragon Emperor!"

At Loki's sneer, Vali replied. "Do not look down on me, the White Dragon… No, Vali Lucifer!" Vali then marched forward as he began to chant familiar words of power.

"I, who am about to awaken, am the Heavenly Dragon who has taken the principles of supremacy from God."

They were just words; sounds, syllables, vibrations through the air. However, the words came out from Vali's chanting held enough weight to cause everyone on the battlefield to cease their fighting and turned towards the source of the massive power burst.

"I envy the 'Infinite' and I pursue the 'Dream'."

The moment when Fenrir's attention was still glued on Vali's power increase, the Strongest White Dragon Emperor had already tackled his body and taking his massive body for a flight away from Skoll and Hati. The said two wolves were about to give chase.

"Oh no, you don't!" However, Issei did not stay still as he quickly slammed the Mjolnir to the ground between them, resulting the two wolves to redirect their attentions to the divine power crackling from the replica.

"I shall become the White Dragon of Supremacy…"

Vali then proceeded to throw Fenrir's body to the ground before the wolf could have retaliated any further.

"…AND I SHALL TAKE YOU TO THE LIMITS OF WHITE PARADISE!"

**{JUGGERNAUT DRIVE!}**

After Vali had donned in his Forbidden Form, the battlefield was immediately put into disarray as the sheer power of Vali's Juggernaut Drive activation destroy a good part of the battlefield, the blast engulfing all the unfortunate undead soldiers. While the enemy forces were still disoriented from Vali's burst of power, the rest of Gremory Team, Vali team and their allies used this chance to regroup.

Everyone could not take their eyes off at Vali's white radiance as he unleashed the full might of the Vanishing Dragon. "Kuroka! Prepare to relocate me and Fenrir into a different location!"

Kuroka immediately prepared her teleportation spell as Vali grabbed what remained of the magical chain Glepnir, and the White Dragon Emperor used his further enhanced speed to wrap Fenrir's body back within the chain's binding, trapping the wolf in the process. "Kuroka, now!"

"Nyan~!" With that meow, Kuroka activated her spell, and Vali disappeared along with Fenrir from the battlefield.

With one of his greatest trump card had vanished from his control, Loki frowned as the rest of his army returned their attention towards the alliance group. The said group then prepared themselves for another battle of their lives.

"This is quite a predicament… Lord Loki is not a push-over, but he is not known for being a heavy-hitter like this."Rossweisse commented at her surroundings. "Not to mention, the dark elves might be one thing, but these draugar just kept coming, no matter how many we take them down. It seems that Lord Loki truly has access to unlimited number of souls from Norse's Realm of the Dead."

Xenovia replied. "I heard that Loki mentioned that this army was prepared for Saitama-dono."

"So Loki is willing to go this far to start the Ragnarok…" Rias put her two-cents. "But assuming that Saitama is making his way back home, Loki is now racing against time."

"Yeah… Because I'd say this army is nowhere nearly enough to make that baldy go serious." Issei concluded with a scoff. On that remark, everyone showed various reactions; some understood as they shrugged, while some others were still sceptical as they furrowed their eyebrows.

"I'm afraid we have to take a course of action soon." Baraqiel interjected. "The enemies are very eager to attack us."

"Right. But it'd be unlikely to reach Loki with this many enemies got in our way." Rias said when she turned to see at the space distortion of where the undead soldiers kept coming out. "We need to take care of that portal."

"I can do something about it. As long as it's Norse magic, I will figure something out." Rossweisse spoke with confidence. "However, I believe they won't let me to have that kind of luxury."

"I wish I can cover you in closing that portal." Tannin grimly said before he turned towards Skoll and Hati. "However, we have those two on our hands as well."

The biggest threat from Loki's arsenal was neither his dark elves army nor virtually unlimited undead horde, but it was the two children of god-devouring wolf. If Rossweisse were attempting to close the space distortion that Loki had created, the enemy army would try to stop her. Even with Tannin's back-up, the wolves would immediately on him. If they wanted to end this war, it was either to defeat Loki, or to stop Loki's undead army from keep coming. However, in order to do so, the alliance had to remove Skoll and Hati from the equation.

"Saji-kun, how good are you at controlling your dragon form?" Rias turned to Sitri pawn.

"At least I can differentiate between friend and foe as long as I'm focus. Though… you probably want to stay away from me while I'm using Vritra Promotion." Saji nervously replied.

"Ise, you will focus on taking down Loki." Rias then finally turned to her beloved pawn. "…Are you going to be alright?"

Issei blinked before realising that his master was still concerned about the sudden breakdown during the first ambush. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that I'm gonna defeat Loki this time." The wielder of the Boosted Gear nodded his head.

"Red Dragon Emperor." Rossweisse interrupted. "Lord Odin requested that Loki to be captured alive so he could properly punished in Asgard. One good hit of the Mjolnir should be enough to weaken him enough for me to seal."

Issei regarded the Valkyrie for a second before nodding again. "Understood, I'll keep that in mind."

"Thank you. I'll come to your aid as soon as I can." Rossweisse replied.

"Alright!" Rias said as she came up with a plan (sort of). "Rossweisse-san will focus on closing the gate where Loki's army are coming from, with Akeno as her back-up." The two aforementioned ladies nodded in affirmation.

"Ise will focus on taking on Loki." The aforementioned Red Dragon Emperor nodded.

"Saji-kun, as well as Lord Tannin and Baraqiel, can you take on Fenrir's children?" Rias then turned to Arthur, Bikou and Kuroka. "…And I need you three to back them up."

"**Consider it done."** Tannin replied, followed by affirmation nods from the other two as well.

"Meh. Sure, why not. Dealing with those wolves is more fun than dealing with the dead." Bikou playfully obeyed, with Arthur and Kuroka smiled in agreement.

"The rest of us will keep up the fight against the Draugar. We will back you up against Fenrir's children as soon as we can." Rias said, nodding to confirm if her servants and Irina were on the same page as her, which was responded in kind.

"YEAH!"

"**Allow me to give the opening salvo!"** Tannin roared as he breathed out large amount of flames towards a mob of undead soldiers, incinerating Loki's army in the process. However, despite the vicious assault of the dragon king, the enemy forces kept coming forth from Loki's space distortion.

And true to his earlier words, before Tannin could have focused his attack more on Loki's army, Skoll and Hati had been on their way, not wanting to let the purple dragon dwindling Loki's forces even more. Baraqiel, Saji, and the members of Vali team immediately came to Tannin's aid.

The rest of the group then immediately focused on their task, Akeno and Rossweisse took the sky and used their respective mystery to bombard the hovering dark elves, and began to fly across the battlefield. The ground fighters were doing a quick work on the Draugar as they steadily Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina and Koneko were granting the undead their 'second death', with Rias, Asia and Gasper as their rear support.

However, Loki just smirked as he unleashed some of his divine aura again. "Allow me to introduce one more party to you…" then, another space distortion appeared in the sky, and from that distortion, multiple giant creatures appeared. Everyone was caught by surprise once again at the sight of the creatures; long, serpentine body covered in grey scales. Issei, Saji and Tannin widened their eyes at the familiar sight, as all _five_ of them resembled a certain Sleeping Dragon, albeit they possessed significantly smaller size.

"**You… So you've created the clones of Midgardsormr as well?!"** Tannin roared in disgust.

The apparently clones of Midgardsormr then proceeded to breath out fire all at once. In return, Tannin retaliated with the fire breath of his own, which completely negated the five dragon clones' fire altogether. **"Don't think mere imitations can match the original!"**

"Now it would be even more difficult to reach Loki, with those dragons in tow…" Baraqiel surmised.

"Tannin-sama! Baraqiel-san!" Saji called out. "Let me take care of those dragons! Please just stay focus on taking down the wolves!"

The two veteran warriors regarded Saji's proposition for a moment before they glanced and nodded to one another. **"Very well, we will leave them to you, Saji Genshirou. Show them the power of a real dragon king!"**

"Yes!" Saji replied resolutely before he dashed towards the horde of the dragon clones and coated himself into fiery black aura. "VRITRA PROMOTION!" The boy then transformed into a fiery black dragon and unleashed his variety of curses on the mass-produced Midgardsormr.

The former dragon king and Lightning of God proceeded to face either one of Fenrir's children, who had already made their way towards them with immense speed.

* * *

It was a total pandemonium. Blades were clashed, blood was shed, bones were broken, and bodies kept falling one after another as the alliance of students of Kuoh Academy, Vali team, Baraqiel and Tannin was fighting against Loki and his army.

Rossweisse and Akeno were engaging the flying dark elves mid air. While they were not outgunned, they were definitely outnumbered as both girls could not recklessly unleash wide-ranged area attack otherwise she would only exhaust herself. The Valkyrie who had higher mobility in the air was flying around while occasionally firing off her Norse magic towards the dark elves that were hot on her rear. Akeno on the other hand, relied on her magic expertise to defend herself while she sent off wide arcs of lightning that incinerated the enemies around her.

BANG!

"Ugh!" Rossweisse grunted as one of the dark elves magic attack managed to hit her shoulder. Nevertheless, she preserved, put a quick spell to stop the bleeding and she quickly retaliated with the magic of her own as she kept flying around across the battlefield, trying to shake off her pursuers. On the way she also coated her body with some enchantment as defensive means against enemies' onslaught.

"Rossweisse-san, how's your status?" Akeno's voice was heard on Rossweisse's link.

"Not that good. I need to keep them away from distracting the other's fights. With this many enemies, I won't be able to focus on the gate Lord Loki had created." Rossweisse replied as she manoeuvred her way through the valley and hills of the battlefield, taking glances at the unfolding fight below every now and then. "We need to finish this up quickly so we can come to the others' aid."

Akeno hummed in thought as she just electrocuted another enemy around her, until she caught the sight one of Rossweisse's condensed magic energy shooting out from the distance. The Queen measured Rossweisse's location and she came up with a plan. "Rossweisse-san, can you find a tight corner?"

Rossweisse blinked at the question and she realised Akeno's point in a second. "Roger that." The battle-maiden then changed her route towards one particular location she could think of.

Akeno found a vantage point as she occasionally blasted some more enemies with her lightning without much difficulty and inspected her surrounding for any sign of Rossweisse. She then charged up her lightning, just in time when she caught Rossweisse's visage on her sight. Akeno then focused her lightning on one certain location, and once Rossweisse had flew passed the target point, Akeno unleashed her lightning storm, blowing up good amount of enemy dark elves.

Rossweisse then proceeded to take care the remaining enemies that managed to survive Akeno's lightning trap, flying through the tunnel in the abandoned mine, Rossweisse used the terrain into her advantage as she just let her surroundings to take down her pursuing enemies. However, just after she had gone out into open air, she once again had to flee another huge mob of enemy soldiers as she flew through the battlefield again, using terrains and rocky structures to her advantage. While flying, the Valkyrie caught the sight of Issei running into Loki.

oXo

At one part of the battlefield where Rossweisse just flew above, The Red Dragon Emperor was engaging the Evil God. The former had his Mjolnir replica ready while the latter decided to conjure his own weapon. The said weapon was an ornate spear with its blade split into two parts, where a blue jewel had been placed between them.

CLASH!

As the two clashed, Loki then proceeded to slam his spear to Issei, which the latter easily dodged and quickly attacked with a swing of his hammer. Loki jerked his body back enough to miss the hammer's swing by hair's breadth, and proceeded to attack again with a wide swing of his spear. Issei ducked under the swing, however, before he could have retaliated, Loki had manoeuvred his spear behind his head, pointing the jewel between the spear's blade towards Issei, who saw the jewel glowed with power. The boy just barely able to raise the Mjolnir to deflect the condensed divine power that was fired from Loki's spear, as the impact of the attack caused Issei to stagger back slightly. The two then swung their weapons again, and Issei just forced Loki's magically charged spear to redirect its trajectory so it fired towards somewhere else, particularly destroying a pillar nearby.

BOOM!

The two then proceeded in another exchange of blows as two divine weapons clashed against one another. However, not only that Issei had never used a hammer in a fight before, Loki possessed more experience in using his spear as the Evil God's longer range of attacks managed to force Issei into defensive. Issei could have just flown away to regain his bearings and changed his approach, but doing so might risk letting Loki to retreat into the flock of his army again. Thus Issei had to preserve in his current position and found an opening for a counter attack. Issei swung his hammer again, however, the hammer's unbalanced weight caused Issei to give Loki enough opening to use the butt of his spear to swipe off Issei's leg, effectively tripping him to the ground.

"Ise-kun!"

Before Loki could have landed another strike, however, an interference came in the form of Akeno flying over him.

"Lightning!"

The said devil – fallen angel hybrid had come to Issei's aid with lightning crackling around her arm as she prepared her spell to attack the Evil God. Unfortunately, Loki managed to beat Akeno into the punch as he fired his divine power from his spear towards Akeno, who was just barely able to evade Loki's attack. However, the energy fired from Loki's spear managed to nick Akeno's ribbon, untying her raven black hair freely down. The girl looked distraught as she watched her orange ribbon fell towards the ground.

"No!" With that cry filled with fear, the girl then quickly dived down to retrieve the ribbon, the only thing she possessed in the memory of her late mother, not knowing that Loki had taken another aim to launch another magic from his spear.

However, Issei did not let him do as he pleased. Akeno might have failed to deal any damage on the Evil God, but it was enough for distraction so Issei could go back on his feet again. When Loki's attention was still locked on Akeno, Issei decided to put the Mjolnir away on his side and proceeded to charge at Loki with good old-fashioned bare handed beating. "Oh no, you don't!"

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Caught off-guard, Loki could barely defend against Issei's ferocious onslaught as the Red Dragon Emperor landed multitude of punches on Loki's person. After beating Loki senseless, Issei then finished his assaults by lifting Loki's body with both of his arms, and slammed the Evil God as hard as he could, hard enough to crush the ground beneath them.

However, just when Issei reached for his Mjolnir and raised it in preparation to deliver one last blow on Loki, the boy suddenly found a large shadow was looming over him, and he looked up to find one of the mass-produced Midgardsormr was lunging at him with its jaws wide open. Issei quickly leapt away to evade, and quickly retaliated by slamming the charged Mjolnir right on the dragon's skull.

BLAAR! * GRAAAAARGH!

The roar of the thunder, followed by the painful roar of the dragon clone signified that the strike had effectively incapacitated it if not outright killed it. However, when Issei turned his head to the spot where he left Loki, he saw the Evil God had vanished. "Damn it!" Clicking his tongue, Issei then looked around to find Loki, as well as to observe how the battle had been progressing so far.

Akeno was inspecting her orange ribbon that she managed to grab from falling to the ground. The ribbon was torn, not useable, but Akeno sighed in relief that she could at least retrieve the remains as she could sew it back later. She put the ribbon inside her shrine-priestess kimono and resumed her fight.

Speaking of Midgardsormr clone that Issei took down earlier, the boy spotted another carcass of the said dragon clones that showed first-degree burn marks with some black flames still flaring out. It appeared that Saji's Vritra Promotion had done quick work on it and Issei just saw Saji, in his dragon form, was now going after the rest of dragon clones that were spread out and rampaging across the battlefield.

oXo

Meanwhile, Rossweisse and Akeno finally arrived at the location where the portal that Loki created was pouring out more undead warriors. "The Draugar are keep coming." Rossweisse commented with grim tone as more undead soldiers kept coming out from the tear in the space. "It's going to take some time for me to seal this gateway."

"I'll do something about them. On my signal, close that portal." Akeno moved forward and raised both of her arms, along with both her devil and fallen angel wings. "Lightning, thunder!"

"Haah!"

Holy lightning and demonic thunder were surging from her arms, and Akeno shot an enormous amount of electricity towards the portal, electrocuting and frying the incoming Draugar, effectively bottle-necked the army's way in the end. Those on the battlefield noticed the storm that Akeno was conjuring and they found that the army had stopped increasing in number, giving them higher chance to prevail in the battle.

Taking it as her signal, Rossweisse did not waste any time as she immediately conjured numerous Norse magic formula to tinker on Loki's magic. She needed to work fast, as the Priestess of Thunder and Lightning could not keep this up for too long.

As Akeno kept her lightning frying out the undead soldiers, she was too occupied to intercept the incoming, remaining hovering dark elves towards her. However, just when the flying enemies were about to attack her, Akeno saw a red streak flying across and decimated the airborne dark elves.

"Ise-kun!" Akeno was relieved and happy that Issei just came to her rescue.

"Are you okay, Akeno-san?" Issei asked as he hovered beside her.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." She said as she kept her lightning running. "Rossweisse-san is working on that portal now. What about Loki?"

"I lost him." Issei frowned beneath his helmet. Since he could not find Loki for a moment, he might as well going to help Akeno and Rossweisse to seal up the gateway of Loki's army. "But you two are doing great. Just keep it up! I got your back!" Issei said.

"My, my, ufufu. Now that you said it…" the voice of Issei's encouragement was like a stimulant for Akeno as her lightning increased its intensity. However, as if to stop the Priestess of Thunder, a clone of Midgardsormr lunged at her.

"I got this!" Issei shouted as he bolted towards the dragon clone, tackled the dragon's head with his body and Issei mustered his strength to change the dragon's direction away from Akeno and Rossweisse.

oXo

The battlefield had become more and more chaotic as the time went on. Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina and Koneko were still fighting against the horde of undead warriors that just seemed to be endless, with Rias, Asia and Gasper as their support. While they were outnumbered, their superior fighting strength and teamwork allowed them to stand their ground as they took down their enemies without much difficulty. Rias' Power of Destruction was doing well on destroying undead with larger frames, Gasper took an initiative to turned into flock of bats in order to disorient the undead soldiers, giving the close-combatants easier task on defeating the draugar. Asia's Twilight Healing truly came in handy as the bishop would shoot her healing power every now and then.

The teamwork between Akeno and Rossweisse had lessened their burden as they halted the marching enemy soldiers, however, the numbers that was now roaming across the battlefield had been at least hundreds.

CRASH!

However, a help came in the form of Issei bringing down a clone of Midgardsormr, the massive dragon fell to the ground, crushing the undead soldiers beneath. The said dragon had its head and upper body were severely injured with its jaw broken. The dragon would not seem to show any sign of movement any time soon.

"Ise/Ise-kun!"

Everyone was relieved that Issei, wielding the Mjolnir, was still alive and kicking. However, the number of draugar soldiers was still large. "Talk later! Keep fighting!" Issei said as he took off to the sky again. The others went on alert again as they caught another mob of draugar heading their way.

As the battle went on, Koneko was now engaging several draugar. Her Rook strength was enough to help her dealing with the undead. However, there were those whose body sizes were large enough to withstand Koneko's brute strength.

Senjutsu is an art that allows the user to manipulate energies, such as life force. Draugar are living dead, but in this case, they were products of certain brand of necromancy where their corpses had been infused with 'artificial life force' – for the lack of better word - of negative energy.

In case of larger Draugar, Koneko slipped her way through its defence as she climbed up the body and locked her legs around the draugar's head in a choke-hold. Then, as she stabbed her finger on Draugar's neck, she infused her own positive energy via Senjutsu to 'purify' the negative energy inside Draugar's body. While it was not as effective like Arthur's holy sword, the effect was apparent when the giant draugar's body just collapsed to the ground lifelessly, like a doll with its strings severed.

As the Rook kept fighting, she slowly improvised her fighting style when she wrenched out one of the undead's weapon, which happened to be a mace as her own, despite not being her original style. Using a weapon proved to give Koneko easier time in dealing with the undead surrounding her as the weapon's momentum could deliver more damage rather than her bare hands.

There, she just took down another undead by smashing its head away like a baseball. However, the heat of the battle caused her to almost hit Yuuto, who ended up nearby while he was dispatching his own share of enemies. The Rook only sensed there was another presence, presumably another enemy, and she just made it in time to stop her swing half-way when her brain recognised the Knight's face.

"…Sorry." Koneko apologised with slightly flustered face as she put down her choice of temporary weapon.

"It's fine. The heat of the battle is getting on all of us here." Yuuto waved off Koneko's apology.

Koneko then sighed as exhaustion started to creep on her body. "Yuuto-senpai, our battle won't do anything unless Rossweisse-san does something about that portal." The Rook said as she took a glance at Loki's space distortion, where Rossweisse was still working on her tinkering.

"I know, we just have to have faith on her." Yuuto said when he suddenly caught something massive was coming towards them. "Incoming!"

**GROOAAAAAAAAR!**

Koneko went on another full alert as Yuuto prepared his holy-demonic sword ready. The two prepared to fight again when they saw one clone of Midgardsormr was heading their way. However, when they focused their eyes, the two caught something else. That something was apparently Gasper, who was literally being chased by a dragon as the dhampyr was manoeuvring around the dragon's head towards their direction, shifting every now and then between his full form and bat form.

"Eeeeek! Yuuto-senpai, Koneko-chan! Save meeee!" Gasper wailed as he did his darnest to keep away from the dragon's maw.

"Wha-! Gasper-kun!?" Yuuto and Koneko had their eyes widened. Seeing Gasper caused them to lose their momentum and got thrown out of their loop, as they just were not sure what they should do now that Gasper came to picture; their head just drew blanks. In the end, Yuuto and Koneko decided to retreat, or rather, run away from Gasper with the clone of dragon king in tow.

"E-eeeehh?! Yuuto-senpai, Koneko-chan, where are you going!?" Gasper cried as he kept running away from the dragon clone.

"We're sorry, Gasper! We'll come to you once we gathered ourselves back!" Yuuto shouted back as he kept running. He could have just left instantly with his enhanced speed, but to leave another junior after he had just left one junior? His chivalry code would not allow him as he kept his speed with Koneko.

"Gya-kun, go take that dragon else where. Then we'll come back to you." Koneko just basically 'shooed' Gasper away without any remorse in her tone.

"Fuweeeeeh!? Koneko-chan, that's beyond mean!" Gasper cried even louder.

However, before the trio's could have put themselves into deeper trouble, help came in the form of black fiery dragon who was flying right towards Gasper and the mass-produced Midgardsormr while roaring in rampage fit.

"That's-!?" Koneko gazed at the black dragon's visage.

"Saji-kun?!" Yuuto concluded and he saw the rampaging black dragon was getting closer towards Gasper and the dragon clone. "Gasper-kun! Move out of the way now!"

"EEEEKK!" Gasper barely managed to move out of the way just in time as Saji's dragon form slammed right on the dragon clone's face. The mass-produced Midgardsormr roared in pain as Vritra's curse immediately ran inside its veins, wrecking its body from inside out.

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" Yuuto did not waste more time as he finally decided to scoop Koneko into his arms and dashed away from the vicinity with his speed as Knight.

When Yuuto and Koneko reunited with Gasper, the three looked back to see Saji's Vritra form just finished on killing another clone of Sleeping Dragon, and he was now chasing after what was little left of the airborne dark elves. "Whoa, Saji-kun was not kidding when he told us to stay away from him." Yuuto swallowed a small lump at Saji's handiwork.

"At least he does capable of discerning friend or foe." Koneko commented.

"Scary…" Gasper shivered in fear as usual.

oXo

Meanwhile, Rias and Asia were flying around the vicinity where the rest of their comrades were engaging the draugar. Gasper had gone off somewhere in the midst of battle, the last time she saw her was when Gasper used his power to distract enemies attention and froze their movements with his Sacred Gear. She looked down and found Xenovia and Irina were fighting back-to-back against a mob of undead soldiers and mages.

The two former partners (still friends) were fighting off the melee soldiers and long-ranged mages with their respective weapons. However, when Irina was preoccupied in fending off her attackers, one of the undead mages' attack managed to hit the left side of her abdomen, causing her to stumble and drop to the ground.

"Aagh!"

"Irina!" Xenovia screamed in alarm when she saw Irina getting injured. She immediately waved her holy sword towards the mob in front of downed Irina. "Durandal!" The blue-haired knight shouted as she unleashed Durandal's destructive aura towards the undead soldiers, destroying them instantly.

Rias also landed nearby Irina providing cover for Asia to heal the reincarnated angel by firing a barrage of her Power of Destruction towards another mob of undead warriors.

"Are you alright, Irina-san?" Asia asked as she put her Twilight Healing into work. Now that the area was clear for a moment, Asia could utilise her healing power to the fullest by direct contact on the bleeding hole on Irina's stomach.

"Yes…. I'll be alright….. Thanks, Asia-san." Irina replied between breaths as her wound healed up in steady pace.

"Are you still up for more rounds?" Xenovia came to Irina's side and gave her hand.

Irina took a deep breath before she smiled in confidence. "Of course I am. After all, I still have to guide these lost souls back to their resting place! Amen!" She said as she took Xenovia's hand once her wound had healed up. She stood up and everyone saw Loki's space distortion began to close.

"It seems Rossweisse had finally finished her own part." Rias looked with a glint of hope in her eyes.

oXo

"…There!" Rossweisse's face brightened up once she had finished activating her own counter-spell against Loki's teleportation magic. The space distortion disappeared, effectively stopping the enemy forces from increasing in numbers.

The Priestess of Thunder and Lightning exhaled in relief as she stopped her continuous lightning. She then slowly descended to the ground, her reserve was practically drained as she was barely able to keep herself afloat. Fortunately, Rossweisse immediately came to her side, lending her shoulder to support her body in the air. "Thank you for the hard work, Akeno-san." Rossweisse praised.

"No, thank you, Rossweisse-san." Akeno said back to the Valkyrie with weak smile. "I'll be fine now, you should go help the others."

"But-"

"Ise-kun needs you for the fight against Loki." Akeno interjected Rossweisse's protest. "Don't worry. It doesn't seem there are much airborne enemies left, we can leave the foot soldiers to the others. I'll be just fine." Akeno finished with a deep breath.

Rossweisse seemed to consider Akeno's words. After a moment, she then escorted Akeno to a place that had no hostile in sight. "I'll be right back!" Rossweisse said as she took off to the sky.

Akeno nodded and she used what little time she had to recover her strength as much as she could.

* * *

"Guah!"

Meanwhile, Baraqiel just barely dodged Hati's claws as the wolf had torn off several of the fallen angel's wings, resulting Baraqiel to fall to the ground. Hati then proceeded to run and lunge towards Tannin, and the two monsters proceeded in a struggle where the wolf was ferociously trying to reach its fangs on Tannin's scales, while the said dragon was trying to get the wolf off his body.

"**GRAAAAARGH!"**

Alas, Hati was able to finally get a good bite on Tannin's shoulder, eliciting a painful roar out of the former dragon king. In response, Tannin reverted to his baser instinct and he returned the favour by clamping his jaws on Hati's shoulder, causing the wolf to release his jaws off Tannin's shoulder to howl in pain.

The dragon, however, kept his fangs firmed in Hati's flesh as the dragon proceeded to hit the wolf with his fire breath in zero-point range. The wolf dropped to the ground in flames, and when the flames faded out, Hati was wheezing in agony as it was barely able to stand up with half of its body horribly burned, especially around its shoulder, which was now scorched black. Tannin himself was not faring that well either, as his shoulder was still bleeding profusely from Hati's fangs, and his body was scratched all over from the wolf's claws.

Baraqiel then re-joined to Tannin's side. While he could still fly, having some of his wings taken away caused his flight performance to deteriorate considerably.

"**Baraqiel-dono…"** Tannin growled out. "**The mutt is now on an equal ground with me. I can take care of the rest. You should head off to aid the others."**

"Are you sure that's wise?" Baraqiel asked back, not entirely agree to leave his comrade in arms.

"**It appears that the Valkyrie had stopped the enemy forces to grow in numbers. However, their current numbers remain large. The young'uns might be overwhelmed by now. Go, I shall catch up as soon as I'm done with this dog." **

"Very well. I wish you fortune in battles." Baraqiel nodded as he flew off.

As soon as Baraqiel had flown far enough, Tannin shot out his fire breath once again towards Hati, who roared in defiance and immediately ran towards the direction of the flame for one last stand.

oXo

On the other parts of the battlefield, members of Vali team were engaging Skoll, another one of Fenrir's off-springs.

"Ora, ora, ora!" Bikou roared as he repeatedly bashed the wolf's body with his Ruyi Jingu Bang. The wolf resisted the onslaught as it attempted to move away to regain its position. "Get bigger, Ruyi Jingu Bang!" However, the monkey youkai immediately commanded his staff to be a size of a pillar and slammed it to Skoll's torso, resulting possible fractures as the wolf was thrown away.

However, when the wolf stood up, it found itself could not move its legs as the said legs were trapped inside the molten earth.

"Nyahahaha~ I've sealed your movements, nya." It was apparently Kuroka's handiwork with her Youjutsu.

"Now, I shall finish this." Arthur stepped forward with his holy sword ready. "Let's begin with your eyes." The descendant of King of Knights then carved the holy blade into one of Skoll's eyes, eliciting a painful howl. "Then, I shall remove your dangerous fangs and claws, with this Holy King Sword, Caliburn!"

Arthur then delivered multitude combo-slash on Skoll's body, splattering its blood and removing its fangs and claws away in the process. As Skoll's body fell to the ground, even if the wolf was still alive, it had been effectively rendered powerless and out of the fight.

oXo

Meanwhile, Issei was facing the last mass-produced Midgardsormr as he flew straight towards the dragon's open mouth. However, the boy did not stop and literally forced his way through the dragon's body, destroying its internal organs in the process.

**[Boost!]**

"UOOOOGH!" Issei roared as he pushed through, causing the dragon's entire body to burst in gore and blood. As Issei got out of the dragon clone's body at some point, he lost his balance, resulting him to drop unceremoniously to the unforgiving ground.

BANG!

"Ooph!" However, just when Issei came back on his feet, he was struck in the back by a condensed prana, causing him to stumble before another magic attack caused his body to get thrown to nearby rocky wall. In an instant, Issei was now ambushed and ganged up by a horde of undead soldiers and mages alike.

"Why, you…!" Issei gritted through his teeth as he forced his way out by jumping up, then, he brandished his Mjolnir and used his Boosted Gear to power up Mjolnir's output.

**[Transfer!]**

The hammer crackled with divine lightning before Issei slammed it towards the centre of the horde. "REST IN PEACE ALREADY!" As the thunder roared, the horde that was surrounding Issei had been incinerated, as if they just received some kind of divine punishment. However, Issei suddenly felt _it_, causing him to drop the Mjolnir to the ground.

**[What the hell?!]**

Inside Issei's soul, Ddraig was caught surprised when the _power_ suddenly burst out from the 'gate', causing the dragon to quickly come over and shut the gate close.

_BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP!_

"AAaargghh…!" Issei had to suppress his scream as a familiar agonizing pain ran through his whole body. It felt like his inside was being put into a blender. His Scale Mail crumbled almost immediately as Issei was on his fours, wheezing and clutching his chest in agony.

"Ddraig…. What the fuck happened?!"

**[**_**It**_** just suddenly acted up! I barely managed to close the gate before **_**it**_** could have done any further damage!]**

The Welsh Dragon shouted back as he was struggling to keep the 'gate' shut, where the power desperately tried to force its way through before it subsided few seconds later.

"…Am I… that desperate?" Issei asked between heavy breaths, recalling Ddraig's advice from earlier as the pain slowly faded. Now if he carefully remembered, the pain earlier was not as bad as the first time, lest he would be incapacitated completely. However, it was still agonizing enough for Issei to lose control of maintaining his Balance Breaker.

**[I don't know… But I have to admit that the situation was not that dire… At least for now until this thing had to come out.]**

While Issei was slowly getting back on his feet, a certain Valkyrie arrived from the sky. "Red Dragon Emperor!"

"Rossweisse-san." Issei greeted back as he re-equipped his Scale Mail.

"Are you okay? I saw you to be in pain just now." Rossweisse asked in worry.

"Yeah… I'm fine. Just… getting tired, I guess."

Rossweisse furrowed her eyebrows, feeling something was off. "Please keep yourself together, Red Dragon Emperor. The battle is still not over yet."

"Yes… Yes, I know." Issei nodded, feeling that he finally got back in enough shape to resume fighting. "By the way, can you just call me by name? Calling me Red Dragon Emperor all the time sounds rather inconvenient, too formal."

Rossweisse only blinked before she complied. "Then… Issei-san. Where's Loki?"

"I lost the sight of him, and I was on my way looking for him before I ran into these guys." Issei replied, looking at the corpses around him. "Have you seen him by any chance?"

"No luck on my side either." Rossweisse replied grimly. "We must hurry. Things will only go worse if this battle goes on longer."

The two nodded to each other as they were set to finish the battle.

* * *

For the duration of the battle, Loki had been hiding in the midst of the chaos after his clash with the Red Dragon Emperor, now he was observing the turn out of events on the battlefield.

"Two Heavenly Dragons, young devils and a young angel, a fallen angel leader, demons from far-east, holy sword wielders, and two dragon kings… Just as that Scapegoat said." Loki analysed his enemies.

The Two Heavenly Dragons were the two war-potentials that hindered Loki's agenda. Loki clicked his tongue in agitation; not only those two were formidable in their own right, the Red Dragon could use Mjolnir's divine lightning, while the White Dragon had taken his greatest trump card away.

However, Loki caught something that piqued his interest slightly on the Red Dragon. After defeating a band of his draugar, he was suddenly in _pain_. Odd, the Red Dragon Emperor should have not yet to receive any sort of damage that warranted that kind of reaction. Exhaustion, perhaps? No, the reaction was too much for a mere exhaustion. Something else was going on, but Loki chose to think about it later, as he had more important things to do.

Skoll and Hati might not as strong as Fenrir, but Loki should have found it coming that the demons from far-east and the wielder of the Sword in the Stone to capable of incapacitating Skoll.

When Loki looked at those who were fighting Hati, it appeared that the former dragon king and the cadre of fallen angels were barely able to stand their ground. Despite Hati's horrible injury from the dragon's flame, Hati could be as stubborn as its father sometimes.

The devil who wielded Vritra, however, was completely unexpected. As far as Loki had heard from history, the Prison Dragon had not been awakened ever since his body and soul being disassembled and sealed in multiple Sacred Gears. While the Prison Dragon was not the strongest of the group, its multitude of curses and techniques made him to be the most dangerous player on the field, despite not fully awakened yet.

Loki then took glances at the young devils and the young angel. _"That red crimson hair…. I see."_ The devils, including the current Red Dragon Emperor, happened to be the servants of Gremory household. Putting the Red Dragon Emperor aside, the little sister of the current Lucifer and her servants were nothing impressive in Loki's eyes, but they did show some promises along with the angel as they fared well in battling his army.

Speaking of his army, Odin's battle-maiden and one of the Gremory's servants were able to stop his army's further advance. Well, it did not matter for the Evil God, as he did not intend to solely rely on his army alone; after all, he did not get his hands on those souls for free and legally. As soon as his daughter got a wind of his trickery, she would definitely block his access to create any more draugar. The Evil God had been preparing his own finishing move as his 'minions' bought him some time. The God of Mischief originally was keeping these for _that_ man, however, Loki himself could not afford to waste any more time with this battle any longer. Wasting one of his spells would not hurt; After all, he had a dog to retrieve from a certain white dragon, an old god to kill, and an apocalypse to start.

oXo

Everyone turned towards the source of divine power that suddenly revealed itself as Loki, floating high in the sky. Issei immediately prepared his replica of Mjolnir while those who were not preoccupied against enemy forces were preparing themselves to strike at any moment. Even those who were still engaging an enemy had to give some their attention towards the Evil God.

"Lord Loki!" Rossweisse shouted. "This is your last chance, please surrender! Your best combatants had fallen, and the rest of your army will soon follow! There is no point to drag this battle any longer!"

Loki took one last glance at his minions. All of the mass-produced Midgardsormr had been taken down courtesy to Saji's Vritra Promotion and Issei, Skoll had been rendered powerless with its fangs and claws forcefully removed, and Hati, with its grievous injuries from Tannin's flames would not seem to last much longer as the wolf was slowly being overwhelmed by its own injuries. His undead army was nothing more than canon fodder against superior fighting force despite their still-superior numbers, which were slowly dwindled as the battle went on.

However, in the face of such odds, Loki did not show any fear. In fact, the Evil God was smirking as if he had achieved something. "You're absolutely correct." Loki calmly replied. "It is time to end this farce." Then, several intricate magic circles and formulas appeared around Loki as his divine aura flared out into existence.

Everyone was alarmed, thinking that Loki was about to unleash something else. However, Rossweisse had her face drained out of colour.

"That spell….. It can't be…! Heaven's Downfall!?" Rossweisse muttered in terror as she recognised the spell. She then snapped her head towards all of her comrades. "Everyone! Take cover! Loki is going to unleash one of his strongest attacks!" Rossweisse shouted as she formulated her own defensive spell.

The laughter that came out from the Evil God only made everyone to understand that Rossweisse warning was completely genuine. Yuuto and Xenovia immediately combined the power of Durandal and Yuuto's Sword Birth, creating a dome of holy-demonic swords with Durandal's durability surrounding those two, Irina, Koneko and Gasper altogether.

Rias and Asia just had their luck to be separated from the rest in the midst of the battle, causing Issei to ran towards them while pulling Rossweisse (who was with him) in tow, unfurled his dragon wings in order to envelope all the girls within the reach of his own body as a shield. "Ddraig, put everything into defence!"

**[Got it!]**

The Welsh Dragon then focused the charged-up power to further enhance durability and density of the dragon armour.

"Bikou, Kuroka, get behind me!" Arthur bellowed as he brandished both Caliburn and Excalibur Ruler, fusing their power together to create the strongest barrier he could make. Bikou and Kuroka used what magic they knew to strengthen Arthur's protective barrier further.

Hati had abandoned its current battle with Blaze Meteor Dragon, as the wolf recognised Loki's intention. With its badly injured and battered body, the wolf 'limped' itself away as far as it could.

Akeno, who was still rather exhausted from her earlier stunt, was rather slow to act and she could not make it in time. However, a figure of a man came over and enveloped her in his arms protectively. Baraqiel then proceeded to hardened all of his wings into maximum density to envelope both him and his daughter as a make-shift shield, then he enhanced his protective wings even further with all kind of magic and mysteries he had known for over millennia.

Tannin on the other hand, decided to just brace himself for the incoming impact, relying on the durability of his dragon scales as he fired off a giant fireball towards Loki, hoping his attack could at least distract Loki enough from activating his spell. Saji in his dragon form also happened to have the same thought as the fiery black dragon roared and raced his way straight to Loki's position, ready to strike the Evil God with his various curses. However, it was too late as Loki did not falter and smiled even wider, the magic circles around him glowed brighter by seconds in white light.

"Behold the Twilight of the Gods!" Loki boasted as his next words sealed everyone's apparent doom. "FALLEN DOWN!"

With those final words, a massive pillar of blue light fell from the sky, the pillar then expanded, until everything turned white.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Kuoh, Sona Sitri and her peerage felt a massive fluctuation from the bounded field they were maintaining as she and her Queen had to exert all of their power to keep the field intact. Some of her servants were falling to their knees.

"What the heck was that?!" Nimura Ruruko shouted in shock.

"This kind of fluctuation… Only a destructive spell of the highest level could have caused this." Tsubaki grimly said.

"What is going on in there?" Kusaka Reya asked in fear and wonder.

"Saji, do you copy? What happened in there?" Sona activated her communication link to get in touch with her pawn. However, there was no response. "Saji, please respond!" Sona asked in louder voice.

Fear began to fill her heart as she tried to contact another person. "Rias? Are you there? What's happening?" There was still no response as her fear increased. "Rossweisse-san? Can anyone hear me?" There was still no response. "Anyone!?"

As much as Sona tried to keep her calm expression, she could not help but to feel worry for her pawn, who she considered like her own little brother, and Rias, who had been her oldest friend. Her servants began to detect her distraught as everyone feared for the worst.

"Um, excuse me!"

However, a sudden male voice interrupted their musings as they turned their heads towards the source of the voice. All eyes widened at the sight of the man with balding head and tattered children superhero clothes.

"Ah, you are Serafall's sister, right?" the man asked as relief came to his face. "That's perfect. I want to ask, is this the place where old man Odin, Azazel, and other leaders are having their meeting?"

oXo

When the view cleared up, the whole battlefield had been burned to cinder, almost devoid of life. The remaining army that Loki had brought forth, had become nothing more than lifeless corpses lying around the ground. Their bodies were incinerated, leaving only their bones and skeletons. The carcasses of mass-produced Midgardsormr had become more akin to glorified fossils.

Saji, however, despite being the closest to the blast when Loki activated his 'Heaven's Downfall', was lied motionlessly on the ground as his body was covered in burns, wounds, and blood with his upper clothes were torn apart. Perhaps it was a miracle that his body was still in one piece, courtesy of Vritra's aura protecting him. However, one had to get to have a closer inspection to determine whether the boy was still alive or not.

Tannin was lying motionlessly on the ruins of the battlefield. His body was scorched and his purple scales were falling off here and there, the subtle movements of dust flying around his nose-trills and chest were the only thing that signified that the former dragon king was in fact, still breathing. Whether he would survive, however, remained in question. Hati and Skoll, who were not too far from Tannin, suffered the same fate as they barely clung to life, despite being Loki's 'descendant'.

Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina, Koneko and Gasper were on similar state. Their bodies were still intact thanks to the combination of Yuuto's holy demonic sword and Xenovia's Durandal taking the brunt of Loki's attack. However, the youngsters did not appear that they would move any time soon.

The members of Vali team perhaps were the only ones who fared the best after taking Loki's attack, courtesy of Arthur's holy swords.

"Are you two alright?" Arthur asked his friends.

"Yeah… Thanks to you, nya." Kuroka replied rather weakly.

"Fucking hell… That was so scary!" Bikou's response was enough to confirm his relatively good condition.

However, the descendant of King of Knights had to admit that, were the attack lasted few seconds longer, he would have had to escape into Dimensional Gap along with his teammates.

When Rias opened her eyes, she felt her body was aching all over. She could only remember the earlier feeling to be akin inside the bunker that had been bombarded by atomic bomb. She gave a quick look to check on Asia and Rossweisse, who were right beside her, as they were relatively fine, albeit their bodies were burned on few places. However, her eyes widened in terror when she looked up, her eyes landed on particularly someone who had served himself as her shelter.

"Ise/Ise-san!" the girls shouted in worry at the sight of Issei's condition. The boy was still standing, his arms outstretched in protective manner. However, his armour was crumbling apart, revealing his burned and battered body. In addition his entire person was literally _smoking_. It was thanks to his armour that took the brunt of Loki's Heaven's Downfall, but the sheer heat of the attack practically made Issei feeling as if he had been kept inside sauna in highest degree, while wearing layers upon layers of _winter_ clothing.

The boy fell to his knees, dismissing his armour in the process as he felt cold, dry wind brushed on his exposed skin. Asia quickly used her Twilight Healing to fix whatever damage inflicted on Issei's body, while Rias and Rossweisse stood up and looked around.

"Yuuto, Xenovia, everyone!" Rias shouted in alarm at the sight of her servants plus Irina laid on the ground. Fear unlike ever before crept up her being as Rias ran towards her downed friends. "Please! Hang in there! Asia!"

Asia was completely perplexed at the urgency in Rias' tone. "I'm gonna be fine, Asia… Go." Issei reassured her to go to Rias' side as his wounds were not that severe. The former holy maiden then arrived at Rias' side then she gasped in terror at the sight of her friends.

"Oh my God… How could this happen?" Asia muttered with teary eyes as she began to heal everyone.

However, as if to make things worse, a familiar scream was heard. "Father! No!"

When everyone turned to the source, they saw Akeno, sobbing and crying her eyes out, was embracing Baraqiel's body. The fallen angel's back, along with his 10 wings had been incinerated, leaving only his back covered in burns and blood as his outer skin had gone. Baraqiel's own body itself was profusely wounded and bleeding from head to toe.

"W-why…?! Why would you…?" Akeno asked in both sad and incredulous tone, her face was completely devastated. She had been hating him for a tragedy that was her own mistake, refusing him again and again, yet her father put himself in harm's way for her sake.

Baraqiel's eyes opened half-way, enough for the man to glance at his daughter, and weak, barely audible whisper came out from his chapped lips. "I…. I can't… lose you as well…"

"Stupid…." Akeno sobbed as she clutched her father in tight embrace. "….Stupid!"

Just when everyone was about to take any further action, another voice was heard from the sky. "Hmph, that might not have been my most powerful spell, but colour me impressed. All of you actually survived, albeit barely." Everyone looked up to see Loki sneering at them.

"You bastard…!" Issei growled while everyone conscious was sending glares at the Evil God.

"Kukukuku…. Those were good eyes. Ragnarok shall begin soon enough, and all of you shall be the first ones to witness its beginning." Loki announced to the enemies below him.

While keeping their attention on Loki, everyone from alliance still had to focus on healing their members. While Asia was still healing her friends' injuries, Rias had taken initiative to go towards Saji, whose condition seemed to be the worst of all. When she arrived at the Sitri pawn, she could feel that his pulse was fading. Asia herself had given enough medical care on her friends from Occult Research Club and was about to attend Tannin.

"Rias, help! I can't find any Phoenix Tears on him!" Akeno cried out.

During the preparation before the battle, several individuals had been given a vial of Phoenix Tears: Hyoudou Issei, Rias Gremory, Tannin, and Baraqiel. Tannin had already used up his share of Phoenix Tears to heal the wound that Fenrir inflicted around the beginning of the battle before Vali had gone away with the god-devouring wolf.

"Eh?!" Rias exclaimed as she just used her own share to heal Saji. "Has Baraqiel-san used his own share of Phoenix Tears?"

Phoenix Tears were given in case of emergency when an injury that even Twilight Healing could not heal were to occur, such as dismembered limbs, for example. In Baraqiel's case, he had apparently used up his own Phoenix Tears after he had left the fight against Hati to Tannin, believing that moment would be a good time to rejuvenate himself. However, Baraqiel was mistaken after receiving Loki's attack, and he was now paying the price.

"Here, use mine!" Issei took out his share of Phoenix Tears, which thankfully and miraculously remained intact despite the battle he had gone through. "Rossweisse-san, I'll leave them to you!"

"Got it!" the Valkyrie received the vial and she immediately went to Akeno and Baraqiel's side.

"Tears of the Immortal Bird, huh? Do you think I will let you recover?" Loki sneered once again as he prepared to release his own divine aura towards Rossweisse, who almost reached Akeno and the heavily injured Baraqiel.

"LOKIII!" Issei roared as he intended to activate his power again, along with brandishing the Mjolnir in hopes of distracting Loki's attention.

_BA-BUMP!_

However, the hidden power within him gave a stronger push towards the 'gate', resulting another rebound effect. Issei felt another agonising pain through his body, causing him to drop to the ground. "Aargh!"

"Why now of all times….!?"

**[The power is responding to your rage and the danger around you! Cool your head off for a minute!]**

"We don't have a fucking minute!"

"Hmm… It happened again." Loki mused as he was now intrigued at Issei's condition. "I saw you were in pain earlier despite the lack of injury on your body. Perhaps you're reaching your limit? No matter. I shall end this, starting from you." The Evil God then proceeded to fire a portion of his divine energy towards Rossweisse, who just arrived right at Akeno and Baraqiel's location.

"NO!" Rias cried out in terror.

"Dammit…!" Issei tried to reach out, but his own body was still in wreck.

Rossweisse, Akeno and Baraqiel could only stared at their impeding doom as the devil – fallen angel hybrid closed her eyes in resignation and hugged her father's body.

"AKENOOO!" Rias cried out the name of her best friend in despair.

BOOM!

The sound of explosion was heard, however, neither Rossweisse, Akeno or Baraqiel felt the hit. When Akeno opened her eyes, she was met with awfully familiar visage, the same visage the saved her life when she was about to get killed by Himejima clan in the past.

Bald head, yellow suit with red gloves and boots, as well as a white cape. Saitama was standing in the way of Loki's attack, protecting Rossweisse, Akeno, and Baraqiel behind him.

"You….!" Loki widened his eyes at the sight of the hero.

From the distance, the members of Vali team believed that their service were no longer needed. "…I think that's our cue to leave." Bikou said. Kuroka nodded in agreement while Arthur wordlessly used his Caliburn to open a tear in the space, allowing all three of them to slip away into Dimensional Gap.

Everyone else was stunned at the fact that Saitama arrived when everything seemed lost, just like in the fairy tale where the hero arrived during the time of most dire crisis. Tannin, who was barely conscious, twitched the corner of his lips upward ever so slightly as he let his body to rest up, believing that he had nothing to worry about.

Saji, who just regained his consciousness from his near-death experience, could not help but feel astonished at the sight of human withstanding an attack of a god. "….What?" It would be his first time to see Saitama in action.

Rias just felt great relief washed over the tension from her body, causing her legs to collapse, dropping her body to the ground. "Saitama-san!" Asia was immensely glad to see the man who she saw as a father figure.

Those who had been healed by Asia slowly regained consciousness and had their eyes fully opened at the sight of Saitama. Xenovia in particular, was rather ecstatic as her eyes filled with hope. "Saitama-dono!"

Issei only groaned, followed by good-natured sigh of exasperation. "What the hell, man…. Took you long enough."

Saitama only glanced at the group. "'Sup, everyone."

"…Saitama-kun?" Baraqiel said weakly at the sight of his friend.

Saitama noticed Baraqiel's condition behind him and he kneeled down. "It's okay, Baraqiel. You're gonna be fine. Leave the rest to me."

Then Saitama noticed that Rossweisse was still staring dumbly at him while her hand was holding a small vial. "Err… Rossweisse?" Saitama tried to call out, but Rossweisse was still stunned. "Rossweisse?" Saitama began to wave his hand on the Valkyrie's face. Then he leaned in and clicked his finger couple of times. "Hey, Rossweisse!"

"Wh-wha? What?" Rossweisse finally snapped out of her trance and her mind processed that Saitama's face was only few inches from hers. "S-S-S-Saitama-san?!" Rossweisse squealed with flustered face.

"Are you going to use that on him or what?" Saitama pointed at the vial on Rossweisse's hand. The human never really heard about Phoenix Tears, but knowing Rossweisse and the circumstances, Saitama simply assumed that what Rossweisse had was some kind of medicine to treat Baraqiel's wounds.

"R-right!" Rossweisse snapped out of her stupor as she poured the vial's content on Baraqiel.

Saitama was absolutely impressed at the sight of Baraqiel's wounds healing up instantly. The wings were not growing back, but the burns and injuries on his body had completely recovered. The man could not help but wonder what kind of uproar his home world would cause should a miracle drug like that were to be introduced.

"How pleasant of you to join our party, Saitama…." Loki mockingly greeted. "I was beginning to think that you won't show up."

"Loki." Saitama turned to face the Evil God. "I'll cut to the chase. Odin asked me not to kill you if possible, so come quietly and nobody will get hurt anymore."

"Is that so?" Loki replied. "How about this, all of you will disappear as I shall take Odin's head in silver platter!" the Evil God then spread his arms out, and flaring his divine aura to maximum output. Everyone sans Saitama widened their eyes at the sight of Loki summoning something that appeared to be a massive black storm in the sky.

"Another super-tier magic?! This one is even stronger than before!" Rossweisse raised her voice in alarm. However, despite everyone being worried of what was going to happen, Saitama did not falter as he took a step forward.

"Begone to the oblivion!" Loki roared. At that moment, Saitama was bending his knee in preparation to jump up. "Iä Shub-Niggurath!"

BAM!

Faster than anyone could have seen, the moment Loki spelled out his final attack, Saitama had jumped towards him, cocked back his fist, and slammed it right on Loki's head; as the Evil God did not even realise what just happened to him until it was too late. The force was powerful enough to hurl Loki towards the unforgiving ground and the said ground caved into a massive crater upon impact.

Everyone was lost at words at the spectacle. Those who were first-timers, simply just remained at their position, dumbfounded at the fact that Saitama just ended a _god_ in one punch.

Even Asia, who was now attending Tannin, had her eyes completely glued on Saitama's visage while not realising that her Twilight Healing had completely healed up the dragon's wounds as the time passed on.

Xenovia and Irina who had seen such spectacle once were swallowing a lump; as they did not expect that Saitama just single-handedly defeated a god.

After Saitama had landed back to the ground, he simply dusted his hands off as he nodded after he had inspected his handiwork.

"U-um… Saitama-san?" Rossweisse nervously approached. She knew that Saitama was strong that he was deemed worthy to wield the mighty Mjolnir and became a new champion of Valhalla, but she just could not get used to this yet. "I… thought Lord Odin asked you not to kill him?"

"Well, Loki's alive….." Saitama then took another look at the massive crater, with Loki was laid face-down at the centre, not moving at all. Saitama then blinked at the blood pooling beneath Loki's head. "…..I think."

The hero then turned back to look around at everyone else, who was still staring at him with stunned expression. The atmosphere had started to become awkward as the silence went on until Saitama decided to break the ice. "Okay!" Saitama clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Now that we are done here, let's wrap up and go home, shall we?"

Rias only blinked couple of times to register Saitama's words. "…Yeah, sure. Let's go, everyone."

The rest just wordlessly complied, still disillusioned by the event that had just taken place.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And that's the wrap! I'm deeply sorry if the battle was not to your liking. That was all I could come up with regarding the twist. If you want to know more about the Draugar, you can easily find it in the Wikipedia. The original text mentioned that Draugar was supposed to be lot stronger than I depicted in this story, but I decided to go against making overpowered foot soldiers.**

**Speaking of, do you think I nerfed the characters too much? I need to have the battle to be different from canon; not too simple, but enough to overwhelm everyone so Saitama can come to save the day. I also have tried to make this battle to be somewhat more OPM-style. Thoughts?**

**Regarding Issei wielding Mjolnir; I found the one in canon was too… convenient, simple, and rather silly when I read that Issei made contact with god of breast of all things. Thus I came up with the concept about divine weapons, cases and all. So…. Thoughts? Btw, I heard from several sources that Ddraig once had been worshiped like a god in Ireland. Once again, thoughts?**

**And should I stick with canon material where Issei developed Illegal Move Triaina and Cardinal Crimson Promotion, or should I come up with original move of my own? **

**The next chapter will be the closing act of this arc, where I will work on resolving the estranged relationship between Akeno and Baraqiel, as well as the awkward atmosphere between Saitama and Rossweisse. **

**No flame, please. Constructive criticisms are accepted. Ahsoei, over and out**.


	34. Ragnarok (V)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Thunder Dragon (guest): I can't do that as well. Not only I don't grasp the whole concept of Fate/Stay Night, I also don't follow Nanoha franchise.**

**Without further ado, here's the epilogue for Ragnarok! R&amp;R and enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 33: Ragnarok (V) – Reconciliation**

_(Flashback, Asgard)_

Sounds of revels were filling the air, chorus of praise and cheers were echoing against the walls, goblets and cups full of mead were clanged against one another as every occupants in the room were having toasts. Inside the grand hall of Asgard main palace, everyone was laughing and celebrating another victory of war.

Large tables with chairs were set up for the party participants, exquisite foods and the best drinks across the Valhalla had been procured to accommodate the guests. Entertainments such as music, dancers and jesters had been deployed to keep the merriment of the party. All soldiers and Valkyries who had given their services to the battles were enjoying the party as they ate, drank, talked and laughed about their spoils of war. Many battle-maidens were attempting to woe their way for some of the warrior and the heroes' attention.

PRANG!

"Another!" Volstagg, one of Asgard's finest warriors with particularly large build, just boastfully asked for another mead by smashing his own cup to the floor, inciting roars of cheer and laughter despite his supposedly rude behaviour, as everyone else in the party also smashed their respective mugs to the floor.

Odin, who had led the toast to begin the party, was laughing while enjoying the sight of the dancer's alluring charm and ogling other women in the party while his wife, Frigga, had given up to chastise her husband and decided to enjoy the party and joined to talk with her son instead.

The said son, none other than the Thunder God himself, was being the centre of the party with one more person, who was also the celebrity of the party that night. That person was a bald man, wearing a yellow jump suit with a cape bellowing behind him. His hands and feet were covered in red gloves. The two were conversing as they were being served by several palace's maids and few Valkyries who attempted to get their attentions. Thankfully for the mortal man, most of the women's attention had been more focused on the Thunder God, who had more experience of following women's whims and all.

Thor was not foreign about having women to flock around him, but Saitama was sure as hell feeling awkward about such treatment. Not that he disliked it, but he just felt out of place. So what if he was able to lift some hammer? Saitama never actually cared about those things. He joined the revels and party simply out of his own etiquette. Not to mention that free food and drinks like these should be appreciated, and damn were drinks so good. Perhaps he should get more used to be treated like celebrity from time to time.

"Thank you for your hard work, Lord Saitama." Saitama turned to see a young woman with long silver-hair clad in a simple, yet exotic dress that had been tailored for party occasions.

"You're…. One of those battle-maidens from the squad I was in…. What's your name again?" Saitama tilted his head.

"It's Rossweisse." The woman calmly replied. "And yes, we were on the same squad during that war. Would you like another mead, milord?" she politely asked when she noticed that Saitama's cup was empty.

"Oh… Yeah, thanks." Saitama gave his cup and Rossweisse dutifully re-filled it. "And you don't need to use that honorifics on me, you know?"

"You are a champion of Valhalla, milord. You are one of the few who had been deemed worthy to wield the legendary Mjolnir itself. It is only right and just for me to treat you as such." Rossweisse explained with tone full of respect in her voice.

"No, seriously. Please stop with the honorifics, I'm asking you a favour here." Rossweisse elicited a little yelp as her face was flustered when Saitama put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad that everyone looks up to me, but it's starting to make me feel uncomfortable. Can you just treat me normally? I'm begging you!" Saitama hissed desperately, even he clapped his hands in pleading gesture.

Still slightly flustered, Rossweisse blinked at the man's request. Few seconds later, she giggled in amusement. Never once she met such a powerful, yet humble person. "As you wish, then… Saitama-san."

"…Okay, that's better." Saitama sighed in relief. The two then smiled at each other, signing the beginning of their friendship.

However, the two then heard several voices directed towards them.

"Hey, look at that newbie!"

"Wow, so that forever-alone Rossweisse is finally getting herself a man!"

"You go, girl!"

"We deliberately left him out for you, don't fuck this up!"

Saitama only furrowed his eyebrows in confusion while Rossweisse was whimpering and fuming in embarrassment. "…What's with them? Are those your friends?"

Upon Saitama's question, Rossweisse fidgeted slightly in her seat. "We were from the same division when we graduated from academy… It's sort of a norm for Valkyries to court with strong warriors and heroes to increase their stature and preserving their bloodline. It's just… I never really had any friends, let alone a boyfriend. Even after I became a Valkyrie, I ended up as lord Odin's personal assistant with low salary." Then Rossweisse's eyes widened with the red shade returned to her face. "But, please don't misunderstand! It's not that I'm trying to s-s-s-seduce you here or anything! Well, I'm not saying that you don't have the looks, but…. This is just a friendly gesture, I swear!" Rossweisse frantically waved her arms defensively.

"…I see." Saitama simply replied. Then he called out at the nearby palace servants. "Can I have a new cup here?"

Rossweisse only blinked in slight confusion as the servant dutifully handed Saitama a new cup. "This is a victory celebration, right? So go knock yourself out." Saitama friendly offered the cup to Rossweisse.

"Knock… myself out?" Rossweisse was even more confused at Saitama's words to 'knock herself out'.

"I mean have a drink, have fun, just forget everything else for tonight. Those guys who're making fun of you should just get themselves a hobby." Saitama re-phrased as he poured mead into Rossweisse's cup.

The Valkyrie stared into her drink before taking a glance at Saitama, who raised his cup, inviting her to have a toast. Rossweisse then smiled as she raised her cup as well. "Then I'll do as you said, Saitama-san."

The two then had a toast and downed their respective drinks as the party went on.

oXo

"So fuck that fuggin' grudge- grudgua- gradu-! graduation prom and everyone elshe who fuggin' attend it 'coz they're all CUNTS!" Rossweisse yelled in slurs and heavily flustered face, as she was being given a piggy back ride by Saitama.

The man inwardly groaned for the umpteenth time that night. Who would have known that Rossweisse was a light drinker? One shot and she was completely intoxicated. A couple more cups and her pent-up stress and frustration had been liberated for the world to see. Afterwards, she had been complaining and speaking profanities about her school-life and all kinds of 'mistreatment' she had received so far.

Feeling that the Valkyrie would have just dug her grave even deeper if she were remained in the party in her drunken state, Saitama took the liberty to take her to bed in order to cool her head off. Odin was kind enough to lend one of the palace's empty bedrooms for Saitama to use. However, Saitama did not miss Odin's strange hand gestures and his knowing smirk, but he did not question them.

And here they were, walking across the hallway and through the stairs towards the bedroom, with the drunken Valkyrie just told the story of how she had been left out of her peer's graduation prom despite how hard she had been working and studying to be the model-student…. For the third time.

"-And then, and den… Dat ol' geezer never 'stands how hard I been worgin' meh azz off! I can't fuggin' bliv' dat Lady Frigga still stay round 'em!" And that was the fourth time Rossweisse had been complaining about her days as Odin's servant girl.

"Yes, yes…" Saitama drawly replied as he finally reached the bedroom, much to his relief.

When he opened the door and was making his way towards the large bed, Rossweisse suddenly spoke again. "Say, Saitama…" any hint of formalities had completely disappeared in her words. "Have I told ye that yer bald head makes you look sexy?"

Saitama paused on his steps as he felt his eye twitched. Okay, that was uncalled for. He knew it was a flattery, but he was not flattered at all. "Err… Thanks." Saitama awkwardly replied as he continued his way towards the bed. After he had tucked Rossweisse in bed, Saitama was about to leave when he felt something tugged on his cape.

Saitama turned to see Rossweisse, laid on the bed, was giving him a longing look. "Can you stay here, please? Least 'til I fall asleep…"

The two stared at each other's eyes for a moment until Saitama gave in with a sigh, then he proceeded to sit on the edge of the bed with his back on Rossweisse. The two then fell into companionable silence, with Saitama sitting patiently, waiting for Rossweisse to doze off into slumber. Few minutes later, Saitama felt that Rossweisse was stirring in the bed.

The Valkyrie was snuggling her body closer to Saitama's back. "…You're amazing, y'know that?" She suddenly said.

"Mmhm."

"Yer attitude and behaviour…. Show that you ain't let your strength and power to get over your head…. That's somethin' admirable."

"Mmhm."

Rossweisse only silently giggled at Saitama's nonchalant response. Then, the man felt another stirring. "And I just find myself… Attracted to that side of yours…"

Saitama then felt more stirring, along with rustling noise behind him, causing him to look back. When he did however, Saitama was stiffened at the new sight before him.

Lo and behold, under the moonlight shining through the window, Rossweisse had slid her dress off her upper body, leaving her breasts open for Saitama to see. Her face was flushed, she was smiling bewitchingly and her eyes contained a certain glint that caused Saitama to shiver ever so slightly.

Saitama felt that the atmosphere in the room had become so awkward in the fraction of second. He was no foreigner of the sight of naked woman; thanks to him marrying a certain sexual dynamite, namely his wife, Saitama had developed resistance over female's alluring birthday suit; not that he was easily seduced in the first place. "Um… Rossweisse?" Saitama said as he awkwardly glanced to his left and right.

"Ssshhh…." Rossweisse interrupted with surprisingly seductive voice as she leaned forward and placed a finger on Saitama's lips. "Tonight, call me Rose."

As Rossweisse inched her face slowly towards Saitama's, the man's nose picked the scent of only liquor from the woman's breath, and he finally realized of just what he had gotten himself into. Saitama then began to inch away. "Ooookay…. Rossweisse. I think you're _really_ should-mmm?!"

Whatever Saitama wanted Rossweisse to do could never be voiced because the woman had wrapped her arms around his head and sealed his mouth with her own.

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

"Hmm…. Let's see, we already got our own toothbrush and change of clothes…" Issei muttered as he read a piece of paper. "We already bought some first aids in case of emergency, travelling packs, and…. Maybe we should buy some snacks and drinks for the school trip? What do you think Asia?"

Currently Issei and Asia were having a date in the shopping district under the pretence of shopping some necessities for the upcoming school trip. "I think Xenovia-san and Irina-san had bought enough to share with us. Perhaps we should buy some games? This is my very first school trip, I'm so excited!" Asia said as she brought her hands together in excited manner.

"Games, huh… Sounds good." Issei ran his hand through Asia's hair affectionately. "Do you need to buy anything else?"

Asia looked down as her face begun to flush. She fidgeted and played with her fingers before she started to stutter in reply. "I-i-if it's alright with you, I'd like to visit the department store."

"Department store?" Issei blinked. "Do you need some extra clothes or something?"

Asia's face became even redder. "K-Kiryuu-san said that g-girls need to bring some special u-u-uunder-garments for the school trip… Xenovia-san and Irina-san had bought their own set yesterday… S-so, I'd like to buy some for me as well… Even Rias nee-sama had given me some recommendations about what k-kind of underwear to buy… Uuu…." The girl finished with a whimper.

Issei only sweat-dropped at that. He really considered to have some talk with Kiryuu about putting strange ideas in Asia's head. The girls from his house also did not make things any easier. "…Okay, if that's what you want, why not?" Issei finished with a silent sigh.

"I-is it alright?" Asia bashfully asked.

Issei in return, smiled and grasped her hand in his. "This is our date, Asia. It's fine to be a little selfish to your boyfriend sometimes."

Asia's face was now fuming at the contact. Then, she nodded and the two resumed their shopping date towards Asia's destination. Along the way, Issei would hear Asia muttering in bliss, "I'm Ise-san's girlfriend… Ehehehe…" While they were walking, Issei looked back at what had happened after the fight with the Evil God Loki.

The aftermath of the battle against Loki could be considered… smooth. Loki had been handed into Asgard's custody, and words said that due to Saitama's punch, Loki could be considered to enter vegetative state, and nobody could tell when the Evil God would wake up… if he was going to wake up at all. The meeting between the Three Factions, Asgard and Takamagahara went without a hitch, however, the finalising the alliance with the Three Factions would took another while. Thus, Odin would have to stay at Kuoh for a bit longer than planned.

Everyone had recovered nicely, courtesy of Asia's Twilight Healing and the supply of Phoenix Tears from the Phenex clan. In case of Baraqiel, while his body had recovered, his wings would have had to wait for a while to fully recover after taking the brunt of Loki's super-tier magic. However, Azazel claimed that the Grigori's cutting-edge technology would definitely help Baraqiel's wings to recover faster.

"Hm?" Issei and Asia then caught a familiar sight looking around on the street of the shopping district. "Baraqiel-san?"

The said fallen angel was clad in his usual business attire. "Hyoudou Issei, Asia Argento." The man greeted the couple respectfully as usual.

"What are you doing here? Are you alright to walk around now?" Issei asked as the two approached him.

"My wings have yet to fully regrow, so Azazel told me to take a day off; Saitama will be taking my post for the remainder of lord Odin's stay. However, I'm good enough to walk around." Baraqiel explained. "By the way, Hyoudou Issei-kun… Do you know any store that sells girls' accessories in this area?"

Issei raised his eyebrows, prompting Baraqiel to elaborate. "I… want to buy something for Akeno."

Issei and Asia's eyes brightened and the two nodded briefly to each other in understanding. "If you're looking for accessories, I think they sell a bunch of them in the department store we're heading now. Would you like to join us?"

"Is that okay? I don't want to impose…" Baraqiel said hesitantly.

"It's fine, we are happy to help!" Asia said cheerfully. The only thing that Asia knew about Baraqiel and Akeno was, that the two were father and daughter, and they were not at amiable relationship. Asia just found the fact that Baraqiel attempted to buy a present for his daughter was so sweet of him. If she could help to mend the relationship between the two, she would do everything she could.

"Then…. I'll accept your offer." Baraqiel finally conceded. Issei and Asia proceeded to walk ahead to lead Baraqiel towards the store. Along the way, Issei and Asia glanced and grinned knowingly to each other.

oXo

"Thank you for your help, Hyoudou Issei and Asia Argento." Baraqiel nodded at the two youngsters as he was holding a small wrapped-package in his hand. The fallen angel just purchased a new ribbon for his daughter with Issei and Asia's help.

"It's no trouble at all, Baraqiel-san." Asia waved off the gratitude. "I hope you can make up with Akeno-san."

"Yes…" Baraqiel then turned to Issei. "I might be on day-off, but I still need to see through the meeting between leaders as part of Grigori. Hyoudou Issei-kun, can you give this to Akeno?" the fallen angel handed out his package to the boy.

Issei blinked as he glanced between Baraqiel and the gift in his hand. "….I believe you should be the one to give it to her, sir." The boy refused politely.

"Perhaps…" Baraqiel's eyes softened. "But… we still can't stare into each other's eyes." The fallen angel still remembered that while he was still recuperating, Akeno was much less hostile towards him, but she still refused to look at his face. As if there was still something else that prevented her to do so. "If it's you, I believe she will accepts this."

"Even so, I can't. I don't think I have the right." Issei shook his head. "I don't mean to be rude, but you should be the one to face her."

The two men stared at each other's eyes for a second before Baraqiel nodded softly. "….Very well. I'll keep this with me. I'll see if I have some time to make another visit to your house."

Baraqiel then said his farewells and left Issei and Asia in the shopping district. As the two watched the fallen angel walking away, Asia turned to her boyfriend. "Ise-san… Are Akeno-san and Baraqiel-san going to be okay?"

"…I don't know." Issei shook his head as he kept watching Baraqiel's retreating back with worried eyes. "Everything is up to them in the end. We can only help and hope for the best."

* * *

The night fell. Issei and Asia had helped Baraqiel to pick a new hair-ribbon for Akeno, since her usual orange ribbon was damaged during the fight against Loki. The ribbon was still useable, after some mending, but there were actually some stitch marks from Akeno's attempt to sew it back.

Everyone else had gone to bed… Well, almost everyone. Akeno, clad in her white evening kimono, was walking through the corridors as she could not fall asleep, her mind was still getting caught with everything that had transpired in such short time. Perhaps a little fresh air was all her need, the girl thought as she made her way towards the open-air garden on the roof.

However, when she stepped her foot in the garden area, her eyes landed on the sight of Saitama's back; the man was sitting on a bench with a can of beer in hand.

Akeno considered if she should withdraw, feeling that she would rather to be alone at that moment. On the other hand, this was the only opportunity for her to express her gratitude towards the man who had saved her life before. If it were not for Saitama, Akeno would have never encountered Rias and her precious friends in Kuoh Academy, and more importantly, she would have never learned about love when she thought of a certain Red Dragon Emperor.

Steeling herself, Akeno took a deep breath before she walked towards Saitama, who noticed her approaching from the corner of his eyes. "Can't sleep?" was all Saitama said in greeting.

"No… Not really." Akeno replied while forcing a smile on her face. "I… I just want to thank you."

Saitama blinked at the girl before he returned to gaze at the night sky. "Nah, don't sweat it. How's Baraqiel, by the way?"

"He's recovering just fine." Akeno supressed her body from flinching when her father was mentioned. "…But I was not just referring about you saved us from Loki's attack… I also wanted to thank you for saving the little girl from seven years ago."

Saitama turned again to see Akeno was bowing at him. He blinked for couple of times before he recalled that he did rescue her from those assailants, according to Azazel and Baraqiel's story. "Again, don't sweat it." Saitama waved off, causing Akeno to look up. "Though…. I heard about your mother. I'm sorry about that."

Akeno finally flinched at the mention of her late mother. "It's fine… I've moved on from that." However, Akeno managed to form a bitter smile while replying.

"Really? Then why did you still refuse to face your dad?" Saitama glanced at the frozen form of Akeno. "I talked to Baraqiel before, I know what happened."

"I… believe that is none of your business, Saitama-san…" Akeno said with slightly cold tone. "Besides… about that man… I still…" However, she began to hesitate about what she wanted to say herself.

"You're right, it's none of my business." Saitama interrupted as he took a sip from his beer. "But then, what's with your waterworks back there, when Baraqiel put his life on the line to protect you?" The question caused Akeno's lips to twitch downwards.

Saitama and Akeno were staring at each other for a moment. Akeno found that Saitama's expression was a lot sharper and more serious than his usual laid-back demeanour. Neither, or more like Akeno, did not say any word until Saitama gave a sigh. "The one who died is not just your mother, but Baraqiel's wife as well. Even then, he still wants to be with you." Saitama then stood up from his seat. "…So will you stop being such a _brat_ and walk forward already?"

Akeno clutched her hands tightly at Saitama's last word. She bit her lip to hold down her emotion so hard, that her lips started to bleed. Her body was shaking as she wanted to lash out as Saitama, the man who did not understand anything of what she had been going through. However, another part of her mind was saying something else.

However, just before Akeno could have done anything else, a voice was suddenly heard. "Hey!"

oXo

Truth to be told, Akeno was previously sleeping in Issei's room, or sneaking in to be precise. When Issei happened to wake up by some noises, the boy caught the sight of Akeno's distraught expression as the girl went out from his room. Issei wanted to follow out of being worried for her, however, he needed time to get out of the bed because Rias, Asia and Koneko were getting a hold of parts of his body in their sleep, thus Issei was delayed in order not to wake up the others.

He looked around for a bit, and he finally found that Akeno was heading towards the open-air garden on the roof. The boy carefully walked towards the door that led to the garden, and when he sneaked a peek, Issei saw that Akeno was talking and then bowing to Saitama. _"What are they talking about…?"_ He blinked when he heard something about his father saving his Queen's life, and the boy decided to stay on his spot to see how things would turn out.

Issei then furrowed his eyebrows when he heard that Saitama brought up the topic of Akeno's mother, which the girl was uncomfortable with. The boy was wondering why his father wanted to talk about it.

"I… believe that is none of your business, Saitama-san…"

Issei inwardly nodded as he agreed that Akeno's past is none of Saitama's concern. He could still understand if Saitama wanted to give some advice or insight to help, but Issei had to admit that some his father's words sounded rather invasive. He kept listening to the conversation as Saitama asked about the meaning behind Akeno's tears during the battle with Loki, saying his piece, until he said those words.

"…So will you stop being such a _brat_ and walk forward already?"

Issei's eyes widened and he found himself could not stay still at Saitama's harsh words. He even had to look around to make sure that Baraqiel was not in the vicinity; otherwise there might be a massive lightning strike occurring on Hyoudou Residence. "Hey!"

Saitama and Akeno, whom was startled, turned to see that Issei had stepped into the garden with his eyes glaring at Saitama.

"Ise-kun!?" Akeno was perplexed at the sudden appearance of the boy.

"You can't say that to her!" Issei yelled in defence for Akeno towards Saitama, whom in return only stared back at him with his out-of-characteristically serious, yet impassive expression before he let out a huff.

Issei was about to demand Saitama to apologize when his father suddenly came over and wrapped his arm around his neck. "What-?!" However, Issei paused when Saitama shook his body briefly as he gave a barely audible whisper, quiet enough to be out of Akeno's hearing.

"It's all yours now. Don't mess this up." The man said with a low tone that was devoid of any joke or mirth.

Then, Saitama yanked his son's body away from him, causing Issei to stumble slightly to regain his balance and the boy rubbed his neck. "I'm going to bed…." Saitama said as he made his way out to the door, before he gave one last glance towards Akeno. "Don't forget what I said to you, Akeno…"

After Saitama had been out of sight, Issei turned back towards Akeno, who was hugging herself as tears started to drop from her eyes. "I'm sorry about him, Akeno-san." Issei could only begin with an apology as he approached the girl.

"It's… He's right." Akeno said between her sobs. "I… I've been such a…" Before Akeno could have said anything further, Issei had pulled her head into his embrace.

"…You may catch a cold if you stay out here." Issei said comfortingly. "Let's get inside first, okay?"

Akeno shakily nodded against Issei's toned chest, and the two proceeded to move towards Akeno's bedroom. When they had gotten inside, the two were siting on the bed in a companionable silence, with Akeno leaning on Issei's shoulder.

"I have been horrible for a long time…." Akeno finally broke the silence. The girl now understood the reason behind Saitama's words, and despite his harsh words, Akeno did not lash out at all; it was because Saitama was right. Akeno had been holding for her pointless anger, as well as denying herself and the only family she had left, for too long. "Saitama-san was right about me…."

"Stop." Issei cut off as he encircled his one arm on Akeno's shoulder, giving a soft squeeze. "Please don't think yourself in such a way…."

Before Akeno could have retorted, Issei had spoken again. "All you need is time to sort out your feelings, and all of us are more than happy to help you to go through this."

With that said, however, Issei was thinking back about his father's actions and words. _"Seriously, what the hell is his deal?"_ Issei then proceeded to review everything over, about what had happened with Akeno and her parents in the past, about the conflict they were having now, and Saitama's words that night. Issei's brain kept thinking over those three points over and over, as he stayed to keep Akeno accompanied.

Issei then thought, what if such a thing were to happen to him, when he was still a powerless child without the Boosted Gear? Would he had grieved like Akeno was now? Would he had blamed and hated his father for his mother's death, should it ever happened? Most likely. After all, Issei loved his mother, the woman who had done everything to raise him into what he was now. However, as the time went on, Issei eventually had to let go of his anger and hatred, accepting the fact that what happened was out of his control, that he could not blame neither his father nor his….

_Walk forward already._

It hit Issei _hard_. He honestly did not understand how the _fuck_ he had arrived at such conclusion. His mind was rather unnerved at the possibility that he had the same wavelength and train of thoughts with his father. Not to mention, all of them were merely speculation and simulation of his own mind; he could not compare that to what Akeno had been _truly_ going through. However, _ideally_ speaking, Issei had to give this one conclusion of his a shot if he really wanted to help Akeno to move on.

Akeno looked up when she heard Issei was sighing and ruffling his own hair. "…Dammit, I really don't get how that brain of that stupid baldy works…"

"Ise-kun?" Akeno wondered what the boy was insinuating.

"Akeno-san… I heard the conversation between you and him earlier." Issei began. Akeno wanted to have a say, but she chose to let the boy to finish the entire thing he wanted to say. "…Again, I'm sorry about my dad's harsh words. Seriously, he could have worded it a little better." Issei said with a groan.

"What do you mean?" Akeno asked.

"What happened to your mother… was not Baraqiel-san's fault." Issei began. At this, Akeno looked down. She wanted to retort, but she just could not find her voice. Sense of dread started to come over her head of what Issei wanted to say next. "…And it's certainly not yours."

Akeno's eyes widened and she looked up to meet Issei's brown orbs with her violet ones. "Your mother will never blame you, or Baraqiel-san, for what had happened… Especially you." Issei said with warm smile. "It's not your fault, Akeno-san."

"Y-yes, I know." Akeno replied while glancing down.

"It's not your fault." Issei said those words again.

"Yes… you said that." Akeno shakily nodded.

"It's not your fault." The boy said again.

"Yes…. Yes."

"It's not your fault."

This time, Akeno place her arms, grabbing Issei's shoulders. "Yes, I know! Stop saying that!"

Issei blinked at Akeno's sudden outburst, but he did not stop. "…It's not your fault."

"Please…!" Akeno began to shake the boy, her boy was trembling as if she could not bear those words. "Just… Stop!"

"Akeno-san." Akeno hesitantly looked up to meet with Issei's warm brown eyes, and the boy spoke again. "…It's not your fault."

Tears began to form in Akeno's eyes as her lips quivering. For a long time after she had lost her dear mother, Himejima Akeno had been left in the dark, not knowing how such tragedy could happen. For that long time, she had been blaming his father for being absent when she and her mother needed him the most. Never she knew that her father had lost not only his wife; but her daughter as well, again and again, as she kept denying and scorning him for her mother's death.

However, she knew that perhaps, it had been her fault all along, that her mother died for protecting her, a naïve little girl who had no idea about the dangerous world she was born in. Such a thought was more than enough to make her lost her mind if she did not throw the blame to someone else. As Akeno kept blaming, hating and refusing her father again and again for things that were outside their control, she probably just wanted to hear someone to say those four words to her.

Gone now all of her insecurities. Gone now all the guilt she had been bottled inside her ever since that tragic night. She could finally let go without any worries in her heart. Tears started to fall as she suddenly recalled the last conversation she had with her mother.

"_Mother, do you think father loves me?"_

"_Of course, he does."_ Tears kept falling from Akeno's eyes as she remembered the warm, loving voice of her mother. "Do you love your father?"

"_Yes, I do! I love father's wings! They are silky and black, just like my hair!"_

Then, Akeno bit her lip and started to choke on her sobs as she remembered her mother's last moment as she desperately tried to protect her daughter.

"_No, you will not touch her! This is my daughter, and his as well!"_

"_Your mind has been poisoned, Shuri. Poisoned by an angel that fell from Grace, a lowly fallen one."_ The voice belonged to the person who had robbed her of her mother.

"_No! Mother!"_

Droplets of tears slowly became a stream as Akeno recalled the moment where everything had crumbled down between her, her mother, and her father.

"_Akeno! Shuri! Are you okay?"_ the voice of concerned Baraqiel was approaching.

"_Stay away! It's your fault that mother was killed! I hate your wings! I hate you! I hate you!"_ Those sentences, said by the little girl who was holding the lifeless body of her mother in her arms, had become her undoing.

Baraqiel had been devastated over the lost of his wife, yet Akeno selfishly kept blaming him for something that she believed to be caused by her own weakness…. Until she heard those four words from Issei's mouth.

_It's not your fault._

"Akeno-san…?" Issei began to panic when he saw tears were flowing freely from Akeno's eyes as the girl's body was trembling before him. "Are you ok-!"

Then, Akeno suddenly lunged to Issei, enveloped him into a tight hug as she began to bawl her eyes out. "I'm sorry…! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…!" she choked between her sobs.

"A-Akeno-san?!" Issei got panic and instinctively returned the hug and rubbed Akeno's back in comforting manner.

However, Akeno did not stop as she let out all the contents of her heart. "I… I was lonely…. I never meant it… About father…" she said again while crying. "I… I was scared…. Mother died right in front of me, trying to protect me…. If-if I wasn't there… If I wasn't there to be protected…. Mother could have survived… Or at least stall for time until father arrived…. It's my fault… It's all my fault…! It's never been my father's fault…!"

Issei's eyes then softened as he could feel all sorts of feelings that were gushing out from his senior; her pain, her guilt, her anguish, and her relief; as Akeno carried on with her heart-felt confession. "I wanted him to pat my head more! I wanted all of us three to live together again! I want my father to come back to my life! I want to talk with him about mother! I want to remember her with him!"

As Akeno kept crying her heart out, Issei could not stop his own tear from dropping from his eyes, and he closed his eyes then he embraced Akeno even tighter. "It's okay, Akeno-san…. It's okay now." The boy said with warm tone, and it only made Akeno fell for him all over again.

She grieved, she suffered, she cried, but for that night, it felt okay for both of them, as Akeno had finally made peace with her past. After Akeno had finally calmed down later that night, Issei decided to remain on her bed as she slowly fell asleep in his arms. Akeno looked up one more time to meet Issei's eyes, and she proceeded to snuggle her face into his warm chest. "Ise-kun… Thank you."

"Glad that I can help." Issei simply replied while smiling at her. It took sometime for Akeno to finally fall asleep in his arms, then Issei got out from the bed after he took one last glance at Akeno's peaceful expression in her sleep; he had to go back to his bedroom now.

When Issei stepped out from Akeno's room, however, he was greeted by the sight of his father leaning against the wall in front of him. Saitama then stared at his son's dry look before asking, "How did it go?"

"She's gonna be fine." Issei replied with a huff. "Does mom know that you are always this… insensitive and tactless?"

In return, Saitama only snorted with a shrug. "…I'm suck at this kind of thing."

"You finally recognised your incompetence as an adult; wonderful." Issei rolled his eyes as he retorted.

"Shut up..." Saitama shot back. "I'm off to bed. Goodnight, Ise." Saitama left after giving some taps on his son's shoulder.

Issei only stared at his father's retreating form before he scoffed and his lips formed into a small smile. "Yeah, goodnight." The boy took off to the opposite direction.

oXo

It was on the next afternoon during club activities that Issei noticed something different on the club's vice-president. Not only that she had become a lot cheerful, Akeno was wearing a different ribbon. Issei and Asia recognised that ribbon, since they helped Baraqiel picked it up for his gift for his daughter. It was actually a similar orange ribbon that Akeno usually wore previously, but the colour had brighter shade that made the colour a bit similar to a sunset, making it looked beautiful on her.

"Akeno-san, that ribbon…" Asia commented happily at Akeno's hair.

"Ufufufu, this is…" Akeno then smiled fondly. "The gift from my father. My old one was a bit damaged from the last fight with Loki." She missed the sight of Issei and Asia smiled knowingly to one another.

"Is that so? Because it looks good on you." Issei praised with cheeky grin.

Akeno's face then flared up when she saw Issei's face. Then, with slight mischievous and determined glint in her eyes, Akeno then walked towards Issei, who was preparing to go for another devil job, causing all club members to turn their eyes on her. Seeing his Queen was walking towards him, Issei blinked as he wondered what Akeno needed from him, considering that the teleportation magic was going to activate soon enough.

Without a word, Akeno suddenly pulled Issei by collar towards her, and she quickly gave a chaste kiss on his lips. The kiss only lasted for a second before Akeno quickly pushed Issei back into the magic circle. As Issei started to get engulfed by the teleportation light, he saw everyone's reactions; Yuuto and Gasper were staring at him with wide, amused eyes, while the rest of the girls' reactions were clearly not amused.

However, Issei's last view from the clubroom was Akeno smiling lovingly at him. "I love you. Have a safe trip." The girl waved at him before he finally vanished from the clubroom. Note that it was Akeno's very first kiss.

When Issei arrived at his destination, he mentally groaned at the image of the tongue-lashing and that he would receive from Asia's scolding as soon as he returned to the clubroom. However, he could not help but smile at his Queen. "Glad to have her back." He dryly remarked.

oXo

"So all's well ends well, ain't it?" Saitama said as he, Baraqiel, Azazel and Odin were sitting in the food stall where the former two usually had a drink in. It was the day when Odin had to return back to Asgard and Baraqiel to the Grigori headquarters. However, four of them decided to have one last hanging-out together before they went on their separate ways.

"Indeed, it is." Odin replied as he took a sip of his liquor. "I learned a lot of interesting and valuable things of Japanese Shinto religion. The alliance with the Three Faction also went without a hitch, thanks to you and those youngsters…"

"Say, Baraqiel. What's with the box?" Saitama pointed at the lunch-box on Baraqiel's table.

"This is… the lunch that Akeno made for me earlier…" Baraqiel replied before he opened the box and looked at its contents, which was meat and potato stew.

"Hoo… That looks good. Go on, have a bite." Azazel urged his old friend.

Baraqiel then picked up his chopsticks and had a taste on the peace of meat. He chewed, swallowed, and tears suddenly falling out from his eyes. "It's… It's delicious. Just like how Shuri made it…" Baraqiel said happily between his sobs as he continued eating, remembering the taste of the cooking of his late wife, Himejima Shuri.

The other three males only smiled at Baraqiel with Saitama patting his shoulder in friendly and comforting manner.

Few moments later, Azazel then raised his own cup. "Shall we have a toast? For the successful conference, for the future of this alliance, as well as for the reconciliation between father and daughter?" Without another word, the other three conceded by raising their respective cups, and they proceeded to down their drink in one go.

Later, the four men were wrapping up and prepared to go on their own way. However, Saitama looked around for a second and he realized that something, or rather, someone was missing. "Say, Odin…" Saitama turned to the elder god. "Where's Rossweisse?"

* * *

"Err…. I can't leave her alone on the streets… So I decided to bring her here for now." Issei said while rubbing his head awkwardly, while glancing at one particular woman in the clubroom.

"I'm doomed! This is just terrible!" that particular woman was Rossweisse who cried while sitting in fetal position on the floor of Occult Research Club.

When Issei just finished on making another contract with his client, Issei happened to run to Rossweisse, who was utterly lost on the streets. The Valkyrie claimed that when she came by, she could not find her liege anywhere, even any attempt of communication had been in vain. The woman then started to fear, or rather, assumed that Odin had fired her and decided to leave her behind, much to her dismay. Issei obviously could not just leave Rossweisse as she was, thus the boy brought her back to the clubroom for the moment.

"Lord Odin just left me here without a word! I'm supposed to be his escort and he just left me! Does this mean I'm fired!? I'm totally fired, aren't I?! He thinks I'm just an incompetent forever-alone woman!" The Valkyrie kept wailing.

"Um… Can't you just catch up with him back home?" Yuuto voiced his opinion.

"I can't! I was just left behind after I lost Lord Odin from my sight! If I went back home, I'll be a laughing stock, the other higher-ups will see me as incompetent, and I'll still be fired in the end!" Rossweisse cried back, causing everyone to flinch. "That stupid old king of Asgard always made fun of me for choosing my studies over boys. What's wrong of wanting to graduate early?! Besides, it's not my fault that I'm not popular!"

The room went into silence as they knew that Rossweisse would not want to go home even if she could. Few seconds later, Issei then finally asked. "So… What are you going to do now?"

Rossweisse seemed to calm down a little bit after venting out. "…I don't know. Perhaps I can go to have a teaching job somewhere. After all, I do have a degree…"

At the large desk in the room, where Rias was sitting on, the girl was carefully considering her options. Then, a devious smirk was formed on her lips as she had decided her next course of action. "Rossweisse-san, did you say that you want to be a teacher, that you also have a teaching degree?"

"Of course. Despite my appearance, I have already graduated from school in my homeland by skipping grades. Even though I'm still young in age, I am qualified to teach students." Rossweisse replied, eliciting some awe from few occupants in the clubroom.

Rias' smile widened ever so slightly. "Very well, then. I'll work something out so you can work in this academy."

"R-really?" Rossweisse asked with hopeful look.

"Of course. However, I also have several other propositions that may prove to be very beneficial for your stay here. Would you like to learn more?"

Rossweisse looked down, her expression showed that she was pondering Rias' offer for a second. Then, she looked up with serious and curious looks. "I'm all ears."

Rias' smiled then widened even further, as she proceeded to put several documents on her desk, as well as a crimson Rook chess piece.

oXo

"We're home!"

"Ah… 'Sup, kids." when Issei and co. went home to Hyoudou Residence, Saitama was the first one to greet them. However, the bald man then noticed one additional person in the group. "…Rossweisse?"

"G-good afternoon, Saitama-san." Rossweisse bowed stiffly at the man.

Rias then took a step forward. "Saitama-san, allow me to introduce the latest addition in my peerage."

Saitama only blinked back to Rossweisse, whom upon Rias' nudging, she then introduced herself. "I'm Rossweisse, formerly a Valkyrie of Norse, now a devil serving as Lady Rias Gremory's Rook…. I-I'm looking forward to work together with you."

Saitama only stared at Rossweisse while he recalled Odin's last word before departing back to Asgard.

"_That lass' potential would be wasted if she were to stuck with an old man like me in Asgard. I wasn't joking when I told her to have fun for every now and then. She can expand her mind and skills in outside world, and I hope she can be the bridge between Asgard and other foreign lands. Oh, and…. Don't tell her about any of this; she's definitely going to go after me if she found out. Let her take it however she wish."_

"_Maybe I shouldn't tell her that I just met Odin not while ago…. Is it okay if she actually turned into a devil herself?"_ Saitama pondered for a second. _"…Oh, well."_

"So I take that she'll live here?" Saitama asked to Rias.

"Yes, she also will work as a teacher at the Academy as well." Rias replied.

"In that case, then… Welcome to the club." Saitama gave a brief smile to Rossweisse, who seemed to be still nervous around Saitama. Issei who had been watching the exchange could only raise his eyebrows.

However, another voice came in, followed by an appearance of a woman with brown hair tied in ponytail. "Oh, my. You kids are home early." Haruka's eyes then landed on Rossweisse. "…And we have a lovely guest here."

Saitama took by his wife's side. "Rossweisse, this is my wife, Haruka. Haruka, Rossweisse."

At the sight of Saitama's _wife_, the Vakyrie was suddenly frozen for a second, as if she felt even more nervous and awkward than before. She took a quick look on Haruka's appearance; she looked so young for someone who had a 17 year-old son. _"No, that's not the point!"_ Rossweisse reminded herself again that she was standing before the wife of the hero who defeated a Norse God in a single punch, as well as the mother of the current Red Dragon Emperor.

"Um… Rossweisse-san?" Rossweisse then snapped out from her stupor when she heard Issei's voice. The boy was looking at her with worried looks. "Are you okay there?"

"Y-yes, I'm fine." Gathering her thoughts, Rossweisse then straightened herself. "I-It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. My name is Rossweisse, I'm a servant of Rias Gre-!" Rossweisse quickly covered her mouth with a hand as she berated herself for her slip of tongue. She basically just insinuated that she was not a part of 'mundane' people.

"…Ah, so you are a part of _that_ world." Rossweisse blinked at how well Haruka was taking her introduction. As if reading the former's expression, the latter only smiled knowingly. "It's okay. I know much enough that you are at least not a normal woman. My name is Hyoudou Haruka, and I welcome you to this house."

Rossweisse's face then flustered as she bowed in return. "Y-yes! I-I'll be in your care!"

Now that the somewhat, slightly awkward introduction was out of the way, Haruka then clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Anyway, you kids should've told me if you're going home early, so I can prepare dinner on time…. Well, now I'll have to prepare enough portion for extra one person. Go and clean yourself up, I'll fix something up." The matriarch then proceeded to walk towards the kitchen.

"I… I'll help!" Rossweisse then chased after Haruka.

"No, no, you are the honoured guest here. You should just take it easy." Haruka waved off politely.

"I'd have to insist. After all, I'm the one who is imposing you. Let me to do at least this much." Rossweisse countered with her own reasoning.

Haruka was about to reply, however, she then found herself thinking. Few seconds later, she then gave in. "Then I'll take your offer, Rossweisse-san. In fact, I can get to know you better while you're helping me." she said with a soft smile before she returned to her husband and the children. "What did I say earlier? Come on, move out or you'll miss dinner!"

While the tone sounded rather playful like how mother would tease her children, everyone quickly did as their told, because there had been a norm that Hyoudou Haruka was the 'overlord' of the Hyoudou Residence. If Saitama could not go against her, then most likely nobody could.

oXo

While Haruka and Rossweisse were still busy fixing dinner, Issei and Saitama were soaking themselves inside the hot spring of the indoor bath. The two fell into a neutral silence as they minded their own business to enjoy the warm water and relax. However, few minutes later, Issei finally broke the ice.

"Say, pops…" Issei asked. "What happened between you and Rossweisse-san?"

"…What are you talking about?" Saitama asked after few seconds of silence.

"I believe I wasn't the only one who felt the awkwardness when she met you and mom. In fact, her reactions towards you made me want to re-phrase my question; what have you done to her? I know that you visited the Norse once, so I take that you knew her before."

"…Clever little bastard."

"What was that?"

"No, I only said that you're right about me knowing her before." Saitama smoothly lied through his teeth. "But I'll say this, nothing happened between us."

"…I don't believe you." Issei simply said with half-lidded eyes.

"And I don't care." Saitama shot back.

However, Rias' voice was suddenly heard. "I'd also like to hear about it, Saitama-san." Issei and Saitama turned their heads to see Rias was entering the bathroom with only a towel covering her voluptuous body. Behind her, the rest of the girls were peeking from the door, with Asia and Irina were rather shy at the prospect to have another man besides Issei to join in the bath.

"Rias?"

"Buchou?"

"Rossweisse is my servant, thus I'm responsible for her well-being, and seeing her reactions towards you made me worried for her. I plan to talk to her about it, but I might as well hearing it from you." Rias explained. "Though… Saitama-san, I thought I asked you to use the bathroom on the first floor instead of this one."

"Nah, not really." Saitama replied. "And while your family was the one who renovated this house, this is still _my_ house. Why can't I enjoy this bathroom as well?"

"This isn't your house. This is my and my mom's house." Issei retorted, before his eyes caught Rias raising her eyebrows at him. "And… Of course, Rias-buchou's house as well."

"Well, I don't mind to have Saitama-dono to join the bath with us." Xenovia was the first one to boldly step into the water; she even had no qualms to show her fully nude body in front of both Issei _and_ Saitama; the two males were pretty much indifferent at the sight of Xenovia's glorious body. "In fact, I can wash your back if you don't mind, Saitama-dono." The blue-haired girl gave a friendly smile towards the bald man.

"Thanks, Xenovia." Saitama nodded. "See? Xenovia's nice, _Ise_. Xenovia is nice."

Issei furrowed his eyebrows into a scowl when he noticed the tone at the mentioning of his name. "Are you expecting me to say that I want to wash your back or something?"

"No, I only point that Xenovia is nice while you are not. It's a common courtesy to offer to wash someone's back in the bathroom." Saitama countered.

Issei only scoffed in return. "Well, I actually offered to wash other people's back but not to you."

"Oh, err… um…" Saitama just found himself not able to come up with any comeback.

"Anyway, we're getting side-tracked here." Issei said again. "We still haven't heard about your story with Rossweisse-san."

"I told you, nothing happen." Saitama replied, however, everyone noticed that Saitama slightly averted his gaze to the left.

"Sorry, but I find it hard to believe." Akeno voiced her opinion as she also joined into the bath, followed by Rias, Koneko and finally Irina and Asia, who were rather hesitant at first before finally joining. Aside from Xenovia, the rest of the girls took a dip inside the water while keeping their towel wrapping.

"Ditto." Koneko raised her hand. She wanted to take her usual 'spot', but she was too embarrassed to do so because both she and Issei were nude, so she settled to take the shallower spot nearby him.

"I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that you're lying, Saitama-san." Rias pressed on.

"Pops…" Issei then spoke up. "You didn't do anything indecent to Rossweisse-san, did you?"

"Wha-?! Of course not!" Saitama said defiantly.

"Then, spill it." Issei said back. "If you don't tell us by the time of dinner, I'm gonna assume that you cheated on mom."

"No, don't you dare." Saitama sent his son a glare, which Issei returned with his own.

"Come on, seriously. You visiting on Asgard, knowing her in the past, and her reactions towards you? There's definitely something between you two. I want to make sure that you didn't do anything untoward." Issei pressed on.

Father and son kept glaring to each other for few more minutes until Saitama sighed. "You all won't let me out of this, will you?"

[No.] Almost everyone replied collectively.

Saitama then sighed one more time while rubbing his head before he looked up to meet everyone's gaze. "Fine, I'll tell you. But first, I want you to promise one thing." Saitama's expression then went serious. "What I'm gonna tell you will have to stay in this room. Nobody, especially Haruka may know about this, you hear me?"

Everyone else became even more curious at this point, even Asia and Irina did not really care about exposing their skins on Saitama anymore. Issei and the girls then glanced at each other before they finally nodded. Irina, however, was actually, inwardly kind of conflicted about keeping secret thing due to her status as a reincarnated angel. With another deep breath, Saitama (reluctantly) began his story. "Well, it happened during this party celebration…"

oXo

"Then after I put her into the bed, things got…. kind of _weird_…" Saitama said with his face slightly flustered at the recollection.

SPLASH

The sound of water, as well as gasping were caused by Issei abruptly stood up from his sitting point, causing Koneko, who was right beside the boy, to slightly jump out in surprise. Issei did not bother to cover his lower body parts, causing Irina and Asia to squeal and cover their eyes in embarrassment; the boy's face was the mix of horror and betrayal as he shakily pointed his finger at his father. His mouth was gaping and quivering, as if he wanted to say something, but just couldn't.

"You….!" The boy said through his gritted teeth.

_**[….Holy shit.]**_

Even the Welsh Dragon inside Issei could not help but utter those two words.

Issei had already had this bad feeling when the story was at the point where Rossweisse was intoxicated to the alcohol, and the gear in his brain started to work and gathering the pieces of the puzzle together until it clicked when Saitama said the last words; Rossweisse's awkward reactions towards Saitama and Haruka, Saitama's (surprisingly) flustered expression when he was telling his story, and most importantly, Odin's teasing about Rossweisse used to have a boyfriend. How did he only realise by now? Issei could not believe that he actually had put some faith in his father.

Without another word, Issei quickly bolted out from the water towards the door. In reality, Issei only took his third step when Saitama's instinct kicked in, warning the man that his son might going to open another whole can of worms should he not stop him. Faster than his son could have made it half-way to the door, Saitama was already pinning Issei down on the floor.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Saitama – as nude as his son - asked as he kept his son on the floor with his strong arms.

"Let go of me! You poor excuse of…. Forget it, you're not my father anymore!" Issei shouted as he struggled to break free from his father's grip.

"What the hell are you babbling about?!" Saitama shot back, however, when he looked back to ask some 'back-up' from the girls, everyone else had their faces contorted into something akin to bewilderment, as if everyone seemed to draw the similar conclusion to Issei.

Whatever it was, Rias, Akeno and Koneko were giving Saitama the dirty look, as if Saitama was the lowest scum of the planet; Xenovia's expression was more of comprehension with some tinge of interest; Irina was cupping her mouth as if she could not believe of what Saitama had done; while Asia, bless her soul, only looked around in confusion as she did not understand everyone's reactions.

"…Why are you all staring at me like that?" Saitama asked while maintaining his grip on Issei.

"Why else?! Because everyone here has realised your treachery!" Issei yelled back. "I swear, when mom finds out about this, you're a dead man! A fucking dead man, I tell you!"

"What!? You promised that you won't tell her!" Saitama yelled back. "And seriously, what the fuck are you insinuating about me!? I haven't finished yet!"

"This is different! You cheated on mom by taking advantage on Rossweisse-san!"

"What- No, I didn't!"

"Shut up! I won't fall for anymore of your bullshit!"

"Let me finish my story, goddammit!"

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Much to everyone's further surprise, Issei immediately donned in his Scale Mail and managed to move his body, grabbed his father's arms with both hands, wrapped his legs around Saitama's neck, thus locking Saitama into triangle-choke hold.

"He's using his Balance Breaker?!" Rias did not expect how far her pawn had gone to fight back against Saitama.

The boy dismissed his helmet and turned towards the stunned girls. "Everyone! Go get my mom and tell her everything! I'll keep him here as long as I can!" he said as he kept his arms and legs in place to prevent Saitama from breaking free.

Saitama would not have any of it, as he simply stood up, carried his armoured son who was still maintaining his choke-hold on him, and proceeded to slam Issei's body into the hot spring. As father and son engaged in a 'small' brawl, the girls quickly evacuated from the water to watch Saitama prying his son's legs off him with his sheer strength and proceeded to pound a fist or two on Issei, destroying the Scale Mail in the process, all while keeping the boy drowned inside the hot water.

For few minutes Issei kept struggling to get out from the water while Saitama kept Issei's body kept drowned in order to cool his head a bit. Seeing that things had turned ugly, the girls quickly took the role of the peacemaker.

"Okay, okay, that's enough you two!" Rias jumped in to pry Saitama off from Issei. The other girls also joined in to help out as well, some were prying off Saitama, while others were helping Issei to get up.

Saitama reluctantly got off from his son by the girls' nudging, and Issei got out from the water, gasping for breath as his armour had entirely gone from Saitama's pounding. The boy coughed and hacked out some of the water that managed to get into his respiratory system, then he wobbly walked towards the edge of the spring, where he was then attended by Asia.

"Have you cooled off a bit, kid?" Saitama asked while crossing his arms. Issei only glared at his father in return, but he did nothing else.

"Let's not jump into conclusion, shall we?" Rias then stepped between father and son and she turned towards the said father. "Saitama-san, if you would please carry on?"

"Thank you." Saitama nodded. "Well… the point is… I ended up knocking the daylights out of her before we could have gone any further."

"…And how far have you two gone that time?" Issei drawled out, still maintaining his glare at Saitama.

"….Nothing that far. I knocked her out right away when she had undressed herself." Saitama carefully picked his words in order not to mention that the Valkyrie managed to steal a kiss from him.

Akeno's eyes then showed the look of apprehension. "Then Rossweisse-san's reaction around you is…?"

Saitama only nodded. "The next day… Everyone started to question me about the details of that night. I chose not to answer, letting those guys to believe whatever…. But that's actually the wrong option; I only made it worse when I ended up saying that I'm already married." He then sighed. "Rossweisse was… more concerned that I'm actually married."

"What made me feel bad was that she came to apologize to me later on, saying that she'd been seducing a married man, but I'm actually at fault too, y'know? If I were to say my marital status sooner… Then all this thing would probably never happen." Saitama ended his story with a shrug.

"You should sort things out with Rossweisse, the sooner the better…." Rias then said. "And…. I guess we really shouldn't mention this to Haruka-san…."

"Mention what to me?"

Everyone in the bathroom was frozen at the voice of Hyoudou Haruka standing by the door; her face was contorting a curious smile. "What is this all about shouldn't mention things to me?"

Saitama, Issei and the girls were silent as they were not sure what to say. Irina in particular, had to be careful on choosing her next move. Angels, reincarnated or not, are creatures that represent holiness and purity. When an angel commits a sin or something that opposes to the Ten Commandments such as killing, stealing, cheating or telling lies, their wings will turn black, they will be denied by the Heaven's grace and they will branded as a fallen angel. Irina as a recently reincarnated angel definitely did not want to do anything that warranted her to fall from grace. Thus, she decided to remain silent, since it was technically not lying, while she hoped that Haruka would not turn to ask her instead.

Fortunately, Issei managed to come up with an answer. "Well… It's just some supernatural stuff. No need to worry, mom."

The others seemed to concede to Issei's answer, since it was more or less the truth if they did not look into the specific context. The Hyoudou matriarch then narrowed her eyes ever so slightly in scepticism, before she shrugged few moments later. "…If you say so, then… Don't take too long in the bath. Because the dinner is ready."

Everyone then sighed in relief after they had made sure that the woman had gone far enough from the bathroom. Saitama then raised his eyebrows at Issei, who was still sitting from the lethargy after Saitama's attempt to drown him. The boy stared at his father for few seconds before bowing his head. "…I'm sorry."

Saitama only shrugged and nodded in acceptance, then Issei proceeded to stand up and walked towards the door. "I'm going ahead." The boy walked but he stopped half-way to turn back to his father one more time. "…You really didn't cheat on mom, did you?"

"Ise, the last thing I want to do is to cheat behind your mom's back." Saitama tiredly and honestly replied.

"…Alright." Issei nodded in approval then stepped outside the door. However, he made another sharp turn to glare at his father one last time. "But still, I'll keep my eyes on ya!" the boy said with even the hand gestures.

The girls were rather amused at Issei's interaction as they were giggling and smiling, but Saitama was pretty drained after dealing with those things. As the girls proceeded to finish their bath, the man then turned to Xenovia. "Say, Xenovia… Are you still up to wash my back?"

The girl in question blinked, but then she shrugged with a smile. "Yeah, sure thing."

* * *

The dinner that night turned out better than expected. Rossweisse actually enjoyed the company of her new friends and family. The Valkyrie-turned-devil surprisingly had become more comfortable around Saitama, but most of all, she was getting along well with Haruka; which caused everyone to wonder what had happened between the two while they were preparing dinner together.

Later during bedtime that night, Saitama and Haruka were cuddling on their bed as usual. Saitama was topless while Haruka was wearing her white night gown. As the woman were resting her head on her husband's chest. She suddenly started talking. "You know… When I and Rossweisse-san were cooking dinner, she apologized to me."

That statement caused Saitama to blink and looked down to meet his gaze with his wife's. "….Apologized about what?"

"Well… It seems that you never told me that you almost bedded her." Haruka replied while a glint appeared in her eyes, causing a cold sweat to trail on Saitama's temple.

"Err…. About that, actually…" Saitama tried to explain, but the gaze from his wife just made him nervous all of a sudden. "…Sorry?" that apology was somehow voiced in higher pitch.

"I'm not angry…." Haruka then darted her gaze before shrugging. "Well, maybe a bit, but not really."

"…You're not?" Saitama raised an eyebrow.

"She explained everything. And after seeing her apologized so earnestly, how can I stay mad?" Haruka snorted. "Besides what happened between her and you was not as bad during my first drunken-sex with you."

Saitama then blinked before exclaiming, "Wait, so you do remember our first anniversary!"

Haruka only smiled sheepishly while giving another shrug. "Well…. Vaguely. I also remember that you're loving every part of it." She finished with a wink.

Saitama closed his eyes and let out a sigh, knowing that he could not deny anything in front of his wife. Then, he opened his eyes when he felt his wife's lips were enveloping his own. When Haruka pulled away few seconds later, she was now straddling her husband. Saitama could feel that his wife was not wearing anything underneath her nightgown.

"In any case, you should sort things out with her. She's still feeling pretty bad about it." Haruka said, before her hands slowly reached the straps of her gown to undress herself.

"Err…. Haruka?" Not that Saitama complained, but why now all of sudden?

"…I did say I was a bit angry." Haruka gave Saitama the smile that caused the man to swallow a lump. She slowly grinded herself on top of Saitama's crotch, and the man suddenly felt that his pants got so much tighter. "…So prepare to be punished…." The woman then proceeded to undo her husband's pants, and before Saitama could have said anything else, Haruka had taken his husband's breath away with another deep kiss.

oXo

Saitama pulled down a white T-shirt over to cover his body, and he took another glance at the bed behind him where his wife was sleeping so peacefully, despite the intensity the session they had just now. It was already past mid-night around 2 or 3 in the morning, and it had been some sort of tradition that Saitama would wake up to have a quick fresh air on the rooftop for few minutes. He then gently moved towards the bed to peck his wife on her cheek, the lip-contact caused Haruka to smile in her sleep, and Saitama left the room.

When he arrived at the open-air garden, Saitama noticed someone else was occupying his usual bench. That someone was Rossweisse, clad in jersey with her long silver hair moved following the flow of the night air. "Rossweisse." Saitama greeted while approaching. "Can't sleep?"

"Ah… Saitama-san." Rossweisse greeted back more calmly this time. That was a good sign for Saitama, who had taken the spot beside her. "No, it's just… I suddenly woke up and found myself not able to return to sleep. I guess I still need to get used to this place." The Valkyrie smiled sheepishly.

The two then fell into companionable silence for few minutes. "…So, what do you think about the house so far?" Saitama then broke the silence.

"…It's nice." Rossweisse replied. "Everyone is so kind to me… Especially your wife." Then Rossweisse rubbed her hands together to resolve herself. "Saitama-san…. I-!"

As if Saitama read Rossweisse's mind, the former immediately replied. "My wife told me about your talk with her."

"Oh… I see…" Rossweisse felt her cheek heated up a little.

"Look." Saitama then quickly interjected. "You were drunk, there was no helping it. I just want to say that I'm sorry as well about that night. Can we just put this thing way behind us?"

Rossweisse then giggled at Saitama's words. "…Lady Haruka actually told me that you would say something along those lines."

"That's my wife for you." Saitama nodded. "By the way, I was worried about how things turned out after that night on your side. How was it?"

"Well… the rumours were just making fun of my so-called failed attempts on you." Rossweisse replied. "It's not uncommon for Valkyries to approach married men. I even heard that when Lord Odin was still young, he had bedded many Valkyries and other women despite his marriage with Lady Frigga."

"…And that's Odin for you." Saitama nodded in understanding.

Rossweisse then stood up from her seat and she made her way towards the railings. With her hand clutching her chest, she took a deep breath before she looked up towards the night sky. "Saitama-san… Perhaps I wasn't thinking straight when I did those things to you that night…"

Saitama did not say anything as he paid attention at the woman standing with her back facing him.

"….But I still remember of my feelings very clearly when we met." Rossweisse spoke again after a pause.

"You caught my attention for the first time when you easily proved your worth by catching Lord Thor's Mjolnir."

"And I came to respect and admire your humble side when we conversed with each other in that party. You are strong, powerful, yet you don't get that power over your head. That is a trait that I never saw in any men at my home-land."

"Even when I got intoxicated and caused you troubles, you still chose to cope up with me and respect me, while most would have taken advantage of my state. That night, I thought… Perhaps I'd been longing for a person like you in my life."

Rossweisse then turned around to face Saitama; her face was flustered, but determined at the same time. "I just want to let you know that… I really liked you."

Saitama stared impassively at Rossweisse while he was inwardly sighing for himself. Dammit, what was he supposed to do about this kind of thing?

"…Thanks." Saitama replied before he bowed his head down. "And I'm sorry."

Rossweissei simply closed her eyes and smiled softly while shaking her head in return. "Mmhm, please don't apologize. I'm actually glad that I met you, and that my first crush was someone like you." Rossweisse then stared at Saitama's general direction. "Lady Haruka is really fortunate to have you."

Saitama only closed his eyes and smiled as well. _"…It's the other way around."_

The two then went into another comfortable silence before Saitama stood up. "Well, I guess that's all for tonight." Saitama then offered his hand to the Valkyrie. "I heard that you want to be a teacher at Kuoh. In that case I'll leave my son and those kids in your case, Rossweisse-sensei."

Rossweisse then smiled pleasantly as she took Saitama's hand and gave a firm shake. "Yes, you can count on me, Saitama-san."

After the two returned to their respective rooms; the rest of that night, Rossweisse had one of the best sleeps she ever had in her life.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And that's the wrap for the Ragnarok arc! How did I do? Did I manage to keep Saitama, Akeno and Rossweisse in character?**

**It took quite a lot from me to resolve Akeno's issues. After several times of re-writing, I had only realized that the scene was the very same one from a certain movie. I probably should have made it less similar, but doing so might end up making things rather abrupt. A moment of silence for Robin Williams, one of the greatest actors ever lived.**

**Regarding Saitama and Rossweisse, I'm still on the fence whether or not I should have Saitama to actively pursue relationship with other women, in other words; a genuine harem. For now I've prepared a pseudo/unwanted harem for Saitama. Thoughts?**

**Please review without flames. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	35. Interlude

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

'**Sup folks! I have returned with another chapter. The reason for this short story is because I feel that, while not-so-important character, I believe Riser and Ravel Phenex may still hold some important role in my future plans, thus I re-tell this chapter with some OPM here and there. This chapter also serves as a breather after some intense arc of Loki's fiasco.**

**And for the reviews of previous chapter; some people said that Issei was being hypocrite about Saitama. Perhaps it's true, but try to think from Issei's perspective: Imagine, you love your mother dearly, but you have some estranged relationship with your father, who your mother still loves very much. I believe it was normal for Issei to get angry when he assumed that his father had cheated on his ever-faithful-and-loving mother. Not to mention, I think cheating with **_**drunken**_** woman of all things, was rather frowned upon. So… thoughts? Besides, this particular topic will be approached a little as you read this chapter. Enjoy, and R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Intermission – The (Un)Resurrected Phoenix**

It was the day when Ravel Phenex suddenly visited to the Occult Research Club after school. Apparently, the young girl had been worried for the condition of her brother, Riser Phenex, ever since his defeat by the hands of Hyoudou Issei, The Red Dragon Emperor and Rias Gremory's Pawn. According to Ravel, Riser had been isolated himself from outside world, and the third son had developed severe fear of dragons and dragon-related matters. In order to remedy the so-called 'pathetic' state of Riser – or so Ravel said – the Phenex clan decided to seek aid from Rias Gremory's peerage to teach Riser something about 'fortitude'.

Issei agreed, considering that he was the one who had defeated Riser Phenex in the first place. With Rias' permission, the group then made a quick trip towards the Phenex clan's territory in the Underworld.

When Issei stepped his foot upon Phenex clan estate, Issei found that the castle where Riser lived was, while it roughly the same size as Gremory estate, Phenex estate possessed a sense of grandeur from several huge torches of blazing fire on top of several towers, with Phenex insignia on the wall of the main building. After walking pass all of the servants from Riser's peerage, who bowed in greeting respectfully towards the guests, Rias, Issei and Ravel finally arrived at the door leading towards Riser's bed-chamber.

When they finally met Riser – who was baited with the notion of his former fiancée visiting him – Issei could only described Riser Phenex's state in one word: _pathetic_, just as Ravel had surmised. When Riser's eyes met with Issei's, the former suddenly shrieked like a scared little girl and begged for him and Rias to leave him alone.

After Ravel's several attempts to get him out of his room, everyone; Rias, Issei, Ravel and Riser were assembled at the court yard of the palace with Riser heavily frowned while mumbling curses with Issei preparing several bag-packs.

"So what are we going to do now?" Rias asked with her arms crossed under her bust.

"Hmm…. He's supposed to arrive by now…" Issei only replied as he finished the adjustments of his supplies and equipment.

As if on cue, a gust of wind appeared from the sky, followed by a giant figure of a reptilian creature in purple scales. **"It has been a while since I met you people."** A booming voice was heard from the purple dragon.

Everyone widened their eyes, while Riser's eyes were widened in fear at the sight of the former dragon king Tannin. "A-An ultimate-class devil… As well as a l-legendary d-dragon!?" Riser stuttered as his body was stumbling down at the sight of Tannin.

"Thanks for coming, old ma-… What the hell?" Issei's greeting was cut-short when he spotted Saitama was riding on Tannin's shoulder.

"Saitama-san?" Rias blinked at the unexpected appearance of the bald man.

"'Sup?" Saitama greeted nonchalantly at the youngsters while he stood on Tannin's shoulder.

"The hell are you doing here?!" Issei asked with incredulous tone. The boy honestly thought that the frequency of him running to his father had been increasing as the time passed.

"Well, I was visiting Tannin's dragon apple garden here." Saitama hopped down to the ground.

"**Saitama was helping me tending the dragon apple tree in my garden as he has always been. When I heard Hyoudou Issei's call, I thought that Saitama would like to tag along as well."** Tannin provided with his explanation.

Issei could only sigh in resignation at Tannin's explanation. Then, he noticed at the corner of his eyes, Ravel had been staring at Saitama. Riser on the other hand, was still too busy being terrified at Tannin's visage to even acknowledge the human's presence. "Right, I guess you haven't met him yet. Ravel-san, this is my… father. Pops, Ravel Phenex." Issei proceeded to introduce his father to the Phenex lady.

Ravel, seemingly out of her stupor, quickly straightened herself and made few steps forward towards Saitama. "My name is Ravel Phenex, pleased to be your acquaintance, sir." She greeted courtly.

"The name's Saitama. Nice to meet you, too." Saitama replied with a nod.

Seeing that the introduction was now out of the way, Issei turned to see Tannin criticising Riser's state of being. "Old man Tannin! We were asked by the Phenex to train him something about fortitude, do you think you can help with that?"

"Hmm… Fortitude, huh? I've heard about his defeat by your hands…. Alright, that sounds good." Tannin replied. "Shall we go to my mountains, then? I know a suitable place to train this fellow."

"NOOOO!" Riser shrieked and took off to the sky with his fiery wings. However, Tannin's giant hand quickly trapped him before the devil could have gone too far.

"Do not run away!" Tannin harshly growled. "If you are a man, then prepare yourself!"

"Say, Ise…" Saitama asked as he stared at Riser in Tannin's clutch. "Who is that?"

"That's Ravel-san's brother, Riser Phenex."

"So… What I heard earlier… About you said… So we're gonna have to train this guy?" Saitama asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Issei shrugged.

oXo

"Make sure you contact me if you need any help!" Rias gave her last instruction while everyone was preparing to depart towards the training venue. _"Though, you will probably just fine with him around."_ Rias silently mused as her eyes glanced towards Saitama, who also wanted to join as well.

Issei and Saitama had climbed on Tannin while Riser remained within Tannin's grasp. "Why are you coming along, again? You should just go home." Issei raised his eyebrow at his father.

However, before Saitama could have replied, Ravel suddenly rushed forward. "Please take me along with you!"

Issei and Saitama blinked at the girl, who had resolute look on her face. "I also want to help my brother as well!" The girl pushed on.

Tannin's corner of his lips twitched upwards ever so slightly. **"That girl has a good look in her eyes. Hyoudou Issei and Saitama, why don't you two look after her in the mountains?"**

Issei and Saitama only shared a brief glance at each other before Rias provided the answer for them.

"Ise, it's fine." The two men turned towards the Crimson Ruin Princess. "Please take Ravel with you."

It only took a second before Issei smiled and extended his arm in invitation. "Alright, then. Let's go, Ravel!"

The young girl's expression then brightened as she conjured her fiery wings to fly towards Tannin's shoulder. Riser was struggling futilely in Tannin's grasp and had his expression getting paler as Tannin took off to the sky.

"NOOOO! WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO GO TO MOUNTAINS FILLED WITH DRAGONS!?"

"This is for your own good, onii-sama! Please bear with it!" Ravel retorted as she took a spot beside Issei on one of Tannin's shoulders, while Saitama took a spot on the other shoulder.

After a while, they finally made it to the mountain range within Tannin's territory. Everyone could only described the marvellous place as canyons and valleys with dragons of various sizes and forms roaming around. While Riser was seemingly could wet his pants at any moment's notice from the sight of dragon colony, Issei and Ravel were more like children being taken to an amusement park for the first time.

"Wow, just…. Wow." Issei could only say those words while Ravel was rendered speechless. "Pops, you've been coming to this place?" the boy asked his father, who was concocting face of indifference.

"Yeah, from time to time." Saitama shrugged as he managed a small smile, as he took the sight of the dragon population.

Then, a large azure dragon with what appeared to be blue jewels adorning its body on several parts. **"Lord Tannin, did you call for me?"** the said dragon greeted as he flew by Tannin's side.

The purple dragon king then proceeded to introduce one of his new compatriots. **"This is a blizzard dragon that has been serving under me."**

"**Oh, Saitama-dono! 'Tis good to see you again!"** the blizzard dragon greeted when he noticed Saitama's presence. **"I truly thank you again for the favour from the other day!"**

"It's fine, really." Saitama waved off. "How are the kids, by the way?"

"**They are faring well. Please make time to visit my lair if you can. My family would love to meet you again."** The azure dragon bowed his head.

As they passed more dragons, some of the dragons seemed to notice that Saitama was riding on Tannin.

"**Hey, look! It's Saitama!"**

"**Saitama is coming by again!"**

Saitama only waved his hand every now and then at the sight of dragons calling out to him. It was actually a rather strange experience, especially during the first times. Saitama used to fight this kind of creatures, and now he was hailed and befriending the sort of creatures he had fought during his younger days. If his old friends from Hero Association were to see this….. Well, he had no idea how they would have reacted.

"Ise-sama…" Ravel spoke as she and Issei were watching the exchange. "Your father is… amazing."

"He's just that kind of man." Issei also looked around at the dragons that greeted his father from left and right. "…I did hear that guy is old man Tannin's friend, but I didn't expect that he is this famous."

"**Your father did not only help in nurturing the dragon apple, he also lent his help on various tasks and errands for many of my people."** Tannin explained. **"For us dragons here, Saitama is indeed a dear friend."**

"**Oh, the boy with similar signature of our kind… You are Saitama's son, the current Red Dragon Emperor, are you not?"** Blizzard dragon then proceeded to greet Issei. **"I'm looking forward to get to know you!"**

"Ah… Yeah, nice to meet you too." Issei awkwardly replied.

"**Riser Phenex."** Tannin then turned towards the male-devil in his grasp. **"You will spend your days with my kin in this mountains, training your mind and body from square one!"**

"Uuuhhh…. Why is this happening to me?"

* * *

To sum up Riser Phenex's training: the Phenex devil had been sparring and chased around by blizzard dragon, a high-class dragon with the worst compatibility against Riser, much to his chagrin. Ravel, Issei and Saitama also accompanied during the training per Tannin's saying, "Those who do not work, do not eat." The dragon just had no soft spot for slackers. The training did not only consist of sparring, as Riser was also forced to do a mil-run, rock-climbing, and survival; which he practically dragged himself along the way while Issei and Saitama went along those training course without much difficulty. At the very least, Ravel was allowed to ride on the blizzard dragon's back to supervise her brother's progress, while Saitama would watch over his son.

It was another day of the training trip, while Riser was still fighting – or rather, being chased around – by the Blizzard Dragon; Ravel, Issei and Saitama were having a morning tea-time over pancakes in the middle of the snow storm. Saitama and Issei were still in their winter garment while Ravel herself was dressed in red velvet dress despite the weather, even she had gone far enough to prepare ornate chairs and table, along with parasol, for the occasion. In order to shield her from cold weather, Ravel also conjured a spell behind her as make-shift heater.

As the three sat together on the same table, Ravel was fidgeting nervously as she stared at Saitama. From her perspective, unlike Issei who had been taught proper table manner by a certain Lady Gremory, Saitama's posture was _improper_ for tea-time: his body was rather slouched lazily, one of his hands was propped on the table and he rested his chin on it, and while eating his share of pancake, Saitama simply used the fork to play around with the food before cutting it lousily instead of using the cutlery prepared for him. The girl wanted to berate or rebuke the man for his lack of table manner, but another reasoning stopped her from doing so: firstly, Saitama was a _neutral_ guest, and as the host who had offered the treat in the first place, Ravel had to let Saitama's impolite behaviour slide for once; secondly, not that she wanted to admit it, Saitama could be considered as 'future family', so she had to watch her own actions in order not to offend him in any way.

On another note, for all Ravel knew, Saitama was supposed to be a _human_. However, having seen the man easily made friends of legendary creatures like dragons (she even heard rumours that Saitama also befriended the Crimson Satan), as well as revered rather highly by those dragons, perhaps the human possessed a considerable amount of power? Ravel had learned enough not to take things on face-value.

"It's been 3 days since the training began." Ravel spoke, choosing to finally ignore Saitama's 'lack of manners', or so she viewed it. "How is my brother doing?"

"Err… I think we should ask how are _you_ doing in that dress." Saitama retorted with sweat-drop. "Seriously, aren't you cold?" the man furrowed his brows at the sight of Ravel's outfit being so out of place.

"No, I'm fine." Ravel replied with a blush. "It is only proper for a lady from a noble family to wear a dress for morning tea…" However, Ravel made a cute sneeze as soon as she finished saying those words.

"See? You are cold." Saitama pointed out, garnering a blush from the blonde. "Little girls like you shouldn't push yourself too hard."

"I-I said I'm fine! I'm might be young, but I'm a member of the aspiring Phenex household. This little breeze is nothing." Ravel retorted. She inwardly became even more embarrassed for the show of improper attitude herself like sneezing and her outburst in front of her potential father-in-law. "More importantly, you haven't answered my question about my brother."

"Well, if Riser is really as tough as he's supposed to be, he is going to be just fine after a while." Issei replied, as well as cutting in as the peacemaker. He honestly also questioned about Ravel's choice of attire due to the weather and place, but he knew better than questioning someone as stubborn as Ravel Phenex about her proper decorum. "By the way, this pancake is delicious. Right, pops?"

Saitama then blinked at his son, and the older man proceeded to take a bite of his share of pancakes. "Mmhm, this is good." For now, Issei managed to answer Ravel's question and defusing the hostile air as well.

"Is that so?" Ravel asked with bright expression. "I got the ingredients from the dragons, but there were some ingredients that were unavailable… So I wasn't satisfied with how they turned out…. Do you truly like them?" the girl ended with blushing face.

"Yeah, why would I lie about it?" Issei asked back as he took another bite of his pancake.

"These are really good. Not as good as my wife's, but still pretty good." Saitama added his two-cents.

"O-of course!" Ravel then boastfully replied, ignoring Saitama's comparing her cooking with someone else in favour of Issei's own compliments. "You can count yourselves lucky…" Then Ravel remembered that she was in the presence of Issei's father. _Don't go all high and mighty now, Ravel_. "I-I mean, you can count of me to make more if you wish so." Ravel said while fidgeting.

"Sure thing." Issei said as he took another bite.

"Wha-!? What's with that response?!" Ravel shouted, as she expected some more enthusiasm from the boy. "And I woke up so early in the morning…." Ravel muttered.

"Early in the morning?" Issei looked back to Ravel, who in return was flustered.

"N-no, I can make even dozens of pancakes in no time!" the girl clumsily cut a piece of her cake before taking a bite. "I just happened to wake up early in the morning…"

Saitama raised an eyebrow at Ravel's attitude. The girl's behaviour reminded him a lot of a certain esper with attitude. Only the difference was, Ravel had more manners and was nice enough to treat him some delicious tea and pancakes. Tatsumaki and Fubuki… He did not even know if they could cook a cup instant noodle.

Speaking of those girls…. Saitama remembered that the elder sister was in fact, older than him. That revelation taught him a lesson something about women's age. On the other hand, as far as his experience with devils, many of them could alter their appearance despite their age that might be at least centuries old. And this information brought him this question; how old was the young girl before him? Sure her body was developed enough, she spoke like a lady, but her attitude was not exactly mature.

"Say, Ravel…" Saitama started as he carefully considered his next words. "What year would you be if you're going to human school?"

Ravel blinked once at Saitama's question, before she smiled contently. "Very well, I shall answer your question. In human high-school, I would be a first-year."

"Oh, I see." Saitama nodded. "So you are younger than Ise, after all."

"Next time, I would like to try Kuoh Academy's uniform." Ravel then spoke again with cheerful tone, before her expression became bashful. "And…. Can I also come and visit your place next time?" the girl asked with meek tone.

Issei blinked but he quickly replied with bright smile. "Yeah sure, come anytime you want. And that uniform will definitely suit you." That comment garnered a bright smile on Ravel's face.

"Th-Then, I will come and visit without any hesitation! It's also the duty of a high-class devil to understand the living style of a commoner in the human world!" Ravel replied excitedly.

Saitama raised his eyebrows as he snorted internally. Ravel Phenex was truly a girl with attitude, but not overall unpleasant.

"Oh, yes. I heard that Rias-sama and the others will be coming to this mountain." Ravel then remembered something. "It appears that they want to try the natural hot spring near here."

Saitama then nudged his son's arm while sporting a knowing smirk. "You hear that, kid? If you want, I can arrange something with Rias to give you sometime alone with your girlfriend."

"Dad!" Issei retorted with a blush on his face. However, Ravel seemed to freeze at the mention of the word 'girlfriend'. One could say that when the word 'girlfriend' was registered in Ravel's mind, her shock was also followed by Riser's indignant scream from the distance, and followed again by a dragon's roar.

"Ravel?" Issei turned to see Ravel's odd expression. "Is something wrong?"

"Ah, I'm sorry… By you mean 'girlfriend', who are you…?" Ravel trailed off with some uncertainty in her tone.

"Oh, I guess you didn't know." Issei then smiled sheepishly. "Do you remember Asia Argento, the bishop from my group? I just started going out with her not long ago."

"I… see." Ravel smiled faintly as she looked down with somewhat dejected expression. However, before Issei and Saitama could have said anything, Ravel's expression brightened almost immediately. "In that case, I'm happy for you."

"Yeah, thanks." Issei replied with his own smile.

As the day went on, Saitama caught Ravel muttering something to herself as her face did not lose the fire she usually had. Ravel Phenex may have lost the battle, but she had yet to lose the war. After all, harem end was possible for devils.

oXo

That night, Riser Phenex was wide-awake in his sleeping bag, as he, Issei and Saitama was camping inside the cave within the mountains. After that gruelling hell called training with a giant dragon, Riser finally found an opportunity to find his paradise in that god-forsaken mountain, thanks to his miraculously sharp hearing to eavesdrop the conversation between his little sister and the Red Dragon Emperor regarding Rias and her peerage to come for the hot spring in the mountains.

He might not be engaged with Rias Gremory anymore, but that did not mean that he could not enjoy some beautiful sight of her body. Not to mention that most members of her peerage consisted of women that were beautiful in their own right. He had set his mind; he shall indulge himself after hard days of work and training, and nobody could and/or would stop him.

Riser peeked from his sleeping bag to see two other sleeping bags behind the camp-fire that divided their 'territory'. One belonged to Hyoudou Issei, while the other one was…. Who was it again? Yes, that human father of the Red Dragon Emperor. Riser needed some time to remember the man due to the latter's 'unimpressive' face.

When Riser took a glance at Issei's sleeping bag, his lips turned into a smirk. Heh, how Riser wanted to rub it on the bastard's face that he would have a look at his former fiancee's naked body, perhaps Riser should have landed a blow or two to his face after the past humiliation and dragging Riser into this mess. However, Riser decided to not wasting time to be petty, focused on his objective and proceed to stealthily get out from his sleeping bag and walk towards the exit.

However, when he was only half-way towards the exit, he suddenly spotted Saitama appeared at the mouth of the cave. The man was carrying what it seemed to be dry logs in his arm.

"Hm…?" Saitama hummed as his eyes met with Riser's. "What are you doing?"

Riser looked back to find that the sleeping bag where Saitama was supposed to sleep in was actually empty, and clicked his tongue silently at the unexpected obstacle. Years of Rating Games and surprisingly, the hellish training and the humiliation Riser had suffered in the past had taught him to keep his cool in sticky situations. No need to make a fuss over a mere human. The objective was to sneak out towards women's hot spring without alerting the Red Dragon Emperor, thus it would be ideal for Riser to buy his way out without raising any ruckus.

"I, err…." Riser carefully thought a decent excuse to step out. "I just want to take a leak."

"You know, if you want to take a leak, there is a spot in that cave that can be used as make-shift toilet, since the hole is connected to another part of the mountain. You don't need to bother coming out in this cold night." Saitama retorted with skeptical look.

"Then…. What are you doing yourself out there in that cold?" Riser asked back, panic started to litter his tone.

"I just got additional fire woods from the dragons in case the camp fire would not last for the whole night." Saitama emphasized his point by showing the stack of logs.

Riser forced himself to calm down. There was no need to worry just yet, the human before him had not suspected anything concrete about him. "Ah… Right, I'll help myself then." Riser bluffed his way out with forced smile as he turned his heels around towards the inner parts of the cave. He could still do this, he just had to wait a bit longer for Saitama to go back to sleep, and went on his merry way. After all, the night was still young and from what he knew about his little sister, women tend to take at least an hour or two when enjoying a hot spring; he still had plenty of time.

However, when Riser moved across the camp-fire, Issei suddenly woke up from his slumber, much to Riser's chagrin. The boy hummed as he rubbed his drowsy eyes and turned towards Riser and his father. "Hmm…? Riser-san, what are you doing?"

"He just wanted to take a leak." Saitama answered for Riser, who felt fortunate that he did not need to bother to bluff his way out again.

"…Is that so?" Issei said drowsily as he slowly got out from his sleeping bag as well. "Alright, I need to go to the toilet as well…"

"_It's fine, it's fine…. I just need to wait for these two to go back to sleep…"_ Riser inwardly calmed himself. There was no need for a fuss if he could save his energy.

As the two walked into the deeper parts of the inner cave, the two found the 'hole' that was indeed convenient enough to be used as their make-shift toilet. As the two proceeded to relief themselves, Riser suddenly struck with another tempting thought. Right now, Riser was already finished early since he did not intend to urinate in the first place, while Issei was still have some water to be excreted. The boy's back was wide open, and Riser had the best opportunity to deal with the nuisance, used the boy to distract the human, and quickly got away before they could have known what happened. It was time-saving, and if the Red Dragon Emperor was out of commission, there was no way for him and his human father to catch up with him when Riser took off to the sky. After all, Phoenix is the master of the sky aside from Dragons.

Riser then steadily raised his hand and gathered his power on the said hand, ready to deliver the blow that would knock out the unsuspecting Red Dragon Emperor in one strike. However, before Riser could have done anything else, Saitama's voice interrupted him.

"Hey, Riser!" the man's voice caused Riser to reluctantly pause on his track as he and Issei had to turn towards the source of Saitama's voice. Saitama, who came upon them from the corner, was carrying Riser's sleeping bag that was stuffed with concoctions and paper with half-assed face drawing. "Why are you stuffing your sleeping bag like this?"

Now things had come down on Riser's side as the man looked back and forth between Saitama and Issei, who just zipped up his pants back. Now the father and son were staring at him, expecting an answer.

"Err… Well, it's…" Riser looked left and right as he was wrecking his brain to come up with a decent, acceptable answer. He had wasted enough time as it was, the girls were probably having fun in the hot spring by now.

However, Saitama's next words were the final nail to the coffin. "Seriously, you looked like you want to sneak out without telling us or something."

"_Okay, that's it_." Riser could no longer bluff his way out, now that Saitama and Issei had become suspicious enough of his actions. It was time for the Phenex third son to swim or sink. "A mere human like you shouldn't have poked your nose into business of your betters!" Riser flared out his fiery wings and dashed towards Saitama, who was in the way of his exit, in the way of his 'paradise'.

Dragon might be one thing, but there was no way for Riser Phenex, a high-class devil who was also the third son of the esteemed Phenex clan, the wielder of the power of the Immortal Bird itself over regeneration, fire and wind; to lose against a mere human, even if the said human was the father of the Red Dragon Emperor. Once Riser made a quick work on him, he would immediately fly out towards the hot spring, and shake off the Red Dragon Emperor if necessary should he gave chase.

Or so that was supposed to happen in Riser's scenario. However, unfortunately for him, Saitama was by no means a normal human.

Issei was too late to react as Riser made his way towards Saitama with his flaming fist cocked backwards, ready to be thrown towards Saitama's head, the bald man himself simply stay where he stood as Riser's fist was getting closer by seconds. "Ah! Wait, don't-!" Issei cried out as he stretched his hand futilely at Riser.

BONK!

Alas, the next thing that happened was Riser was out cold, his body fell to the ground in awkward angle while his face was sporting a large swollen on his cheek. Issei only sighed in exasperation and he turned to give a dry glare towards his father.

"What?" Saitama asked as he believed that he did nothing wrong. "He just charged at me all of sudden."

"We're supposed to fix him!" Issei hissed out. "Now we probably have to start all over again…" Then Issei fortunately got himself an idea. "…Or not. Pops, help me to carry his body back to the sleeping bag."

"Um, sure." Saitama and Issei then proceeded to carry Riser's body. The son was supporting Riser's upper half while the father supporting the lower half. "What are you planning?"

"Basically, making this 'never happened'." Issei replied. "Once Riser-san wakes up, we have to convince him that whatever happened tonight was nothing but a dream."

"Do you think it will work?" Saitama asked.

"Of course it will work. Rather, it has to work. Otherwise we'll have to spend more time in getting him back in shape." Issei said as he finished tucking Riser inside his sleeping bag. "Alright, he's tucked up. His wound should heal by tomorrow morning, given his regeneration. Now help me cleaning up the ground where you just knocked him out."

X

"Alright, that should do for now." Issei said as he dusted his hands off after he had cleaned up and covered every possible evidences - covering holes, discarding Riser's decoys, etc., etc. - of one-sided beating of Riser by Saitama.

Saitama on the other hand, after helping Issei covering up everything, just recalled that he had something to talk about to his son. He planned to wait for a bit longer after this whole training fiasco had been dealt with, but now was as good time as any. "Ise…" the man called out, causing his son to turn to him. "We need to talk."

"What is it?" Issei asked, noticing the hint of seriousness in his father's tone.

"It's about your body." Saitama replied. "The girls told me about what happened during the fiasco with Loki. Anything you want to tell me?"

Issei narrowed his eyes for a second, before he averted his gaze away. "…It's nothing you should worry about."

"Ise." Saitama's voice became slightly sterner. "Come on, kid. _Look at me_."

Issei slowly met his gaze with his father's sharp look. Few seconds later, Saitama gave a short sigh. "….Okay, I know that I may not be a good dad…. But at least let me help you."

The old Saitama would have just left Issei alone on his device, just what he usually did to other people who refused his offer. If they were sure that they could handle their problems just fine, why should he force himself? Those people could ask him if they were really cornered. It was fine either with his help or not, as long as the problem was solved.

However, after having a family, meeting his wife and son, Saitama just… _changed_, in a way or perhaps two. He knew that his son still pretty much disliked him, and he still had a long way to go to earn his full trust and respect, but _hell_, Saitama just could not bring himself to leave his flesh and blood alone, especially when he recalled about his condition from the girls during the fight with the Norse Evil God.

Both Issei and Saitama stared to one another for a while, and Issei finally relented as he looked away with a sigh. "….Fine." The boy said. "There's this something…."

oXo

"…_.Oookay, that's not what I expected to hear."_ Saitama mused after Issei explained his 'peculiar' condition. The thing that happened to his son was similar with what happened to him in a way, and different in _lots_ of ways.

"So are you feeling fine now?" Saitama asked.

"So far so good." Issei shrugged. "But Ddraig told me that whatever inside me only spiked up when I was pretty much in danger."

Saitama blinked as he stared into his son before he spoke again. "Say, Ise. Did you brush your teeth properly?"

This time, it was Issei's turn to blink. "….What?"

"Do you nurse your teeth properly?" Saitama repeated his question. "Do you take good care of your body? Do you have any sickness? Stomach-ache? Muscle-ache? Anything like it? Anything wrong with your body?"

Issei was now narrowing his eyes in incredulous manner. What was with those questions?

"Err… No, I'm pretty much healthy." Issei shrugged, running his arms to show his body.

"…I see." Saitama nodded, but he did not understand what was going on anymore. If his hunch, as well as learning from his experience was correct and matching, there was only one possible explanation.

Hyoudou Issei's body was undergoing the 'transformation', or by other words, 'the awakening'.

But in Saitama's case, the pain he suffered was from the cavity of his bad tooth. When the bad tooth had been removed, Saitama's 'transformation' only consisted of loss of hair. And there was his son, Issei; he claimed he did not suffer any kind of illness, assuming that he was telling the truth, if Issei was undergoing 'transformation' like Saitama, the worst could happen was he would go bald like he was. However….

_Seriously, what the hell is going on?_

Saitama was no expert or any adept in scientific or medical stuff, Genos or the doctors from his old home were, but in the whole new world and environment, nobody could really tell what did and would happen. Rubbing his head, Saitama could only sigh in resignation as he decided to go along with the flow for the time being.

"Well, then I guess it's alright for now." Saitama concluded the talk. "You know what, want to go to the hot spring?"

"Eh?" Issei blinked. "You mean, like now?"

"Duh. I mean, after this little bout with that Riser dude over there, you probably are wide-awake by now. I'd say a good relaxing bath can help you sleep better. What do you say?"

Issei pondered his father's offer for a minute. True, thanks to the sudden stunt Riser pulled on them, now Issei just lost his 'sleepiness' and would likely need a while to get his sleep back. A nice bath in natural hot spring could ease up his nerve, and there was no harm of doing that after long day of hard work.

It was a well-deserved bath. "Meh. Lead the way, then." Issei accepted the offer with a shrug.

* * *

"This is… nice." Issei said after giving a soft moan as he felt the heat of the water seeped into his system. Saitama himself was enjoying the hot water not far across him.

"Tell me about it."

Indeed, as Issei and Saitama had said, it was a nice place for relaxation. It appeared that someone had been maintaining the hot spring, taking care of the location to be clean enough for tourist and travellers to stop by. Not only the pillars and some natural ruins decorating the surrounding waters, there were several lanterns being lit up to give some visuals on surrounding area. Not to mention, the artificial moon of the underworld enhanced the visual aesthetic, as the moon illuminated the mountainous region.

The father and son fell into companionable silence as they soaked their bodies with the hot water, while staring at the starless night sky. "…Y'know, I want to apologize again for the other day, when you told me the thing between you and Rossweisse-san." Issei broke the silence.

"I told you, it's fine." Saitama simply waved off. "Besides, I guess I know that you really love your mother. That's good." The man smiled contently.

"I can still hardly believe that she still madly in love with you even after you neglecting her for fifteen years…" Issei shook his head with a small sigh. "With her devoting so bad to you, of course I expect you to give the best to her."

"Yeah, I gotta admit, I still think that she's way out of my league." Saitama nodded. "But enough about me. Come on, what do you think of the girls?"

"If you're asking about Asia…. Well, I guess I'm the same with you; she's way out of my league." Issei chuckled. "Seriously, she's just…. One of a kind."

"True, true." Saitama nodded in agreement. Bluntly said, Asia Argento could be considered as a highly 'endangered species' of womankind. "But I'm not asking about that. What do you think about having a harem?"

Issei only narrowed his eyes and sent his father a dirty look. "…Are you serious right now?"

"I'm dead serious." Saitama replied. "Your mother would gonna kill me if I were to make a harem, but remember, she wants _grandchildren_. She will fly over the moon if she finds that you are popular with the ladies."

"…Are you saying that, mom wants grandchildren so bad that she wouldn't mind if I have a….. harem?" Issei summed up.

"Yeah, pretty much." Saitama shrugged. "Besides, I myself don't mind to have a grandkid or two."

"You? Being a grandpa?" Issei replied rather sceptically.

"Don't go rude on me now, kid." Saitama retorted while narrowing his own eyes. "To tell you the truth, one of my happiest moments was…" Saitama paused as he found himself flustered for particular reason. "Well, it was when I saw your mother caring for the baby you. Seeing Haruka spoiling her grandchildren doesn't sound bad at all to me." Saitama said as he scratched his cheek sheepishly.

Issei blinked at his father's expression. _"Grandchildren…. Having my own kids, huh?"_ Issei pondered as he imagined having kids with the woman he loved. His first thought should have been Asia, his girlfriend. However, suddenly the image of Rias, Akeno and other girls he knew suddenly popped out in his mind as well, causing his face to flush and the boy shaking his head to banish such a strange thought.

However, the moment between father and son soon came to end as they felt multiple presences arrived at the hot spring they were currently in. Through the steam of hot water, the girls from the Occult Research Club and Ravel appeared, clad only with towel wrapping around their torso.

"Ise? Saitama-san?"

"Ise-san? Dear father? Are you here to see us?"

"My, my, ufufu~. Ise-kun and Saitama-san are here as well?"

"Oh, it's good to see you two again, Ise and Saitama-dono."

"Good evening, Ise-senpai, Saitama-san."

"I-Ise-kun? And Saitama-san too?!"

"W-w-w-what are you two doing here?!"

"Ise-sama? Mr. Saitama?"

Rias, Asia, Akeno, Xenovia and Koneko did not seem to mind the boys' presences, while Irina and Rossweisse still had not used to have people of opposite gender to join the same bath as them yet, as the former Valkyrie and reincarnated angel quickly retreated to one of the rocks for their hiding spot.

Issei blinked before his eyes widened at the sight of the girls, then he turned to his father. "Pops, I thought this is the men's corner!?"

"I… thought it is." Saitama could only reply with those words. "Erm, sorry about that, girls. We'll move out right away." Saitama and Issei quickly stood up from their sitting position and wrapped their towels to cover their private parts. Bathing in the limited space of the bathroom in their home residence may be one thing, but to have bath at the larger space like the hot spring in the mountains, where the men could give the women some privacy? Not to mention, Ravel Phenex was most likely not the type to easily share a bath with men.

Speaking of Ravel, the girl could not tear her gaze away from Issei and Saitama's figures when the two males stood up from the water, leaving their well-toned muscles and abs for the girls to see. Those from Hyoudou Residence and Occult Research Club might have gotten used at the still-magnificent (they actually never get tired of it) sight of Issei and Saitama's lean muscular body, but it was Ravel's first time to see them.

During the course of her life, Ravel Phenex had a fair share of the sight of men's body. The men in particular are her three elder brothers; there would be times when Ravel would have some siblings skin-ship with her brothers during her younger years. Her brothers who had reached adulthood that time had quite impressive bodies befitting Phenex clansmen, according to herself.

However, Hyoudou Issei and Saitama were simply on a whole different level. Their bodies were leaned, but packed with muscles – completely useful muscles with purpose instead of bulging nonsense of body builders. To make matters worse, the remains of the hot water coating their bodies, added with the effect of the surrounding lightings had made as if their bodies were sparkling.

Her breathing hitched as Ravel swallowed a large lump as her gaze was glued on the physical appeal – especially those perfectly toned abs - of the father and son, and she felt her face grew hotter and hotter.

"Ravel?" Issei's voice snapped her out of her reverie and Ravel found everyone else was staring at her. "…Are you okay?"

It was only then Ravel realised that something was flowing out from her nose. Her face was flushed red and she reached out her hand to find that she was having a minor nosebleed. At her own display of reaction, her face was now getting redder from sheer embarrassment.

She gasped, her breathings were erratic as she was too embarrassed of her own reactions. "Ah… Awa-wa-wa-wa… Uh…" she could not made any comprehensive words as her mind drew blanks. "….ISE-SAMA, YOU PERVEEERT!" In the end, Ravel simply snapped at the boy as blazing flames gathered around her body.

"What the- WHY ME!?" Issei shouted incredulously as a large fireball was thrown right at his and Saitama's direction.

As the explosion echoed across the mountain, followed by a large pillar of fire, the night of relaxing bath for Issei and Saitama had ended up rather eventful. Next day afterwards, Issei put his best effort not exactly to train Riser, but to convince the latter that the man was merely having a bad dream about being defeated single-handedly by a mere human.

By the end of the training, Riser had pretty much been cured of his funk and returned to his usual boastful self, albeit not as cocky as before. Ravel on the other hand, seemingly to avoid Issei and Saitama for more reason than one. It would take a while for Ravel Phenex to be able to look straight at the Hyoudous again.

_To be continued…_

* * *

**That's the wrap, folks! I hope I have done enough justice in writing the story and characters within this interlude. No flame, please. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	36. Interlude (III)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**What's up, folks. Ahsoei returns with another interlude; this time it is based on The Extra Life: The Fun Family of Gremory from volume 8 original LN. I originally intended to compile this one together with my last interlude, but after few considerations, it would have made the previous chapter way too long to read; thus, I decided to separate them into two chapters. Besides, doing so allows me to think more carefully of what I want to do with Issei's relationship with other girls.**

**This interlude will approach Issei's relationship with other girls as well as another insight about his **_**power**_**.**

**On that note, enjoy, read and review!**

* * *

**Intermission – The Trial**

It all began during a day off when Rias had been very high-strung since the morning.

Speaking of day off, apparently, it was also the day-off of Grayfia Lucifuge as the maid of Gremory household, and the woman happened to plan a visit to Hyoudou Residence as Rias' sister-in-law instead as a maid. That was the reason why Rias had been preparing, cleaning, and fixing everything; house, everyone's appearance, drinks, snacks, etc., for every 10 minutes.

Of course, Issei was worried. And from what he heard from Akeno, Grayfia as 'big sister' was even stricter than Grayfia as a maid, which scared Rias quite badly. There was also another reason why Grayfia wanted to pay a visit, but it was for later when the woman in question arrived.

And now, Rias was fixing up Issei's appearance and making sure that they had enough treats (again), as everyone was dressed in formal-casual outfit. Even Saitama was forced to wear a shirt and trousers properly instead of his usual T-shirt or tank-top and sweat-pants. And on that note, Haruka herself also dressed up for the occasion.

But what perturbed Issei the most was the fact that Rias looked…. So _adorable_ when she was flustered and nervous whenever she turned to him; not to mention when Issei caught Rias mumbling something about 'him being special'. It made him felt bad as he used all of his will-power to remind himself that he had to remain faithful to Asia.

After waiting and more preparing for another while, the door-bell finally rang. As everyone had guessed, Grayfia appeared in exquisite clothes, and her hair was tied up in a high ponytail instead of her usual twin-braids only. Overall, Grayfia's appearance was breath-taking in a whole different way.

"How are you doing, everyone?" Grayfia greeted with expressive face instead of her usual stoic one as a maid. She even smiled cheerfully at Rias. "How do you do, Rias?"

"Hello, onee-sama." Despite the friendliness, Rias could not discard her nervousness.

"It's been a while, Grayfia-san." Haruka took a strode forward as she attempted to give Grayfia a quick hug, which the latter returned in kind. Rias could not help but be impressed at the sight of Hyoudou Haruka fearlessly hugged the Silver Queen of Annihilation. Truly, the human woman never ceased to amaze Rias and her peerage in one way or another.

"Saitama."

Grayfia also nodded towards Saitama, who also returned the gesture. The woman left out the usual honorific since she did not come as a maid that day.

"Grayfia."

However, another voice was heard from the entrance. "It has been a while, Princess." A humble voice came from a creature that resembled that of a horse or deer, but with red scales instead of fur. Its, or rather, his face resembled that of red Asian dragon, and he stood around two metres tall. The creature then turned towards Issei and bowed his head politely. "And if it isn't the Red Dragon Emperor. This is our first meeting. I'm a Pawn that serves Lord Sirzechs, and my name is Enku. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Ah… yes, nice to meet you too." Issei returned the courtesy while he was amazed at the fact that he was greeting, according to the books he had read in the Occult Research Club room, a Qilin, a mythical hooved chimerical creature well-known in East Asia culture.

"And it is good to see you again, Saitama-dono." The Sacred Beast also greeted politely to the bald man, who also replied in kind.

"Yeah, hello again, Enku."

However, Enku certainly did not expect to see a human woman to converse so closely with Grayfia, and when Haruka laid her eyes on the Qilin, the woman simply walked forward with awe in her eyes. "Rias-chan… Is this…?"

Rias sighed good-naturedly as she patted Enku's neck. "Yes, he is a Qilin, Enku; and my brother's servant." And she turned her attention to the sacred beast. "Glad to see you well, Enku."

"Likewise, Princess. And it is a rare experience to have a human reacting better at our existence…." Enku turned to Haruka. "You are Saitama-dono's wife, are you not? My name is Enku, pleased to be your acquaintance."

"How very polite… It is a pleasure to know you as well." Haruka then turned to Rias. "…Can I pat him?"

Rias only nodded and gestured the woman to have her way. _Truly, what a woman_. Some time later, Enku then decided that he had overstayed his welcome. "Then, M'lady Grayfia, I will be returning to my station."

Grayfia nodded in return. "Yes. Thank you for escorting me till here, Enku. It would have been fine by myself, though..."

"What are you saying?" Enku politely rebuked. "Our dear Queen, who is also the wife of our King. For you to go and visit someone officially without an escort... Well even though I say that, I don't even have a slight thought of M'lady Grayfia being in danger even without my escort. I believed I should bring fortune to the Red Dragon Emperor's residence by coming along with you. More than that, I'm glad to see the face of Princess Rias and the Red Dragon Emperor, who is the young master."

Issei blinked at the last part. Young master? What was with that title? _"Come to think of it, I was called 'young master' during summer vacation, wasn't I?"_

More words had been exchanged as Haruka got to know better about Qilins and their benevolent nature, Rias then turned towards the Qilin. "Enku, you could even stay for a while, you know?"

Despite Rias' rather sad tone, Enku still refused. "Thank you very much for the kind words. However, I still have duties to attend to as Lord Sirzech's servant in the underworld. However, I would like to run at the mountain with you again while carrying you on my back like before. Now, I shall leave. I'm hoping to meet all of you again." With that farewell, Enku disappeared with red mist.

oXo

Grayfia's visit turned out to be better than Issei had expected. The conversations held between Grayfia and the occupants of the Hyoudou Residence were carried out nicely and everyone had a good time. From the exchanges between the girls, Issei found out that the story of how Sirzechs Lucifer, who was still Sirzechs Gremory in the past, had met Grayfia Lucifuge in the first place; the story between the two had been turned into a play and become the Underworld's version of Romeo &amp; Juliet.

Apparently, Saitama had actually been invited by Sirzechs and Grayfia themselves to watch them. However, the human's lack of enthusiastic reaction caused Rias, Akeno and Koneko to get aggravated, since the romance between the Satan and his Queen was akin to legend for female devils from all classes. Haruka, Xenovia, Rossweisse, Irina and Asia had become very interested to learn about it more in future.

However, the atmosphere became tenser when Grayfia's topic shifted to Rias and Issei, particularly the former; something about Rias had selfishly her engagement with other noble household, causing some controversy within noble society; thus Rias had to remember her role as the future leader of her household and consider to take a husband. However, as Grayfia also set her attention on Issei as well, the boy felt few things were off aside of Rias' flustered expression as the conversation went on. Firstly, Akeno and Koneko seemed to get an inkling of what Grayfia was insinuating. Secondly, Asia seemed… dejected as she had something to say, but opted to keep it for herself as she clutched her hands rather tightly. Since the topic was about Rias' previous engagement with Phenex household, it was understandable for Xenovia and Irina to not knowing anything since the two were still Vatican affiliate. And lastly, as Saitama and Haruka listened to the conversation, the matriarch seemed to catch on something as she used her hand to cover her amused, knowing smirk.

As Grayfia kept preaching Rias things about responsibility and self-consciousness; which the latter could only listen without being able to talk back, a new voice suddenly interrupted them. "Now, now, Grayfia… Rias is already doing quite well, isn't she?"

Everyone turned to see Sirzechs Lucifer himself suddenly appeared via teleportation magic. Rias quickly stood up in alarm at the sight of her older brother. "Onii-sama!?"

"Hello, everyone." Then the Satan turned to the married couple in the house with his usual charming smile. "Saitama-kun, Haruka-san." And Sirzechs turned to his little sister again. "And Rias, I'm glad that you are doing well. How are you doing? Looks like everyone in the group is the same as well." He said as he glanced around the peerage members.

Then, he gave out a bag that happened he brought along with brightened expression. "Oh, yes. Here's some gift from home, it is my collection of Rias' photos and video recordings that I produced myself – The Growing of Ria-tan compilation, from childhood until high-school."

As everyone took a look, Rias was panicking while she quickly confiscated all the gallery with adorable reactions, much to Issei's amusement. However, Issei felt strange that he felt too disappointed for his taste when he could no longer look at Rias' childhood gallery.

Fortunately for Rias, Grayfia came in to 'defuse' the situation. "Sirzechs, aren't you supposed to have the meeting with other Overlords by now?" the woman asked with sharp glare.

Cold sweat started to break off on Sirzech's temple. "Ah – hahaha… I thought I would join the meeting from here. If I can send my image from here, then the meeting will be-!" then Grayfia immediately proceeded to pinch Sirzech's cheek really hard. "Ouch, ouch, ouch! It hurts, Grayfia!" the Crimson Satan cried.

"Why are you always like this during my day off…." Grayfia asked rhetorically as she sighed exasperatedly. "Perhaps I should cancel my day off and return being a maid."

While Grayfia was still busy berating Sirzechs - the sight that caused the youngsters fearful of the sheer pressure emitting from the silver haired woman – Three magic circles suddenly flashed out on the table.

"Oh, my." Haruka was surprised as she covered her mouth, but in a good way.

Holographic images started to appear from respective magic circle, followed by some static voices.

"**Sir...zec...hs...Sirzechs-chan... Can you hear me...? Heeeeey. Sirzechs...chan...?"**

After several more hisses, buzzes and lags, the voice was finally recognized as the one that belonged to a certain Leviathan. **"Sirzechs-chan! Geez, you just went to the human world by yourself! I also wanted to go to the human world as well!"**

"Sorry, Serafall. I'm currently at Hyoudou Issei's house." Sirzechs replied.

**"The Red Dragon Emperor…. Wait, then that means-"**

"Serafall?" Saitama blinked at Serafall's hologram.

**"Guh. Of course you'd be there."** Serafall cringed at the man. However, her expression brightened up when she saw Haruka. **"Wait, is that Haru-nyan? Haru-nyaaan!"** the Satan Girl waved happily.

"Serafall! It's good to see you again!" Haruka waved back. She did not even bother to question the communication means. Magic, supernatural stuff; the woman had gotten used to it too well.

"**Ah, and Red Dragon Emperor! Yahou! Is Rias-chan there as well?"** Serafall said as she turned to Issei.

"How do you do Serafall-sama?" Rias greeted.

**"Good to see you alive and kickin'! Geez, Sirzechs-chan! If you were going there, tell me before hand. Ajuka-chan and Falbi-chan were also curious because Sirzechs-chan who is always on time wasn't here!"** Serafall complained, albeit her face was rather cute to be someone who was mad at her colleague.

Issei and the others blinked at the mention of 'Ajuka-chan' and 'Falbi-chan' from Serafall. Speaking of those familiar sounding name, two new voices also appeared with their own holographic images from the other two magic circles beside Serafall.

"**Sirzechs, for you to leave the meeting and go to the human world… Either an incident occurred or something interesting is about to happen. It's the latter right?"** the voice belonged to a handsome young man with light blue eyes and green hair that was slicked back. He possessed a mysterious aura around him, which made him seemed _devilish_.

Then followed by another, **"Ehh…. Can we just leave Sirzechs have his fun for once in a while and have the meeting some other day? I don't wanna work…. It's bothersome….."** this one sounded very lazy, belonged to a tall man with sleepy face, whose head is completely bald and has a goatee on his chin. He was resting on his cheek as if he was about to doze off.

"C-could these two be…?" Issei asked while swallowing a lump.

"Right! I still haven't introduced you to them, Ise-kun, as well as Haruka-san." Sirzechs replied. "The man with the green hair is Ajuka Beelzebub. He is the chief advisor for the technology department including the Technical Equation Program." The Lucifer introduced the handsome man before turning to the other one. "And the one over there who seems like he can't be bothered to do things is Falbium Asmodeus. He is mainly in control of military affairs. Oh, and by the way, Serafall is in charge of foreign affairs."

Sirzechs then turned to the Hyoudou matriarch. "Together with Serafall, these are my friends and colleagues." And he turned towards the said two friends. "Ajuka, Falbium, the lady here is Hyoudou Haruka, Saitama's wife."

"_They are friggin' overlords!"_ Issei then bowed his head politely. "Uh, it's an honor to meet you! My name is Hyoudou Issei!"

"Ah… So you are Saitama's wife and son. Nice to meet you too, Red Dragon Emperor, lady Haruka." Ajuka Beelzebub returned the gesture.

"Saitama's wife and kid, eh…?" Falbium Asmodeus raised his eyebrows ever so slightly in very little interest. "Yeah, hello. I'm Falbium."

"Ufufu, I'm glad that I finally get to know more of my husband's friends. Nice to meet you two as well." Haruka giggled pleasantly.

"**Hey, Falbi! Haru-nyan is my friend, and Red Dragon Emperor there is Rias-chan's servant and family! Put more of your heart into it while greeting them, sheesh!"** Serafall berated the Asmodeus.

"**Bah, get off my back, Serafall."** Falbium replied. **"You and Sirzechs always work too hard. It's against my motto, 'working means losing'. Apart from important jobs, I just leave it to my servants you know? For times like these you need to gather good servants and make them do the work... What a pain…"** then Falbium's corner of his lips twitched upwards slightly. **"Rather, I'm surprised you're still around, isn't Saitama here? I thought you hate him."**

"**No – I mean, yes! Well, but… S-Shut up!"** Serafall stuttered out as her face was tinged in slight pink, causing everyone to raise en eyebrow at her outburst. Haruka on the other hand simply watched in amusement sent a look to her husband. As if understanding what the look of his wife meant, Saitama replied with silent, yet frantic shake of his head.

**"Anyway, Sirzechs-chan! What's going to happen now?"** Serafall decided to change the topic.

Following her whims, Sirzechs complied as he looked at Rias _and_ Issei. "To tell you the truth, I was going to make Rias take _that_ ceremony at the Ruins of Connection."

The other rulers of the underworld let out a collective sound of comprehension and smiled to Rias and Issei as well, much to the two youngsters' confusion.

"Onii-sama - No, Lord Lucifer. What is the meaning of this?" Rias turned to her brother. "Are you referring to that place that is an important ruin that has been passed down from our ancestors?"

"Yes. Those from the Gremory perform a rite of passage at that ruin when they hit a certain age." Sirzechs nodded in affirmation. "…With the one they hold "dear" that is. You know what I mean, right Rias?"

At Sirzechs' tone, Rias' face gave the same shade as her hair. Issei, however, only blinked at Sirzech's explanation. _There's something else going on here_.

"**That's interesting. It's more important than the meeting." **

"**It hasn't been done since Sirzechs-chan's one back then!" **

"**Ah, congratulations. I will congratulate you two before hand."**

Issei became even more suspicious at the interest shared by the Lord of Flies, the Prince (princess?) of Envy and The Devil on Two Sticks regarding the matter, but the boy decided to go along with the flow for the time being.

Meanwhile, Grayfia stood up and told Rias. "That's how it is, Rias. That is the instruction of father and mother. What we mean by making us relieved is by performing the ritual. We won't allow you to refuse. You have to give at least that much relief to us. Though my husband ended up bringing unnecessary people into it..." Then Grayfia turned her cold stare to her husband again. "Sirzechs, you understand, right? It's re-education for you once we get home."

"Hahaha. So that's how it is Ria-tan. Do your best with Ise-kun... It hurts. It hurts, Grayfia….!"

As Grayfia pinched Sirzechs' cheek again, much to the latter's pain and chagrin; the maid said her farewells while maintaining her grip on her husband, before the couple left the house via front door.

"Oookay, what was that about again?" Issei asked to nobody in particular.

However, when he turned and his eyes met with Rias', the girl was absolutely troubled and had forgone her usual great lady persona. "Hauuuuu…. Ise... Wh-what should I do...?"

Isse would be lying if he did not react from such adorable expression. Alas, Asia caught the wind and she proceeded to pull her boyfriend's cheek in a fit of jealousy, much to everyone's amusement. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, it hurts, Asia… I'm sorry…!"

However, the awkward atmosphere from the departure of the two ultimate-class devils was remedied when Sirzechs suddenly came in from the door again. "Um, excuse me, but… Saitama, can you come with me? I need a favor. Haruka-san, I'd be borrowing your husband for a while."

Saitama blinked before he glanced briefly to his wife and walked toward Sirzechs. "Err… Yeah, sure."

"Take care, dear." Haruka simplied waved at her departing husband.

When the door slammed shut, everyone simply stared at the door where they saw Saitama and Sirzechs last time; even Asia seemed to forget that she was still rather mad at her boyfriend. The said boyfriend, however, only repeated his previous question. "Okay, seriously. What was _that_ all about?"

* * *

_(Few days later, Gremory Territory, Underworld)_

Per Rias' family's orders, Issei and Rias made a quick trip to the Underworld, particularly to the Ruins of Connection located in the family territory. So far, Issei could only tell that whatever was happening was something related to family tradition, and it was important; because everyone else from the Occult Research Club had been instructed to stay at home.

Currently, the two were standing in the middle of ancient ruins that Issei deemed as overall _gorgeous_. Beside him, Rias were nervously muttering some incoherent murmurs, and Issei proceeded to place a calming hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Rias. It's gonna be fine. I'm with you, remember?"

"Tou!"

However, right after Issei said those words, a sudden voice alerted them, followed by the appearance of five figures leaping out from nowhere and landed in front of Issei and Rias. All five of them were dressed in what appeared to be _Tokusatsu_ (Japanese Superhero Squadron) uniforms in red, blue, green, pink and yellow. From the shape of their bodies, Issei surmised that the pink was a female, while the rest are males.

As the five figures in costumes made a pose, mysterious and flash explosion occurred along with colorful smokes, much to Issei and Rias' bewilderment. "W-who are they…?" the former asked in cautious tone.

The one in red costume appeared to be the leader of the group as he took a step forward while making another pose. "Fuhahahaha! We are the mysterious overlord…"

(Cough!) (cough!) (cough!)

However, the red's words had been interrupted; by the men in blue and yellow clearing their throats. The red one then paused and cleared his own throat before carried on. "…Right. Okay, starting over! We are Satan Rangers! I am the leader, Satan-Red!"

As if on cue, the others of 'Satan Rangers' also gave their introduction and respective pose.

"Satan-Blue!"

"(Sigh)….I'm Satan-Green."

"Levi-…! I mean, Satan-Pink!"

"Um, S-Satan-Yellow!"

At the introduction, Issei and Rias's jaws were dropped to the ground. Especially the former; not only that he could not comprehend _why_ the Four Great Satans were dressing up as Power Ranger rip-off, with Sirzechs Lucifer as Satan-Red, Ajuka Beelzebub as Satan-Blue, Falbium Asmodeus as Satan-Green, Serafall Leviathan as Satan-Pink, and his father also took part in it as Satan-Yellow; their voices were already dead-give away, not to mention Falbium's signature lazy tone, and Serafall's near-blunder in her introduction. As for Saitama, it was clear that the man was not used for acting.

Issei honestly did not know how to react. Putting Saitama aside, the Four Great Rulers of the Underworld seemed to put their hearts into this (having Falbium Asmodeus willing to join this shtick was already a great achievement) and Issei was torn to make a retort or play along to respect their effort. However, the fact remained that his father was playing along in what Issei honestly deemed as ridiculous yellow suit.

"How is it? A nice pose, right? I practiced with my son last night." Satan-Red boasted.

"Yeah! Even I also thought about many cute poses as well~!" Satan-Pink also did not want to lose the spot-light.

However, before things could go even harder in Issei's mind, Rias was narrowing her eyes at particularly Satan-Yellow. "…Saitama-san?"

The Satan Rangers flinched at the name, with Satan-Yellow was the most shaken one. "No, I-I don't know this Saitama guy you're talking about. I-I'm Satan-Yellow." Satan-Yellow replied nervously as he turned to his comrades, silently sending SOS signal to them.

Issei himself was panicking from embarrassment. Rias… might not be his 'girlfriend', but it was still embarrassing as hell to have a hot girl like her to find that your father was cosplaying in colorful tight suit.

"No, no, you are Saitama-san, aren't you?" Rias pressed on. "What are you doing with these people? I don't know who they are, but did my brother ask you to participate in… whatever this is?"

""…What?"" Saitama and Issei said in unison. The latter actually expected his master to immediately those Satan Rangers, especially the Satan-Red as the Lucifer, but to actually recognize Saitama, but not her own brother and his peers; whom were role-playing in costumes? What had the devils of underworld become to?

_**[…Is she for real?] **_

Even the Spirit of Boosted Gear began to question the mechanism of Rias Gremory's head.

"_It… appears to be so, Ddraig. For now, let's just….. play along."_ Issei finally gave up and decided to see how things would go.

The Satan Rangers, however, found that things were still salvageable as Satan-Red continued his role. "Yes, along with Saitama, we had been hired by Gremory household. There are three trials waiting for you two in this ritual. I want you two to successfully break through the trials with only your powers. What's important is teamwork!"

However, suddenly Satan-Pink pointed at random direction at the sky. "Ah, I saw a mysterious flying object!"

"What!? Everyone, attack all at once!" Satan-Red responded with alarmed tone, then he conjured his power after giving his instruction to his comrades. "Ruin the Extinct!"

The other Satan Rangers – Blue, Pink and Green - also followed-suit, with the exception of Satan-Yellow who darted his head around in confusion.

"Kankara Formula: Karama-Equation!"

"Ei! Celsius Cross Trigger!"

"Err…. Whatever-Asmodeus-Strike…"

"Wait, are we still going with the script!?"

A large-scale explosion lighted up the sky in spectacular fire works, followed by immense shockwave that rocked the whole area and the surrounding atmosphere. Local faunas were scattering away in fear, and Issei could have sworn that the sky had been split apart from the combined attacks of the Four Great Satans, creating a path to the Dimensional Gap.

"What, it's just an evil spirit. Don't scare us like that, Pink." Satan-Red remarked, ignoring Saitama's earlier slip-up. Satan-Pink only replied with cute giggle.

While Issei's mind was still keeping up with such elaborate and rather silly role-playing, Rias was staring as she actually paid attention to the Satan-Yellow, who she believed to be Saitama, the father of her beloved Pawn.

Rias Gremory might be a still-rather-naïve heiress of Gremory household, but she was by no means a fool. During the Satan Ranger's first appearance, Rias had no idea what to make out of them. All she knew that each of them was _powerful_, at least on par with the Overlords. The one in yellow, though, was not exuding any sort of demonic power. Not to mention, when the yellow one introduced themselves, the accent, the voice, and somewhat un-enthusiastic tone made Rias' brain to click as she immediately recognized the owner of the voice to be Hyoudou Saitama (the mask did not alter his voice at all).

Then, through one event after another, Rias' mind started to piece everything together with one question in the center: Why would Saitama do something so conspicuous? And speaking conspicuous, why had she never heard of such a powerful group? From the display of power earlier, with Satan-Yellow not able to use any demonic power cemented the fact that he was Saitama, the other Satan Rangers displayed such impressive attacks, especially that Satan-Red's Power of Destruction…

Power of Destruction?

Power of Destruction, Saitama being involved, the theme color, and 'Satan' Rangers…. And not to mention, thinking back of the voice, the other Rangers' voices sound rather familiar, especially when the Satan-Pink said something about 'Levi''.

Rias' face color twisted between pale in dreadful revelation and sheer embarrassment. How could she not realized that right-off the bat? Everything made sense!

"….O-Onii-sama?!" Rias stuttered out. This time, all of the Satan Rangers flinched altogether again.

Several seconds then passed in totally awkward silence. Then, Satan-Red proceeded as if nothing happened. "A-Anyway! We will be waiting at each trial! The two young people who will carry on the Gremory! Breakthrough all three of the trials successfully and reach the end of the ruin! Now! Each of us will be waiting at certain sections of the trial! Fuhahahahahaha!" with that one forced act, the Satan Rangers disappeared into the inner ruins.

oXo

Inside the ruins, Satan Rangers were 'reviewing' their earlier performance.

"See, I told you that bringing this guy along is a bad idea!" Satan-Pink, with the mask removed revealing Serafall Leviathan, heatedly said as she pointed at the sheepish and guilty-looking Saitama.

"We can't help it if Grayfia was too embarrassed to play the role of Satan-Yellow. I thought Saitama's strength is enough to fill the part as a superhero…" Sirzechs returned.

"But I thought this is supposed to be _Satan_ Rangers! Powerful or not, why would we have a human in the first place! Sheesh! Now our hard-work has gone down to the drain!" Serafall replied as she stomped her feet in agitation.

"…So? Are we still doing this or not?" Satan-Green, Falbium Asmodeus, asked with his usual lazy tone. "If not, can I go home?"

"Alright, alright, let's calm down for a minute." Satan-Blue, Ajuka Beelzebub, took the role as peacekeeper. "Our cover may be blown, but we still have our objectives, remember?" Ajuka's words actually rang a bell in everyone's mind as they then nodded with a new resolved look (Falbium only rolled his eyes in reluctance) "Sirzechs, your call?" the bearer of the name Lord of Flies turned towards the bearer of the name Morning Star.

Sirzechs then nodded at his long-time friend. "Ajuka is right. We still have something to do here. We'll keep going until the end!" Sirzechs then raised his fist upwards. "Satan Rangers, GO!"

"YEAH!" Ajuka and Serafall replied with the same heat, while Falbium replied with another deep sigh, although he also raised his fist. Saitama on the other hand, was not sure anymore why he agreed to join in the first place.

Then, gearing up once again, the Satan Rangers split up to their respective tasks.

oXo

As the Issei and Rias had been left alone, the former then turned to see the latter was crouching in fetal position while covering her red flustered face. "Hauuu…" Rias whimpered. "How can I be so stupid!? Of course it's the Four Great Satans! Those Satan Rangers…. Geez, onii-sama!"

Seeing his master in such a state, Issei was not sure of what he should do at that moment. After few seconds of pondering, he came up with something worth-trying. "O-oh! So they are the Four Great Satans! Amazing, I even could not tell them apart! Ahahaha!" Issei said bashfully.

However, when his eyes met with Rias' own, the girl's eyes only became even more teary as she returned to cover her face. "Uuuu… Even Ise…. Even Ise….!" Rias knew that her Pawn was only trying to make her feel better, but she still ended up feeling embarrassed of herself more than before as her head was fuming.

_**[Partner, you're not helping at all.]**_

Grumbling at Ddraig's retort, Issei only sighed and proceeded to kneel down, so he was on eye-level with Rias. With a sigh, Issei then placed both hands on Rias' shoulders. "Rias, look at me."

When Rias looked up, she was met with Issei looking at her with straight face. "Those are not devil kings nor your brother. They are Satan Rangers."

"Ise…." The boy's words were voiced with absolute clarity that caused Rias to blink. "…But-!"

"No, no buts." Issei interrupted with his hand raised, preventing Rias to say anything more. "These Satan Rangers are powerful, and now that they had gone their way out to test us, we could not disappoint them, right? They want us to take their trials, let's show them what we are made of!"

Issei's confident smile and expression had delivered the message. If the boy could not save Rias' face, at least he could share the burden and the shame as well. Rias then smiled as she felt better, then she got back on her feet. "You are right, it's unbecoming of a Gremory to run away from challenge! I'm not fazed anymore! Let's show them how deep the relationship between us is!" Rias said with her usual confident air as she wiped away her bit of tears.

"Right!" then Issei paused at one particular word. _Relationship_? "…Come to think of it, I never got any explanation what is this ritual all about."

This time, it was Rias' turn to pause and she fidgeted around while playing with her fingers. "The ritual…. Can you wait until we finish this? I promise I'll explain your questions." She said with flustered face.

Issei eyed his master for few seconds before he shrugged. "….Okay. Your orders then, milady?"

"Let's do this!" Rias then ran forward, pulling her Pawn along in the process.

* * *

To put it simply, the trials those Satan Rangers had prepared were revolving around the lifestyle of high-class society. The first trial by Satan-Pink, Issei and Rias were made to dance as soon as the music was played. It was not that difficult for the two, thanks to Venelana Gremory's dance lesson during summer break.

The second trial by Satan-Green, was table manners. Not particularly difficult either, where Satan-Green merely watched over the test while the maids were the ones who did the actual evaluation.

The third trial, however, was one-hour paper test examination with Satan-Blue as their evaluator. It took quite some out of Issei as theory was not his forte; not to mention the pop-quiz at the end of the test where Satan-Blue suddenly asked Issei about the members of 72 Pillars of the Underworld, both active and the extinct alike. There was more than one occasion where the boy was tempted to cheat by asking Ddraig for clues.

After passing all the three trials, Issei and Rias were on their way towards the venue where Satan-Red and Satan-Yellow were waiting for them. While they were walking, the two were having a conversation about the love story between The Crimson Satan and his Queen.

"…Wow, so that's what happened between Lord Sirzechs and Grayfia-san?" Issei asked with his expression filled with admiration. "No wonder everyone made a big deal out of it."

"I know, right? That's why the story became some sort of legend for young population, especially females. Even the play about those two is still very popular despite being centuries-old." Rias replied while her face was akin to an excited pubescent teenage girl. "I love them, I respect them, but…" then her tone became somewhat distant. "I feel anxious. There are times when I felt that I'm much more inferior compared to them. I'm not sure if I'm worthy to be the next heir of Gremory household…"

Seeing Rias' down expression, Issei saw another side of the girl he had been attracted to (much to his shame considering his current relationship status; but hey, he could not help it when it comes to his own feelings). He somehow could relate himself, with Rias looking up at her brother and sister-in-law who were considered as the strongest couple in the Underworld, Issei had to admit that he was far below his father. Saitama just seemed…. So far that nobody, including him, could ever reach out to his level.

Then, Issei hugged Rias from behind. There was no any lecherous move being involved as Issei's arms did not touch any inappropriate places; his right arm was wrapped around her shoulder while his left around her stomach. The hug was the type someone usually used simply to comfort another.

"…Ise?" Rias felt her face getting warmer at Issei's touch enveloping her.

"You know, you don't need to worry too much." Issei said softly as he was marveled by the scent of Rias' crimson hair. "There are many who might be better than you, but please don't ever think less of yourself."

Rias blinked as Issei now had her undivided attention. "There wasn't a single time that I thought you were useless. Remember that there are many people whose lives were saved thanks to you." Issei closed his eyes for a second before opening them again, the boy inclined his head slightly so his eyes were directed right at Rias' teal-colored eyes. "If you weren't there…. I would've died, and that day, when you revived me… You have already gained my loyalty."

"You went so far that you are willing to become my strength, and I won't hesitate to become yours." Rias felt her face got even hotter as she kept staring into Issei's orbs. "I will always follow you, that I promise. That's why, let's get through these obstacles together!"

Rias turned away from Issei's face, smiling all the way_. _She fell for him all over again. Then, she turned to face Issei again with mischievous glint in her eyes. "Seriously, Ise. Is that really what you can say to me when you already have a girlfriend?"

Issei felt a small stab in his heart at Rias' teasing. They were playful, but the line still struck a chord in him. "I… really am the worst." Issei replied with somewhat self-loathing tone.

"Come on, now. You don't need to feel that bad for encouraging someone." Rias giggled as she gave a quick peck on Issei's cheek, much to the boy's surprise and embarrassment. "Thank you, my Ise. I feel better now. Let's get through with this, together, forever!"

Issei then only sighed good-naturedly and nodded with brightened expression. Now he should focused on the matters at hand. "Yeah!"

As the two continued their way, Rias was smiling as she confirmed her feelings towards her Pawn. However, at the same time, there was a small gnawing feeling in her chest whenever she thought of Issei.

* * *

When Issei and Rias went through another door, the last venue was an open-air colloseum-like stage with Satan-Red and Satan-Yellow standing upon it.

"Oh, what's up, you two?" Satan-Yellow was the first to greet them upon arriving by raising his hand casually. "Looks like you two have done well. Congrats."

"Alright, so you have reached here!" Then Satan-Red took a step forward. "However! The trials of Gremory household are not that easy to just end here! I shall have Hyoudou Issei-kun to fight me, Satan-Red, as the true final trial!" the man in red suit finished with another pose while exuding a crimson aura surrounding his body.

Issei widened his eyes at the sudden declaration. Fighting _the_ Sirzechs Lucifer, the strongest devil in the underworld to boot? He did not know if he was scared or thrilled with excitement.

"As the leader of Satan Rangers, I had wanted to fight the Red Dragon Emperor at least once! This battle will decide the real hero of the underworld!"

Issei and Rias then glanced to each other, and they nodded to one another with smile on their faces. "Fufufu…. Onii-sa-! I mean, Satan-Red! I don't know who you are, but my Ise is the legendary Red Dragon Emperor! You have some nerve to take on the dragon who had defeated the Immortal Phoenix, the Star of God, and another legendary dragon as well!"

Hearing her little sister, Sirzechs could tell that his sister had decided to play along with his charade as he cried happily beneath his red mask. _"Ria-tan, you're such a sweet girl, after all!"_

If one were thinking about the whole thing regarding Satan Rangers again, there was a reason for Sirzechs Lucifer creating a group called Satan Rangers other than for his own amusement. Since not only Rias Gremory, but the current Red Dragon Emperor was going to attend the ritual as well, the Four Great Satans were adamant to supervise the ritual personally. However, having people with high stature like Overlords to be watching the trials might give too much pressure and affecting Rias' performance, thus Satan Rangers were formed in order to lighten up the atmosphere. Perhaps Saitama's involvement ended up ruining the whole thing, but thankfully for everyone, Rias and Issei were able to get over the fact and they could pass through the ritual without any hitch.

"I see! So the Red Dragon Emperor had prevailed over such individuals, I'm getting nervous myself! This is very exciting, indeed!" Sirzechs playfully replied.

On the other hand, Satan-Yellow, Saitama, had been told to stay out of the whole thing and he did not know what he should do now; he felt like he was nothing more than some kind of third wheel (Fourth? Fifth?) at this point. "Well, err…. Go for it, you two!" for now all he could do was to cheer the combatants.

"Alright, here I come! Tou!" Sirzechs then immediately charged without much warning as soon as Rias had stepped far away enough from Issei, who just summoned his Boosted Gear, tackling the boy in the process.

BOOM!

A shockwave occurred upon impact, and Issei was knocked back quite far into a distance as he bounced and plummeted around on the hard ground. Issei groaned as he stood up, shaking off the pain from his body. He saw Satan-Red was standing at the spot where he tackled him, taunting him with hand-gesture.

"Okay, so no need to play nice, eh?" Issei grinned as he wiped some grim off his chin. "Ddraig, Balance Break!"

**[Hahaha! Now we're talking!]**

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Issei then immediately donned in his red draconic armor and he hovered slightly above the ground, ready to charge at Satan Red at any moment's notice. "Here I come, Lord Sir-! No, Satan-Red!"

"Haha, bring it on!" Satan-Red was even more thrilled than before at the sight of Issei's tremendous draconic aura.

The two then charged, and Issei managed to catch Satan-Red off-guard by a sudden boost of speed from his armor's thrusters. As the two clashed with each other, a larger shockwave from the last one occurred from the sheer impact between the two combatants.

Issei then pressed on and he flew up with Satan-Red along within his grasp. The two flew quite far away from the original stage and crashed into one structure of the ruins, when the two fell and skidded on the flooring, Satan-Red managed to throw Issei off him, causing the boy to skid on the ground a bit further from the Satan-Red. Beneath his Satan Ranger costume, Sirzechs was impressed. The Red Dragon Emperor's power was stronger than he initially expected. Perhaps he had to go a bit serious.

Issei then proceeded to use his variations of dragon shots and started to bombard the Satan-Red with his condensed demonic power. Satan-Red on the other hand, simply deployed small spheres of Power of Destruction and instantly eliminated Issei's attacks, much to the boy's shock. Seeing that the boy was completely outclassed in terms of demonic power, within that closed space, the boy had to get out into the open air.

"Ddraig, let's do the thing we practiced before!"

_**[Right!]**_

Issei then proceeded to inhale a large amount of air to fill his lungs, then with the use of the principle about demonic power, Issei produced a small flame, enough to be ignited further as he then boosted the flame inside him to the max.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!] **

**[Transfer!]**

With that one announcement, the enhanced flame inside his stomach was breathed out, creating a large stream of dragon fire from Issei's mouth of his mask.

It was the technique after discussing and researching a little bit of dragons with fire-attribute. Issei had been suggested to learn every available technique possible to widen his versatility during battle instead of relying solely on raw power.

At the sight of dragon-breath coming towards him, Satan-Red only smirked beneath his mask and sent one of his sphere of Power of Destruction to grow bigger and overwhelmed Issei's flame in the process. However, Issei did not stop and kept breathing out as much fire as he could, while he also firing his dragon shots and random pace. It was all merely diversion for the boy to find an opening to sneak out from the closed space he was currently in with the Satan-Red.

As power of dragon and Power of Destruction clashed with one another, the building the two combatants were in began to crumble from the strains after receiving one attack after another. In the midst of chaos and falling debris, Issei found an opening and immediately seize the chance to fly out.

After Issei flew out and landed, he turned to see the building he was in before was falling apart from his shoot-out with Satan-Red. However, the boy furrowed his eyebrows beneath his dragon mask; where did the Satan-Red go? When Issei was about to look around for his opponent, Satan-Red suddenly charged at him and ambushed him with a solid punch to his head.

WHAM!

Satan-Red's fist that had been coated with Power of Destruction easily shattered Issei's helmet, as the boy quickly stood up and took a side-step to dodge in time when Satan-Red did a follow-up strike. The two then engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with Issei threw several punches towards the older devil, but Satan-Red's superior skills and expertise managed to block and countered Issei's strikes with his own combo.

Satan-Red just blocked Issei's vertical right-hook with both of his hands; and when Issei followed with his right, Satan-Red proceeded to quickly block and counter with his own right-jab on Issei's rib-cage, followed with a light left-handed chop on Issei's throat; before he finished with another straight punch with his right towards Issei's torso, forcing the boy to skid back on the ground.

When Issei managed to stop himself from being knocked-back, he grunted for a second as the damaged parts of his Scale Mail began to regenerate, only to find that Satan-Red had already on him again with a wide hook. With his armor had already nearly fully recovered, Issei dodged by ducking his head and proceeded to counter with a solid punch with his left at Satan-Red's mid-section, knocking the wind out of Sirzechs as well as his body quite a few feet back. Before Satan-Red could have fully recovered from the attack, Issei did not waste any more time as he charged towards him and slammed his right fist towards Satan-Red's head, forcing the latter to drop hard onto the ground.

However, when Issei repeated the attack once more, Satan-Red quickly raised his body, blocked Issei's strike with both of his hands and countered with a solid kick on Issei's chest, effectively knocking the boy back to the ground. While Issei was still in the middle of recovering, Satan-Red also did not waste any time as he proceeded to charge at the boy with two-hit combo with a left upper-cut at the end, throwing Issei high to the sky.

The boy managed to recover enough in mid-air as he stopped and floated with his Scale Mail finally fully regenerated. The Red Dragon Emperor was heavily breathing from the growing exhaustion as he stared at Satan-Red on the ground, who was not even winded.

oXo

On the side, Rias and the other Satan Rangers were watching the battle with undivided attention. The Red Dragon Emperor was faring better than they expected. He was still weaker than Satan-Red, but it was quite a feat to push Sirzechs Lucifer back quite far in such short time. The testament of their strength was shown as the minor shockwaves would occur whenever their attacks made contact, and the ground would cave in whenever their bodies dropped and plummeted.

Saitama, the Satan-Yellow only stood there while watching with his usual impassive face. _"The kid had become a little bit stronger than the last time we played during the summer camp."_

Falbium Asmodeus, the Satan-Green, was practically laying on his side with his one hand propping his head while he watched with his one eye closed in lazy manner. To be honest, he did not really care who would win; he just wanted the battle to be over as soon as possible.

Ajuka Beelzebub, the Satan-Blue was watching with great interest in his analytic eyes. Hyoudou Issei might have been outclassed in the combat, but the initial clash during the first minute of the battle surprised him in a good way. Ajuka expected a one-sided beating, but Hyoudou Issei was able to land a couple of good hits on Sirzechs' person. The current Red Dragon Emperor was truly promising, indeed.

Serafall Leviathan, the Satan Pink, was cheering at the Red Dragon Emperor.

Rias Gremory, only watched with amazed look in her eyes while at the same time, she clasped her hands together in prayer, wishing for whatever higher power she could pray to for the safety of her Pawn.

oXo

Back to the battle, Hyoudou Issei was overwhelmed by the devil known as Sirzechs Lucifer, the Crimson Satan currently posing as Satan-Red, leader of Satan Rangers. "Is this the power of devil king?" Issei muttered under his mask between his heavy breaths and he swallowed a lump at the display of power during the previous clashes.

On the ground below, Sirzechs was staring while grinning at the hovering Issei above him. The boy was meeting his expectations, and it was time to step-up his game. Satan-Red then unfurled his devil wings and jumped straight towards the Red Dragon.

Seeing the Satan making his way at him, Issei also dived down while boosting his power altogether.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

The enhanced speed and strength from the Boosted Gear, added with the gravity force from Issei's descent, giving the boy a slightly more advantageous position as he managed to push Sirzechs away as soon as they collided with each other in the mid-air, producing another huge shockwave and sonic-boom in the process.

When Satan-Red was fumbling mid-air, Issei quickly gave a chase and engaged him in close-aerial-combat. However, while the two was still tangling for dominance over the other while flying around, Sirzechs proceeded to use head-butt attack to knock Issei away, and he followed with a round-house kick to knock Issei away even further.

Issei quickly recovered mid-air and just able to evade when Satan-Red came at him again, and the two proceeded in a short maneuver with the two tried to strike and evade each other. Then, the Red Dragon caught a blind-spot and he used a back-flipped kick, his foot struck Satan-Red's back, forcing him into a distance this time. Issei then followed as he chased after Sirzechs and delivered a solid punch, knocking the Satan-Red away, and he quickly chased and delivered another punch to knock the devil further.

At the development, Sirzechs' strained smile beneath his mask only grew wider. "Very impressive, indeed. Now, let's test you a bit in tactical combat!" Satan-Red then batted his wings, sped towards the ruins and disappeared among the ancient structures.

Issei, who was also speeding after his opponent, making several rounds to find his opponent among the ruins; only to find him nowhere in sight. When the boy stopped mid-air to gather his thoughts and looked around again, the large structure behind him then suddenly collapsed, revealing Satan-Red hurling towards him in ambush. "Don't think too much on the battle-field, Red Dragon Emperor!" Satan-Red chided with slightly playful tone as he tackled Issei mid-air and delivered a right-uppercut to launch Issei even higher in the air.

The boy had the air in his lungs knocked out from the strike, and before he could have recovered, Sirzechs had already grabbed a hold on his dragon wings, and the Satan-Red proceeded to perform a seismic-toss and threw Issei back to the stage where they began, _hard_. The fall resulting a sonic-boom when Issei plummeted to the unforgiving ground and another massive shockwave when Issei's body made contact.

Sirzechs then landed, waiting for the dust-cloud to settle. Then, he sensed a shift in the air-flow behind him and he turned to see the Red Dragon Emperor was already charging at him with his right fist launched forward. Satan-Red easily caught Issei's incoming forearm with his left, and when the former retaliated with his right hand, the latter caught it with his left. The two ended up in a stalemate as they mustered their strength to overpower one another.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

With Issei enhanced his strength even further, perhaps the boy had some edge in terms of brute strength, however, not only that Satan-Red was not easily overwhelmed through strength alone, Sirzechs poured some of his Power of Destruction into the palm that was pressed against Issei's forearm, the demonic aura slowly disintegrated Issei's armor.

The boy went panic for a bit when he felt that Satan-Red's Power of Destruction begun to slip onto his skin, but he quickly found that the Crimson Satan before him was also defenseless with both of his hands preoccupied. Wasting no time, Issei inhaled deeply and unleashed his dragon flame at nearly point-blank range, right on Sirzechs' face.

That attack really had caught Satan-Red off-guard as the intense heat slowly burned and melted the Ranger mask covering his feature. The stream of flames ended as soon as Issei was out of breath, but the boy did not give Sirzechs any chance as he followed up with a head-butt right at Sirzechs' now-uncovered face.

One could say that having your face collided with a piece of metal was definitely painful, but things were not that simple when it came to an Overlord known as Sirzechs Lucifer. Having his face directly smashed with Issei's armored head, the Satan-Red was only winded for a bit before he returned even a _nastier_ head-butt of his own, even shattering the helmet and knocking Issei's body away in the process as the boy plummeted _again_ to the hard ground.

The Red Dragon groaned out as he slowly stood up, his Scale Mail was heavily damaged from the previous clashes, and beneath the armor, the boy was heavily injured. However, Issei's face showed enough that the boy was still far from over. In any other occasion, Sirzechs might be worried that his little sister was now got to see his face since his mask was burnt away from the previous attack; however, since the cat had been out of the bag, Satan-Red might as well remained focus on the current battle with the boy who had met his expectations. "Are you still up for another round?" Satan Red could tell what the answer would be more or less, but he just wanted to ask for the sake of courtesy.

"What, are you getting sleepy?" Issei haughtily replied with a grin. Good, even his reply was actually better than Sirzechs had expected.

As soon as Issei had fully recovered his armor, the two reds then charged and engaged in another fierce close-quarter combat. Punches and kicks were thrown, blocked and countered; throws and feints had been employed to outwit each other; magic and demonic power were fired around. As the fight went on, everyone could tell that slowly but surely, Issei was losing, despite giving Sirzechs a decent fight. The Red Dragon Emperor's power and strength might be on par with an ultimate-class devil, but Sirzechs Lucifer simply outclassed him in battle of attrition and experience after centuries of battles and wars.

Sirzechs Lucifer was thoroughly pleased. Hyoudou Issei had been showing some impressive performance for the duration of the fight. With some more time and experience, the boy could climb up ranks to an ultimate-class, or perhaps even the throne of devil king in relatively short time. For now, he would 'play' with the young man a bit longer before he put an end to the trial. Satan-Red would definitely give the boy a pass, regardless of the outcome of this battle.

"Come on, Hyoudou Issei-kun! This can't be the extension of your capability! Show me how strong your feelings towards Rias!" Sirzechs taunted one last time, as he continued to fight the Red Dragon Emperor.

oXo

Meanwhile, inside Issei's mind-scape, Ddraig was spectating the battle between his host and the known strongest devil in the underworld. His host was doing fairly well, but the Welsh Dragon could also tell that the Crimson Satan still had some strength to spare.

However, his concern was the gate within the deeper part of Issei's soul. He had been expecting for the thing to act up for the past few minutes, considering who Issei was up against, but there was no reaction so far. For now, Ddraig would have to focus on supplying Issei his power as the boy was still clad in his armor.

BA-BUMP!

Alas, just when Ddraig thought that he could take it easy, the gate suddenly burst open, releasing a stream of power across Issei's soul.

**[What the fuck!?]**

oXo

Sirzechs Lucifer found himself _froze_. There were cases for seasoned veteran warrior, who had gone through countless warzones and battlefields, to develop something akin to sixth sense to help them survive in the bloody battlefield. And currently, Sirzech's 'sixth sense' was screaming that he was in _danger_.

He did not know what actually happened. He was about to end the battle with Hyoudou Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor, who was more than eager to land another hit on him, as he ferociously attacked and moved around to exploit whatever blind spots and opening he could find; then suddenly, when Sirzechs turned around to anticipate Issei who was trying to flank him from his six, Sirzechs saw Issei had his left fist cocked backward, ready to be launched as a punch.

That was the time when something was _wrong_. The visage that Issei gave as he was ready to drive his fist forward, was awfully familiar to Sirzechs, and it was not only the visage he was referring to; the sensation of the surrounding air, the glowing in the orbs of Red Dragon Emperor's eyes, and most importantly, the sheer pressure Issei was exuding that struck Sirzechs; as if he was facing with none other than Saitama himself during their one 'spar' in the past.

When the armor-clad fist began to move forward, Sirzechs' instinct was screaming at him to evade, lest things would end up badly for him. Unfortunately, his position and footing when he turned around abruptly made him reacted a second too late.

It was the same time when Sirzechs suddenly felt someone else was interfering; pushing him aside as the interloper took the brunt of Issei's punch in his stead. Issei himself widened his eyes at the sight of Satan-Yellow guarding himself before him instead of Satan-Red. The spectators on the side also did not expect the sudden development; one second Satan-Yellow was standing beside them, the second later he had already moved, pushing Sirzechs out of Issei's attack and barely able to raise his arms to guard himself; even Falbium Asmodeus had gotten up and wide awake at the spectacle.

BOOOOMM!

When Issei's punch connected with Saitama's arms, the shockwave that followed from the impact made the past occurrences to be something akin to minor gust of wind. Rocks and bits of the hard ground, as well as enormous dust-cloud were flying around from the sheer force, devastating the whole arena; and Satan-Yellow was skidding back for good distance as he kept his feet remained on the ground, that caved in under Satan-Yellow's weight.

When Saitama finally stopped skidding, the spot on his arm, where Issei's fist collided was letting out a smoke. And with an exhale, the man returned his gaze at Issei, who was panting with his fist outstretched in front of him, on the side, Satan-Red was looking around them, making out of the situation.

_BA-BUMP!_

When Issei slowly pulled back his fist, his body was assaulted with agonizing pain he suffered during the battle with Evil God Loki, the damage he had received from the previous clashes with Sirzechs only made the case worse. "UUURGGH!" Issei grunted in pain as his body collapsed along with the Scale Mail from the sheer strain, his body was having spasms, and Issei felt as if his body was about to implode.

Seeing the boy on his fours in pain, everyone else quickly moved to help. Sirzechs, Rias, Serafall, Ajuka and Saitama immediately moved over to have a look on Issei's condition, even Falbium went out of his way to call out for medical attention from the guards and subordinates stationed outside the ruins. With the mysterious pain and the strain from the injuries he had received from Satan-Red, Issei attempted to return to his feet, despite Rias' protest.

"No, Ise! You are injured badly enough! Don't force yourself!"

"No, I'm fine." Issei breathed out. "I can still keep go-!"

BONK!

However, before Issei could have forced himself any further, Saitama grabbed his shoulders and proceeded to knock the day light out of his son with head-butt to the face, thus Issei finally lose his consciousness and fell back to Rias' arms.

"Sheesh, what a stubborn brat." Saitama said as he sighed, receiving odd looks from Rias and the others.

With that note, the ceremony took place at the Ruins of Connection had come to an end.

* * *

The Four Great Satans, now returned to their usual garments, were now gathering along with Saitama, discussing about the past events during the ritual at the Ruins of Connection. Falbium was seen to be asleep with his head resting on the desk, but it was questionable if everyone was aware that he was listening to the whole conversation.

"Wow." Serafall was rather impressed at the small bruise that appeared on Saitama's left forearm, particularly at the spot where Issei's fist made contact during the climax of the final trial. "So you really did feel that one."

"…Meh." Saitama shrugged as he waved his left arm again for a good measure. "Still not good enough."

"Coming from you, I'd say that's an achievement." Sirzechs replied with amused smile, before his face went serious again. "So, what happened to your son earlier was not the first time?"

"So everyone says." Saitama nodded. "I don't really get what's going on either myself, but you felt it earlier, right? Sirzechs?"

Sirzechs gazed down as he recalled the feeling when he faced Issei nearing the end of the battle. The vibe he was getting from the boy was way very similar with the one he got from Saitama. "….He is truly your son." Sirzechs said with imperceptible smile. "Ajuka, you did some examination on Hyoudou Issei, didn't you? Did you find anything?"

When everyone turned to the Beelzebub, the Chief Advisor of Technology Department was sporting a serious look on his face. "Well, the thing is… When I give a quick scan on Hyoudou Issei's body…" Ajuka closed his eyes for a second before opening them. "His Evil Pieces were….. damaged."

"Damaged?"

Collective voices of Sirzechs and Serafall were heard in the room, even Falbium who was supposed to be sleeping had one eye opened ever so slightly. "Ajuka, what do you mean by Ise-kun's Evil Pieces being 'damaged'?"

For reincarnated devils, Evil Pieces were the reason of their racial status as 'devils'; the source of their demonic power, that allows them to perform the mystic arts that based from imagination. However, in exchange of that power, reincarnated devils would have to live in the darkness for eternity, as they were susceptible against light and holy elements.

Nobody ever fully understood of how Evil Pieces work, as the inventor, Ajuka Beelzebub himself, was particularly discreet of his projects. However, through observations, some experts hypothesized that Evil Pieces basically granted and implanted devil's traits, characteristics and their weaknesses into the subject's soul, thus bounded them in servitude for their devil masters.

In a sense, Evil Pieces also work similarly like Sacred Gears. But unlike Sacred Gears that held some 'natural' vibe since birth, Evil Pieces held more of 'artificial' vibe when turning someone (or something) into devils. Forcefully removing Evil Piece from reincarnated devil could damage the subject's soul if not outright killing them.

"The damages were minor, but Hyoudou Issei's eight mutation pawn pieces were barely operable, so if the damage kept ignored, things might end up badly for the boy." Ajuka's answer gave some relief to the others for a bit. "I have done what I can to mend the damage, as well as strengthening the Evil Pieces within Issei Hyoudou, but now his Evil Pieces had become… brittle. Recklessly modifying or tinkering may result further anomaly and malfunction at this point."

"Then…" Everyone turned towards Falbium, who was now _awake_. "Did you find what caused these… damages?"

"I talked with Azazel earlier…" Ajuka replied. "And through the communication with the Welsh Dragon inside Hyoudou Issei's Boosted Gear, apparently there is… _something_ inside the boy."

"…Something?" Serafall furrowed her eyebrows.

"Even the Welsh Dragon still cannot tell its true nature. But according to him, the thing is not compatible with the Evil Pieces for some reason. This _something_ would give Hyoudou Issei a tremendous power-boost, but when it made contact with the Evil Pieces, a violent rebound would occur, tearing him apart from inside-out." Ajuka explained.

"So is this thing some kind of illness? Can it be cured?" Sirzechs asked.

"I learned that this power resides at the deeper part of Hyoudou Issei's soul, so it is possible that it has been existing ever since the boy's birth. But Ddraig claimed that its existence…. Does not possess any particular malicious intentions towards its host, at least for now." Ajuka concluded. "This is something that needs to be treaded upon carefully, until we can learn anything further, I'd say that we keep him an eye on him for the time being."

oXo

When Issei returned to the realm of consciousness, he found himself laying on the bed in one of the rooms inside Gremory estate. He looked around and saw his master by his bed-side.

"Oh, you are awake." Rias said with a sweet-bitter smile and proceeded to run her hand on Issei's hair. "You really scared me earlier, but nevertheless, you did well."

Issei got up to sitting position as he massaged his slightly throbbing head. He recalled pretty much everything that had transpired that day. "Um… how long was I asleep?"

"Few good hours." Rias replied. "It was one helluva fight that you and my brother managed to level a good portion of the Ruins of Connection. Are you alright, now?"

Issei took a deep breath and got a quick feel of his body. _"…Ddraig, how are things down there?"_

_**[Nice and tidy. In fact, I may have learned another thing or two about the nature of that power, but we'll talk about this later. More importantly, that Satan Lucifer… I did not expect for him to be this strong… He's an irregular among devils. If he were to go all out, you wouldn't stand a chance.]**_

Issei nodded after taking Ddraig's words into his heart, before he turned to smile at Rias. "I'm good now. By the way, how did the ritual go?"

"Both of you did well. You passed with flying colors." Before Rias could have answered, the door to the room was opened, revealing Sirzechs Lucifer in his usual attire with Grayfia and Saitama by his side.

"Congratulations, Rias-chan!" Then, Serafall Leviathan also came into the room, saying her piece. Her entrance was followed by Ajuka Beelzebub, who gave an acknowledging nod and satisfied smile, and Falbium Asmodeus, who was yawning.

"With this, both Master and Mistress will feel relieved." Grayfia gave her two cents with content smile.

"Ise-kun, I'm sorry for getting you involved in this all of a sudden." The Lucifer apologized to Issei.

"No, no, it's fine!" Issei waved his hands with flustered face. "I actually found it as a good experience for me, so everything is good!"

"I feel better if you say it like that, since I was also concerned with the future of both you and Rias. And during the battle of final trial, your performance actually have exceeded my expectations, it makes me happy. On that note, I will entrust Rias to you, Ise-kun." Sirzechs smiled even wider.

"Yes!"

"Seriously, kid…" Falbium then said his piece. "You shouldn't work too much, lest you'll become a loser like your dad over there." That comment caused some laughs from the others, including Issei. Saitama himself only sent a dry glare at the Asmodeus, who did not seem to be perturbed at all.

"Sirzechs might barely used half of his strength, but it's not everyday to find someone that can give Sirzechs a good fight. Well done." Ajuka said his piece. "Though, I'd like to hear it from yourself about what happened at the climax of the battle, you suddenly showed some impressive attack before you suddenly collapsed."

"I… I honestly have no much idea about it. Even now I'm still discussing that topic with Ddraig, to learn more things about it – about myself." Issei replied.

"I see… And by any chance, are you trying to go into the depth of your Sacred Gear?"

"Yes."

"Hm, that's good. That's only possible because your Sacred Gear has a soul inside it. I bet the one who suggested you this approach was the Viceroy of fallen angels, Azazel, correct?" Ajuka surmised, receiving an affirmative nod from Issei.

Ajuka then reconsidered his decision about bringing up the topic about Issei's Evil Pieces. The Evil Pieces would work fine for the time being thanks to his earlier tinkering, but as he had stated during the meeting, the boy's condition was rather unstable for further modifications. Thus, the Beelzebub finally decided to wrap things up for now. "Well, I guess I'll take my leave now. Go rise to a new level, Hyoudou Issei." The Satan said his hope and he teleported away from the room. Falbium also disappeared without another word.

The only occupants in the room were Issei, Rias, Sirzechs, Grayfia, Serafall and Saitama. "If I'm not mistaken, there's gonna be a celebration for the kids passing the ritual, right?" the latter brought up another topic.

"Yes, it is." Sirzechs replied. "I believe the rest of Rias' peerage is on their way here for the party."

"There, you hear that, Ise?" Saitama turned to his son with knowing smirk. "Everyone is gonna celebrate your engagement with-!." Saitama was not able to finish his words as Sirzechs, Rias and Serafall quickly covered his mouth with their respective hands.

"…What?" Unfortunately, the damage had been done as the room suddenly went silent as soon as Saitama said the word 'engagement', leaving Issei to furrow his eyebrows and asked. "What's that about engagement again? Come to think of it, I haven't heard about what the ritual entails."

Sirzechs began to dart his eyes around between Rias, who started to blush and stutter; Issei, who was confused as hell; his wife, who only sighed calmly; Saitama, who was blinking and also looking around uncertainly; and Serafall, who rolled his eyes before turning to Sirzechs. "You know, Sirzechs-chan… I'm gonna say this again, but this is another reason I was against bringing this baldy along. He keeps fucking things up."

"Language please, milady Leviathan." Grayfia calmly chided, which Serafall ignored

"Wait, is it supposed to be a secret?" Saitama asked awkwardly, eliciting several sighs from Rias, Sirzechs and Grayfia.

"Um, excuse me?" Issei tried to remain polite as he got everyone's attention again. "What is this about engagement again? Does it have anything to do with… the ritual….." Issei trailed off as his eyes slowly widened when several things flashed back in his mind.

_You may call me father-in-law from today on._

Rias' father, Zeoticus Gremory, said those words during Issei's trip to the Underworld last summer.

_It's because you are the last bit of selfishness of my daughter, the next family head_.

Rias' mother, Venelana Gremory, explained the reason of why Issei had to learn about noble-devils society.

_Young master._

It was the honorific that the servants and staffs from Gremory household had been used to address Issei as of late.

_Because you'll also have to make an appearance with Rias in high society eventually…_

_Yes! That's right! You should call Rias by her name!_

_Oops, I carelessly let something slip out…_

_Do you dislike Rias?_

_This means I can rest easy now_.

More of Venelana's words that had some catch rang in Issei's mind, during his private lesson from her regarding high-class society. Issei's mind began to piece everything together when he looked back at Grayfia's visit to his house.

The ritual, Ruins of Connection; Issei repeated the past events that took place that day, as well as the things he recalled, again, and again, and again…. Until his brain clicked that _everything_ suddenly _made sense_. Issei's eyes were now plate-sized, as he looked around the other occupants of the room with cold sweats.

"W-w-wait, wait, wait, wait!" Issei began to stutter like crazy. "So, m-m-me and…!?" the boy gestured between him and Rias with his hands.

Sirzechs, Grayfia, Rias, Serafall and Saitama finally realized that the cat had been out of the bag. Seeing no point of keeping it secret anymore, Grayfia sighed softly as she nodded. "Yes, you and Rias." The aforementioned girl was now furiously blushing with her head down.

"S-s-so that ritual was…!?"

"Well…. Not exactly engagement ceremony…." Sirzechs answered this time in rather awkward manner, as if he had understood what Issei wanted to know. "But more like a ritual to test if you're worthy to be Rias' husband, but…. Considering that you're the only candidate so far, might as well as making this… _kind_ of an engagement."

"B-but then…! W-we…! I'm…!" Issei had more things to say, but the words just died in his throat as the boy just had his mouth gapping around. He turned to Rias to find the girl was returning the gesture with rather expectant look, while her face was now the same shade as her hair.

"Err… Congratulations?" Serafall forcefully sounded cheerful, while she herself was not even sure if she said an appropriate thing.

Issei closed his eyes as he shook his head for a moment, before he took a deep breath. "Excuse me, can I – can I…. Can I step out and have some time alone? This is too sudden and too much to take in." the boy said as he rubbed his forehead with both hands.

The others looked at each other for a second before they nodded, agreeing that the boy did deserve some privacy to mull things over. Without another word, Issei stood up and he left the room.

"Ise…!" Rias was about to give chase, but Sirzechs' hand on her shoulder effectively stopped her from going after her apparent 'fiancée'.

Then, Rias, Sirzechs, Grayfia and Serafall slowly turned to stare at Saitama, as if everyone came to an unspoken agreement about the person who was responsible for the whole mess.

Saitama only returned the scrutinizing stares with furrowed eyebrows. "….What?"

* * *

Issei was now standing alone, walking around aimlessly inside the garden of Gremory estate. His mind was contemplating around of his current situation.

_Engagement_; a promise between a couple to wed. And wedding, _marriage_; where the couple will vow towards each other to love in sickness and health, etc., etc.

The boy sighed again for the umpteenth time, as he was just overwhelmed by the thought of marrying one of the most beautiful women he ever knew, making family…

"Seems like something is troubling you."

The boy turned to see Rias – no, it was not her – the boy realized that her hair was shorter brown instead of long crimson. Venelana Gremory arrived at the garden with her usual smile gracing her face. "Good afternoon, Issei-san."

"Lady Venelana." Issei replied politely with a nod, then he turned away again to look at the distant.

Venelana then walked so she stood by Issei's side. After a moment of silence, she spoke, "It appears that your father needs to learn more about tact and discretion."

Issei only smiled ruefully before he let out yet another soft sigh. "So… I'm engaged with Rias."

"In a way, yes." Venalana replied.

"When will I be told about something this important?"

"Not anytime soon, truth to be told."

"And she… She is fine with this? I mean, I thought she wanted to do things on her own pace?" Issei turned to look at Venelana.

"Be that as it may, but Rias still has her responsibility as the future head of the household." Venelana's tone became a bit sterner as she crossed her arms. "Not only us, many people from other noble families are expecting her, and most likely other heirs and heiresses from different clan to further the lines and bolster the devil race. If she didn't make a choice, it would be a matter of time until she's trapped into another loveless marriage." Then, her gaze became softer. "At least Rias acknowledges you, and all of us know and believe that you will respect her for who she is."

The two fell into another silence as Issei pondered over Venelana's words. The woman only stared, as if tried to read the boy until she asked, "Tell me, Issei-san. Are you angry?"

The boy glanced at the woman, before he looked away to choose his words. He closed his eyes and let out a soft breath. "….I guess I am, though maybe a little…." The boy finished with a small scoff. "Sorry."

"It's fine. In fact, this is the time where I need you to be honest." Venalan replied with understanding in her tone. "Tell me again, Issei-san. Do you love Rias?"

Issei blinked at the question. His mind was looking back at the time he had spent together with Rias, together with others from the peerage or not.

The moment where his eyes met hers for the first time at Kuoh Academy.

The moment where she saved him and gave him another chance in life.

The moment where he exposed his moment of weakness to her, and she was more than ready to take the share of the burden.

The moment where he was also ready to take her own share of burden.

The uncalled moment where Issei boldly declared that Rias' virginity was his.

The moment where they kissed for the first time, and second, then third; while he remembered every sensation and feelings he received from the contact.

And while he was looking back at those moments, he asked himself: Why did he do that? What did he feel during that time?

It was few minutes later that Issei came with an answer. "I…do." The boy realized what he had just said. "I… I've come to love her…. Whoa." Issei said it again with more clarity. "…I love her."

"Then what is it to worry about?" Venelana asked, smile started to form on her lips.

"That's not it. I…" Issei looked away as he scratched his cheek awkwardly. "I already have a girlfriend…"

Venelana only blinked at Issei's reason, before she smiled and sighed good-naturedly. "Yes, I heard. Asia Argento, correct? However, Issei-san… you know that devil society accepts polygamy, don't you?"

"No, I mean, come on!" Issei whined. "I'm not saying that things were not great, but I don't even know if I can make Asia happy in the long run, and then… Marriage? That's a very big deal!"

Venelana shook her head this time in exasperation and mild amusement. _Time for a different approach, then_. "Allow me to tell you a short story, Issei-san." The woman then walked off and stopped after few steps. "Issei-san, do you know that while I'm Zeoticus' first wife, I'm not his first woman?"

"….Really?" Issei blinked at the information. He did hear that the Lord Gremory possessed a harem with Venelana Gremory managing them.

"Yes, it was way back during the beginning of the civil war centuries ago." Venalana said in nostalgic tone. "My husband's first woman was just a country-girl, a low-class devil. Apparently, she is my husband's childhood friend. Being one of the warriors supporting the new government, Zeoticus would always visit her village from time to time whenever his not on duty. I even learned that they once promised to marry each other once the war is over."

Issei decided to keep listening on Venelana's story.

"…When the war heated up, its flames reached out to the village where the girl lived. Zeoticus and his army marched to remedy the situation, but it was a bitter victory; by the time he had driven out the Old Satan's army, everything had been razed to the ground, no sign of his woman anywhere."

Venelana then closed her eyes in memory.

"Long-story-short, Zeoticus grieved, but he soon moved on when the House of Bael and House of Gremory made an agreement to marry us both."

Venelana then smiled slightly when she recalled her first meeting with her husband.

"It was not long after our first-born, Sirzechs, was assigned into ranks of the army; by some twist of fate, Zeoticus found that the first woman he loved was actually still alive and well." Venelana chuckled. "Funny, both of them had long decided to forget each other and lived on, but when Zeoticus met her again, he became adamant to take her along with him and refused to let her go."

"….And you're fine with that?" Issei asked.

"Not initially." Venelana replied. "That time polygamy and harem had not something common like the current society, so I ended up arguing with him for quite some time. However…. Despite being stronger than him, I just couldn't win against that stubbornness of his. I have long realized and accepted that my husband's heart is way too large to abandon someone he had come to care so deeply."

The lady paused for another second before she turned to look at Issei.

"Polygamy is frowned upon sometimes because people tend to see that one man can only make _one_ woman happy. In fact, however, many men and clan leaders who married multiple women at once can make their women happy just fine. The question now is, do you want _them_ to be happy?"

Issei did not say anything, but the expression on his face was more than enough an answer for Venelana. "And there you have it."

"But… I just find this… unfair to Asia and Rias." Issei replied meekly.

"That is yet to be decided." Venelana chided. "Rias is probably talking with her peerage, including Asia-san, regarding her apparent engagement with you, as well as how your relationship with other girls onwards."

"…What!?" Issei snapped his eyes open.

"And believe me, I have a hunch that all girls will be fine sharing you." Venelana said as her aspect of pride took over a bit.

"….All girls?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows, resulting Venelana to raise her own at the questioning tone.

"…You do aware that the other girls from your club have their eyes on you, right?" Venelana asked back.

Issei got into thinking again. Putting Rias and Asia aside, 'other girls'? Why would they have their eyes on him? All they did to him…. Was….

_Let's have an affair, you and me._

_What choice do I have but to go serious on you?_

_I won't mind being the third._

_I love you. Have a safe trip._

Past interractions with Akeno rang in Issei's mind.

_Ise, will you make children with me?_

_That means I just have to pursue you first, right?_

…_I don't want just to flirt by then. I want to, along with Asia, to begin making babies with you._

Xenovia's bold and lack-of-common sense attitude rang in his mind. Then, Issei considered about Koneko's behavior that always wanted to sit on his laps whenever possible. Not to mention, her particular lines when she was replenishing his life-force via Senjutsu.

_M-my body and breasts are small… But I should be mature enough to have s-sex with you… I-I'm fine having your babies… Even by force, I won't mind._

And combined with weird stares and looks they gave him whenever he was caught with another girl, _bunch of stuff_ suddenly made sense to him. Issei then buried his face into his hands, his face was blushing like mad from the sheer embarrassment. How he now wished to travel back in time and beat the living shit out of his past-self for the sheer density of his own stupidity.

_**[About time, patner… About. Fucking. Time.] **_

Ddraig sarcastically remarked from inside the Boosted Gear, adding more to Issei's embarrassment.

Seeing Issei whimpering into his hands, Venelana sighed again and she gave the boy a friendly tap on his shoulder. "Anyway, just talk things out for now with them. The problem won't solve itself if you don't confront them." Venelana gave another squeeze before she finally walked away, leaving Issei alone again in the garden.

* * *

Issei was now standing in front of the two-doors that led to the room where Rias and the others were currently in. He closed his eyes to gather himself once again, and with one last deep breath, he steeled himself and pushed the door open, revealing the Occult Research Club expecting him.

As if on cue, Yuuto, Gasper and Rossweisse chose to walk pass Issei to step out of the room. The knight gave Issei a tap on his shoulder and offered an encouraging smile.

"Good luck, senpai." The bishop whispered to him before he quickly ran after Yuuto.

Rossweisse only glanced and Issei and gave an awkward nod before she finally closed the door.

When Issei turned back into the room, he found Rias, Asia, Akeno, Xenovia, Koneko, and Irina waiting for him. _"Irina? What is she… Oh, right. Of course."_ Issei slapped himself again inwardly when he realized the reason of his childhood friend's presence.

"Um…." Issei started as he rubbed his hands together nervously. "Alright, I don't know how to bring this up, so I apologize in advance because I'm gonna be blunt." Issei said and waited until all girls have him a nod; then he turned to the crimson-haired girl. "So, Rias…. We are engaged."

"Yes." Rias simply nodded.

"And you are aware that I'm still going out with Asia here, right?" Issei asked, receiving another nod. "So…. Alright, to the point: I just learn that you all like me, and I also care so much about you too. So, you are fine that I… create a harem?"

"I don't see why not, now after everything we've gone through together." Rias replied calmly. "Besides, it's not uncommon for a devil to have multiple lovers, considering our birth-rate and population issue. More over, whether you're a dragon or devil, powerful individuals tend to attract many suitors; if only to have their power pass down for the future generation and keep the bloodline alive." Then she turned her eyes straight to Issei, together with the girls. "However, aside from those reasons, the most important thing why I chose you as my husband candidate, because you…" the girl paused for a second as her face flushed. "You just… wormed your way to my heart, as well as the others."

"I guess it can't be helped if polygamy is the only option, but…" Asia gave her two-cents. "Lessening our relationship for my selfishness over Ise-san is something I don't want to happen. So… I hope we can still get along as usual!" the girl then bowed towards everyone.

"My, my, ufufu…" Akeno giggled. "Now that everything had been said and done, I don't have to hold myself back anymore. I'll be in your care, Ise-kun."

"I guess I can go and make children with you when the time comes." Xenovia blatantly declared, garnering some mild glares from the other girls.

"Xenovia! Have you forgotten Griselda-sama's teaching!? Devil or not, you can't ignore about pre-marital sex!" Irina retorted with flushed cheeks.

"…I will not lose." Koneko simply said with slightly flustered, yet determined face.

"If you girls are okay with this…. I guess I have to give this a shot. However, if things go wrong, there are going to be changes, is that okay?" Issei asked with serious expression. The girls seemed to be taken aback slightly, but they quickly gave an understanding nod. "Great. Well, now I just have to wait for the gossip to come out from everyone in Kuoh once they learn of my situation." The boy said with a light laugh.

"I… may have something to say about that." Rias raised her hand. "Not necessarily everyone has to learn about your situation, Ise. After all, we can't afford to expose our true nature to the mundane world."

The statement caused everyone, including Issei, to give their undivided attention to Rias. "Everyone from Kuoh can believe that you are a student who is going out with a foreign student, Asia Argento; not a devil who is engaged with Rias Gremory."

Everyone seemed to get Rias' idea. In fact, Asia seemed to understand that she had some kind of advantage as Issei's official girlfriend. "Well, as long as everyone is fine with it, I'm game." Issei shrugged.

Then, the door to the room opened, revealing Yuuto, Gasper and Rossweisse; this time along with Sirzechs Lucifer, Grayfia, Lord and Lady Gremory, as well as Saitama in tow. "I see that the problem had been solved. Glad to hear it." the Crimson Satan said pleasantly, and he quickly raised his hand to gesture everyone who had already on their knees. "Be at ease."

After everyone had returned on their feet, Sirzechs then turned to Issei. "Hyoudou Issei-kun, I have told you, but I'll say this again, please take care of Rias and… other girls." He said with slightly teasing smile. "And with that out of the way, it's time for another announcement." Sirzechs extended his hand to the side, where Grayfia dutifully handed him a sealed parchment. "Please have a look." The Satan said as he offered it to Issei.

The boy raised his eyebrows before he took it, and he opened to read its content, with Rias also joined to read it as well. Few seconds later, the two teens' eyes widened in realization. "O-o-o-onii-sama, t-this is…!?"

When everyone was still curious about what was inside the parchment, Zeoticus Gremory then dropped the _bomb_. "Congratulations, Hyoudou Issei-kun. You are now officially a middle-class devil."

"EEEEEHH!?"

"B-but why?! How!? What about the test!?" Issei asked frantically.

"The test? You've already taken and passed them." Sirzechs replied. "Truth to be told, the rituals you went through earlier were more or less what class-promotion test usually consists of, and in fact, the actual middle-class promotion is easier than that. And seeing that there's no point of delaying the inevitable, us devil kings decided to pull some strings and hastened your middle-class promotion." Sirzechs shrugged. "There should be a ceremony for that, but let's skip the boring formalities. In the name of this Sirzechs Lucifer and by the authority invest- I mean, usurped by me, – sorry – I hereby dub thee Viscount Hyoudou Issei and elevate you to be amongst the ranks of the Lords of the Underworld."

"…Viscount?" Issei choked out.

"A minor title of nobility." Venelana explained. "You don't actually have to do anything with it, but there are few perks such as: obviously the title, a nice strip of land, and even your own servants. But you can take it slow."

"B-but mother!" Rias interjected. "Promotion maybe one thing, but to already give a title for Ise?"

"We're working on covering that one." Venelana replied. "You should just be proud and enjoy yourselves for the time being."

The room then went into silence, unsure to take so many things happening at once. However, Saitama's voice broke the ice. "You did good, kid."

As if on cue, all decorum were broken and Rias proceeded to hug Issei. "Yes! You did it, Ise!" even she also gave the boy a peck on the cheek.

The other members of the Occult Research Club also proceeded to swarm over Issei and gave their own congratulatory greetings. However, one particular line of Xenovia changed the atmosphere almost immediately.

"Ise, I'm looking forward for our baby-making session, just as you promised."

Everyone then paused at Xenovia's words, leaving the room in eerie silence (at least for Issei). Asia was fidgeting with her face flustered, since she was also a part of the aforementioned promise.

"My, how bold!" Akeno was covering her mouth in amused shock, breaking the silence.

The rest of the girls turned to glare at Issei, who was now breaking cold-sweats. "Uh, erm…. I can explain?" Issei sheepishly said.

"Damn right you will." Rias was not amused. "This is our first day of engagement and I already caught you doing something behind my back."

At the sight of Issei being ganged-up by the girls; Yuuto, Gasper and Rossweisse were watching with interest of how things would turn out. Sirzechs, with Grayfia remained stoic as usual, was nudging Saitama, silently teasing him about the boy. Saitama himself only gave a silent scoff about his son.

On the other hand, Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory were watching with mild amusement and sense of nostalgia in their eyes. "This kind of reminds us of that day, doesn't it? The day when you asked me about taking in other women?" Venelana asked as she scooted closer to her husband. The said husband only circled his arm around his wife's shoulder as the married couple kept their eyes on the youngsters.

_To be young and in love…_

* * *

It was later at night back at Hyoudou Residence, where everyone had fallen asleep after the long day. When Issei happened to wake up in the middle of the night – with his bed being occupied by Asia, Koneko, Xenovia and Akeno (Irina was still too embarrassed to share a bed with Issei) – the boy could not find Rias around.

Issei did not know how he could tell where Rias was, but his feet brought him to the study on the third floor, where he found her reading what appeared to be a medium-sized book on the desk. When their eyes met, Issei was the first to greet her. "….Hey."

"Hey." Rias replied with meek smile. "Can't sleep?"

"The same could be asked from you." Issei replied, as he walked over until he was standing by Rias' side. "What are you reading?"

When the boy peered at the cover, Issei found that Rias was reading the compiled version of all Japan's classic fairy-tales. "It's one of my favorites since childhood." Rias sheepishly replied.

"That's… very cute of you." Issei giggled, receiving a mild glare from the flustered Rias. "Hey, I mean it. You look very cute right now."

"Geez…." Rias muttered as she averted her gaze away in embarrassment. She then end her reading and proceeded to return the book towards the spot where she picked it up from the shelf.

However, what Issei said at that moment, caused Rias to almost fumble on her task.

"I love you."

Rias turned wide-eyed towards the direction of Issei, only to find that the boy's face was blushing like crazy as he refused to meet her gaze with his own.

Issei himself just found himself saying those three words without much thought. Since they both were engaged to be married later, it was now or never to say those simple(?) three words. And boy didn't it feel embarrassing to blurt it out of the blue.

Few seconds after Rias staring rather incredulously at her Pawn and sort-of-fiancée, she snorted and she held back as much as she could from roaring with laughter. Issei was now even more embarrassed than ever at the sight of Rias giggling at him. "…I was putting my mind to it…"

"I'm sorry, it's just- pffft…!" Rias was still holding back her laughter at the sight of pouting Issei. Few moments later, Rias finally collected herself and she smiled fondly at the boy. "…Yes, I love you too." She said with absolute certainty.

The couple then stared at each other's eyes for another minute before the boy asked a question that kind of caught Rias off-guard. "Rias…. Can I kiss you?"

Rias' face heated up at the question, and few seconds later, she nodded with a smile. Issei swallowed a small lump and took another breath, before he slowly closed the distance between himself and the girl.

His advance was finally met with no resistance. She even leaned in to meet him. The kiss was chaste, with the only contact between them to be their lips against each other. The kiss lasted for ten seconds when they pulled back. The two stared right at each other's eyes with flustered face; trying to read and make sense of what they were feeling, what they had received from the kiss; as they could feel each other's breath on their faces, that were only few centimeters apart.

Then their lips met again, this time with more vigor; with Rias' hands trailed to grasp tightly on Issei's front, and Issei's hands were moving across Rias' waist and reached her back, pulling her body closer against his as their lips tore and meshed with each other. Rias gasped when she felt one of Issei's hands came to her rear and gave a firm squeeze. And when she gasped, Issei did not waste any time to ram his tongue against hers.

Goddamn, was she _delicious_.

Perhaps it was because Rias' more devilish nature? Unlike his kiss with Asia that had more innocent vibe, Issei felt a guttural groan escaped from the pit of his stomach and he felt his body pulsating with fire when Rias' arms snaked from his chest to around his neck; then Issei proceeded to lift her up so Rias was sitting on the desk with her body remained hard-pressed against his own; she even re-positioned her legs so their nether-regions could press against each other.

As their tongues were wrapping and wrestling each other within their conjoined mouths, Issei did not know how he could still be conscious after tasting the exquisite flavor that was Rias Gremory. She was as delicious as the mix of sweetness and something that akin to fire. When Rias groaned from the passionate kiss, Issei then pressed his head wildly against hers. He needed more of this; she was like a hallucinogen. Issei could feel his mind was spinning deeper and deeper, slowly chipping away his own sanity. His brain seemed to be short-circuiting as she battled him. Rias' fingers then weaved into his hair while Issei's hand that was on her back was now also grabbed a fist full of her crimson locks.

Issei then wretched his mouth from hers and found himself to be delighted in the whimper that came from Rias' lips. The heat around them was now unbearable. Both of them were sweating through their sleep-wears and Issei could taste the beads of salty moisture on her neck. He then proceeded to run his tongue along her neck, resulting more moans and whimpers from Rias as she _really_ felt it. Issei could feel the heat from Rias' skin and the salt from her sweat boiled swirled together, causing him to barely hanging on his mind. Rias' hands desperately mangled his brown hair and she arched her neck back. Issei nipped at the front of her creamy throat and she gasped again. Her fingernails were digging at his scalp as his teeth bit at her skin.

However, before the two could have gone any further, Rias suddenly jerked Issei's head back, and effectively pushing him away from her. The two were blushing like never before, panting and breathing heavily, sweats were rolling freely on their exposed skin. "I… Sorry." Rias panted, letting her forehead to fall softly against Issei's. "It's just…. It's getting…."

"…Late, yes." Issei continued what Rias left off as he was now snapped out of his stupor. He quickly calmed himself, as well as berating himself for losing to his own instinct and pleasure. He had probably even hurt her in the process, what was he thinking? It was supposed to be a simple kiss to begin with.

"You… You can go ahead first. I'll catch up." Rias told him. "I… need sometime to recover." She said as she felt that the area between her legs was _very_ moist. Her body, especially the lower part was _trembling_.

"Are you sure?" Issei said, his breathing was still ragged. The boy felt that his pants, particularly around his crotch area, was painfully tight and throbbing. "Here, let me help."

"No, I'm fine." Rias held her hand up. "Just wait for me outside… Please?" she said sheepishly with her face still in a deep shade of red.

Issei reluctantly complied with a nod, and when the boy had stepped outside from the room. Rias clutched her hands on her chest as she took another deep breath in attempt to calm herself. She had been alone with the man she loved, nobody was going to interfere, yet she stopped herself and him from strengthening their intimate relationship.

It was because something that had been gnawing her from inside. Something that had been existing since a while ago. It was a dark feeling (despite being a devil, creature of darkness) that kept whispering five particular words in her heart.

_You do not deserve him._

_To be Continued…._

* * *

**And that's the wrap! Now is the time for my own notes:**

**Regarding the 'overlord' thingy, I was inspired from a certain fic that I decided to try to go with the title 'overlords' from time to time. 'Overlord' just sounds more general and badass in my ear.**

**As for Satan Rangers, I originally planned to have Saitama to be an additional member as Satan Black or White, but then I considered that neither colors are suitable for Saitama, thus I ended up making Saitama as Grayfia's replacement: Satan-Yellow (it was derived from his regular yellow costume). On that note, I also decided to have Rias realized that Satan Rangers were none other than the Four Great Satans themselves, thanks to Saitama's involvement. Seriously, I still found it rather silly for her not to realize anything in the canon.**

**As for Issei's battle with Sirzechs…. Well, aside from the fact that I gave them a better fight than the canon, considering my Issei's power level in the story, what happened was another foreshadowing on my part, including the thing with Rias's view about her and Issei. I just like doing those kinds of things. XD**

**Moving on, about the Issei's Evil Pieces. The theory about how Evil Pieces work was something I came up with after reading the page about Evil Pieces, as well as Kuroka, Koneko and especially Tannin. Tannin is said to be a reincarnated devil –former dragon. However, I found that Tannin is still pretty much a dragon, only with devil's traits and characteristics. In fact, I personally said that Evil Pieces only made Tannin slightly weaker in a way, as the devil traits he possessed made him susceptible against light and holy element. As for why I did not mention about Ajuka Beelzebub not modifying Issei's Evil Pieces like in canon…. Let's say that I intended for **_**something else**_** to happen during the fight with Hero Faction in Kyoto. Besides, I'd say that my Issei's strength and abilities are already on par with canon Issei's Illegal Move Triaina altogether.**

**Then, to Issei's relationship with Rias; I seriously think that Issei in canon did not bother to ask about what the ritual was all about. I mean, it's fine if the boy just wanted to be polite and obedient or something, but I believe he had the right to ask. The ritual only tested if Issei is worthy to be Rias' husband, but considering that he was the only candidate so far, I think he was as good as engaged with Rias in canon; I understand that before the end of volume 10, canon-Issei had been traumatized about dating a girl, thanks Raynare's bitch-move, but I still think the kid is focusing way too much on playing with boobs instead of his girls' advances.**

**As for Issei's early promotion… That was something I came up on a fly. **

**So, thoughts about them, everyone? Please leave your review about this whole chapter with no flames, please. Next chapter will be the start of Kyoto Pandemonium. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	37. Kyoto (I)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**What's up, folks! Here is the opening chapter for the volume 9 adaptation. Just a heads-up, I have prepared a _surprise_ for you guys in the middle of this story. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 34: Kyoto (I) – Pre-Departure**

_(Flashback, Kyoto)_

_How did things end up like this again? Oh, right._

Saitama sighed at the thought as he was sitting on the ground, cradling and comforting a little girl crying and sobbing on his lap. Her appearance seemed to be around 8 years of age, wearing a traditional shrine-maiden outfit with tall geta and white tabi. However, the most striking features were her golden hair, despite her Japanese attire; followed by her nine golden fox tails sprouting behind her and matching ears on her head.

It was supposed to be a nice, relaxing one-man trip in Kyoto, where Saitama explored the exotic town, visiting many temples and shrines that he could not find in his home-world. No, scratch that, there were many places that were similar with the same aesthetic, but he just found Kyoto to be one of a kind.

Everything was fun and relaxation until one night, Saitama stumbled upon something that was entirely unexpected. All he saw was one strange creatures loitering and peeking around the small alley, and when Saitama gave chase out of curiosity, he felt some distortion around him and suddenly found himself teleported to a place that was Kyoto, yet not at the same time. The streets were more vibrant; unlike the lightings from the Kyoto Saitama just explored earlier, this 'Kyoto' used literally traditional lanterns. There were no signs of electronics as everything was done and set up through conventional means, Saitama found himself in the place that he deemed that humans should not have entered because he saw many creatures that were clearly no human; there were those with hulking and dwarfing figures, those who had animalistic features such as cats and dog's ears and tails, even Saitama could have sworn that there were those that was supposed to be inanimate objects, moving around like living being. The man ended up exploring such strange territory for quite sometime, and he began to feel uncomfortable from the stares he received from the creatures occupying the place. Considering that he had overstayed his welcome, Saitama began his earnest to find a way back to the human settlement.

However, when he reached the outskirts of the town in searching for a way home, Saitama ended up running into a bunch of shady people smuggling something. How come did Saitama see them as 'shady' people? It did not take a genius to tell that the appearance of people in black garments screamed hostile, crude, and just plain 'bad'. What's more, these people were smuggling a _child_. The said child was bounded tightly in ropes and her (it was a girl apparently) mouth was gagged to prevent her from screaming.

When the child's teary and pleading golden eyes met with Saitama's, the latter knew that it was hero time. At first, he tried if he could settle things nicely, but of course, he knew better that words would not work on those people who were smuggling the little girl. It was easy enough to dispatch them; few punches here and there and every single bad guys had been incapacitated for unforeseeable future. And when Saitama released the girl's restraints, the child immediately cried and bawled her eyes out as she tackled Saitama and wrapped her tiny arms around the man's torso, while she sobbed on the man's chest.

It had been over 5 minutes now ever since the incident, and the child was still crying on Saitama's person. The man could only be patient as he ran his hand gently on the girl's back in attempt to calm her down. "It's okay, everything's okay now…." He may not be an expert in dealing with kids, but even he could tell that the child must have been terrified.

Finally, the child calmed down as her cry settled into occasional sobs. Few seconds later, it was time for Saitama to engage some conversation, while keeping the child cradled in his arms. "…Are you hurt?" Saitama started with the most basic and obvious question.

The child replied wordlessly with a shake of her head, and Saitama nodded. "Good to hear it." then Saitama proceeded to run his hand over the girl's head, which he found to be surprisingly soft and fluffy. However, he had to return to the task at hand. "Alright, now we're gonna find your mom, okay?" Saitama said as he kept caressing the child's head. It seemed to work nicely, as the child closed her eyes in content and leaned her head towards the palm. "Erm…. Can you tell me your name?" Saitama said as he kept up his administration.

With one last sniff, the girl blinked her tears away and stared right into Saitama's eyes. "….K-Kunou."

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

Soft moans and groans could be heard in the air, two mouths were conjoined, tongues were wrestling for dominance between them as their mouths were drawing heavy breaths, pair of firm arms were encircling the back of voluptuous figure in a loose white robe, while pair of slender arms were cupping a head with brown hair. Two bodies, male and female, sweating, were pressed against each other on the bed; to be precise, the female body was straddling the male.

Conclusion: in Issei's bedroom, Akeno was straddling him and the two were having what appeared to be a heavy make-out session. In the light of the second-year students of Kuoh Academy were going for a field-trip to Kyoto, couple of nights prior the departure, Issei was reviewing the itinerary for his trip with his classmates to Kyoto when Akeno suddenly came into his room while only clad in a loose yukata. The woman did not say anything but giving a seductive look as she climbed to the bed and crawled towards the boy, showing her cleavage and assets in the process. As if understanding the girl's intentions through simple eye-contact, Issei smirked and decided to put away his papers, open his arms wide and play along with the girl's whims, thus the situation the two were currently in.

The two's lips were still locked heatedly as Akeno's hands began to slip into the base of Issei's T-shirt and roamed through the skin beneath the fabric. As Akeno felt the heat of Issei's body directly through her touch, she tore her mouth away from the boy's, gasping for breath, and proceeded to kiss his jawline, then her mouth trailed towards his neck, giving him some more kisses, licks and playful bites; everything that she could do with her mouth.

Issei had to suppress his groan; when he inhaled the scent of Akeno's hair, which he felt like mix of vanilla, and other scents that he did not know, but he sure as hell like it; he felt that Akeno's hands were now tugging on his pants and he abruptly pushed the girl off him. His face was flustered and sweating from Akeno's administration, while the girl's flushed expression was utterly disappointed and screaming for more of him.

"….Akeno." Issei said after a deep breath to calm down. "We've talked about this with everyone."

"But Ise-kun…!" the girl whined as she moved forward, pressing her front against Issei's and was about to kiss him again before Issei held her face and pushed her off again, gently.

"Come on…" Issei sighed and gave Akeno an exasperated mild glare. "It's just four days and three nights. I won't be away that long."

"But I will be so lonely without you around… I could die." Akeno said with rather solemn tone as she laid her head on Issei's chest. "That's why, for tonight, I will refill four days and three nights worth of you." Akeno looked up and Issei saw her looking at him with predatory glint as she licked her lips suggestively.

As Akeno moved her face towards his again, Issei swallowed a small lump as he knew where things were more or less heading to, which he highly doubt that he could get away 'unscathed'. However, an intervention came upon them in a form of a crimson-haired woman. "…Akeno, what are you doing?" The two felt a small surge of demonic power and turned to the door and saw Rias standing there, her face was clearly not amused.

"My, my, ufufufu…~" Akeno let out a sultry giggle as she stroke her long black hair. "Scary big sister is glaring at me and Ise-kun… Could it be, that you're jealous?" Akeno teased as she leaned her entire body even closer to the boy.

"May I remind you that Ise is my..." Rias actually paused for a fraction of second to fight off the tight feeling on her chest. "…Fiancé?"

"And have you forgotten that I'm a part of Ise-kun's harem, which you have allowed?" seemingly did not notice, or she ignored the pause, Akeno sent a provocative stare as she proceeded to lean her face towards Issei, just to aggravate Rias further.

However, before Akeno's soft lips could have met Issei's once again, the boy's head was pulled away, preventing Akeno to reach him. When they turned, they saw Koneko wearing an over-grown white T-shirt, hugging Issei's head from behind. "Koneko-chan?"

"Akeno-senpai is way too sly, good grief…" the petite girl, with her feline features revealed for all to see, said with soft tone. "I don't want to be separated from Ise-senpai either… So let's do several days worth of Senjutsu treatment for tonight." Koneko said with lonely tone, as she pressed her body against Issei's back; her actions caused Issei could not say no, seeing that the girl's tail had made its way to wrap around Issei's wrist, emphasizing the point that she wanted him all for herself. It was actually rather clever of her, using the pretense of medical treatment in order to have the monopoly over Issei for the night. After all, the whole issue about Issei's life force had yet to be resolved.

"Even Koneko…" Rias could not help but pout tearfully – which Issei found very adorable - at this point. "Everyone is going way too far!"

However, as if to make situation even more complicated, the door of the room slammed open, revealing Asia in her pyjamas. "N-not so fast!" Asia said with flushed expression. "B-Because I am Ise-san's official g-girlfriend!" the girl then forced her way to have a portion of Issei's body into a hug.

"Hoo…." Akeno hummed with challenging tone. "Well played, Asia-chan. Well played, indeed." She had to admit that it was very clever and bold of Asia to use her girlfriend-card.

"For the love of….! Why won't you listen to me, your master!?" Rias started to use her authority tone, but the other girls did not seem to listen willingly.

"Because Ise-kun is mine." Akeno said with absolute confidence.

"No, Ise-senpai is mine as well." Koneko did not want to lose either.

"Ise-san is my b-boyfriend!" and so did Asia.

"No!" Rias rebutted their claims with tearful eyes. "Ise is-!" However, the words died in her throat all of sudden.

_He is not yours, never is to begin with._

Rias bit back her lower lip, as she clutched her hands on her chest. After an awkward pause, she finally sighed in resignation. "….Never mind. Come on, we have something important to do tomorrow, so I need all of you to get some rest. You are included, Ise."

Everyone blinked that Rias just backed off. Feeling thrown out of the loop, Issei, Akeno, Asia and Koneko glanced at one another before they nodded and obeyed their King's order. Akeno and Koneko only gave one worried glance at Rias before they went back to their assigned bedroom, while Issei and Asia remained, since their rooms were connected.

"Then… Goodnight, you two." When Rias, Issei and Asia being the only ones left in the room, Rias then gave Issei and Asia one last smile before she took off to her own bedroom instead of crawling up on Issei's bed as usual.

Now Issei and Asia started to feel that something was off. Even before the house had been renovated, Rias had been sleeping in Issei's bedroom and only used her assigned room to store her belongings. With Issei's current bed was large enough to contain at least 4 people, it was really unusual for Rias not to join Issei on the same bed.

"Rias…" the aforementioned young woman stopped on her tracks when Issei approached her. "Is everything okay?"

Rias turned to see her pawn/fiancé and Asia were looking at her with concern in their eyes. "I'm fine. I did tell you to have some rest, but I just want to do few last paper-works before going to bed myself. Don't worry, I'll catch up soon." Rias then gave a quick peck on Issei's cheek. "Sleep tight, you two." She finished with a wink before disappearing into her room next door.

Rias' condition was that unusual that Asia was not perturbed at her master stealing a kiss on her boyfriend. Issei and Asia looked at each other one last time before they shrugged, decided to believe in their master and drop the subject, and it did not take long before Asia fell asleep in Issei's arms.

Inside Rias' room, however, the crimson-haired girl was standing with rather melancholic face, leaning against the door while she traced her lips with her fingers, the lips that just made contact with the man she fell for. She clutched her chest, convincing herself that everything would be fine, but her sleep that night was not as good as her usual ones.

* * *

In one time, the commemoration of Rias' completion of her peerage was held at the Gremory estate in the Underworld, however, this time Lord and Lady Gremory, as well as Millicas decided to pay a visit to Hyoudou Residence for the occasion.

"In the future I would like to establish a Norse magic school in Gremory territory and start a business training new valkyries out of devil females." Rossweisse, being the highlight of the party, since she was the newest addition of Rias Gremory's peerage, stated her plans for the future.

"I see…" Venelana Gremory said approvingly as she took a sip of her tea. "I'm glad that you are interested in devil industries. As the head-lady of the Gremory clan, I will look forward to your contributions."

Currently, everyone was having tea party inside the dining room of the Hyoudou Residence. Venelana was conversing with Rossweisse as well as Haruka and Saitama, while Zoeticus turned to Irina. "Shidou Irina, correct? This is actually the first time to me to see an angel living under the same roof with devils. Are you enjoying your stay so far?" he asked with kind tone.

"Yes, everyone is so nice here!" Irina replied happily. "And as an angel, I never thought I would sit in the same room with upper-class devils, what a supreme honor! This must be the grace of the Lord and… Satan!"

The younger boys; Issei, Yuuto and Gasper were entertaining Millicas while the girls of Hyoudou Residence were sitting closer with Rias' family. Then, Venelana turned towards Issei. "By the way, Issei-san. I heard that all of you from second year will be going on the school trip to Kyoto. Is that correct?"

"Ah, yes. According to plans, we will leave for Kyoto in the morning." Issei replied.

"Hm, I see." Venelana nodded. "Last year, Rias brought back some Japanese pickles from Kyoto which were quite tasty."

Issei only stared and blinked at Venelana for few seconds before he smiled and bowed his head. "In that case, this humble one will bring some back from the trip."

"Oh, my… That's not what I meant…" Venelana blushed slightly with her hand covering her mouth. "I apologize, you don't have to do that, you know?" Everyone who heard it only giggled at the woman's blunder. Whether it was intentional from Venelana's part or not, it was a question for another day.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Zeoticus spoke up. "Sirzechs and Grayfia are planning to come as well, but they'd have to come later due to work. And they're coming with one more guest as well."

Then, the door-bell rang. "Ah, speak of the devil." Zeoticus smiled. "Seems like they're here."

"I'll go get it." Haruka stood up and walked away.

"I will go too!" Millicas also stood up eagerly and joined the Hyoudou matriarch, who appreciated the company as the two walked towards the front door.

oXo

As Sairaorg Bael walked slightly behind the Lucifer and his Queen, he was excited inside, despite the calm air around him. It began when he heard the news of his cousin's, Rias Gremory, completion over her peerage and he thought that he needed to congratulate her. Thanks to the generosity of his another cousin, Sirzechs Lucifer, Sairaorg was allowed to join the commemoration tea-party that was being held in the human world, particularly at the Hyoudou Residence, the home of his esteemed teacher.

Sairaorg had prepared everything; dressed appropriately, even he brought along some signature fruits from his family territory in the Underworld. However, he could not help but feel slightly nervous at the thought of entering his teacher's abode. Here he was, standing with his two superiors in front of the door leading to the house after Grayfia pressed the bell.

When the door was opened, Sairaorg was greeted first by the sight of Millicas Gremory barreling straight into the arms of Sirzechs and Grayfia respectively, welcoming them.

"Father! Mother!" Millicas then turned to his cousin. "Sairaorg-nii-sama!"

He smiled and nodded at the boy when he caught the sight of another individual standing at the door.

It was a woman, human, in her late twenties or early thirties with soft brown hair tied-up into a low ponytail. She did not possess any seductive looks of devils nor fallen angels, or a brilliant radiance of angels, but the woman possessed a certain charm that made her stood out in her own way.

The gear inside Sairaorg's mind began to work to identify the woman in front of him: A human woman living in Hyoudou Residence; her brown hair seemed familiar with a certain reincarnated devil he had acquainted with recently. A house-keeper was still a possibility, however…

"Hello there, Sirzechs-san, Grayfia-san." The woman smiled pleasantly in greeting Sairaorg's companions, before turning to him. "And who might you be?"

There it was, the way she talked and carried herself was way too dignified and graceful to be a mere servant. Thus, Sairaorg's eyes widened slightly in apprehension as his mind came to only one possible conclusion.

"Good afternoon, it is a pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Sairaorg straightened himself up and gave Haruka a deep bow of respect. "My name is Sairaorg Bael, and I am your husband's disciple."

Haruka only blinked at the introduction, while Sirzechs and Grayfia only watched in amusement. "You are Saitama-sensei's wife, are you not? I'm looking forward to know you better." As Sairaorg continued his introduction, he offered a bag that he carried in his person. "This may not be much, but here some fruits fresh from my garden to share with everyone in the house."

Haruka took the bag from Sairaorg's hands, as her mind was still coping up with the latter's introduction. "Oh… Oh….! Oh! I see!" her eyes shone in understanding. "A disciple!"

Sirzechs chuckled and Grayfia smiled faintly, while Millicas only blinked at the spectacle. Then, Saitama appeared behind his wife. "Haruka, what's the hold up-…Oh." Saitama blinked at the guests. "Sirzechs, Grayfia, and… Sairaorg, too."

"Good day to you, Saitama-sensei." Sairaorg gave another bow.

"Your fine disciple here just gave us some delicious-looking fruits…." Haruka then smiled slyly at her husband. "…Saitama-sensei."

Saitama only sighed as he rolled his eyes in exasperation, causing Sirzechs to chuckle even more and Grayfia's smile to widen a tad wider. "Whatever, just come in." Saitama then ushered everyone to get inside the house.

"Pardon the intrusion..." All the guests chorused as they stepped into the house.

* * *

Everyone (minus Haruka, who had to go ahead preparing dinner along with Grayfia and Millicas) had moved towards the special training field via the basement of Hyoudou Residence. After few talks about Sairaorg's arrival, Sirzechs then suggested that the strongest young devil once wanted to have a match with the current Red Dragon Emperor, which the latter accepted. Thus, here they were, Issei was clad in his Scale Mail, facing Sairaorg who stood in front of him. Everyone else had cleared up to watch from the side line.

"Sairaorg-san… Is it really alright?" Issei could not help but feel that it was kind of unfair for him to clad in armour while Sairaorg was clad only in his regular suit.

"It's fine, really. In fact, this may be a friendly match, but I will feel insulted if you don't give it your all, because I won't hold back either." Sairaorg replied with confident smirk.

_**[It's alright partner. From the looks alone, I can tell that this fellow is no push-over. Besides, we can also prove the theory we discussed before through this fight.] **_

At Ddraig's two-cents, Issei nodded as he assumed a stance, Sairaorg also entered his own stance. The two only stood on their respective spot for few seconds before Sairaorg took the first initiative to attack.

When Issei gave a quick measurement on Sairaorg, his eyes widened at the sight of the sheer density of the touki surrounding Sairaorg's body. Seeing such a massive aura, Issei had to swallow a lump as he was glad that he had equipped his Scale Mail before hand.

"Ha!" with the cry, Sairaorg then jumped and launched a flying-kick right at the surprised Issei, who was barely able to guard at the last second when Sairaorg's foot landed on Issei's arms, forcing the latter to stumble back in a good distance.

When Issei just managed to stop himself from stumbling back, he saw that Sairaorg had already made a follow-up attack by running towards him, then jumped to deliver an axe-drop kick. Issei was able to block it again with both of his arms, but the force behind Sairaorg's drop kick was enough to make Issei to go down to one knee, even the Pawn could feel the armour surrounding his arms were creaking a bit from the strain. Sairaorg did not give Issei any chance to retaliate as he launched his other foot forward, forcing Issei to lean back in order to avoid Sairaorg's advance.

As soon as Sairaorg had leapt past him, Issei quickly leapt back on his feet. However, just when Issei turned around, Sairaorg had already upon him again and Issei barely managed to stop his opponent's foot to land on his torso again. However, Sairaorg agilely moved his legs into successive kick-combo in fluid motion, effectively forcing Issei into defensive. When Sairaorg's round-house kick landed a hit on Issei's guard again, the latter stumbled back and he even had to shake-off the numbness from his hand.

"_He's strong!"_ Issei thought with mixture of awe and caution. _"Even with my limbs covered in Scale Mail, I still felt those hits."_ The boy could have sworn that his armour had been chipped away.

Sairaorg did not let up as he leapt again and delivered another drop-kick, this time followed with a faint as his left foot forced Issei to drop his arms while his right heel made contact with Issei's chest.

Issei plummeted to the ground behind, and when he caught Sairaorg had come upon him with another kick, Issei was now ready and he quickly pushed his body off the ground behind him, blocked Sairaorg's knee from ascending, and with the momentum gathered from Issei jumping forward, Issei delivered a solid jab to Sairaorg's chest, followed with a leg-swipe – which Sairaorg was able to dodge – and Issei used his hand to suspend his body to deliver the same two-kick combo that Sairaorg used on him earlier, landing another good hit on Sairaorg's torso.

Sairaorg stumbled back while smirking all the way at the sight of Issei getting back on his feet. As soon as the two had recovered their footing, Issei quickly engaged Sairaorg with successive jabs, hooks and punches; and Sairaorg retaliated just as fierce, he parried and countered Issei's strikes with his own, and when Sairaorg countered with another round-house kick, Issei blocked and he stepped back to gain another distance.

The two returned to another stalemate, and Sairaorg noticed that Issei was employing some kind of footwork. The latter immediately made his move again as he delivered series of punches and hooks. Sairaorg parried and countered as before, but he did not expect that Issei suddenly used his elbows to pass Sairaorg's defence. As Sairaorg was forced into defensive from Issei's elbow-strikes, Issei found an opening as he planted his knee right on Sairaorg's ribcage, forcing him to stumble back in the process. And when Sairaorg stopped stumbling, Issei had already delivered another knee strikes on his chest, eliciting a groan as the air was forcefully taken out from Sairaorg's lungs. Then, it was Issei's turn to not letting up as he grabbed Sairaorg's shoulders to keep him in place, and Issei proceeded to deliver series of knee-strikes on Sairaorg's stomach, which the latter was barely able to guard against.

Sairaorg then managed to pry Issei's hands off his shoulders, but the boy had already backed away before Sairaorg's counter-attack could have reached him. As Sairaorg watched Issei employed the same footwork on his spot, he noticed that the boy's style was somewhat familiar.

"Hyoudou Issei, are you using kick-boxing by any chance?" Sairaorg asked.

"Well... Yeah, I guess you can say that." Issei shrugged. "I mean, my dad just told me to have at least one style, so… as long as it works, it's good."

It was during one of Issei's sparring sessions with Saitama in the past, where the latter, despite his lack of teaching-skills, was able to give a decent advice for his son. The man thought that it was no good to simply stay in basic hand-to-hand, so he convinced Issei to move to more advanced type of close-quarter combat to improve his fighting capability.

From the side line, Saitama blinked at the battle when he heard the conversation. _"Hm, I actually didn't put much thought in that advice… Oh well, if it works then it's good, I guess."_ He shrugged to himself.

Sairaorg nodded in understanding. After all, he also had learned various kinds of martial-arts during his past training – from the similar advice from the same man. Then, taking it as a challenge, Sairaorg employed the same footwork as Issei, and the two engaged each other at the same time, resulting a fierce exchange of blows, punches and kicks in the process. The two employed the same elbow-strikes, however, Sairaorg was faster enough to deliver a solid knee-strike on Issei's side, shattering a portion of Issei's Scale Mail.

Sairaorg then returned the favour from earlier by grabbing Issei's shoulders and started to pummel Issei's torso with his knees. However, instead of prying Sairaorg's hands off, Issei proceeded to grab Sairaorg's waist and pushed forward, forcing the young devil to stumble several steps back as Issei kept barrelling his way through.

Sairaorg then broke away, which Issei quickly attacked again with another punch. Sairaorg managed to cross his arms in guard, but Issei used both of his arms to pry off Sairaorg's defence and proceeded to attack with head-butts. Sairaorg was taken aback at the unorthodox strikes as Issei's helmet was pounding his chest.

Then, Sairaorg retaliated by pushing Issei away and delivered one nasty punch to the face; shattering Issei's helmet and throwing the boy off to the air with his body flipping horizontally. However, before Sairaorg could have made any follow-up strikes, Issei recovered while his body was still twirling in the air, he launched a solid punch on Sairaorg's throat while mid-air, forcing Sairaorg to take few steps back as Issei finally landed back to the ground.

The two had delivered and landed many hits on each other's body, they were bruised in several places, with Issei's armour started to fall apart, but the two combatants were far from done. From Sairaorg's point of view, Issei was surprisingly adept in close-quarter combat, pretty good for someone who had not learned martial arts for long; his strikes were powerful, and he could easily adapt and improvise in different kinds of battles.

On the other hand, Issei saw Sairaorg as no ordinary devil, a real seasoned veteran; his blows were heavy, thanks to the enormous touki coating his person, and each strike was aimed at his vital points and was strong enough to break through even the scales of dragons. He did not know what kind of stuff Saitama had taught to Sairaorg, but whatever it was had made Sairaorg into the strongest devil in his generation – or so Sairaorg had claimed about himself being Saitama's disciple.

Few seconds later, the two resumed their match as Sairaorg made the first move, Issei readily retaliated and the two were locked in another heated exchange of blows and kicks. This time, Issei twisted his body around in order to improve his evasion and counter attacks against Sairaorg's sharp attacks as he employed back-handed strikes in his attacks. However, some of Issei's back-handed strikes were faints, as the boy quickly deployed his draconic wings and swung them towards Sairaorg as Issei kept twisting his body.

Sairaorg dodged Issei's wing-attacks for several times until he managed to grab both of Issei's wings, effectively sealing the boy's movements, and Sairaorg took few steps back, pulling Issei towards him, causing the boy to lose balance. Then, Sairaorg finished with a solid kick right at Issei's torso, cracking Issei's chest-plate in the process.

Issei was not done yet, as he stood up and assumed another stance. The two then moved at the same time, engaged in another close combat. After several exchange of punches, Sairaorg lifted his left leg to launch a high-kick, but Issei easily blocked it and suddenly jumped to launch both of his feet to strike Sairaorg's head from both sides. The latter barely had the time to block.

As the two engaged in another combat, Issei added more feints in his movements, catching Sairaorg's off-guard and throwing him out of loop. Going pass Sairaorg's defence, Issei deployed few more elbow strikes before Sairaorg retaliated by a wide swing of his right arm, aimed at Issei's head when the boy was turning with his back facing him. However, Issei simply bent backwards, missing Sairaorg's arm by hair's breadth, and he countered by lifting up his left hand, delivering another elbow-strike, followed with successive punches at Sairaorg's torso. The last two blows to the chest and abdomen were able to knock Sairaorg off his feet, causing the man to drop to the ground behind him.

Sairaorg then groaned as he felt that his muscles and bones were aching, even the bones were probably cracked from the strikes. However, he simply brushed it off and stood up, prompting Issei to attack again. However, Sairaorg had learned that there was some sort of pattern in Issei's attacks, and the key was watching the movements of his hands.

The two were locked in another exchange as Sairaorg had easier time to anticipate and counter Issei's strikes, the latter did not let up as he kept up his onslaught, until Sairaorg managed to snake his hand through Issei's own, locking them together, followed with another one. Seeing as the movement of his hands had been sealed, Issei then struggled to break free, however, when he broke free, his defence was opened, giving Sairaorg a chance to exploit the opening and smashed both of his fists straight to Issei's body, effectively shattering the Scale Mail's chest-plate.

Issei was knocked back off his feet and plummeted again to the ground behind him, and Sairaorg immediately followed with another heel-drop. Since the armour on his chest had not recovered, Issei put his arms up on guard to receive the brunt of Sairaorg's attack. The pressure from Sairaorg's heel when it connected with Issei's arms was enough to force Issei to grunt in pain as he felt that his arms were being crushed from the sheer weight.

Issei then spotted that Sairaorg's other foot was exposed, and he quickly pushed his own feet towards the said foot, causing Sairaorg to lose balance and tumbled to the ground, giving Issei a chance to get back on his feet.

The two immediately stood up again, and they jumped at the same time to deliver the same kick towards each other, resulting their feet to cancel each other. The two then engaged each other with Sairaorg employing the similar style of locking Issei's movement from close-range in order to create an opening, and Sairaorg finally managed to grab a hold on the whole length of Issei's left arm, followed by a swipe on his leg to cause Issei to lose his footing and Sairaorg back-handed Issei's chest, knocking Issei back in the process.

Issei back-flipped as soon as he hit the ground to get back on his feet, he stood to face Sairaorg while massaging his bruised chest – the chest-plate that had yet to recover had been shattered again from that strike – and coughed out a bit of spit and blood before he gave Sairaorg a strained smile. He wiped off some blood that remained around his lips, his Scale Mail was falling apart, and his body was aching all over.

Sairaorg himself was not faring much better the spots where Issei struck him were still throbbing with pain, and his body was sweating. He could feel that there was indeed a fracture in one of his ribs.

The two then marched and leapt at the same time; Sairaorg resorted to another drop kick and Issei quickly evaded and countered with a round-house kick square to Sairaorg's chest in mid-air. The young devil coughed out few specks of blood as he plummeted to the ground.

However, before the two could have duked it out again, the gem on Issei's armour lit up, followed by Ddraig's voice echoing across the room.

**[That's enough!]**

Issei and Sairaorg stopped abruptly at the dragon's voice. At the same time, Saitama had leapt out to stand between them, preventing the two to fight any further. At the same time as well, Issei's Scale Mail suddenly vanished, leaving the boy only with his gauntlet.

"Ddraig, what's the hold-up?!" Issei yelled at the Boosted Gear. "I can still fight!"

**[Idiot, it's not even the rating game, and you two were already carried away.]**

Issei and Sairaorg blinked at Ddraig's words, and they realized the implications. However, Ddraig then changed his voice into telepathic link.

_**[Besides… that thing was only a second away from bursting out. I gotta stop you from fighting any further before things go south.]**_

Issei's eyes widened ever so slightly in apprehension as he cooled himself down along with Sairaorg. "That was a very good fight, Hyoudou Issei." Sairaorg extended his hand.

"Likewise. I'm looking forward for our real Rating Game in future." Issei gave Sairaorg's hand a firm shake as they nodded to each other.

"Yes, come with everything you have and I will fight you with everything I have as well; our strength and dreams." Sairaorg replied with his final piece.

Everyone then wrapped up; Sairaorg gathered his things and left, and before Sirzechs taking his leave as well, he came over to Issei. "Ise-kun, how are his attacks?"

"…Surprisingly similar." Issei replied. "His attacks, his blows, I… I feel like he had gone through similar training like mine."

"Yes, yes, indeed." Sirzechs nodded with a smile. "After all, you are not the only one who aimed to surpass Saitama. Sairaorg had trained his body to the maximum, probably even harder than you." Sirzechs then left, but he turned around to face Issei one more time. "And by the way, Sairaorg may have not been holding back, but he had yet to use his trump card for the battle."

Issei only blinked, revelling at the thought that Sairaorg Bael could still have gone even more powerful. What sort of trump card he was hiding under his sleeve?

"Sairaorg's power has surpassed even the high-class devils. He has stopped many of terrorist activities of Khaos Brigade, furthering his achievements. He's a natural enemy for devils in general who highly value their demonic powers. There were many cases of high-class devils losing their confidence and will to fight after being defeated by Sairaorg's pure physical strength."

While listening to Sirzechs' story, the corner of Issei's lips unconsciously twitched upwards as the boy's clenches his fists harder and harder in determination to defeat the strongest young devil. However, his musing was interrupted by Millicas, who apparently had returned from his shopping trip with his mother and Haruka. "Ise-onii-sama… When Rias-onee-sama graduates from high-school, are you two going to get married right away?"

Issei blinked at that question. "Err… Well…" The boy awkwardly scratched his cheek as he felt his face heating up. "I… thought Rias would like to finish college first before settling down, so… y'know." The boy ended with a shrug.

Sirzechs gave a laugh before he ushered his son to come along. "Alright, leave the poor big brother here alone, Millicas. I'll see you again, Ise-kun."

As he watched Sirzechs and others from Rias' family took their leave, the boy pondered over Millicas question. _"….Marriage, huh?"_ he actually almost forgot that he would marry Rias at some point in the future.

However, the memory about Rias' strange behaviour from the other night returned to him. The girl felt… somewhat distant. She claimed that everything was fine, but Issei could not bring himself to buy it. However, asking and prying into her too much might be impolite, since Rias was technically still his 'superior'. Perhaps he only thought too much about it, or so he hoped.

* * *

The night prior the school trip, everyone decided to go to bed early so the second-years could prepare themselves for the trip to Kyoto. Once again, Rias wanted to sleep alone in her own room, leaving Issei and Asia on their own devices, much to the latter two's worries. Currently, Issei and Asia were huddled together on the bed of Issei's room.

"I wonder what is wrong with Rias-nee-sama…" Asia voiced her concerns. She was resting her head on her boyfriend's shoulder with her arms draped across his chest. "She's usually more than willing to sleep here rather than sleeping by herself."

"She said that nothing's wrong…" Issei replied, staring at the ceiling with his hand slowly running across his girlfriend's golden locks. "Maybe we should approach her later if this keeps up."

The two then fell into comfortable silence as they enjoyed and basked in each other's presence. Asia felt Issei's warmth enveloping her, while Issei found that Asia's smell after the bath was intoxicatingly soothing. "…Are you ready for tomorrow?" Issei broke the ice few minutes later.

"Yes. I'm actually very nervous. This is my first school trip with everyone." Asia smiled sheepishly as she nuzzled her head closer to Issei.

"That's fine. After all, everyone got your back." Issei smiled as he kissed the top of Asia's head. "In fact, I'm actually kind of nervous myself."

Whether it was genuine or Issei said to comfort Asia, it had a positive effect on the latter as the two giggled softly at each other. Asia then took a deep, soft breath as she calmed herself down from the giggling, and she looked up to stare lovingly at her boyfriend's eyes, whom also returned the gesture in kind. As the two's eyes met, they suddenly could not tear their eyes away from each other; the couple kept staring and found themselves drawn to each other.

It took seconds for their faces to close the distance until their lips met. When they did, Asia pushed herself forward to deepen the kiss, and Issei reciprocated. Their lips moved in tandem, melting towards each other for few moments until they broke off their kiss as they ran out of breath. Breathless and flustered, the two stared to each other's eyes again until Issei sat up and positioned Asia to straddle him, and the boy dived in to press his lips on hers again.

As the two lips met again, Asia closed her eyes and kissed back, her hands clung tightly on Issei's T-shirt while Issei's arms were enveloping her back, pulling her closer towards him. Asia let out a soft moan as Issei's tongue pried into her mouth and started to run through her palate. The girl did her best to reciprocate the advance by moving her own tongue against Issei's, but her own movements were sloppy, inexperienced, and she felt herself losing as the kiss went on; their lips only separated every now and then to give them a brief time to take short breaths.

"Ise-san…." Asia said breathlessly between the kisses. "It's… late… we… have… tomorrow…"

"Yeah, I know…" Issei said, but he could not stop kissing her, tasting her, feeling her; as the girl also could not bring herself to take any action to stop herself and her boyfriend.

"No… Ise-san…." Asia tightened her grip on Issei's shirt. "We… we really… have to sleep…"

"I know, I know…" Issei did not stop exploring her mouth with his own and started to run his right hand through Asia's back, giving the girl shivers through her entire being, despite his acknowledgement of their current situation, until his right settled on Asia's neck and grasped her blonde locks.

At this point, Asia had seized her resistance and her hands had made their way towards Issei's head; her left was placed around Issei's neck while her right was placed on his scalp. Through their conjoined mouths alone, Asia kept receiving the taste and pleasure of her boyfriend's administration as she started feeling something indescribable happened in between her legs; it was definitely strange, intoxicating and _so wet_. She also started to lose the feeling on her legs as her nether region had been tingling for some time now.

As the situation between them heated up, Issei's hands began to roam over Asia's pyjamas and his fingers unbuttoned her top. The two finally broke away, with trail of saliva hanging between their mouths. Issei then rested his forehead against Asia's, his eyes never left hers, and his eyes started to trail down until they met Asia's exposed skin.

When Issei's eyes landed at Asia's fair skin, he could only described her as _beautiful_; he could not see her whole breasts due to the bra covering them, but despite her lacking in size compared with Rias and Akeno, they were beautiful, _perfect_. The two remained in their positions, heavily breathing, as Issei could not look away from such heavenly sight, until he could not hold himself back as a certain spot beneath his pants had become so hard and throbbing, and he returned his gaze upon Asia's emerald-green orbs.

"Asia, I…" Issei trailed off, when the next words came to his mind, he found himself embarrassed as he looked away for a second towards the door leading to Rias' bedroom, before returning his gaze back to his girlfriend. "I… want to see your bedroom."

The hidden message behind the _strange_ request had been heard loud and clear, as Asia's face brightened in crimson colour. Few seconds later, Asia bit her lower lip and she returned to stare at his eyes, giving a nod in the process.

Confirming that Asia was ready and willing, Issei then swallowed his pride as he inwardly turned towards the dragon inside him. _"…Ddraig?"_

_**[Hm?]**_

"_Sorry to ask this so suddenly, but… Can you give me a crash-course of how to deploy a sound-proof barrier?"_

Ddraig had spent millennia inside Boosted Gear, dwelling inside host after host, both male and female. And during that period, he had witnessed many sights of men and women doing _the deed_ together with various ways. Thus, what his current host was doing with his lover was nothing more than one of _those_ days.

However, after hearing his host asking such a thing before the act, the Welsh Dragon could not help but _snort_ in reply.

_**[…You know what? Just leave it to me to set things up from here, and on my cue, summon the Boosted Gear and place it on the door.]**_

"…_.Okay. Thanks, Ddraig."_ Issei replied with a blush. _Holy crap, ain't that awkward._

_**[Oh, one more thing, partner.]**_

"_What is it?"_

_**[Saddle up before you ride.]**_

"…_Fuck off."_ Issei replied with slightly playful tone as the dragon only snickered in return.

Without further ado, Issei stood up. Asia had already felt her legs weakened through the sheer kiss from earlier, thus Issei had to carry her bridal-style, much to her embarrassment, as Asia's arms clung on his neck. After the two stepped into Asia's bedroom, Issei then closed the door, summoned his Boosted Gear, locked the door with his gauntlet hand and placed the gauntlet's palm on the said door.

**[Transfer.]**

A soft voice came out from the jewel as the spell that Ddraig had prepared through the draconic mysteries he could still perform from inside Issei's soul, got manifested into the world and did its magic to keep all the noise inside the room only.

-LEMON SCENE AHEAD, VIEWER'S DISCRETION IS ADVISED-

Issei and Asia arrived at the bed, which was not as large as the one in Issei's room, and the boy returned his lips softly onto the girl's as soon as he had laid her on her back. Asia had not fully recovered from the earlier session, but she did not resist the boy looming over her, as she gave the access for the boy's tongue to ram over hers again.

The two maintained their lip-lock for a while, as if they had all the time in the world to express their feelings to each other. Issei's hands then proceeded to slid Asia's pyjama top off her and undo her bra – then Asia's arms returned to cling on his back -, allowing him to sneak a peek on Asia's full nude body. When his right hand remained on her bare left shoulder, his left hand softly poked on Asia's exposed hard pink bud on the tip of her right mound, eliciting a yelp from the girl as his finger played with her right nipple.

Their hearts were beating in rapid sync as Issei then tore his mouth away from Asia's own, and proceeded to move towards Asia's neck; giving butterfly kisses and licks on her exposed skin. He was tempted on giving some playful bites, but the boy kept telling himself to be as gentle as he could.

Asia craned her head upwards to give Issei more access on her neck, she then moaned softly at the sensation she never felt before as the boy kept kissing her exposed skin: her throat, her jawline, and her neck again, occasionally hitting her pleasure spot; causing her to start clawing her fingers on the back of Issei's T-shirt.

Then, Issei's lips climbed down on her collar-bone, eliciting more soft moans from Asia, then his lips kept climbing down to her left breast, her stomach, and his lips returned and settled to play on her left mound.

Asia arched her head back as she moaned even louder, as Issei's mouth was covering her nipple, his tongue played with her hardened pink bud. Her hands that were on his back had moved to grasp on his head, her fingers were gripping deep inside Issei's brown locks. When the girl's mind was still busy maintaining her sanity through Issei's administration on her breasts – his left hand on her right with his mouth on her left – her eyes snapped open wide when she felt Issei's right hand, that was previously on her shoulder, had made its way towards her lower part, particularly the region between her legs, as the boy ran his right hand across the fabric of her lower pyjama, causing her to feel something akin to electricity had ran through her legs, creeping all the way through her body towards her head.

When Issei ran his right hand, he could tell that Asia's crotch was utterly _drenched_. He then stopped his administration on Asia's breasts to look up to her, as if asking her for permission. The girl was trembling, her topless body was covered in sweats, her breathing was heavy, her blonde hair was slightly dishevelled, her emerald-green eyes had gone teary and glazed through the sheer sensation she had felt so far. However, Asia gave a shaky nod, allowing Issei to slid down her lower clothing along with her panties.

The boy then proceeded to plant his lips upon Asia's soft all over again, and when the two were in the middle of kissing passionately (again), the boy slid his fingers through the opening of Asia's lower slit.

The girl gasped loudly with eyes wide, abruptly pausing her kiss with the boy; her mind actually went blank for a second as stronger jolt of electricity coursed through her body once again, causing her legs to squirm, her toes to curl against the bed-sheets, as she was sent reeling by the euphoric feeling.

Issei then resumed to kiss Asia, with his fingers remained moving against Asia's inside. The girl could barely return the kiss properly as she kept squirming when his fingers kept moving against her inner walls. Asia started to feel confused and worried as she had never experienced such sensation in her body; all she knew that it felt wonderful and she craved more of it. Her body wiggled, her fingers buried even deeper into Issei's scalp, she unconsciously became more eager in returning Issei's kiss as her lower body reacted more on more movement of his fingers.

The sensation, the feeling was building up like some kind of pressure, and Asia could tell that it was going to hit its limit at some point; bursting out as soon as Asia could not take it anymore.

"I…Ise-san… I-I'm…!" Asia stuttered between the kisses, unable to speak anymore words. She was afraid, the limit was approaching fast, but she chose to believe in Issei as she kept clinging tightly on the boy.

Soon enough, Asia's vision was filled with white, she cried out noises that she herself could not make sense out of them, her legs kicked out in reflex with her toes curled up tighter than before, her fingers clutched even harder on Issei's brown locks as Issei felt that the walls inside Asia were squeezing his fingers, her entire body was having spasms and more fluids gushing out from Asia's lower opening.

Asia's body settled down from her spasm few seconds later, Issei felt that the hold on his fingers had lessened as he slipped the said fingers out from Asia's inside; only to find his fingers were covered in sort of-sticky liquid. The boy eyed over his drenched fingers, before he felt Asia's soft hand was running through his cheek, causing him to turn towards the girl, who was utterly exhausted, her now fully-nude body was drenched in sweats, and her face…

Despite everything that had gone through her being: the euphoria, the pleasure, the jolt, and more, Asia sent Issei a loving smile that made the boy's heart skipped a beat; her face was just so _fucking beautiful_ at the moment.

Issei then proceeded to pull-off his T-shirt over his head and discarded his sweat-pants, along with his under-garments, leaving him as naked as Asia and his member had already rock-hard. He re-positioned himself above her, his light-brown eyes bore into Asia's emerald-green. The two were staring at each other again for few moments, and Asia gave him another nod, despite not having any idea what she should do next. She decided to let Issei to take the lead and do as he wished upon her, as she loved Issei enough to believe that he would never do anything to harm her.

The boy took a deep breath to resolve himself, and he positioned his length in front of Asia's opening, and slowly slid it through inside. In the mean time, the boy planted another searing kiss on Asia's lips, in order to distract her enough from feeling her maidenhood being torn open. At this point, Asia had lost almost all of her strength, as she could only moved her lips ever so slightly, before she could only allow Issei to do as he pleased with her mouth.

It was tight, when Issei's tip had made its way through Asia's inside. Asia's breath was hitched when she felt another jolt of electricity coursing through her as she felt Issei's length had began its advance, but she decided to focus on returning Issei's kiss despite her lack of strength to do so.

It did not take long until Issei managed to push his length all the way in, through her maidenhood; and when he did so, Asia _cried_. Unbearable, cruel, burning pain swept through her being and she winced; her hands that rested on Issei's shoulders had their fingers to dig through Issei's skin as Asia was assaulted with a new wave of electricity coursing through her. She panted heavily between her cries, tears were leaking out from her eyes as she did her darnest to deal with the pain.

On the other hand, Issei had to use all of his will-power to keep himself from coming too early, because as soon as he had put his entire length in, the walls surrounding his erection suddenly constricted against him – she was so damn tight – squashing his length _hard_. However, he had another concern when he caught Asia's reaction.

"S-sorry, Asia! Are you alright?" Issei began to panic at the sight of Asia's pained expression. "D-do you want-!?"

"N-no!" before Issei could have done anything to stop what they were doing, Asia managed to squeak out that one word and wrapped her legs around Issei's hips, effectively preventing him to pull out. "P-Please…! Just….. just stay like this for a while…!" Asia croaked out before she stared into Issei's eyes. "D-don't leave me…"

Issei obviously could not refuse, as he remained unmoving until Asia stopped crying, as well as to gather himself. She fought through the pain, and with the last ounce of strength that she was able to retrieve, Asia pulled Issei's head into another kiss, prompting the boy to move.

Issei began to move slowly, not wanting to hurt Asia too much during her first time. As Issei's length moved against her inner walls, jolts and jolts of electricity – no, lightning kept running through her being, starting from her lower parts, crawling in unbelievable speed through her entire body as Issei kept his gentle pounding on her.

As Asia kept focusing her love for Issei, the painful jolt across her body had gradually turned into more euphoric. Some bit of the pain remained, but more than that, Asia felt _bliss_. It was mixture of emotions that she could not understand as she kept making love with the boy she had fallen for since long ago. Is this truly how a couple express their love to one another in the ultimate way? She did not understand, nor she cared, all that mattered that she had become one with the man that was Hyoudou Issei.

Issei tore away from Asia's mouth once again, and began to kiss her neck, and trailed towards her breasts once again, sending more jolts of euphoria through her body. More sensation of pain and pleasure ran through her, but Asia could no longer care, as her mind, body and soul were consumed by Issei.

Asia began to let out more soft cries and moans as Issei picked up his speed. Suddenly, she gasped in surprise as Issei lifted her up from her lying position into straddling him, before he resumed his pounding and returned to passionately kissed her one more time. Asia leaned her head in and circled her arms around Issei's neck to deepen their lip contact, as she gradually losing control over herself from the pleasure.

It did not take long after Issei picked up his speed and began to pound Asia earnestly, that the girl had lost all of her strength to maintain her firm grip on her boyfriend. Her legs were no longer wrapped around his waist, her arms loosened and simply hanging on Issei's shoulder, and she was completely unable to even reciprocate Issei's kiss as she merely rested her head on his shoulder, she only had what it took to remain conscious. The only sign that Asia was still awake was the moans that came out from her throat as she her euphoria kept climbing towards the limit. Her moans would become louder and her body would wince from time to time whenever Issei's thrust occasionally hit the spot inside her.

Issei himself finally reached his limit after pounding Asia for a while now, the walls inside her had been squirming and squeezing against his hard member, giving him his own share of pleasure and euphoria. Maintaining his grip on Asia, he gave one last thrust before he groaned, unleashing all of his seeds into Asia's womb. His length was throbbing against Asia's inner walls as he came.

At the same time as well, Asia jerked her head and shrieked as a storm swept through her insides; a heat consumed her as the real world was lost to her. The jolt she felt was enough to let her suddenly clung on Issei even tighter than ever. Her body was trembling and shaking like crazy, her legs shot forward with her toes curled up again, the hands that resting on Issei's shoulders were clawing through his flesh once again, eliciting more groans from the boy.

The two then fell after the intense climax, with Asia falling back with Issei remained on top of her; the boy pressed his body against hers while making sure that to keep his own posture upright so to not crush her. The two were breathing heavily, until Issei descended towards Asia and their lips met again as he kissed her. Asia tried to kiss him back, but her body could not comply with her mind, heart and soul as the strength had completely left her.

"Ise…." Asia gasped after the two broke away. "….I love you."

At the girl's loving smile, despite her utter exhaustion, Issei could not help but to smile in return. "I love you too, Asia."

Few seconds later after staring into each other, Asia realized that Issei was still inside her, his length was still as hard as before. Issei took a glance at his member that was still connected to the girl beneath her, and he gave Asia an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Asia…" Issei said, his hands then grasped Asia's own hands respectively. "It seems I still want to go…"

"Huh…?" the breathless Asia did not understand at first before she felt her body flared up again when Issei pounded into her again. "Wai- Ahn…!" she was not ready yet, she wanted to tell him to stop but she just could not even catch her breath. The ecstasy returned to her with vengeance as the next session was far more intense than the former, and Asia fell into another blissful world.

The two then went on for the next few hours, moaning as they never left each other's embrace, until Asia finally passed out after several more orgasms.

* * *

Unknown to the two, while Issei's sound-proof barrier had covered the door, preventing their noises to reach outside on the entire second floor, the barrier actually did not reach towards the ceiling, which connected to the third floor, where Saitama and Haruka's bedroom was located.

Inside the bedroom, Saitama, who happened to be awake from his slumber for a glass of water, while his wife was still sleeping; was crouching on the floor with an empty glass pressed between the floor and his ear; allowing the man to hear the details of the noise of the activity that took place on the floor under him. The man's expression remained stoic as he heard groans, moans and cries. At the final shriek, and then followed by more moans and cries, the man blinked before he stood up, staring at the floor.

"….Damn."

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**OMG, I actually did it. So, what do you guys think of this chapter?**

**The fight scene with Sairaorg was never been easy, since action-scene is never my forte; I hope the I did justice with their fight. The thing about Issei's hidden power, that's something I've been preparing for the battle against Hero Faction, as well as for the new move that replaces his Juggernaut Drive. I must inform you that there may be no Illegal Move Trinaia - because I believe that my Issei with Queen Promotion here is already as strong as canon Issei's Illegal Move altogether - but I'm working on something that is similar, and hopefully better than Cardinal Crimson Promotion.**

**I originally planned to have Issei fighting Sairaorg on more equal ground, then I realised after researching Sairaorg that, even without his Regulus, Sairaorg's strength and power are most likely already on par with an Evil Dragon (if we exclude Grendel with his excessive durability), whose strength is above a dragon king/ultimate-class devil, so I decided to have Issei equipped in his Scale Mail, but without promotion and Sairaorg did not put any seals on his body. Besides, Sairaorg still did train and study under Saitama, even for a short time. Thoughts?**

**About the lemon, I originally intended to have Issei doing it with Akeno, but then I changed my mind and went with the one with more natural flow. So what do you think of my very first lemon? Please don't be too harsh on me.**

**On that note, please review! No flames! Ahsoei, over and out.**


	38. Kyoto (II)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**1000 followers! I wished that the same could be said for the favourite ratings as well, but I'm still happy! Thank you very much for my readers who had been reading and supporting this story! On that note, I also thank you all for the positive and constructive reviews for my previous chapter. That was my very first time of writing lemon scene, so I'm glad that it came out well enough for everyone.**

**Without further ado, here's the next chapter of the Kyoto arc! R&amp;R! And one last thing, I do not own High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man!**

* * *

**Chapter 35: Kyoto (II) – First Day **

It was very early in the morning where Issei was awake, lying on the bed with Asia sleeping soundly by his side. His girlfriend was resting her head on his shoulder with her body draped over his left-side; her left arm was laid across his chest and her left leg was over his left lap. Issei marvelled himself on Asia's peaceful visage as he used his free hand to move a strand of hair from her face, before he leaned down and planted a chaste kiss on her eyebrow, causing Asia to smile in her sleep and nuzzled closer to him.

**[Partner.]**

Issei blinked, half-not expecting to hear the Welsh Dragon's small voice first in the morning. To be honest, he actually kind of expected to have Asia woke up in his arms and the two exchanged good mornings together. However, the tone of the dragon said something else. "Ddraig." The boy returned the greeting, lowering his voice enough to not waking Asia up.

**[Putting the good time you had behind… We actually haven't discussed the thing after your match with that Bael folk.]**

"Sairaorg-san? You mean…." The boy's eyes slowly widened in understanding.

**[….Yes, it is time for us to talk about your body's conditions, as well as its limits.]**

oXo

Breakfast that morning was rather awkward. Issei was sitting on the table, all eyes were pointed at him except Asia, whom was barely awake. It all actually started when everyone got worried from seeing Asia's state of drowsiness, as she seemed on the verge of falling back asleep at any second, despite that she, including everyone else should have gone sleep earlier last night; which brought the question to Issei, who was supposed to be with Asia all night long.

_What happened to her last night?_

The blushing from Issei's face even made everyone even more suspicious. When they asked Rias, who was on the same floor with them, she claimed that she ended up sleeping alone in her own room – which became another concern – and she was just as worried as she was clueless as what happened with both Issei and Asia last night.

However, on the other hand, Haruka – who was working in the kitchen – and Saitama, who was reading newspaper while sipping coffee at the end of the table, only stole few glances at their son while the mother only gave playful smirk and teasing gesture with few giggles, which only confused everyone else even further. When Issei's eyes met with his mother's, the latter only gave him a wink and knowing smirk, followed by a thumbs-up.

Then, the answer was downed upon them when Koneko decided to sniff on Asia, before she turned to sniff on Issei as well, and her face contorted into a scowl as her cheeks tinged in pink. "…Pervert."

Koneko's expression immediately gave everyone the answer they were looking for; Rias looked apprehensive with her face went red, Akeno used her hand to cover her grin while her face was clearly amused, Irina was heavily flustered while she used both hands to cover her gasp, while Xenovia rubbed her chin as her mouth went 'oh' with her eyes widened in comprehension.

"Awawawawa…" Looking back at the reincarnated angel, she was too overwhelmed at the thoughts of birds and bees that she could not put what was in her mind into proper words – her head was fuming.

"My, my, ufufufu~" Akeno giggled. "You two are very daring, doing the deed on the night before the day you go for the school trip."

"I see… So Ise and Asia have attempted to make babies last night, huh?" the blue-haired knight bluntly surmised, causing Issei to blush even harder. Asia on the other hand, seemed too sleepy to even react.

Saitama held down his laugh by covering his face with his newspaper, while Haruka snorted and shook her head in amusement.

Issei was about to retort Xenovia's comment, however, his cheek suddenly was stretched by a certain crimson-haired fiancée. "Ow, ow, ow, ow…. Rias, it hurts! It's stretching, it's stretching!"

Rias only pouted further and pinched Issei's cheek even harder. However, she only sighed heavily before she let go. "Putting aside Ise and Asia's 'deed' aside…" she massaged the bridge of her nose. "Has everyone prepared for today's trip?"

Everyone blinked for a second, before answering in affirmative. Rias then turned to Issei. "Ise, I trust you will take responsibility to look after Asia…." She gave a quick glance to Asia, who was still dozing off every now and then. "…Until she's sober enough."

"Yes, I understand." Issei nodded.

As the preparation went on, some of those who had known Rias long enough; like Akeno for example, felt that something was off from Rias' reaction. She expected Rias to throw at least a small tantrum; the pinching and the pouting were expected, but Akeno expected a bit more than that. When the juniors went on their way to finish their final preparations that morning, Akeno approached her King.

"Rias."

The aforementioned girl turned to her Queen. "Yes? What is it, Akeno?"

"…Is everything okay?" Akeno asked with low, worried tone.

Rias pursed her lips ever so slightly, but then she smiled anyway. "Yeah, everything's fine. What's wrong, Akeno?"

Akeno narrowed her eyes sceptically as Rias seemed to suddenly go back to normal again, and the former found herself not able to ask any further question. "No, it's nothing." She decided to drop the issue for the moment and returned Rias' smile. "Come on, we still have to prepare ourselves for school."

* * *

At the waiting area of the Tokyo bullet-train station, Rias took the privilege as the leader of both Occult Research Club, as well as devils of her peerage, to send the second-years off to Kyoto. Akeno, Koneko and Gasper had to stay behind at the academy since they had their own duties as students. On that note, in the preparations for the School Festival in the future, both first years and third years had to cover the second years' shares of work.

"Here, this is a pass for each of you." Rias said as she handed out cards for her peerage.

Yuuto who recognised the paper in his hand blinked and turned to his master with expression filled with excitement and gratitude. "Buchou, isn't this that…?"

Rias smiled, nodding in confirmation. "Yes, the so-called Free Bus Pass, it allows devils like us to enjoy Kyoto, even with their spiritual wards and bounded fields."

Kyoto was known as Japan's ancient capital before Tokyo, possessing many spiritual places such as temples, shrines, etc. with 'securities' to ward-off evil entities such as devils and other kinds of demons. Rias' so-called special pass could allow her peerage to bypass those barriers and enjoy every nook and cranny of Kyoto to their heart's contents.

"We used the same kind of pass last year. As long as there is a legitimate reason, they will issue passes even to devils. Gremory servants, Sitri servants, and Heaven's messenger, do you realize how fortunate it is to have certain forces backing you all?" Rias explained further and ended it with a wink.

Issei blinked for a second before he started to smile bashfully. He honestly was not sure if what he wanted to say was appropriate, but he just could not help it. "….Can I say that I'm glad that I, all of us had become a part of Gremory?"

Everyone chuckled in amusement, minus Asia who was still quite sleepy – with Xenovia and Issei looking out for her – and Rias nodded with smug expression. "Sure you can, Ise. Just keep it in your person and you'll be able to enter and enjoy the famous sights of Kyoto. Enjoy."

With chorused affirmation, the second-years of Occult Research Club proceeded to do some last-minute checking and went to join the rest of their peers, of course after saying their goodbyes to Rias. Asia only drowsily talked and interacted with the others, with Xenovia helping her around. Issei on the other hand, chose to stay behind to have few words with his master and fiancée.

Rias then noticed something about Issei's appearance and decided to fix his shirt-collar. "It's crooked. Don't forget to take care of you appearance as Kuoh Academy students while in Kyoto."

After Rias pulled her hands away from Issei, the two fell into another silence while staring at each other. "I'm going to miss you." Rias said with slightly sad smile. "Be careful out there, okay?"

Issei replied with a chuckle. "Come on now, it's gonna be fine. I'll be home in few days, okay?" Rias then nodded with bitter smile at Issei's words. However, Issei then asked, "Say, buchou…. Is everything okay?"

Rias was able to suppress her body from flinching from Issei's question. "…Yeah, it's okay."

However, Issei noticed the off-feeling from his master/fiancee's words. "Are you sure?" when Rias looked away, Issei pushed on. "_Rias_, look at me."

When he mentioned her name, Rias turned to look at his eyes again and it only took few seconds for her to realize that Issei just called her _name_; which meant that he was currently not talking to his master, but to his fiancée, Rias Gremory. She managed to let out a smile after a moment. "Sorry, I actually just remembered something at school." Rias then proceeded to give Issei a peck on the cheek. "You have to go now."

However, when Rias just pulled away from Issei; the latter immediately reached his hand forward to gently grasp the side of the former's face, pulling her into a sudden chaste kiss. She froze in his grasp, did not expect the action, but it did not take long until she relaxed into the kiss. He could feel the heat on her face rising up as she returned the gesture, and Issei finally broke the kiss few seconds later to look into her teal-colored eyes with earnest smile. "Then, I'll take my leave."

Rias looked away bashfully, futilely trying to cover her flustered face, which Issei found adorable. "…Take care." But she managed to give a shy smile while speaking those two words.

When Issei left for the train to Kyoto, he did not notice a lone tear that escaped from Rias' eyes.

oXo

Ten minutes had past after the bullet train had left Tokyo towards Kyoto. The second-years were talking excitedly, especially those who never rode bullet train before. Issei sat alone on the last row of seats, watching Xenovia, Irina and Asia - - sitting across his aisle – talking with Kiryuu Aika, who was kind of worried at Asia sleeping so soundly on Xenovia's shoulder; after all, everyone was supposed to be in high-spirits at the field-trip to Kyoto. Xenovia and Irina managed to convince the bespectacled girl that Asia could not get some proper sleep due to the said excitement.

Issei then saw Xenovia asked Irina to take over Asia for a minute, as the blue-haired knight had to make a quick visit to talk with Yuuto. Few minutes later, Xenovia returned to her seat, while she gave a knowing smile to Issei, probably about his 'deed' with Asia, much to his embarrassment. Then, Issei found Yuuto coming over to his seat.

"'Sup, Kiba." Issei greeted, wordlessly pointed that the handsome was welcomed to take a seat and at the same time, ignoring the noises of girls murmuring rumours about his pairing with Yuuto.

"I wanted to know your itinerary once you get there. So that there's a plan in case of emergencies." The Knight said as he took the seat beside him.

Issei blinked and he understood. "Right, we are from different classes, after all. So, where do you plan to go tomorrow?"

The two boys then began to discuss their respective plans with their classmates, until Issei asked. "By the way, what did Xenovia talk with you?"

"Ah, Xenovia-san just noticed me that she won't have Durandal with her…. For now, at least." Yuuto replied.

Issei furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "…Why?"

"She said that Durandal had been sent to the Alchemists of Orthodox Church for some more tuning and refining, something about suppressing its destructive aura to prevent collateral damage, yet maintaining its original power as holy sword. In other words, something tamer." Issei nodded at Yuuto's explanation.

"Oh, and on that note, I offered her my Ascalon for her to use in off-chance of emergency. I can always lend her some of my holy-demonic blades, but she said that she's more proficient in using the dragon slayer. Besides, even if I'm not using Ascalon, I can always try to make dragon-slayer of my own." Yuuto added, resulting more nodding from Issei.

"By the way, Ise-kun…" Then it was Yuuto's turn to ask. "Is something wrong with Asia? It's not like her to fall asleep in big day like this. I figure she would've ecstatic on her first school-trip."

Issei flinched for second before quickly regaining his composure. _"Right, he hasn't known yet. After all, he's not staying in my house."_ Issei reminded himself. "Well… She just could not sleep last night from… excitement." Issei just realized how wrong the last word sounded.

Yuuto only stared owlishly at Issei for a second, before he decided to shrug it off. Then, he changed the topic. "Anyway, after this trip, we have to train in earnest for the fight against Sairaorg Bael."

Issei then nodded, almost visibly relaxed that the Knight had changed the topic. "…Yeah, we should." The boy inwardly shuddered when he recalled Sairaorg's strength back then. Even with his body and strength alone, he was a formidable opponent. The sheer of his Touki easily dwarfed Issei's own, and Issei could believe that Sairaorg could even fight Vali Lucifer toe-to-toe.

"Oh, and of course…" Yuuto then continued. "We need to buy some souvenirs at the end of this trip."

Issei was snapped out of his muse about Sairaorg, then he nodded with small smile in agreement. "True, true."

After the conversation had ended and Yuuto returned to his seat, Issei watched that the other students seemed to cool down a bit, leaving the train less noisy than before. Even Xenovia, Irina and Kiryuu talked with low tone since Asia was still sleeping. Seeing that he had nothing else to do, Issei closed his eyes as he recalled his last conversation with Ddraig.

oXo

_**[There are few things I have noticed during your past battles.]**_

_Ddraig started his explanation with those words._

**[The power inside you was not compatible with your Evil Pieces, despite its immense power.]**

_Ddraig said one of his findings._

_**[The times where you could fight without rebound or repercussions, like training for example, was because you weren't using your Scale Mail, which allowed me to focus on sealing the gate that houses your power. That work is akin to holding down the door against outside force.]**_

"_Then, those fight when I used Balance Breaker…"_

_**[Yes, when you equipped the Scale Mail, I have to focus on supplying you with power as well, leaving me not strong enough to hold down the fort.]**_

_Ddraig explained futher._

_**[Not to mention, there's also a factor where your life is exposed to danger, that power will burst out to respond the threat. It wanted to protect you… More or less.]**_

_**[However, the burst-out doesn't happen immediately. For some reason, it takes some time until it decides to act up.]**_

"…_And this some time… How long does it take?" It did not take long for Issei to slowly connect the dots._

_**[….Around 5-7 minutes. The time will shorten when your body receives damage or when you boost and using Gift ability, though not by much. Depends on your own condition, actually.]**_

"_Only that long?"_

_**[That was more or less the time-span during your match with that Satan Lucifer. Your sparring match against that Sairaorg Bael only lasted around 3 minutes. Don't be mistaken partner, some real battles only took few minutes to conclude, even seconds, depending on the combatants themselves.]**_

"…_But that fight felt longer."_

_**[It's not unusual to have your perception of time to be distorted in the heat of the battle. But to the next point, do you recall anything, like right before the rebound took effect?]**_

_Issei pondered for a second before he realized. "….My power…"_

_**[Yes, you suddenly received a massive power-boost whenever that power gushes in your soul, before the rebound takes effect. And it always takes 4 seconds before your body is wrecked inside-out by immense pain. However, in that 4 seconds time-span, you have enough power to even incapacitate an ultimate-class devil in one strike.]**_

_Issei gulped at the notion of strength._

_**[However, how much stronger you will be depends on how much power gushing out, and power comes with a price. The more power-boost you receive, the more painful it will be when the rebound takes effect.]**_

_Issei closed his eyes as he took in the Welsh Dragon's words._

_**[For now, I suggest that you to fight without using Scale Mail if necessary. In case that you have to use Balance Breaker, I will keep a look out and warn you when the power act up, and in that 4-seconds moment, use that opportunity to take down your enemy before you go down yourself.]**_

_**[You have to find a solution for your current condition, lest you won't last long in future battles.]**_

oXo

Issei let out a breath as he entered meditative state while sitting, allowing his consciousness to dive into the depths of Boosted Gear.

When he arrived, it was the usual white hall with his mutation pawn pieces adorning the place like large pillars. Tables and chairs were arranged in the middle of the hall, with his Red Dragon Emperor predecessors sitting on them with blank expressions on their faces.

"What's up, everyone. It's me again." Issei greeted cheerfully, hoping that he could elicit some response. Of course, they did not react in the slightest, much to Issei's chagrin.

The boy looked over his predecessors again, and when his eyes landed on particularly younger individual of the group, Ddraig's voice was heard as he appeared.

**[That one is among the younger ones of your predecessors, a prodigy who awakened the Juggernaut Drive quite early. Unfortunately, he became drunk on power and was killed by another Longinus wielder.]**

"You made it sounds that he wasn't killed by the White Dragon Emperor."

**[Indeed, he wasn't killed by the White one. The past hosts will always went berserk and pick a fight with anyone, even if it's not the Vanishing Dragon. They activated the Juggernaut Drive to became a powerful tyrant for a period of time…. But in the end, they didn't last long. That's the truth no matter what the era is.]**

On Ddraig's solemn tone, Issei frowned a bit. "But…. Don't they have things that they treasured as well?" the boy just could not help but felt that at some point of their lives, his predecessors must have found something worth fighting for. Then, Issei muttered, "I, who am about to awaken, am the Heavenly Dragon who has taken the principles of domination…."

**[Partner.]**

On Ddraig's alarm tone, Issei sighed softly. "Don't worry, I'm not that crazy to chant it all. Though… there are few things that I want to learn. What's with the part about laughing at the Infinite and grieve at the Dream?"

"The 'Infinite' refers to Ophis, the Ouroboros, while the 'Dream' means Great Red. The laughing… more like, sneering at Ophis, while grieving… more like despising the True Dragon who is also a red dragon. It remains mystery of who came up with this chant."

Issei blinked at the unidentified voice. It was not Ddraig, and when he turned towards the source, he was shown an appearance of a young woman with long wavy hair, possessing a slim and refined body clad in full-body dress with a high slit to ease movements. Unlike the other expressionless predecessors, her face was smiling radiantly at him.

Before Issei could have asked who the woman was, Ddraig seemed to recognize her.

**[Elsha?]**

The woman called 'Elsha' nodded to the Welsh Dragon. "Yes, Ddraig. It has been a while."

Ddraig then turned to his current host, who was still darting around between the woman and the dragon.

**[Partner, this is Elsha - foremost amongst the past Sekiryuutei. Of all my female hosts, she is definitely the strongest. Elsha, this is my current host, Hyoudou Issei.] **

"Um… Nice to meet you." Issei nodded towards his female predecessor.

"Ufufu, of course. Our successor, potentially the next strongest Red Dragon Emperor… How could I not know?" Elsha giggled in amusement. "And speaking of the strongest, Belzard is also another exception beside me if we're talking about the lingering souls of the past Red Dragon Emperor."

**[Ah… yes, that guy. I actually thought you and Belzard would never show up again.]**

"Who said I'm not coming up anymore?" Another voice was heard. This time, it was a tall man with regal look.

**[Oh, he's here.]**

Issei blinked at the newcomer, and noticed the pressure exuding from the said man. "Err… Ddraig? Is this…?"

**[Allow me to introduce you, my strongest wielder so far, Belzard – he had defeated two White Dragon Emperors in his life-time.]**

At Ddraig's introduction, Issei widened his eyes and stared at Belzard with awe.

"It's good to finally see you, Hyoudou Issei." The man known as Belzard nodded at him. Like Elsha, his face was also filled with expression as well.

Ddraig then put another two-cents.

**[These two made the strongest two of my past hosts. If Belzard was the strongest male, then Elsha was the strongest female wielder of Boosted Gear before you.]**

"Y-yeah, nice to meet you too." Issei could not help but feel a bit nervous before his two strongest predecessors.

"Now, can we take a look? At this… peculiar power in the depths of your soul?" Belzard then asked the main issue of Issei. The latter then regained his bearing and nodded, leading the two and Ddraig towards the _gate_.

Upon arrival, the two strongest past Red Dragon Emperors were rather baffled at the sheer power they could feel from beyond the gate. "….Whoa." was what Elsha could say.

"So you've been containing something like this? And I assume that this thing had been here since you're born." Belzard put in his two-cents.

"The power emanating from beyond this gate….. It can truly make you the strongest Red Dragon Emperor in the past, present and possibly the future, should you master it." Elsha said again.

"Perhaps." Issei shrugged, rather flattered by his two predecessors. "However, whatever it is, is not compatible with the Evil Pieces inside me."

"Hmm…. I see. So the previous storms and chaos inside your soul were caused by this, eh?" Belzard said while nodding in understanding.

Thus, Issei explained the things he had discussed with Ddraig before to his two predecessors, who listened and put on thoughtful expression.

"How… peculiar." Elsha said. "It's kind of ironic if you look at it again. In order to fight longer and emerge victorious, you need to be… weaker, in a way. Yet when you become stronger by leaps, you only have short time left before you go down."

Everyone fell into silence at Elsha's conclusion. Issei took the female predecessor's words into his head, and he closed his eyes in ponder. Few seconds later, Issei opened his eyes as he was set of what he was going to do and say to his two predecessors.

"Belzard-san, Elsha-san… I-!"

However, his words were interrupted. "Stop right there. We'll help you." Belzard said with raised arm. Elsha also smiled and nodded in agreement.

Issei only narrowed his eyes slightly. "…Really?" He could not help but rather skeptical at the sudden approval.

"Of course." Elsha replied this time. "It would be quite a shame if you're fighting with such limits. We'll help you anyway we can. After all…" Her gaze then turned rather bitter. "We may have died as tyrants, consumed by our own power of the Welsh Dragon, but we once wished for a change, a difference."

Belzard then carried on after Elsha. "And you have granted us the possibility to fulfill that wish. If we can grant our wish through you, then we shall help you with all our power."

"…Thank you." Issei finally said while bowing down.

"Now, to the matters at hand…" Elsha then turned towards the gate. "You have to return to the reality soon, so we'll make this as quick as possible." Her gaze and expression said enough that Issei had to pay full attention on what she was about to tell him. "This is not the real solution for your predicament, but this will ease you up and allowing you to fight longer, even only for a little bit."

"Follow our lead." Belzard said as he stood by Elsha's side, the two took the position akin to a teacher going to direct a student in a certain art.

oXo

When Issei snapped his eyes open, he found himself back in the bullet train. He blinked several times; getting back the feeling of the reality before he looked around to see that half of the students had fallen asleep on their seats. Some were still awake and chatting without causing too much ruckus. He then looked at his open palms as he made another contact with Boosted Gear.

_"…Ddraig?"_

_**[You've done well enough for first try, partner. The seal you erected with Belzard and Elsha's help looks fine to me.]**_

_"What do you think now?"_

_**[It won't solve the whole issue, but there is a slight improvement. Your time limit in fighting in full power Balance Breaker is now extended to 10 minutes; not much, but it's plenty, don't you think?]**_

Issei scowled at the small progress he had made. Of course he was not satisfied enough, even with the help of the two strongest past wielders of the Boosted Gear, it still did so little. However, before he could have pondered about his condition any further, a voice across him snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, shit!"

Issei snapped his head towards Aika Kiryuu, who just talked with Irina and Xenovia. However, what caught Issei's eyes was the fact that Kiryuu's face was flushed, her hands were covering her amused grin, and her eyes were wide and darting around between him and sleeping Asia. Issei's face was drained of colors when Kiryuu used his fingers to point between him and his girlfriend; the bespectacled girl mouthed few words that said, "You and her?"

Issei swallowed a lump as he made sure that nobody was paying attention. Much to his relief, most of his classmates, especially Matsuda and Motohama, were still asleep while those who were awake did not pay much mind about it. He then sent a mild glare to Kiryuu and put his finger on his lips, signifying that no more words shall be spoken. Kiryuu only nodded subtly in return, while her grin remained on her face. She flashed Issei one last thumbs-up before she turned away, giggling to herself.

Issei then turned to Xenovia and Irina; whom were sporting sheepish smiles. The former shrugged while the latter sent apologetic smile. Issei then silently groaned as he plopped himself back to his seat. He waited for the train to arrive at Kyoto, while reminding himself that he had to find some spare time to make sure that Kiryuu would not carelessly blurt out about his relationship with Asia, especially about their recent 'deed' together.

* * *

The second-years of Kuoh Academy finally arrived at Kyoto. Upon stepping off the bullet train, everyone was amazed at the sights of the Kyoto station, as well as the surrounding places. Fortunately, Asia had recovered enough strength, albeit still rather tired, to walk on her own and began to chat with Xenovia and Irina about the sights at Kyoto.

"Asia-tan~" Kiryuu then approached Asia from behind and placed her hands on the shoulder. "I heard that there's something between you and Hyoudou~?" she whispered playfully.

That question alone was an enough pick-me-up as Asia's eyes widened as plates and her face was flustered. "Alright, alright. I can ask you later once we've settled in the hotel. With that out of the way, let's go, everyone! We need to meet up with other classes at the hotel lobby if we want to have some free activities in the afternoon." Kiryuu then took her role as the class coordinator as she yelled instructions to everyone.

On the way to the hotel, Issei and his classmates witnessed the Kyoto tower right after getting out from the station. After few minutes of walking and taking the sights of Kyoto so far, they finally arrived at the high-class looking hotel named, 'Kyoto Sirzechs Hotel', which resulted some looks from Issei and the others from Occult Research Club.

"How very… original." Issei could not help but comment to himself. He even caught an undergoing construction with a name 'Kyoto Serafall Hotel', not far from their current location.

And when they got inside of the hotel, everyone was flabbergasted at the sheer grandeur of the interior design. Even some of the students felt overwhelmed and hesitant at the notion of staying inside such a luxurious inn. The same could not be the same for the occupants of Hyoudou Residence – Issei, Asia, Irina and Xenovia, since the four of them believed that the design of their house was even more luxurious than the hotel.

During the roll-call and attendance-check, the teachers – with Azazel and Rossweisse within the ranks – began their announcements. Rossweisse-sensei, or as her nickname, Rossweisse-chan – according to _all_ students who found her adorable – ended up giving lectures and speech about the wonders of 100-yen shops, much to Azazel's chagrin and some of the student's (Issei included) bewilderment.

According to the announcements, the students were free until late afternoon, and during room assignments, Issei ended up getting his own private room, which was a single room with a size of roughly eight tatami-mats. The room's interior was old, unlike other rooms that were luxurious western-style, Issei's room was akin to a traditional Japanese room, even with the old 90s television. The room only had a futon with a sheet and blanket instead of proper bed, but at least the room still had a toilet and a bathroom.

Despite being made fun of by Matsuda and Motohama, it only took seconds for Issei to shrug it off and accepted his living arrangements. Though, he did admit it would have been nice to sleep inside the western-style room. When he asked Rossweisse about the peculiar room arrangement, the new teacher explained that Issei's room would serve as emergency meeting place and headquarters in case of any arising crises; Issei immediately understood the notion.

When the free activity session began, Rossweisse proceeded to join other teachers, as well as locating the apparently skipping out Azazel. Issei's group, along with Kiryuu, Motohama and Matsuda, decided to visit the Fushimi Inari as their first destination to Kyoto.

oXo

On the way towards Fushimi Inari, Issei's group was enjoying the sights of various shops of goods left and right. The church trio was the ones who enjoyed them the most, especially Asia and Xenovia. Matsuda and Motohama were more focused on ogling at the church trio rather than the shops, much to Issei and Kiryuu's chagrin.

However, Issei felt that they had been watched ever since they had left the Inari station. Issei could not point their supposedly stalker's location, nor how many people that were watching them. When they went pass through a torii, Xenovia finally approached Issei in a guise of casual conversation. "…We're under surveillance."

Issei nodded in agreement; the boy looked relaxed, but he did not lower his guard. "Looks like it. It's probably protocols; to the local supernatural residents in Kyoto, we devils and angels are foreign existences. As long as neither of us causing any trouble, everything should be good."

Deciding to ignore the invisible stares, Issei and Xenovia returned to enjoy the sightseeing as the group finally reached the main hall of the shrine. After taking several more pictures, they proceeded to take the challenge of climbing the mountain path through a thousand gates.

Ten minutes had passed, and among the group, Motohama was the one who was winded the most. "C-can you guys wait up? How can you people not tired?"

"Come on, Motohama… This is shameful." Matsuda commented, followed by a nod by Kiryuu. "Even Asia-chan and the rest of us are fine."

Issei inwardly shrugged. With the members of Occult Research Club's racial traits as devils and an angel, which had surpassed the limits of normal human, the hike was not much for them, even for Asia who was not particularly built for physical exertion. As the matter of fact, even Issei would have no trouble even if he were not a devil, thanks to his past training and exercises.

The group, along with the breathless Motohama, continued their journey; admiring the little stores set along the way towards the top. Asia and Xenovia were absolutely captivated by the scenery of the mountainside, with Kiryuu acting as their tour-guide. As the group made their ways towards the top of the mountain, Issei was urged by the drive to reach the peak as soon as possible.

He walked ahead from the rest, and he turned to his friends. "Sorry, guys. I'm going ahead first." However, after taking few steps ahead, Issei suddenly stopped for a moment, causing the others to raise their eyebrows in curiosity.

Issei then turned around again, this time his eyes were staring at Asia. "…Asia, do you want to come along?" Issei offered his hand towards her.

That offer garnered some looks from the others. Asia blinked for couple of times before blushing at the gesture, Kiryuu, Xenovia and Irina were completely amused while nudging Asia to take Issei's hand, while Matsuda and Motohama only stared dumbfounded at the scene.

Asia then slowly reached towards Issei's hand and grasped it with her own, and much to her (and everyone's) surprise, Issei suddenly pulled Asia to him and swoop her off her feet, carrying her bridal-style.

"I-Ise-san?!" Asia squeaked with her face flustered even further, not that she complained.

"Hey, Ise! What's with the treatment!?" Matsuda yelled. Even Motohama seemed to regain his vigour to glare at Issei as well.

"Well, the thing is…." Issei hesitated for a second before he finally let the cat out of the bag. "We've been going out." he said with sheepish smile.

Matsuda and Motohama's expression became stoned as they simply gave deadpanned stares at Issei and Asia. "…What."

"We'll see you guys later." Issei quickly ended the conversation and dashed up the steps at full speed with Asia in his arms. "Hang on tight, Asia!"

"Y-y-yes!" Asia managed to stutter those words due to excitement and sort-of embarrassment, as she nuzzled her head against Issei's chest.

As Issei ran, he could hear the girls' amused laughs and giggles, followed by Matsuda and Motohama's roars.

"ISE, YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD!"

"I WISH YOU FALL TO YOUR DEATH ONCE YOU REACH THE TOP!"

oXo

Issei and Asia finally arrived at the peak, where they saw an old shrine for tourists to pray at, surrounded by trees and other greeneries. While holding hands, they enjoyed their surroundings – the sound of rustling leaves blown by the breeze, the chirping birds, and there was surprisingly nobody else aside of the couple at the moment. Issei turned to Asia, who returned the look and they nodded to each other with a smile, as if they had agreed at the same thing, which was to pay some respect to the shrine and prayed there.

The two faced the shrine together and they clapped their hands together in prayer. Issei had no idea what Asia wished for, nor he wanted to invade her privacy, but for some reasons, the image of Rias' disturbed expression came across his mind, thus he decided to pray for Rias, and of course, the other's well-being back home.

"….Not from Kyoto?"

However, Issei blinked when he suddenly heard a unfamiliar voice. He was soon on high-alert when he felt multiple presences in the area. Asia seemed to notice the anomaly as well, and Issei proceeded to put Asia behind him and he stood in front of her protectively, utilising his Touki and ready to summon Boosted Gear at any moment's notice.

Suddenly, those presences made themselves known as Issei saw multiple figures with somewhat animalistic features. There were several people with crow wings and heads, dressed like mountain hermits; as well as priests wearing fox-masks.

However, among those strangers, one individual stood out. It was a young girl around 11-12 years of age, clad in shrine-maiden outfit; her hair was golden blonde, but what caught Issei's eyes the most was the fox ears and tails (as in plural, _nine_ tails to be precise) on her person.

"….Are those youkai?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows as he summoned his Boosted Gear. Asia looked rather fearful as she hid behind him. Seeing them surrounded, Issei could not help but wonder what was going on. "Um…"

However, before Issei could have said or asked anything, the young fox-girl then gave a glare as she bared her fangs in rage. "Outsider…. How dare you! Attack!" she then yelled. The girl was apparently the leader, since her companions quickly moved as they were told.

"What the-!?" Issei, completely taken aback at the sudden assault, immediately shielded Asia behind him so he could take Asia along to dodge the youkai's onslaughts. "Asia, stay close to me!" Issei barked at the girl, who nodded in return, doing her best to dodge the attacks as well. Issei then turned towards his attackers. "Hey! What's the big idea?!" Issei yelled as he evaded and fended off the incoming strikes while protecting Asia simultaneously.

The fox-girl only glared even more at Issei as she pointed at him. "Give my mother back!"

"…Mother!?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?! We don't know who your mother is!"

However, his reasoning fell on deaf ears. "Do not lie! I shall not be deceived!" the young fox-girl yelled in return.

Issei only clicked his tongue as he realized that confrontation was inevitable. When one of the crow-like people came to swing his staff at them, his strike was easily countered by Issei's round-house kick, the boy's heel hit him good in the head, taking him down in the process.

The assailants were taken aback at the sight of their comrades being taken down. "Asia, stay right behind me." Issei then took a fighting stance once he had made sure that no hostile was outflanking him.

"Twenty seconds have past… This will do, I can't afford to destroy this place, after all."

**[Explosion!]**

Issei's charged up power then released, enhancing his power by folds. The youkai then proceeded to attack once again, but Issei was now fully prepared. The all-out brawl ensued, with Issei easily dodging the assailant's attacks and countering them with powerful punches and kicks, effectively knocking them back in the process. The fact that Asia was standing behind him did not hinder his performance at all. If anything, one could say that Issei would be determine to fight better in order to protect Asia as well.

When two of the assailants aimed their weapons – all of them happened to carry spears and long staff – at Asia, Issei immediately appeared before them, catching the shaft of their spears with both of his arms, and proceeded to hurl them towards a pair of mask-wearing priests, who were about to use long-range spells. The priests were distracted and had to cancel their spells when they saw their comrades were being hurled towards them like projectiles. They found soon enough that aiming at the weaker one of the two devils would not work out for them.

Then, not long after that, Issei noticed two incoming presences; both of them were familiar.

"What's going on, Ise?" Xenovia came to Asia's side with a wooden sword. Where she got that sword, Issei was not sure.

"Who are they? Youkai?" Irina also came to Issei's side in support, carrying a wooden sword as well.

"They're youkai, yes. But I'm not sure myself of what the hell is going on either." Issei replied. "Anyway, they are all determined to pick a fight with us."

The fox-girl saw that more devils showed up, and soon learned that she and her people were completely outgunned despite the superior numbers. Silently cursing, the girl then sent out another order. "….Retreat. We don't have enough numbers to defeat them." Everyone then started to return to the girl's side and prepared to leave, with their young leader sending one last glare to them. "Damned evil existences… I will get my mother back! Mark my words!"

When all of the youkai disappeared in a gust of wind, Issei stepped forward and yelled at the spot where they were last seen. "Once again, we know nothing of your mother!"

"…They're not listening." Issei said with a sigh, before he turned towards the church trio, particularly at Asia. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm alright. Ise-san protected me, after all." The girl replied with flustered smile.

The first trip to Fushimi Inari, Kyoto, had ended with a grim note for Issei and his comrades.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Sorry for the rather short chapter, folks. But forcing this chapter to go longer would only either making this way too long, or making the chapter to end abruptly, thus giving me a block.**

**The high-lights of this chapter is Issei's condition, where his strength and power are limited due to the incompatibility between his Evil Pieces and his **_**potential**_**. Even with Belzard and Elsha's help, his power is still limited. Some of you might tell me to just go with Illegal Move Triaina, but I say that it won't solve the rebound issue, so I still see no point, considering the strength of my Issei with Queen promotion. Besides, sticking with my original idea can spice things up if anything.**

**The other high-light would be Issei's confession about his relationship with Asia, as well as his first encounter with the youkai as well. Of course you all people know who the fox-girl was. **

**With that, Happy New Year 2017! Ahsoei, over and out.**


	39. Kyoto (III)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**I only have a note for Kaiser Dragon from the reviews: while it sounds interesting, unfortunately I do not follow Nanoha series, as well as not fully understanding the concept in Type-Moon, so I'm afraid that I can't accept your challenge.**

**Without further ado, here's the next chapter of Kyoto arc! Enjoy and R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 36: Kyoto (III) - Demon Capital**

It was the night of the first day in Kyoto. After having luxurious feasts of Kyoto cuisine for dinner, the second-years were now enjoying the indoor public bath, male and female respectively. The public bath consisted of three large springs of hot water and shower section for the occupants to scrub and wash their bodies; apparently, the bath also had sauna in each male and female bathroom. As Issei was sitting on a stool – with Yuuto happened to take showers on his right - scrubbing and washing his hair before he took a dip in the hot spring, he felt the neighbours on his left were staring at him, to be precise, they were staring with incredulous look at Issei's well-toned physics.

"Say, Hyoudou…" one of the male classmates asked. "Where did you get your juice?" He admitted that Issei's muscles were proportionate and not bulging out like a truck, but he could not help but think that Issei achieved it via steroids or some kind.

Oblivious to the thought, Issei only blinked at the question and he tilted his head. "Err…. My mom just bought our juice from the nearest supermarket… Sometimes she would just buy some fresh fruits from local grocery shop. What are you talking about?" Issei narrowed his eyes. He noticed that Yuuto was silently snickering beside him.

"No, no, seriously. How did you get yourself so packed?" another male classmate asked. "I mean, look at those abs! And I could've sworn that I saw few scars on you."

That question made Issei awkwardly looked away. He obviously could not say that he had been training under tutelage of a legendary dragon, a fallen angel, and ridiculously powerful father. He turned towards Yuuto for help, but the Knight only shrugged in return, much to Issei's dismay. Then he turned at Azazel – apparently he was was enjoying the hot spring – who only waved his hand without a care in return.

"Well…. You know, working out." Issei nervously replied. That was not a lie; he did work out a lot, after all. "…And eat your green vegetables." He almost ended his statement as question; not a lie either, his father did tell him once to look after his diet. Issei could hear Yuuto's snicker a bit harder at the answer.

"Whoa, that's actually what my mom has been telling me. I simply never believed it." the male classmate surprisingly bought Issei's answer.

"Yeah… and there you have it." Issei quickly looked around to find anything that could change the topic. "Say, where are those two? Matsuda and Motohama, I mean?"

"Those pervs? I bet they're peeping the girl's bathroom upstairs as we speak."

Issei was not surprised in the slightest at the answer. However, it did make him had to finish his bath early in order to 'retrieve' his two perverted friends from the girl's inevitable wrath.

"Hyoudou, I say that you should leave them alone to reap what they sow for once in a while." Issei's classmate put in his two-cents when he saw Issei stood up from his stool.

"I second that." Another one voiced his opinion. "Besides, I heard that Rosweisse-chan and the second-years from the student council have volunteered to guard the girl's bathroom from perverts. Those two pervs won't stand a chance passing them."

Issei blinked at the comment. His classmates actually had a valid point, there was no way two normal – aside from their massive perversion - humans like Matsuda and Motohama could go through a group of devils and a war-maiden.

"Yes, you should just relax and take it easy, Ise-kun." Yuuto finally spoke. "In fact, would you like me to wash your back?" the Knight asked with very calm tone. That question, however, garnered every eyes around to turn at Yuuto and Issei.

Knowing that everyone was staring at Yuuto's 'friendly' offer, Issei could not help but twitching his eyes. He knew that the Knight meant well, but the way he said it made the atmosphere very awkward around him. Perhaps he should have just bolted out of the bathroom with an excuse to check over Matsuda and Motohama on girl's bathroom.

"Anyway, speaking of girls…" the male classmate decided to break the awkward moment with another topic. "What is this we heard that you're going out with Asia-chan?"

At the question, Issei visibly flinched. Not even 24 hours had past since his revelation to few of his classmates and words had surely travelled fast. "Err…." Issei trailed off as he sent another and more pleading look at Yuuto, who this time was genuinely clueless and powerless to help; and while Issei had prepared himself to reveal his current relationship status soon, bathroom was not exactly the place he preferred to have it happened. Not to mention, if they found out that he had done 'the deed' with Asia, Issei would not hear the end of it. "Well, it's…"

However, much to Issei's relief, Azazel seemed to finish his own bath and walked over pass the boys, with his hand tapped particularly on Issei and Yuuto's shoulder. The two youngsters quickly got that Azazel needed to talk, thus they had to cut their bath-time short.

"I gotta get out. Azazel-sensei seems want to talk. Could be important." Issei quickly excused himself. "See you later, guys." He then quickly left the bathroom. Yuuto also poured a bucket of water over him one last time and nodded to his peers as well.

"Ah, wait!" the other males wanted to stop Issei from 'running away', but they were too late as Issei and Yuuto had disappeared at the door.

After Issei and Yuuto had clothed themselves and caught up with Azazel, they were now talking right outside of the male's bathroom. "So, what is it, sensei?" Issei asked.

"We actually have been summoned to a nearby restaurant." Azazel replied with his easy-going smirk. "…By the very cute Satan-Girl."

* * *

When the Gremory group and Azazel arrived at the designated point to meet Serafall Leviathan, they entered the establishment to see that not only the Leviathan, but the Student Council was present as well.

"Red Dragon Emperor, and Rias-chan's servants! Hello, it's been a while~!" Serafall waved her hand and greeted with her usual energy and enthusiasm. Apparently, she was also wearing a kimono for the occasion, with her long black hair tied up to match her outfit as well.

"Oh, it's Hyoudou and the others of Occult Research Club." Saji greeted, being a member of the group who had arrived first.

"'Sup, Saji." Issei greeted back as he and his group came over to the table. "How's Kyoto so far?"

Saji shrugged in reply. "We haven't seen anything yet. After all, we student council have to help the teachers in the first day… Like apprehending those two perverted friends of yours." He ended with slightly sarcastic tone.

"Err… Yeah, sorry about them." Issei averted his eyes from embarrassment, garnering some giggles and small laughs from the girls from Student Council.

"You should try the food, it's really good!" Serafall cheerfully interjected. "The chicken dishes are especially exquisite, Issei-kun and Saji-kun must really have some." The Satan Girl immediately ordered a storm as soon as Issei and his group took their seats, despite just had dinner earlier.

But in the end, everyone still had a taste for the sake of courtesy and they came to like the food. "So… Why has Lady Serafall come to this kind of place?" Issei finally asked after had tasted several more food.

"I came here to secure the alliance with the youkai forces in Kyoto." Serafall replied while doing her signature 'sparkling' pose. Despite her childish persona, she was still a responsible professional when it comes to foreign affairs. "…However, there seem to be an unusual situation." Her face suddenly turned into a frown.

"Unusual?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows as well.

"Yes." Serafall nodded. "According to reports from the Kyoto youkai, their leader, the nine-tailed fox has gone missing a few days ago."

_Give my mother back!_

Issei suddenly recalled the young female nine-tailed fox's words that day. It did not take long for Issei and everyone to connect the dots. "So that means…"

"Yes, I heard your report from Azazel-chan." Serafall confirmed. "I'm afraid… that is the current situation."

"So the leader of youkai has been kidnapped…." Azazel surmised while downing liquor. "And the ones responsible-…"

Serafall then completed Azazel's sentence. "-Most likely, Khaos Brigade."

Everyone's expression hardened at the news of the terrorist kidnapping the youkai leader. No wonder they were attacked, the youkai had been very restless with their leader's absence.

"Seriously, you guys… What kind of mess have you gotten mixed up again?" Saji asked with incredulous expression, his eyes were twitching ever so slightly.

Issei only replied with a dry glare. It was not like he was looking for trouble himself.

"Having to deal with terrorist while our hands are already full with these kids… How annoying." Azazel grumbled while his cup was being refilled by Serafall, whom continued after Azazel.

"No matter what, this situation cannot be disclosed; we must solve it ourselves. I will continue to convince the youkai to cooperate."

"Got it. I'll act alone this time." Azazel complied. "These terrorists had brought their trouble all the way to Kyoto…. I have to kiss my own leisure trip goodbye." The fallen angel lamented.

However, before the conversation could be carried out any further, the door of the restaurant was suddenly slammed open, revealing a young girl in shrine-maiden outfit with golden-blonde hair. The girl had a quick look-around, and when her eyes landed on the table where the supernaturals were sitting, she quickly made her way towards them, garnering some confused looks from the Student Council, while the Occult Research Club, Serafall and Azazel widened their eyes in apprehension as they seemed to recognise the girl.

Issei only blinked at the incoming young girl who stopped right before him; she was breathless and her expression was distraught. Serafall was the first to initiate a conversation. "Um… Excuse me, aren't you…?"

"Pardon me, but are you Hyoudou Issei?" the young girl disregarded Serafall completely and asked Issei right away.

Issei only blinked couple of times more before he decided to answer. "…Yes, that would be me. What-?"

However, before Issei could have said anything more, the young girl suddenly pushed forward and grabbed the front of his shirt. "Please, please call Saitama, your father!" the girl said with desperately pleading look. "I-I need to see him. I have to ask him to rescue my mother!" she then pressed her face against Issei's torso. "….Please."

Issei awkwardly put his arms on the girl's shoulders in order to comfort her. Then, he noticed that the girl's body was _trembling_. He noticed that her voice was shaking as well, signifying how distraught she was.

Then, the door was opened again, this time revealing a pair of elderly man and an adult woman. It appeared that they were in enough hurry to not applying more covers on their otherworldly aura, as they only did enough to look human enough in the eyes of other patrons.

"Princess, there you are!" the elderly man exclaimed as he strode over the table, followed by the woman.

"M'lady Kunou, you should not run off on your own! It's dangerous especially during this time of unrest with your mother's disappearance!"

The young girl known as Kunou looked down in shame and guilt, as she reluctantly moved away from Issei. The woman quickly attended to her while the elderly man turned towards the others and bowed. "Please forgive our intrusion. Princess Kunou is simply worried for her mother's safety."

The others seemed not sure of how to respond, but they did not particularly mind Kunou's sudden intrusion. It was rather rude, indeed, but knowing the circumstances, they could not help but understand the little girl's dilemma.

"Although…." The elderly man then turned his eyes curiously towards Issei. The woman who was with him also did the same. "Forgive me to ask this suddenly, but are you really Saitama-dono's son?"

"Err…Yes, I am." Issei could not help but to give an awkward nod.

"I see…" the youkai – albeit the group from Kuoh was not sure what kind of youkai he was - in disguise nodded, as the woman behind him widened her eyes ever so slightly in recognition, then both of the adult youkai bowed their heads again at Issei. "It is an honour to meet you, Hyoudou Issei-dono. Though, I'm afraid we have to cut this meeting short. Princess Kunou was supposed to remain in her living quarters until further notice from Lady Leviathan and Governor Azazel." The two adult youkai and Kunou then gave another bow to Azazel and Serafall, who returned the gesture.

When the youkai took their leave, Issei saw that Kunou gave him one last glance before the three youkai finally disappeared from view. The table then fell into another awkward silence in the light of the youkai's sudden intrusion. Then, everyone swore that they heard Serafall muttered under her breath, all the while biting her thumb-nail.

"Tch… That dumb bald idiot has just made a connection with Kyoto youkai before I do….."

The silence did not last long as Saji decided to break the ice by nudging over Issei's side. "Hyoudou, is your dad some kind of celebrity or something? I feel like every pantheon knows him at this point."

Issei only replied by giving Saji a mild, dry glare. While it might be good to know that your father was well-known by various kinds of people, it was a matter of time until that kind of thing began to grate on his nerves, to have many people flocking around because someone else's influence and all.

"Anyway, the youkai's abrupt intrusion aside." Azazel then got everyone back on track. "…Just take it easy for now and enjoy your school trip. We are in Kyoto, after all."

"Eh? Are you sure?" Issei asked back.

"You bet 'cha. Just let the adults to handle the situation as much as they could. You kids should enjoy yourselves while you still can." Azazel replied cooly.

"Yes, Rias-chan and Sona-chan's servants should enjoy their time in Kyoto. I will make out the best time for myself as well!" Serafall put in her two-cents, her expression was as if she had never muttered any curse towards Saitama earlier.

Everyone glanced at each other as they slowly came to terms that they indeed should just enjoy their field trip as much as they could.

* * *

It was the morning of the next day of the school trip that Issei was training with Asia at the hotel roof-top, with Asia practicing her skill in unleashing her magical power for defensive means, while Issei – blindfolded – would train his senses and reflexes by dodging Asia's magic from close range, then followed by some more of basic exercises.

"Sorry again about this, Asia." Issei said with his eyes remained close. "This is supposed to be your first school-trip, but you ended up helping me to train instead."

"It's okay." Asia shook her head while replying with her usual kind smile. "I'm happy to be together with Ise-san in every morning." Then she blushed at what she said next. "…After all, I'm Ise-san's girlfriend. If there's anything you need me to do for you, please just ask!"

Issei could not help but blush at Asia's reply. Seriously, this girl might indeed way out of his league.

"Can I join you guys?" Issei and Asia stopped on their tracks, the former opened his blindfold to see that Yuuto and Xenovia had arrived as well. "It's more efficient to have more training partners, right?" the male knight said.

"The match with the clan of Great King will come soon, anyway. So as long as we don't destroy this place too much, it's fine to train here with you guys, right?" Xenovia said as she propped up her wooden sword.

Then, Issei thought of something and came over to Yuuto. "Sorry Kiba, but I need a favour."

Yuuto raised an eyebrow, prompting Issei to continue with a nod. "I need you to teach me about techniques."

The knight blinked at the request. Not that he minded, but what technique specifically? "…What brought this on, suddenly?" the knight could not help but ask.

"Well… I just learned that I should not depend too much on my Scale Mail in battles, thus I can't solely rely on brute force alone. I need to learn something like… you know, to deal maximum damage with minimum effort…. That kind of thing." Issei replied, recalling his condition after the talk with Ddraig and his predecessors. "…Can you help me?"

Yuuto only smiled in approval and he turned to Xenovia. "See, Xenovia? You should follow Ise-kun's example for once in a while. Even he learns that he shouldn't relying too much on pure power alone."

Xenovia only blushed as she looked away with a pout. "…S-shut up, I'll be fine with my current fighting style as it is."

The boys then shared a small laugh, causing Xenovia to scowl at the two. Then Yuuto turned to look at Issei again. "Anyway, sure. I'll help. After all, I also need to train more of dealing with bare-handed opponents." Then Yuuto blinked as he recalled something. He then turned to Xenovia. "Oh, I almost forgot. Here." The Knight conjured a short sword and handed it to his fellow Knight. "Use this to fight in case of emergency."

"A holy short sword?" Xenovia regarded the blade for a second before she accepted it gratefully. "This is easier to carry around in my person. Thanks, Kiba."

However, Issei blinked at the short sword. _Holy_ short sword? Perhaps Yuuto meant holy-demonic short sword? Issei found that there was no any trace of demonic energy from the blade. _"Since when was Kiba able to create holy swords? I thought he can only create demonic ones?"_ Issei pondered for a moment before he simply shrugged it off. _"Oh, well. As long as it's nothing dangerous."_

While Xenovia took the spot next to Asia, Issei and Yuuto were facing against each other at the open space on the roof top. Issei was preparing his stance while Yuuto brandished his holy-demonic sword.

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm the right person to help you with this, since my speciality is swordsmanship." Yuuto said before the start of the spar. "The only thing I can suggest you is by stealing my moves and learn along the way. I can point out a thing or two, but you have to pick up the rest. Is that okay?"

"Couldn't be better." Issei replied with a grin. The two then nodded at each other, and few moments later, they dashed at each other, signifying the start of their morning training before the roll-call.

oXo

"Alright! Let's go, kids!"

"""YEAH!"""

With that shouts, the group consisting Hyoudou Issei, Asia Argento, Xenovia Quarta, Shidou Irina, Kiryuu Aika, Matsuda and Motohama began their next tour on Kyoto. They travelled to Kiyomizu-dera – per their planning – by bus with the other students and upon arriving, the group proceeded to (in)famous sloped path up towards Kiyomizu-dera.

"I heard this was called the Three Year Slope. If you fall over here, it means you will die in three years." Kiryuu revealed, still acting as the group's tour guide.

The information resulted with Asia became absolutely terrified and hugged Issei's arm for dear life. After all, Asia did tend to fall over due to her clumsiness. However, much to Issei's half-surprise, Xenovia also grabbed his other free arm. Her face was expressionless, but Issei could somewhat tell that the female Knight was scared as well. "What is it, Xenovia?" Issei knew what was wrong, but he just wanted to ask anyway.

"…The Japanese sure put some terrifying spells on their sloped paths." Her tone was even, her face was straight, but Issei clearly felt that Xenovia was trembling, which he found was rather cute of her despite her strong disposition as a swords-woman.

While the other girls – Kiryuu and Irina – only watched Issei got sandwiched by Asia and Xenovia in amusement, Matsuda and Motohama were glaring daggers of jealousy towards Issei, muttering something about 'two-timing bastard' and something along those lines.

After walking on the slope, the group finally entered through the Niou gates and finally arrived at Kiyomizu-dera.

"Look, Asia! This temple gathers the essence of pagan culture!" Xenovia excitedly voiced her thought about the site as she tugged on Asia's arm.

"Yes, yes! You can feel its history from its appearance!" despite her polite and well-mannered nature, Asia did not bother to refute Xenovia's rather rude comment.

"Cheers to pagans!" Irina herself did not even realize that she just more or less 'dissed' non-Christian sites beneath her cheers and praises.

Issei himself could only hope that the trio's comments would not jeopardize any relationship between the Christian-Judeo Three Factions with the Shinto pantheon. When Issei looked around at the high-stage of the Kiyomizu-dera, Kiryuu took a spot next to him.

"I heard that there were many people fell down from the stage and were saved." The girl informed.

Issei raised his eyebrows at the information. So the place had some sort of mysteries and magic that allowed normal humans to survive the fall from all the way up there? The boy guessed that historical sites such as Kiyomizu-dera had probably been taking measures to keep the tourist coming by through series of miracles or some kind.

When the group entered the temple, they visited the small shrine used for praying for passing grades and love wishes. The group said their wishes as high-school students, and Issei and Asia proceeded to draw a fortune of love prediction – per Kiryuu's suggestion.

The fortune stated that the two were highly compatible, much to Asia's happiness as the girl clutched the fortune-telling stick with tears of joy; the other girls in the group also nodded approvingly. Issei looked back at the shrine and wondered his compatibility with other girls in his apparent… harem – Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Irina and Koneko. But he soon shrugged it off; not only that he had offered a prayer for their well-being, he also well-aware that the fortune-telling was only in the end, a prediction.

Let's not forget Matsuda and Motohama, who felt being left out and swearing to get Issei back for his fortune 'sucking up' all of their fortunes with the fairer sex.

From the tour around the temple, the group then proceeded to leave Kiyomizu-dera towards Ginkaku-ji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion.

"It's not actually silver!?"

Much to everyone's amusement, Xenovia was disappointed at the fact that the temple was not covered in silver; the female knight could be so gullible sometimes, as she believed that Ginkaku-ji is covered in silver and Kinkaku-ji is covered in gold; she looked like a passionate treasure hunter who just had her long-sought treasure had vanished right before her eyes. Asia could only hug Xenovia's shoulder to comfort her.

After making rounds at the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, the group then moved towards its counter-parts, Kinkaku-ji, Temple of the Golden Pavilion. This time, much to Xenovia's happiness, was actually layered in gold. "Gold! This time it really is gold!" the bluenette raised her both arms, her face was full of radiance as she cried as if praising the heavens above. "IT'S REALLY GOOOOLD!"

They took photos and pictures – Issei sent some pictures towards his friends who were left behind at Academy, walked around the site for sight-seeing, bought souvenirs, and they finally took a break at the local tea-house.

"Please enjoy." a woman clad in kimono served the group a tray with a green tea set along with snacks. However, Issei, along with the members of Occult Research Club blinked as they recognised the waitress – it was the same woman attendant who was with princess Kunou during the dinner meeting with Serafall Leviathan. The youkai in disguise offered them a kind smile, silently telling them that they could just take it easy and enjoy the refreshments.

The devils and angel glanced at each other and they decided to relax and took a sip of their tea.

"Hm, it's good." Irina hummed as she enjoyed her cup of green tea.

"Tell me about it." Issei said in agreement.

"It's a little bitter." Asia said as she was rather unaccustomed with the traditional drink. However, she kept drinking, albeit little by little.

"It really is gold and shiny…" on the other hand, Xenovia was still enamoured at the sight of Kinkaku-ji rather than her own refreshments.

While the second-years were enjoying themselves, Issei received a call from Akeno.

"Hello, Akeno-san." Issei said through his cell-phone. "What is it?"

"Hello, Ise-kun." Akeno said pleasantly, albeit there was an edge on her tone. "It's nothing serious, but…. Just now Koneko-chan just brought up some concerns."

Issei's eyebrows furrowed. "…Concerns?"

"Yes, it's about the pictures you sent from Kyoto. The one from Kinkaku-ji."

"What about it? Is there a problem?" Issei asked.

"There's…. something in that picture." Akeno said after a pause.

Issei glanced at his cell-phone and narrowed his eyes. "What thing?"

"Yes, there are several fox youkai in the background of those pictures. Fox youkai are not rare in Kyoto, but…. Is there something going on?" Akeno asked with concerned tone.

Issei blinked as he realized what Akeno and the others back home were worrying about. Should he say the situation at Kyoto? For all he knew, they still had no enough information of the entire issue. Not to mention, when Issei checked the pictures before sending them, he could have sworn that there were no anomalies whatsoever in those pictures. It was highly possible for Koneko's heightened senses as Nekomata to detect those anomalies while he could not.

However, before Issei could have responded, he noticed that Matsuda, Motohama and Kiryuu had been fast asleep on the table, leaving him, Asia, Irina and Xenovia to stay awake. His instinct told him that the three humans were not asleep from exhaustion; the timing was way too off for such a thing to happen.

They also noticed that the waitress from earlier had revealed her youkai nature – a set of animal ears and tail on her person. The other tourists around them were asleep as well, safe for those who happened to be a youkai with animalistic features as well.

"Sorry, Akeno. Looks like it's already the time to move, everyone's waiting for me." Issei excused himself to Akeno through the phone, while his eyes were looking over his surrounding.

"Will you contact me if anything happens?" Akeno asked with worried and hopeful tone.

"Yeah." With that word, Issei hung up and quirked an eyebrow towards the youkai-lady. He did not sense any hostility from the surrounding youkai, but everyone awake did not lower their guard.

Before anyone could have taken any further action, Rossweisee suddenly entered to the tea-house. "Issei-san, everyone." She said between heavy breaths, as she seemed to come in hurry. "I was called by Azazel-sensei to welcome you guys."

"Azazel-sensei? What happened?" Issei asked back.

"After the misunderstanding had been cleared from the other day, a ceasefire had been called and the Kyuubi's daughter would like to have an audience with us, particularly you lot." Rossweisse explained.

Then, the youkai waitress from before came forward and she bowed in formal greeting. "How do you do? Though we have encountered each other the other night, I haven't spoken a word." She then looked up towards Issei and the others. "I am a fox youkai who serves the monarch of the Kyuubi and Kyoto youkai. We are terribly sorry for the inconveniences we have caused toward you. Please come with us, as our princess would like to apologize to you all. You can meet her at the inner capital where our kin resides, the devil king and the fallen angel governor are already there."

Thus, the devils and angel from Kuoh Academy had been summoned into the Youkai Capital.

* * *

Issei had to admit that he did not expect to learn the hidden side of Kyoto, especially when he stepped into another dimension entirely. It was akin to walk through a mirror - the world was similar, yet so different at the same time. The place he was in could be described as 'ancient and traditional' of Japan culture, ranging from the streets to the houses and buildings.

The most distinguishing features were the occupants of the place – creatures in various forms, some were looked like human-animal hybrid, some were looked like living inanimate objects such as walking umbrellas, lanterns, etc. The members of the Occult Research Club had stepped their feet onto the territory of Kyoto Youkai – Demons of Far East.

Upon entering and walking through the streets of Youkai Capital, all eyes were looking at them in curiosity. They followed the fox-lady towards the meeting venue, and as expected of the Youkai Capital, the whole place was dark, and the source of light were only the lanterns that moved along the road.

"Wooshashashasha!"

Everyone jumped when one of the lanterns suddenly grew an eye and a mouth then began laughing. Issei assumed that one youkai was the famous Tsukumogami.

"My apologies." The fox guiding them inclined her head slightly. "These folks love to play pranks sometimes… Though, they are completely harmless, I assure you."

"So this is the realm of youkai…" Issei could not help but to look around in amazement. He felt like walking inside a fairy tale.

"Indeed, it is." The fox-lady replied to Issei's comment. "This is the place where most of Kyoto youkai live. Remember you devils have used bounded fields in the Rating Game; so you may think of this space as something created in a similar way. We call this place the 'backstreets' or the 'Inner Capital' and other names. Of course, just like devils, there are those who live out there on the surface of Kyoto."

The whispers from the surrounding youkai could be heard as the Occult Research Club members kept walking.

"They are not human, are they?"

"No, I heard they are devils… One of them being an angel, what a weird combination."

"And that pretty foreign girl is a devil too?"

"That one with brown hair has a presence of a dragon… And his scent…"

However, most eyes were set particularly on Issei.

"That scent…. Is that really him?"

"Yes, that's Saitama's son, The current Red Dragon Emperor, according to rumours."

"Hoo… They don't look related at all."

"So it was true that Saitama is already committed. I feel a bit sorry for M'lady Yasaka…"

Ignoring the murmurs of the youkai - _"What was that about the last one?"_ Issei thought - the group finally had gone past the residential area. They then proceeded to enter the forested area with a flowing river, then after they had ventured deep enough, they encountered a massive torri gate, leading them towards a huge ancient mansion.

At the entrance, Azazel and Serafall had been waiting for them.

"So you've arrived." The fallen angel governor greeted.

"Yooho, everyone!" the Leviathan cheerfully waved her hand towards the approaching group.

However, apparently there was a third individual standing between Azazel and Serafall. The said individual was the same young fox-girl who attacked Issei and Asia from the other day, and by the extension, the same girl who barged in the meeting at the restaurant the other night; she was wearing a luxurious feathery kimono befitting a traditional princess instead of her previous shrine-maiden uniform.

"M'lady Kunou, I have brought them here." The fox-lady who guided the group reported her head at the little princess, who nodded her head in acknowledgement in return. Then, with one last nod at the group, the fox-lady attendant then left the place by disappearing in a burst of fire.

Then, the fox princess stepped forward and looked at everyone's eyes. "How do you do, I am Kunou, daughter of Yasaka, the administrator of the youkai living in the inner and outer Kyoto." Princess Kunou then bowed her head deeply. "I'm terribly sorry for our previous encounters, my rash actions upon you, as well as my unsightly behaviour on the other night." If one paid more attention, there was a slight strain in her formal and polite tone.

At the princess' troubled and guilty expression, everyone relaxed.

"It's fine." Xenovia was the first to speak up. "It's all good that now the misunderstanding has been cleared."

"Yes, us angels had been taught about the importance of forgiveness. I have no grudge against the princess." Irina followed up with a smile.

"Yes, everything is fine for us now." Asia also said her piece with her radiant smile.

"But… But…" However, Kunou still seemed hesitant.

Issei then kneeled so his eyes could meet Kunou's eyes on the same height-level. "Kunou, correct?" Issei asked with soft smile and gentle tone, and the girl before him nodded. "I'm also fine now, so you don't have to beat yourself up anymore."

When Kunou's hesitation remained, Issei leaned forward a bit, causing the girl to blink at the proximity between her and Issei. "You're really worried about your mother, aren't you? So it's understandable that you've been on the edge. Now that you've learned your mistake and apologized, what's there to worry from us anymore?" Issei then placed a hand on Kunou's shoulder. "It's all forgiven; we won't blame Kunou."

Kunou widened her eyes as her face turned red and she spoke in timid voice. "…Thank you." Issei then smiled a tad wider.

"Hm, I kind of see it coming, but you really know how to handle children, don't you?" Azazel commented while rubbing his chin.

"As your teacher, I'm proud of you, Ise-san. Saitama-san and Haruka-san will be happy as well." Rossweisse nodded approvingly. The others were also nodding in approval, causing Issei to get flustered from the flattery.

"Um…" Then, Kunou spoke up. "I'm sorry, but is it true… That Saitama won't be able to come for the time being?"

Issei blinked before he pursed his lips, almost going to frown if not for the fact there was a little girl right in front of him. He then glanced at Azazel and Serafall, where the latter also glanced at the former, whom only shook his head slowly in return. Issei then recalled the last thing about the meeting at the restaurant from the other night.

oXo

_(Flashback, last night, at the meeting with Serafall in the restaurant)_

"Err… Actually." Issei raised his hand. "While it would be ideal if we can resolve this matter by ourselves, what about calling that guy over just in case?" again, he had to learn the priorities and swallowed his pride in asking help from his father again.

"That's the thing." Azazel replied. "There's a riot going on in the Underworld, run by the supporters of the Old Satan Faction. Saitama just volunteered himself to help out the new government in suppressing those riots. Rias, Venelana and Grayfia also sent out to help as well."

Serafall then followed suit. "The last update I heard was that the riot and the movement of those Old Satan supporters were more coordinated than we initially thought, so it would take some time for everyone to take care of them."

"We've been communicating with the Underworld for new information, but with the things being hectic down there, any news and updates are gonna take some time as well to arrive on us. So all we have to do is wait, although I'd say it won't be that long with Saitama out there." Azazel finished his briefing.

_(End of Flashback)_

oXo

"I see…" Kunou replied in understanding. "I guess Saitama is also busy saving other people as well…. That's right, we can't keep relying on him all the time." Kunou then turned to look at everyone else. "Please… I beg you all…. Please lend your strength to rescue my mother!"

* * *

The day had ended; after another sumptuous feast for dinner, Issei was laid on his bed sheets as his eyes were staring at the ceiling; his mind pondered over the things that had happened that day. He recalled Kunou's desperate expression as she begged him and everyone to help her to save her mother.

Following Kunou's request, the group went to the meeting inside the mansion where they met with Kunou, listening to the talk regarding the investigation of who had kidnapped Yasaka, Kunou's mother and the leader of Kyoto youkai. According to the kyuubi's attendants, Yasaka had left her house a few days ago to meet with Sakra's messengers from Mount Sumeru. However, upon learning that she did not make it to the meeting place, the youkai investigated further and discovered that Yasaka had gone missing, while her guards were dead.

On the guard's dying moment, he testified that the group had been attacked and their leader was kidnapped. It was around the time that they became suspicious of the newcomers – the devils and angel from Kuoh Academy, thus leading to the attack at Fushimi Inari. The misunderstanding was finally cleared after Azazel and Serafall had negotiated with Kunou and denied Underworld's involvement.

Overall, the joined investigation by Azazel and Serafall's subordinates, as well as those from Kyoto youkai had been deployed. After lengthy conversations and investigations, the clues and leads drew them to the prime suspect – a group within Khaos Brigade's ranks that was known as Hero Faction.

On that note, it was confirmed that the kidnappers along with Yasaka were still within the borders of Kyoto, considering Yasaka's critical role to maintain the ley-lines of Kyoto in order to maintain the balance between the human and youkai realm. In conclusion, the students of Kuoh Academy would still continue with their trip and enjoy themselves, but they would have to remain vigilant in case of the enemy making their move.

Issei closed his eyes as he went over the things he had learned from the day's conversations. He had spoken with the others who were not present during the meeting with Kunou, and everyone had agreed with the next course of action. Then, his mind trailed to Hero Faction, the group that his father used to join in the past. He wondered if they were to meet again, how would things end up? Could Saitama talk them out and settle things peacefully?

"Pssh… Who am I kidding? There's no way this can be that simple."

Besides, there was still no word whatsoever from the Underworld, where Saitama was currently at.

Then Issei recalled Kunou's expression when she asked their aid; the looks that were troubled, sad, and desperate as she feared for her mother's life. His heart began to be filled with rage and his hand balled into a fist at the thought of bunch of kidnappers who had the gall to call themselves 'heroes'.

He wanted to pass time before going to bed, since it was not long after curfew for the students to sleep in their respective rooms. Should he go to visit Asia, Xenovia and Irina? Probably not, because he heard that the other girls – Murayama and Katase - had already planned to come over as well; it would be awkward if he suddenly barged in. Or should he hang out with Matsuda and Motohama? Nah, they were probably up to watch some porn inside their room, or peeking into girls' rooms, and Issei was not in mood to humour their shenanigans that night.

Thus, Issei decided to relax in the sauna before hitting the sack. He went to the men's public bathroom and he found that the bathroom was empty as expected. He put his clothes away, took a quick shower so he would not get too hot in the sauna, and upon entering the room, he splashed a full scoop of water on the sauna coal as the steam came out and raised the temperature of the room. Clad only with a piece of towel around his waist, Issei then took a seat and he relaxed his body, enjoying the heat.

He took a quick look around the unexpectedly large sauna, and he could not see very clearly on his surrounding due to the steam. He then leaned back against the wall, sprawled his body open and closed his eyes to relax himself more, immersing himself with the heat permeating the room. He heard the sound of the door opening, but he paid it no mind. It was normal for other people other than himself who wanted to enjoy sauna at late night. He kept listening the newcomer's footsteps until he heard the said newcomer took the spot next to him.

Odd, while Issei did not particularly mind, people would usually take a safe distance from strangers. Perhaps it was one of his classmates? When Issei opened his eyes to look at his apparent companion, his eyes were met with familiar blue hair, followed by an attractive female figure. Wait, _female_?

As Issei could not tear his gaze away from the newcomer whom was Xenovia, the girl caught his gaze and she looked away with flushed face. "Um… Can you not keep staring at me? I'm starting to feel embarrassed…" the girl's body leaned away a bit, but her whole frame did not move from her spot.

Issei blinked and realized that he had been practically ogling on Xenovia's naked body, and he quickly turned around out of respect as his back was now facing her. "Err, um…. Xenovia, I think you entered the wrong room. Girl's bathroom is upstairs, remember?"

"…Yeah, I know." Xenovia meekly replied. When she entered the sauna, she unexpectedly, was rather overwhelmed by the sight of Issei's well-toned physic. "I… I actually planned to pay a visit to your room, then I saw you walked towards the bathroom, so I decided to follow." She then paused. "Though, if you're bothered and want to be alone, I'll take my leave."

"No, no." Issei turned his head around, before he quickly looked away again when he caught another glimpse of Xenovia's nude. "If… If you're aware where you are, then…. You're free to stay. I'll keep you company if you don't mind." While he believed that he had gotten used to be in sexy situation like this, it was still so awkward for him when it actually happened.

The two then fell into companionable silence until Issei felt that Xenovia was leaning her back against his. His face heated up when he could feel Xenovia's skin that was glazed with sweats against his own, and soon both of them were not sure anymore either the heat was from their proximity or the room temperature.

"…Xenovia?" Issei asked as he turned his head slightly.

"Sorry, can we stay like this for a while?" Xenovia said as she curled up, hugging her knees against her front. "I've… been wanting to…"

Xenovia's pause piqued Issei's curiosity. "…To?"

"To tell you how I feel for you." Xenovia replied, before she looked away bashfully. "…Well, I know that it's kind of late with everything that had been said and done, but I want to do this properly."

Issei widened his eyes ever so slightly at Xenovia's blunt reply, but after few seconds, Issei returned to his position, looking away from Xenovia. He would wait for her to gather herself and listen to what she had to say.

With her back remained in contact against Issei's broad back, Xenovia began speaking after one deep breath. "The first time I heard about you, was when Irina telling stories of her childhood friend, who was also the son of Saitama-dono, the man whom had saved our lives." Xenovia's face then gained a noticeable pink tinge. "I was kind of excited to meet Saitama's family, looking forward to see what kind of boy that takes after his genes." She then closed her eyes at the memory. "To be honest, I was rather disappointed when I learned that you turned into a devil. I remained silent back then simply out of respect for your father and mother."

Issei listened to Xenovia's every word as the corner of his lips quirked up.

"Then… after facing Kokabiel, joining Rias' peerage, and all… I began to learn about you better." Xenovia's blush deepened. "You have… the qualities of a hero. You are kind, you are driven to do what is right, and even then, I… have been attracted by your strength." Then she chuckled. "'Strong man attracts women left and right' - How true that statement is."

Issei could only scratch his cheek at Xenovia's high opinion about him.

"But… the day when you asked Archangel Michael to give me the chance to stay true to my faith and beliefs… was one of the biggest moments in my life." Xenovia smiled fondly. "From there onwards, I don't know if it can be called love, but… I've found myself not being able to live a life without you."

While Issei's face gained a healthy shade of red from Xenovia's apparent confession, he suddenly felt a pair of slender arms stretched around him as Xenovia embraced him from behind; her face had found its way to the crook of his neck, burying itself there as she held him tightly. "I've… come to care too much for you now." Xenovia said as she felt the warmth exuding from Issei's body. "While I still want to bear a child, now I want that child to be yours, nobody else's."

Issei could hear his and Xenovia's heart-beat in the room, as her chest was pressed against his back. Few moments later, he smiled as he cupped Xenovia's hands with his own and relaxed his body back against Xenovia. "If… If you want to be part of my life as more than a friend, I'd be glad to accept you…" Issei replied, receiving a sheepish, yet happy smile from Xenovia. "Then Issei turned around until he was facing her. "Well… I guess I have long accepted you as one of the girls who I cherish the most, but… having heart-to-heart talk like this is as good time as any, right?" he finished with a grin.

The two then giggled to themselves for a second, until they slowly leaned their faces closer towards each other. When they stopped, their lips were only inches a part. They stared to each other's eyes as they could feel each other's breaths against their skin; the temperature in the room and the fact that both of them were as naked as the day they were born only thinned their reasoning little by little.

As her eyes kept getting clouded with desire, Xenovia was the first one to move as her hands grasped Issei's side of the head and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. While their conjoined mouths were moving in tandem, Xenovia's hands began to roam through Issei's hair and massaging his scalp, Issei's hands had made their ways as well – his right hand was holding her back while his left was grasping the back of her neck.

Their kiss became more heated as soft moans and groans came from their conjoined mouths, their tongues were attempting to dominate each other. When their bodies were pressed and rubbed against each other, Issei could feel that he was getting hard. Xenovia on the other hand, could feel that Issei's member was caught in between their bodies, pressed hard against her stomach.

The two finally broke the kiss so they could breath; both of their eyes were filled with desire and their faces were flushed red. They heavily breathed as Issei proceeded to grab on Xenovia's shoulders and slowly pushed her away from him, increasing their distance. "…What is it?" Xenovia asked with her expression in trance.

"We… We shouldn't do it here." Issei replied. After all, they were in public area. "Someone might walk in on us. We have to get out."

Xenovia breathed a sigh of relief, much to Issei's wonder. "You don't have to worry about that." She said with certainty. "Before I came in, I have taken several measures so nobody would come here. I have put a fake sign that the bathroom is under maintenance, I've even deployed two bounded fields – one to keep the sound from escaping outside, and another one so nobody would not even bother to approach the entrance."

Issei stared at Xenovia with deadpanned eyes. He wished that Xenovia had put her determinations and efforts into something other than… this. "….You used magic to create those barriers?"

Xenovia nodded proudly in return. "Yes, Irina also helped in deploying them."

Issei only twitched his eyes slightly at the fact that Xenovia had an accomplice. "…Speaking of, does Asia know anything about this?"

"Fufufu, no need to fret." Xenovia chuckled as she held up her hand. "In fact, I have asked Asia for permission if I can have you for tonight. She was reluctant at first, but she had finally given me her consent." She finished while flashing a thumbs-up.

Issei palmed his face. Everything was just so wrong in more ways than one. But at the same time, he could not bring himself to back away from the situation. He had accepted the fact that he had a harem of beautiful girls, and with him had wanted to pursue the girls' feelings, he might as well see this through to the end.

"So…." Xenovia looked down before she looked up in slight hesitation towards Issei. "Are we…?"

Issei only replied with a sigh as he leaned his forehead against Xenovia's. "Seriously, whatever do I have to do about you?"

The two then chuckled again as their foreheads were still in touch. Then, they when they fell into another silence, Xenovia looked down and noticed Issei's hard member. Issei then blinked and looked down to see that Xenovia's hand was caressing the head of his member, and she proceeded to softly stroke along the shaft, eliciting a sigh from Issei.

Then, Xenovia proceeded to kneel on the floor, making her one level below Issei, with her head directly facing his nether region. "…Xenovia?" Issei asked, wondering what she was up to this time.

"I… I'd like to try something." Xenovia replied bashfully as she kept staring at Issei's erection. "So Asia had to take this thing inside her?" her comment about his member caused Issei to look away bashfully, eliciting a soft giggle from Xenovia.

However, Issei felt Xenovia's hot breaths hitting him, followed by the feel of her hands holding him carefully. When he looked down, he widened his eyes when Xenovia opened her mouth and gave a quick, moist lick on his member. Issei then closed his eyes as he had to hold his groan back from a pleasurable sensation, focusing his mind at Xenovia's oral ministration. Xenovia then kept tentatively licking Issei's length; along the shaft and the sides of the head, as if testing the waters. As Xenovia became more bold in her movements and ministrations, Issei let out a breath when she also used her hands to caress the shaft and lick more often. Slowly but surely, Xenovia started to gain more confidence in what she was doing as she took Issei's soft moans and grunts as her incentives.

Issei opened his eyes and looked down to see that Xenovia also met his gaze while she kept continuing on pleasuring him. Her gaze became seductive – despite her flustered expression – as she slid her tongue along the entire shaft, causing Issei to grit his teeth and hiss in pleasure, resulting Xenovia to feel glad that her 'service' did please Issei.

Then, without breaking the eye contact, Xenovia took upon herself by moving her head forward and placed her mouth directly above the head of Issei's length. She then immediately took as much of Issei's length into her mouth as she could. Upon feeling Xenovia's moist and soft tongue, as well as the fullness of her lips on his shaft, Issei exhaled a shuddering breath.

However, when things were looking up for both of them…

_CHOMP._

Next moment, Issei was curled up on the floor, his hands were covering and massaging his throbbing member. Xenovia on the other hand, was prostrating before him with her head bowed down to the floor.

"I-I-I-I'm so sorry!" Xenovia apologized frantically after she had accidentally bitten Issei's member. "I-I will accept any form of punishment!"

"X-Xenovia-san…." Issei's voice was shaking as well; he then slowly looked up with his face pale from pain. "Did I do something that offended you by any chance?"

"N-No! You didn't!" Xenovia looked up as well; her expression was completely full of remorse. "I never wanted to hurt you!" she then looked down in guilt, as tears started to form in her eyes. "It's… supposed to make you feel good…." Her voice sounded timid.

Issei stared at Xenovia as the pain on his member had lessened. "Um, Xenovia. Where did you learn about something like this, anyway?"

"Well…" Xenovia looked away bashfully; she played with her fingers as she felt kind of embarrassed. "I may have learned few things from Kiryuu when I asked her once about baby-making. Actually, Matsuda and Motohama were kind enough to provide the materials for me to research as well."

Issei felt his eyes twitched as he made a mental note to have few words with those depraved three. He gave out a sigh as he stood up, pulling Xenovia towards him by her arm, eliciting a small yelp from her. Then, Issei was back on his sitting position, with Xenovia sitting on his lap, her back was pressing against him.

"I-Ise?" Xenovia stuttered as Issei was embracing him from behind.

"Let's just… stay this for a while." Issei said as he rested his head on the crook on Xenovia's neck; his arms were circling Xenovia's waist, keeping her in place. "…Or at least until the pain subsides." Xenovia then looked down, her face was blushing again from her blunder being mentioned, and the two fell into another silence.

After a minute or two, Issei started to softly kiss and lick Xenovia's exposed skin, starting from her shoulder, then her neck, eliciting a gasp from Xenovia as he revelled in her body odour, he could even taste Xenovia's sweat through his mouth as he kept giving Xenovia those butterfly kisses.

Xenovia then inhaled sharply and moaned as Issei started to nibble on her ear. Her moan only caused Issei to feel aroused, as his member was no longer hurting. Issei then moved to Xenovia's left shoulder, giving her the same series of butterfly kiss like the previous one, causing Xenovia to let out a shuddering breath.

"Ise…" Xenovia moaned out, turning her head so her flushed face was right in front of Issei's own face.

The two glanced at each other's eyes that were clouded in desire once again before the two leaned forward and captured each other's lips into another kiss. Issei then lifted up his free hand to cup Xenovia's cheek and she grasped the said hand with her own. The kiss started off slow, their lips gradually meshing together, breaking apart every few seconds to breath.

They picked up the pace as Xenovia twisted her body slightly so she could snuggle closer against Issei's bare frame. She moaned into the kiss as she let go of Issei's hand and wrapped her arms around his neck to deepen their contact on each other. Issei's hand also slid from her cheek as he wrapped his arms back around her waist.

Issei's erection was pressed against her well-toned hips as he was aggravated by Xenovia's gasp for breath. His right hand then proceeded to crawl up and play with Xenovia's breast, poking and tweaking her hard nipple, eliciting more moans from her, while his other hand crawled down towards her nether region.

Xenovia elicited another moan as she did not want to tear her lips away from Issei, her body arched at the sensation when Issei's right hand started to massage her mound while his left hand teased and pleasured her clit. She leaned her head back so fix her position as she kept furiously kissing him – breaking the kiss every now and then so she could breath, her left arm sneaked around his neck while her right arm went behind her, as if searching for something. There, Xenovia's right hand found Issei's length that was already rock-hard, and began to stroke it. The two kept pleasuring each other through their mouths and hands respectively, but Xenovia was the first one that could not hold it in anymore from Issei's ministrations on her breasts and private areas.

Issei was driven to the brink every time he heard Xenovia whined and moaned between the kisses as he rubbed her sweet spot. He also made sure to constantly rub the same spot to elicit more reaction from her. Xenovia herself only returned Issei's ministrations by bucking her body to accommodate him as she kept stroking Issei's member.

For Issei, Xenovia's voice as he pleasured her sounded akin to music to his ears; her moans when Issei rubbed her clit and sweet spot, her whines that slowly became more begging as the time went by, and he could have sworn that he heard gentle whispers that said 'more' coming from Xenovia, every time she broke the kiss for air.

For Xenovia, her mind and sanity was pushed to the brink by Issei's warmth, how soft his lips when she kissed him, yet his own kiss was slowly dominating her. His hands that were playing and teasing her breasts and lower lip sent jolt after jolts through her whole body. The hardened length that she was grabbing in her hand – she really wanted it more and more as the time went by.

Not to mention for both of them, the heat in the sauna room only made their case even worse.

Xenovia then managed to break away from Issei's arms, ending every skin-contact they were engaging in, and she dropped on her fours to the floor. Issei's eyes were trailed on her sweaty skin, her lower lip that was now drenched and occasionally dripping, and her flushed face that was filled unadulterated desire of him. "Ise, please…" Xenovia looked at Issei with mixture of pleading and lust in her eyes. "Give it to me, now." She said as her hand reached to her butt, show-casing her dripping, wet opening.

Perhaps it was the heat messing with his head, as well as most likely that Xenovia's rather husky voice sounded incredibly sexy at that moment, but Issei could no longer hold back. He strode forward, pulling Xenovia off the floor and placed her against the wall – he kept both of her hands on the said wall with his own, with her body bent over and her buttock facing his throbbing erection, then while his free hand grabbed her well-shaped rear, he carefully slid his length through Xenovia's maiden-hood.

It was thanks to the earlier foreplay that Issei's advance was met with little resistance as he took Xenovia from behind. Xenovia gasped for breath heavily as she took Issei's entire length inside her; that feeling of Issei's erection went inside her in one swift movement was enough to send shivers through her spine and her mind went white, as she unconsciously lifted up her butt so he could take more of Issei's man-hood. _"Is this what Asia felt….?"_ That thought ran across Xenovia's mind in her midst of heavy breathing and orgasm.

"…Fuck!" Issei on the other hand, had to keep himself together again as he found that Xenovia was so _damn tight_. The tightness he felt from Xenovia's inside was different from Asia's petite frame, it was probably because Xenovia had trained her body a lot that her flesh and muscle had become more toned and firm as the wall inside her vagina was squeezing and choking his length for all its worth.

The two remained silent as they were connected for a minute, to recollect themselves. Xenovia then looked behind so her eyes met Issei, and when she gave a nod, Issei then grabbed Xenovia's plump rear with his both hands and began to pull his length mid-way before he pushed it back in, eliciting moans from her that sounded like music to him as he pounded her. Issei kept moving his hips back and forth in slow pace, and it did not take too long until Xenovia began to move her hips as well, matching her rhythm with his own.

As Xenovia moaned in pleasure from her connection with Issei, she gasped when she felt his fingers trailed across the skin of her back, she sent a look that wanted him to stop teasing her, as it only made her loosing her mind more. "Ise…."

Issei simply leaned forward so his face could reach Xenovia's, while he kept his pounding in steady pace. He then trailed off on Xenovia's bare shoulder, giving light kisses that sent Xenovia's mind further to the edge – she began to bite her finger from the stimulations – and he playfully nibble on her ear lobe. When Xenovia was about to retort on Issei's teasing again, Issei's lips had captured her own, his hand was keeping her face in place.

They maintained their position and movements for another while, until Issei's other hand began to roam over Xenovia's body. The hand then played on her right breast and started to tease her nipple, while the other hand that was cupping her face was now trailing down to her private areas, until it found her clit and began teasing it. When Issei's fingers lightly pinched Xenovia's clit, she ended up crying out a bit as her body suddenly shivered again, her fingers began clawing on the wall as her inner walls tightened and clamped on Issei's length – much to his pleasure and excitement, as his self-controlled was being tested once again – before her lower body felt like melting.

Xenovia's legs suddenly lost their strength as she abruptly collapsed on her knees, causing Issei's throbbing erection then slid out from her. Issei became worried when he saw Xenovia suddenly collapsed before him, her face flushed and her breathing was heavy. "Are you okay, Xenovia?" he asked in worried, yet haggard tone.

"I-I'm fine." Xenovia said between her heavy breathings. "Sorry… It's just the strength in my legs…" she rubbed her legs that were still shivering from her contact with Issei, trying to get their feel again. "D-don't worry, I'll get up in a sec…"

Without another moment, Issei swept Xenovia off the floor, keeping his arms under her feet so he could lift her up. Then, as Xenovia automatically threw her arms around to cling on Issei's neck, he pushed Xenovia's back against the wall as he pressed his front on her naked frame, with his arms maintaining their grasps on her legs. They then smiled in affirmation at each other, and Issei slid in his length inside her again, despite without resistance, and Xenovia had become more accustomed with the feeling of 'fullness' in her lower belly, as Issei began to pound her in earnest.

Issei and Xenovia themselves did not waste any moment as they returned to furiously kiss one another, their fronts were rubbing and grinding against each other, Issei's arms had thrown Xenovia's legs on her shoulders so he could keep her body position better, with his hands holding on her hips; and as Xenovia felt that Issei was pounding even deeper inside her, she began to claw on his back, then on his shoulder, until her hands stayed to cling tightly on his head; her fingers were digging through his hair, massaging his scalp.

They kept ravishing each other's mouth, their kiss broke off every now and then so they could take a quick breath. Issei's pounding began even faster and Xenovia's inner walls around Issei's length had become even tighter, eliciting a grunt from him. Issei was approaching his limit as he buried his face in Xenovia's chest. "X-Xenovia, I-I'm…!"

Xenovia only tightened her grip on Issei as she had reached her limit as well. "Yes, let it out…. Inside…!"

With one last thrust, Issei and Xenovia reached their orgasms together with the voice of grunting and muffled cry echoed inside sauna. Xenovia was arching her head upwards when she cried, while Issei was still burying his face in Xenovia's chest. Their bodies were shivering like mad from the intense climax, and Issei slowly pulled out his man-hood out from Xenovia's lower lips. Fluids of mixture their bodily fluids were dripping to the floor from the slight opening of Xenovia's slit.

The two were catching their breaths as they slowly collapsed to the floor, with Xenovia's back sliding down the wall while Issei fell to his knees. They breathed heavily from exhaustion, and it was Xenovia who spoke first. "…I left the condoms back in my room."

Issei only blinked before he sighed exasperatedly at Xenovia's comment on her first time. "…Really?"

"Yeah." Xenovia simply said. "But that was… _amazing_." Xenovia said with dazed look. "But I guess we don't need them as you are now a middle-class devil." She said in regards of Issei's previous promise about his promotion.

With Xenovia's comment being rather out-of-place, especially after sex, Issei decided to wrap things out. "Come on, let's cool off before we head out." He stood up as he helped Xenovia to stand. He had expected that the girl would be way too weak to walk on her own after everything had been done.

* * *

The two were now resting inside the indoor hot spring. After a quick clean-up – the sauna was reek in their body odour and bodily fluids – they decided to relax themselves before they returned to their respective rooms. Xenovia was sitting in front of Issei, with her back leaning against his front, as they enjoyed the hot water washing away their fatigue after a steamy intercourse.

The two were caught in comfortable silence as they also enjoyed each other's warmth and company, until Xenovia began to speak. "Say, Ise…" Xenovia started what she heard as 'pillow talk', despite the location. "Can you tell me how you ended up becoming a devil?"

Issei pondered on Xenovia's question. His story of becoming a devil was not exactly a happy one, especially when he considered it was more or less around the time when Asia joined Rias Gremory's peerage as well.

When Xenovia noticed Issei's silence, she immediately blushed. "W-well, if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine. I'm sorry if I made you remembering bad memories." She said as her body curled up in embarrassment.

Issei blinked at Xenovia's considerate retort, then when his eyes met her shy looks, he softly sighed and he embraced Xenovia from behind, pulling her closer against his. "It's fine… I guess I can tell you." Issei said and he took a deep breath. "I think everything began when my gaze and Rias' met for the first time at Kuoh Academy…"

Issei then began telling Xenovia his story; of how he could not take his eyes off the sight of Rias Gremory on that fateful day, of how he was taken down by a cheap-shot from behind by a couple of fallen angels, and Rias came to the scene to save his life by reincarnating him. He also ended up revealing that it was around his first few days of his reincarnation that he met Asia Argento, leading to the confrontation with the mob of fallen angels and stray exorcists that were infiltrating the town and her later reincarnation.

Xenovia remained silent as she listened to Issei's story, her hands clenched their grip in unconscious anger when she learned about the abuse that Asia had to go through prior her reincarnation, and she felt sad when she learned of Issei's despair when he failed to protect Asia back then. Now she more or less understood of the reason Issei went berserk during the fiasco with Shalba Beelzebub.

"And… there you have it." Issei finally finished his tale.

"That was very kind of her. As expected of Rias-buchou." Xenovia smiled when she heard about Rias comforting Issei regarding the latter's first time of killing people. "Though…. I honestly did not expect your recruitment into devil ranks to go that way."

It might sounded presumptuous for other people, but it was Xenovia's nature to be blunt that made Issei could not help but wave it off with playful glint in his eyes. "Oh? Why is it? What did you expect earlier?"

"Well…." Xenovia looked side-ways, scratching her cheek awkwardly. "If we looked back, you're very lucky, you know." Xenovia said. "I mean, what are the chances that her familiar happened to be around to give you the summoning paper before you go with that fallen? And what are the odds of Rias Gremory herself to answer your summoning? It was as if everything had been set so she could reincarnate you into her pawn." Xenovia's eyebrows then frowned slightly. "I… actually kind of expected for buchou to come to you and negotiate with you to join her peerage or something… Just like when I came to her in the first place."

_**[She actually **_**has**_** a point, partner.]**_

Issei could only blink at Xenovia's statement, as well as Ddraig's input. His mind suddenly trailed back when his brown eyes met Rias' teal eyes on _that_ day. Was that encounter also a coincidence as well? Now that he thought about it, Rias' gaze on him back then was not of someone who just happened to look at him by sheer coincidence. That sharp, narrowed gaze was that of someone who was watching him, observing him.

Issei only remained silent for few more moments, his mind was pondering on Xenovia's and Ddraig's opinion. His abrupt death aside, there was not any hint of shock and surprise in her tone when Rias found him in the first place. Perhaps she was already accustomed with the sight of people dying, but…. Was she already prepared a set of Evil Pieces beforehand?

"…_Meh."_ Issei suddenly shrugged and dismissed the thought abruptly. _"I'll think about it later."_ Right now, he just wanted to have a good night sleep after a good sex. He then stood up and stepped out from the bath. "Come on, Xenovia." He said as he helped Xenovia to get up as well. "It's late, and we still have another tomorrow."

"Ah, y-yeah." Xenovia felt a bit off about Issei suddenly ending the conversation there and then, but she did not question him any further. After all, they still had more things to do for the next day.

* * *

While Issei and the second years of Kuoh Academy were travelling to Kyoto, Saitama was busy in the Underworld.

He got a word that there were still a huge numbers of Old Satan Faction's supporters causing riot and rebellion against Sirzechs and other new Satan's government, and he decided to volunteer himself as reinforcement. It had become one of his new routines to help out his new devil friends, much to the sort-of irony.

Apparently, the ladies from Gremory clan – Rias, Venelana and Grayfia were also enlisted within the ranks, and Saitama learned that compared with the latter two, Rias were 'cute'; not that Saitama saw that she was that exceptional or anything, considering his previous encounters with even more powerful individuals in the past.

Saitama honestly thought that it would be another day of easy job. Suppressing a riot? Simple, push them back until they were cornered and end them with one decisive blow. He had seen many riots in his old home that had been suppressed in more or less that manner. Thus, he did not expect that the rebels from Old Satan Faction to be so coordinated as they used advanced guerrilla and tactical war, and it was only thanks to Rias, Grayfia and Venelana's brilliant minds that allowed their army to keep winning the battle.

After a day of 'gruelling' battles – not in Saitama's case, mind you – the new government had spotted the last platoon of enemy forces had retreated into the depths of the forest at the outskirts of capital. Saitama had been asked the favour to take care of them, or at least to smoke them out for the allies to deal with them.

Here he was, trekking through the forest, separated from his allies when he just went off to take a quick leak, and completely lost. He did not anyone so far, no allies, no enemies, even; only tall-towering trees surrounding him.

However, before he could have screamed to call out for the allied forces, he suddenly encountered a creature that seemed to be a mixture of… a tree and dragon?

"_What the hell is that?"_

While Saitama was still trying to make out the nature of the creature before him, the tree-dragon spoke. The creature introduced himself as Ladon…? And said something about Saitama had taken out one of his compatriots named Grendel.

"_Who the hell is Grendel again?"_

Then, Saitama felt a shift in the air around him, and several large figures resembling the tree-dragon, and Saitama caught the original tree-dragon spouting something about his powerful barriers and stuff; not that he cared any way.

Of course, the fight did not even last for a minute as he single-handedly obliterated every last one of the dragons with his fist alone. However, his predicament had yet to end as Saitama still could not get out from the mass of trees around him.

Saitama kept walking, and he arrived at the tree that he could have sworn had come across for the umpteenth time as he had walked for over half an hour. Could it be that he was trapped in some kind of artificial dimension, like the one possessed by Georg? Possible, but when Saitama came to think about it again, his surrounding should have returned to normal as soon as he had defeated that strange tree-dragon. Well, perhaps he had to wait for few minutes before everything returned to normal, but the fact that he had been walking in circles had gotten on his nerves. Seriously, he only walked a straight path without taking any turns, yet he was still walking in circles, _what in the actual fuck!?_

"Seriously, where the fuck am I?!" Saitama screamed towards the sky above him. "…And I'm hungry."

The sound of Saitama's growling tummy could be heard from the depths of the forest.

oXo

Meanwhile, at the other side of the Underworld, two figures were talking inside a dark room with holographic image projected in front of them. The dim light could not reveal their faces, but both of them possessed silver hair.

"….Okay, so he could even destroy magic with that fist of his." The one with ornate ceremonial robe and slightly taller build, said with a sigh. "This guy is _really_ something." Despite the bad news he was learning now, he could not help but feel excited.

"What are our next steps, milord?" The other occupant in the room asked with polite tone.

"For now? Let's see…" the one addressed as 'milord' pondered. "For now, send out retrieval team to pick up Ladon-kun's soul to be resurrected later, and… how is the thing that you found at that remote island near…. Err, what's that country called again…. Ja-ja-…" The man clicked his fingers, trying to remember. "…Japan? Yes, Japan! The thing that you found at the outskirts of Japan?"

"The research is going swimmingly." The other one bowed. "While I could only retrieve what appeared to be some scraps and left-overs from that island, those are enough for me to create something that works in similar manner, albeit less potent."

"Hm, I guess it can't be helped." The master rubbed his bearded chin in acknowledgement. "And how are our recruits?"

"They are… willing to cooperate so far." The attendant replied. "Though, those three are currently doing their own reconnaissance, scouting for strong opponents to fight in our future plans."

"Excellent." The master nodded. "And how are things at Greece?"

"We are now negotiating with Hades, the Greek's ruler of realm of the dead, and it is likely that he will allow us to get what we are looking for from his realm…. Of course, he's also willing to put his under the wraps."

"Awesome." The master's grin showed his teeth gleaming in the darkness. "And, one more thing. What about those bunch of heroes-wannabe?"

"They are currently partaking their own agendas in Kyoto, with an angel and devils of Gremory and Sitri clan at the site as well."

"I see, I see…." The master nodded knowingly. "Speaking of Gremory… I heard that the current Red Dragon Emperor is a part of that servant-loving clan?"

"Yes, the son of our person of interest."

"Alright, keep up the surveillance, we will need to learn every information that we can use in the future. And see that the things I mentioned to you will be done as soon as possible."

"At once, milord."

"Great." The master chuckled. "Now, Euclid. Plotting something evil makes me hungry. What do you say we have some pizza and chimi-changas?" the man then laughed as he walked leaving the room.

The man that was called as Euclid only sighed softly, though he did not say anything in objection as he followed his master.

_To be Continued…_

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**That's all for now! I'm sorry for the lack of action in this chapter, but in return, I gave you a different kind of action instead. ;) I hope this one is better than the last.**

**So, what do you think of this chapter overall? The part regarding Saitama's status and whereabouts will be explained in the next chapter or after. And I believe you people can guess of who are the two individuals at the end of this chapter, as I will make some twist regarding their agendas in future arcs.**

**Next chapter, meeting the Hero Faction! Please review, and no flames please. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	40. Kyoto (IV)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, my dear readers! I have returned with another chapter of One-Punch DxD! I did not get that much reviews on the previous chapter, but enough of that. I apologize for ZairiX, idea getthe, and those who don't like lemon scenes in general, for the sudden lemon in the previous chapter. I really forgot to put in the warning in the heat of the moment. I'll make sure to put them on in future chapters.**

**Without further ado, R&amp;R! And I do not neither One-Punch Man nor High-school DxD!**

* * *

**Chapter 37: Kyoto (IV) – The Heroes**

It was the next day of the trip, and Issei, along with Xenovia looked worn out when their group set out for their next journey.

It was not because of the steamy passion he had with Xenovia last night, but what came after. Apparently, when Issei and Xenovia stepped out from the bath, they met Irina, who was indeed guarding the bathroom and they soon found out by Rossweisse, whom was patrolling that night, and when the former Valkyrie caught the wind of what Issei and Xenovia had done in _public bathroom_ of all places, she began to lecture those two for the entire night, leaving them only had few hours of sleep. Rossweisse knew that Issei had 'unintentionally' built a harem, but the idea of conducting inappropriate behaviour that set her off to lecture Issei. After all, she had promised Saitama for Issei's well-being, after all.

Issei was rather relieved that Rossweisse had yet to find out that he also had done the deed with Asia as well, because during that morning before the departure, Rossweisse had to go early for her teacher duty.

"Hey, Ise… Why do you look exhausted already? It's only in the morning." Matsuda asked as the group was preparing to leave the hotel.

However, Issei simply glanced at Matsuda and Motohama's utterly beaten-up faces, covered in bruises and band-aids. "Rather than me, why are your faces already looked like corpses in the morning?"

Apparently, at the same night, not long before Issei and Xenovia had their sauna rendezvous, the perverted-duo had attempted to peek at women's bath again. Of course, judging from their current looks, their attempts had blown up right in their faces, as they were busted by the girls of student council _and_ those in the bath as well.

"Nothing much." Motohama replied, fixing his already-broken glasses.

"These are wounds of honour." Matsuda replied proudly, much to Issei's exasperation. His two friends were probably beyond help at this point.

"Rather, where were you last night?" Matsuda quipped with a dry look. "We actually thought you're gonna show up and save our asses from the girls."

"You expect me to look after you two retards during our only field trip in high-school?" Issei replied with the same dry glare. "Dude, I have my own life, you know."

"Now, now, you boys…" Kiryuu decided to step in. "Hyoudou here was just too busy last night, isn't that right?" Issei could not help but notice mischievous glint in Kiryuu's eyes, no doubt that she had an idea or two of what he was doing last night. After all, she got along quite well and hung out a lot with the church trio.

Speaking of the church trio, Asia was giving her boyfriend an exasperated look, despite she herself had accepted and allowed for event last night to happen, and Irina was giving Issei stink eyes, despite she herself had a hand in what happened in that sauna, and while Xenovia was looking a bit haggard, she would send Issei strange looks before she smiled in apparent satisfaction.

"Anyway." Issei then decided to move on. "Today we are going to Tenryuu-ji, right? How do we get there?"

"Let's see…." Kiryuu then opened up her map and tour-guide. "We'll… take the one heading to Arashiyama, then get off at the closest stop to Arashiyama, we'll going on feet from there."

"Got it. Then we're going to the station now." Issei nodded. "Buchou once mentioned that there will be buses and streetcars everywhere."

The group then proceeded to travel in leisure while they were talking some light topic about their trip. It was relaxing, really; by the time they arrived at Arashiyama, they were greeted by a set of elegant gates.

"_So…"_ Issei then contacted Ddraig in his mind, as he took in the sight Temple of Heavenly Dragon. _"Ring any bells?"_

_**[Hmm…Yea…- Nah. Probably. I don't know.]**_

Ignoring the Welsh Dragon's abstract answer, Issei followed his group to walk inside the site until they were greeted by a familiar face.

"Hello, you lot came along." The voice belonged to Kunou, the young fox-youkai was now disguised properly as a human girl with blonde hair – ears and tails hidden from sight, clad in her usual shrine-maiden outfit.

"Kunou." Issei greeted, giving a nod along with everyone else from Occult Research Club.

"Yes, as agreed, I shall be your tour guide for the surroundings of Arashiyama." Kunou gave a polite bow.

"Wow, what a cute girl!" Matsuda and Motohama were obviously the first ones to react at Kunou's appearance. "Hey, Ise. you even started to hook a little kid like her?" Motohama asked.

It took quite an effort for Issei not to bash Motohama right in the face.

"Small…. So adorable… Guhuhu~!" Matsuda on the other hand, was ogling at Kunou's form while breathing heavily. As Issei had feared, knowing his friend's fetish, Kunou was definitely Matsuda's type.

Kiryuu on the other hand, did not bother to hold back and proceeded to hug and rub her face on Kunou's own face, much to everyone's surprise and Kunou's reluctance. "Ah, so cute! Hyoudou, how did you meet her?" the perverted girl asked.

"Let-let go of me! Don't act so familiar, you peasant!" Kunou's protest and struggle to break free were completely ignored; in fact, it only aroused Kiryuu even more.

"Oh, protesting like a princess is just the best! What a perfect image!" Kiryuu kept maintaining her skin-ship on the youkai girl.

While Issei was a tad amused at the spectacle, he decided to step in and pulled Kunou away from Kiryuu, much to the latter's reluctance, this time. "This is Kunou. She knew me, Asia, and the others from Occult Research Club from Rias-buchou." That was not exactly a lie, even if the lie was viable and necessary. After all, Gremory clan did have some influence in Kyoto.

Straightening and tidying her appearance, Kunou then introduced herself in dignified manner befitting a princess. "I am Kunou, pleased to meet you."

"Ah, I see. So you know Gremory-senpai? I've heard that the hotel we're staying at is related to her family's company, after all." Kiryuu surmised, which actually helped Issei a lot in fabricating and covering Kunou's true identity.

Nodding at Kiryuu's own conclusion, Issei then turned to the little princess. "So, Kunou. You said you will be our tour guide, what are we going to be doing?"

"I shall accompany all of you and tour these famous sights!" Kunou confidently replied and proudly puffed out her chest.

Then, with a soft smile coming up on Issei's face, he then bowed and asked in the manner he had learned from Venelana's tutoring. "In that case, can we be honoured by having you to show us around the Tenryuu-ji?" his actions garnered some amused looks from his group.

Kunou's face blushed for a second at Issei's gesture, but she quickly replaced it with a proud smile. "Of course!"

Thus, the small group of second-years Kuoh Academy students received the honour of being guided by the Kyoto princess herself.

* * *

The tour around the Storm Mountain went on without a hitch as the second-years were enjoying the sights while being guided by Kunou. Everybody had to admit that the little fox princess was _absolutely adorable_ when she earnestly did her job as a tour-guide, explaining and describing the various places in Kyoto.

They had been led inside a large abbey with a beautiful garden, decorated by the red leaves of autumn and a pond filled with carp fishes swimming around, giving an excellent aesthetic beauty for the tourists.

When the group moved to the teaching hall, Issei found an image carved on the ceiling – a picture of spectacular eastern dragon.

"This is the famous Unryuu-zu, or 'Image of the Cloud Dragon', no matter which direction, you will feel like the dragon is staring straight at you. It's the so-called 'Watching the Six Directions.'"

After Kunou had given her explanation, Issei gave a quick tap inside his soul. _"Say, Ddraig. Are all eastern dragons like this?"_

_**[Yes, mostly. This one reminds me of one of the Five Dragon Kings, Yu-Long – The Jade Dragon.]**_

The tour went on with Kunou proudly presented the Nison-in, The Bamboo Path, Jojakko-ji, and many other places around Arashiyama. The group admired the sights of Buddha statue at Nison-in, enjoying the tranquil bamboo path while riding rickshaws, then they took a break at a place that served one of Kyoto's delicacy, tofu hotpot, per Kunou's recommendation.

It was truly something for someone whose mother was being kidnapped to act cheerful and dignified when the situation demands it. There was a reason why Kunou was acknowledged as a princess and the daughter of the Kyoto youkai monarch.

When the group was enjoying themselves with their snacks, Issei was greeted by a familiar face. "Ise-kun."

Issei turned to see that Yuuto, with his own group, was having on lunch at the neighbouring table. "Oh. 'Sup, Kiba? So you guys are going to Arashiyama as well."

"Yes. Have you guys gone to the Tenryuu-ji?" Yuuto replied and followed with another question.

"Yeah, there's some awesome dragon picture on the ceiling."

The two boys then engaged in a light conversation about their tour so far, until they were interrupted by another familiar voice. "What an elegant autumn… Arashiyama." Issei and Yuuto turned to see Azazel was drinking sake in the middle of the day. "So? Are you all enjoying the Storm Mountain?"

"Sensei? Are you- is that-?" Issei narrowed his eyes to find that Azazel was indeed drinking liquor during the day, when he was supposed to be a teacher. "Is that sake in your hand?!"

Apparently, Azazel was also accompanied by Rossweisse, whom sat in front of him. "You won't believe how irresponsible this person is, when he was supposed to set an example in front of students as a teacher…!" her expression was completely aggravated.

"Come on, this is just a short break after investigating Arashiyama. Lighten up." Azazel waved off. His attitude and behaviour at the moment made his claim sounded doubtful. "Seriously, you should act like girls your age, sometimes, being cute and all. This is why you haven't been able to get yourself a guy."

Rossweisse then reached her limit when Azazel touched the taboo topic, and she proceeded to slam her fists on the table. "T-th-thi-this- This has nothing to do with boyfriends!" she said with absolutely agitated face. "Don't mess with me! You want me to drink!? Fine, I will drink!" she then snatched the cup of sake from Azazel's hand and downed its content in one go – with _unexpectedly_ elegant posture.

The former Valkyrie then put her cup on the table, her face down. Then, when she looked up, everyone was greeted by the sight of the woman with her face beet red and talking in slur. "Ha, you shee? I-I dunk, you, you good fer nothin' teasher…"

Issei and Yuuto blinked when they learned that Rossweisse was indeed drunk. Even Azazel was surprised to see the woman was drunk with a single cup of liquor. "Wha- you drunk already? From one cup? Are you kidding?"

"I ain't dunk!" Rossweisse shot back as she began to harass the fallen angel governor. "I've- Hic! I've been dwinking ever shince I b'came old man Odin's bodyguard…" Then Rossweisse began to rant in slurs about her days working with the Chief God of Norse, complaining over his perversion and debauchery.

"…That'sss…. Why I got no boyfriend, no boyfriend, no boyfriend… Hic! And then, and then, when I thought I scored on a hunk like Saitama, guezz what? The guy's been mawieed!" Rossweisse then wailed her eyes out.

"_Is she not over him yet or what?"_ Issei could not help but wonder, receiving a questioning look from Yuuto, which he only replied with a shrug.

Azazel began to reflect on his teasing habit, especially on someone like Rossweisse. "Err… Okay, okay. I understand." He awkwardly scratched his head and decided to be a good listener. "I'll listen to your complaints, just…. Let it all out."

"Really?!" Rossweisse's mood suddenly brightened up. "Heehee, I know ye got in in ya! O, waiter~ ten more bottlesh pleasssssse~!" she drunkenly shouted and waved at the nearby waiter.

"You kids get out of here as soon as you finish eating. I'll handle this." Azazel managed to give his instruction before he returned to humor the drunken Valkyrie.

When the students had left the shop, they could hear Rossweisse's drunken laughter all the way from the inside.

"100 yen ssshopsssss are the best! Ah-hahaha~!"

oXo

"Rossweisse-chan sure made quite a scene."

"Yeah, who knew she was such a poor drinker."

Motohama and Matsuda were expressing their disappointment as their images of Rossweisse had crumbled before their very eyes; when the group had arrived at Togetsukyou.

"She does look young, but she's also a mature lady with years of hard experience. Following Azazel-sensei around like that would make anyone want to vent out every now and then." Kiryuu commented while nodding her head sympathetically.

Those from Occult Research Club could understand as well. After all, considering Rossweisse's 'career history' with Odin and his indecent attitude, then had to follow someone like Azazel around as fellow teachers, of course the woman would have a break down at some point. Perhaps they had to cut Rossweisse some slack in the future.

Kunou only darted her eyes around the second-years student and asked hesitantly; she got what they were saying more or less, but not understanding the whole story. "So…. You servants seem to have it tough?"

"….Yeah, kind of." Issei shrugged with more-or-less hand gesture. The life as devil servants had never been easy to begin with.

After ceasing the talk about Rossweisse, they arrived at Katsura river, and walking across the wooden bridge while admiring the view of the mountain at the distance.

"Did you know that according to rumours, you shouldn't turn back in the middle of crossing Togetsukyou?" Kiryuu suddenly said.

"Why is that?" Asia asked in curiosity.

Having a mischievous glint in her eyes, Kiryuu grinned lightly. "Asia, listen. If you look back while crossing the bridge, intelligence granted by the heavens will be taken back. If the boys, especially the perverts, look back, it will be over for them; they will become utter fools."

""Shut up/How rude!"" Matsuda, Motohama and Issei shot back.

Unfazed, Kiryuu continued. "Another legend says… Well, this one sounds kind of inauspicious, but if you look back, lovers will be separated."

Hearing that, Asia's face became pale before her face flustered with determination, as she clutched Issei's arm for dear life. "I will never look back!" she then turned to her boyfriend with teary eyes. "Ise-san, whatever you do, please don't look back!"

"Come on now, Asia… It's-It's just a legend." Issei said bashfully. It felt kind of embarrassing and adorable at the same time, to see the dear sweet Asia to shake her head and proceeded to hug Issei's arm even tighter, as she focused her eyes anywhere but behind her. But for her sake, Issei decided to play along.

Feeling mischievous themselves, Matsuda and Motohama who were walking behind Issei and Asia, decided to play some pranks based on the legend about lovers.

"Hey, Ise! Come look at here, there's something awesome you have to see!"

"Yeah. Turn back here, dude."

The playful giggles from the perverts were the only thing that hinted that they did not mean what they said or attempted to do, as Kiryuu also snorted in amusement.

"No, fuck off!" Issei shot back with twitching eyes. "I'm not falling for that, you cheeky bastards!" he made sure to cover Asia's ears from the profanities that came out from his mouth.

However, Asia was certainly not taking it well. "Matsuda-san! Motohama-san! That's horrible of you!" she _almost_ turned back when she said that, causing her to tear up even more.

"Oh, come on! Look at what you two clowns have done!" Issei then circled his arm around Asia's shoulder to comfort her.

"You two were absolute disgrace!" Kiryuu said with mocking and slightly playful tone. "It's fine, Asia-chan. Nothing's gonna happen even if you look back."

Even when Matsuda and Motohama could only see Asia's back, they still had enough conscience when they had taken their jokes too far for someone as innocent as Asia.

"Come on, Asia-chan, it's just a joke!"

"Yeah, the lovers thing is just bunch of bullshit! We're sorry!"

Matsuda and Motohama then shivered when they felt that Xenovia was glaring at them. Apparently she also took in what Kiryuu said in her mind, just like Asia. Upon Xenovia's sharp gaze, and they raised their arms up in surrender.

"Relax, Xenovia. It's supposed to be a legend….. I think." Irina said as she decided to step in as peace-maker and the one with a bit more common sense; then she turned to Matsuda and Motohama with dry look. "But seriously, you two. Cut it out, that's really not nice."

"Alright, alright. We're shutting up now." Matsuda said as he calmed down. "Damn that Ise… He and Asia-chan are really a couple, huh?"

"They're entering that stage already. I don't know if I want to be glad or furious." Motohama said in resignation.

Issei wanted to retort, but doing so he might end up looking back, and Asia would be upset.

"You don't need to mind it, as a matter of fact." Kunou interjected. "The legend about lovers is truly just a superstition." However, despite her and everyone else's explanation, the ever-innocent Asia still refused to look back.

oXo

When they had crossed the bridge, Issei felt some _unnatural_ warmth passed his body. He blinked at the sensation, and he looked at his surrounding only to find that nobody else, except of those from Occult Research Club, as well as Kunou, were around. The others also felt the anomaly, and everyone prepared themselves for whatever that was going to happen. As they surveyed their surroundings for any sign of hostile, they found the ground had been covered with some kind of mist.

"This mist…" Asia muttered as her eyes widened in recognition. "The feeling I get from this mist is definitely the same one from the device I was imprisoned with when Diodora kidnapped me."

Yuuto, who happened to be at the vicinity, came over Issei's group. His expression was grim as he also noticed the mist and Asia's testimony. "Dimension Lost…" he muttered as he crouched down and waved his hand around the mist to get a feel of it.

Everybody perked up when the Knight mentioned the name of the Longinus that was said to be one rank above Issei's Boosted Gear. Why would a high-tier Longinus be activated in Togetsukyou?

"Hey, are you all okay?"

When the second-years heard the voice who asked those words, they looked up to see Azazel was flying with his jet-black wings unravelled on his back. "Everybody except us had completely vanished. Most likely we were forcefully transferred to an alternate dimension and sealed within it... " The fallen angel governor said as he landed in front of everyone. "From the looks of these, this alternate dimension is an exact replica of Togetsukyou, if not the entire Kyoto as well."

"…Like the Rating Game field of devils?" Issei asked after gathering the puzzles.

"Yeah. Looks like the technique and magic of our Three Factions had been leaked. This place likely applies game field methods." Azazel replied with grim expression. "But unlike our magic, the mist of Dimension Lost can transfer all of us into alternate territory without any sign of warning… A Longinus is truly terrifying."

"I-I remember…" Kunou said with trembling voice. "On the verge of death, one of my mother's dying guards that they were also trapped by mist without warning."

At Kunou's story, everyone widened their eyes as they came to same conclusion about the perpetrator's identity.

"It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time, governor Azazel and the Red Dragon Emperor."

Unfamiliar voice echoed, and when everyone turned towards the source, they saw that beyond the thin layer of mist, multiple presences made themselves known. The one who greeted them in particular, was a young man – not far from Issei's age – with short black hair. Standing at the front of the group, he was clad in a combination of Japanese school autumn-uniform and ancient Chinese attire. The youth was also carrying a spear in his hand. When Issei's eyes met with the spear, a chill ran down in his spine as his instinct was telling him to stay away from the spear. Issei also noticed that the young man's companions were also clad in similar attire, both male and female, whom also looked not that different in age group.

Issei could not really tell who they truly were; as their presences were not those of any kind of angel, fallen, demons, nor dragons, but he could not say that they were normal human either. However, what unnerved him the most was, that while all of the newcomers were looking at all the supernatural creatures, he felt that every single member would at least stare _particularly_ at him for few seconds, especially the youth with the spear faintly smirked when his eyes met Issei's. On that note, Issei could have sworn that among the female members, there was one with blonde hair whose gaze was kind of creeping him out.

"…So you are Saitama's son, eh?"

Issei and everyone else widened his eyes at the mention of Saitama. If these people knew Issei's father, then there was at least one possibility…

Azazel then took a step forward. "Are you the rumoured Hero Faction?"

The spear-wielding youth rested his weapon on his shoulder as he turned his gaze at Azazel. "I am Cao Cao, the descendant of the famous Cao Cao, Cao Mengde, recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. Something like that." He introduced himself with absolute confidence in his tone.

"….Who?"

Everyone at the vicinity, including those from the apparent Hero Faction, blinked and turned to see Issei with puzzled expression.

The man – Cao Cao decided to elaborate things further with slight amusement and curiosity in his eyes. "You know, Cao Cao – one of the greatest warlords of China."

Issei only stared and shrugged.

"He's the chancellor of Eastern Han dynasty?"

The hero descendant decided to give Issei more clues. The latter rolled his eyes a bit in thinking before he gave another clueless shrug.

"…Emperor Wu of Wei?"

"Ah-uh." Another shrug and shake of the head from Issei.

Cao Cao finally decided to have enough as he released a small sigh. "Whatever. The point is, we used to work with your father."

"Ah, yeah. I know that already." Issei finally spoke up. "Your ancestor aside, let's go back to business, okay?"

"Ise, remind me to teach you a bit about heroes of old when we go back to Kuoh." Azazel interjected. "It's kind of embarrassing to have you to be the only one who is clueless about someone as famous as Cao Cao from Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

"….Sorry." Issei nodded his head in slight shame. Everyone else also knew better than saying anything; they had something more important to take care of.

"All else aside, you guys must be careful around that spear of his, the True Longinus." Azazel then instructed. "…The most powerful Longinus that is believed to be capable of piercing through the God Himself… I haven't seen it for a long time ever since Vatican had established their first order of warriors…. to think it has now fallen into the hands of the terrorists."

Everyone became even more psyched out as they stared shockingly at Cao Cao's spear, the True Longinus.

"That is the holy spear that even the Seraphim of Heaven fear...?" Irina commented with trembling voice.

"I also heard about it ever since I was a child - The spear that pierced Jesus Christ Himself... The spear that carries Jesus' Blood…! The absolute spear that pierced the body of God!" Xenovia whispered with mix of fear and awe in her tone.

"That is the holy spear…" Asia murmured as her eyes became dazed, and her body began to move towards the direction where the newcomers were at, as if she was charmed and attracted to the Longinus.

Fortunately, became Asia could have gone too far, Azazel immediately covered her eyes with his hand, effectively stopping her. "Easy there, Asia." Azazel calmly pulled Asia back to the group. "A faithful people like you shouldn't stare at that spear, otherwise you will lose your sanity." His eyes then returned to gaze at the god-killing spear. "…After all, that Longinus is also one of Church's holy relics – The Holy Spear of the Setting Sun, the Spear of Destiny – along with the Holy Cross, the Holy Grail, the Holy Nails and the Shroud of Turin."

"You, boy!" everyone turned to see Kunou glaring heatedly at Cao Cao. "I have questions for you!"

The aforementioned young man only regarded Kunou lightly before he inclined his head casually. "My, my… If it isn't the little princess. What is it? I will try my best to answer your questions."

Kunou glared at Cao Cao for few more seconds before she carefully gave her first question. "…Are you the ones who took my mother away?"

"That is true." Cao Cao calmly replied, not denying anything.

"What are you planning to do to my mother?" Kunou asked again.

"We wish to have your mother to cooperate in some experiment of ours." Cao Cao simply admitted without batting an eye.

"…What experiment? What is your purpose?"

"The main idea… Is to grant the wish of our benefactor. That's all."

The idea of her mother being kidnapped to forcefully partake in some random experimentation made Kunou's rage boiled as she bared her fangs; her teary eyes were glaring daggers at the Hero Faction.

"Benefactor… Are you talking about Ophis?" Azazel asked this time around with stern voice. "Why have you shown up now?"

"I guess there's no need to hide it anymore." Cao Cao lightly scoffed with his smirk widened slightly. "We just decided to say hello before the real deal takes place. I wish to meet Governor of fallen angels and legendary The Red Dragon Emperor, the son of our old comrade."

"That's very kind of you to greet us like this…" Azazel replied sarcastically. "So let's keep this simple; please return the leader of the kyuubi. We are trying hard to join forces with the youkai." The fallen angel finished by pointing his spear of light at the group of 'heroes'.

On cue, everyone formed their battle positions. Issei immediately summoned his Boosted Gear and began to charge as much power as he could muster – even ready to go Balance Breaker if the situation deemed necessary, Yuuto prepared his Sword of Betrayer while passing Xenovia the Ascalon. Irina also unfurled her angelic wings while Asia standing at the centre of the group with all of her arsenals ready.

However, Issei remembered that they were one person short. "Err… Sensei, where's Rossweisse-san?" he whispered to Azazel.

Azazel replied without taking his eyes off from the enemy. "That woman was also transferred here, but she is still sleeping at the restaurant. I placed a strong barrier over her, so it should be fine for now."

It was kind of worrying to have one of the members to be already out of fight already, but everybody would have to make do with the current situation. However, the Hero Faction did not seem to be at the same edge as the students of Kuoh Academy.

"Leonardo." Cao Cao called out a name, and a short young boy with expressionless boy stepped forward to stand beside the former. "Have some of your monsters ready for our opening salvo."

The young boy known as Leonardo nodded once, and shadows began to appear beneath him and rapidly expanded across the ground. When Issei stared at the shadow, he could see something was moving, gnawing from the darkness, which gave him discomforting feelings as everyone saw that the shadow had covered the entire Togetsukyou. What's more, the shadows were slowly forming into _something._

Meanwhile, Cao Cao watched Leonardo's power doing its work, and he noticed that the people behind him were also preparing themselves to attack at the moment's notice. He looked directly at them, giving them a silent order, and the group blinked, hesitated for a second, before they finally complied and relaxed their stances, although they were still ready to move.

On the other hand, Leonardo's shadows had finally finished on taking forms of monsters and beasts clad in black along with their limbs. They were all bipedal, as tall as grown men, but their postures were feral, signifying the fact that they were something monstrous to face against. When the numbers of the beasts had surpassed over tens, Cao Cao suddenly placed a hand on the young boy's shoulder.

"That's enough, Leonardo." Cao Cao said, and the boy complied as the beasts stopped appearing. "Since we're facing someone who inherited Saitama here, should we try _those_?"

Leonardo's impassive face shifted ever so slightly with his eyes widened by fraction, and the corners of his lips twitched upwards a bit. "….Okay." That was probably the first word after a while that came out from him.

"Don't force yourself too much. Remember, there's still a lot for us to do." Cao Cao tapped his hand on Leonardo's shoulder, and the latter began to focus even more as the shadow beneath him expanded again around him.

If the previous shadows put everyone on edge, this one seemed to petrify them. The range of the shadows were only around 1-2 metres from the boy, but everyone could sense a dreadful feeling as the shadows – two of them to be precise, started to take form. When the two newly created beasts had been summoned, Leonardo took a deep breath as he was exhausted, his energy seemed drained.

The two aforementioned monsters were different than the others. Instead of feral, their features, stances and postures were more humane as they simply stood straight at the spot where they had been created in calm manner, unlike the others that were either gnashing, growling and roaring at Issei and the others; they remained still, but clearly living, as if waiting for orders. There are features that made them distinguishable from each other – while both of them seemed to have solid and muscular build, one of them had rather lean posture, possessing the same height as Issei, while the other was almost twice as tall with bulkier build.

_**[…While the others did not seem to amount much, those two in particular are… a hell lot stronger than the rest, partner.]**_

"…_.Is that so?"_ Issei scoffed at Ddraig's description. When Issei heard Ddraig's input while staring at the two new monsters, he could immediately tell that those particular two were things that he could not fight half-heartedly.

"Annihilation Maker…" Azazel muttered with his eyes glinting in recognition.

"Haha, yes. That is correct." Cao Cao laughed in response. "This child here possesses one of the Thirteen Longinus. While not like my True Longinus here, but this is still one of the deadliest Sacred Gears ever existed."

Issei could not help but smirked nervously at the incredulity that happened at the moment. Dimension Lost, True Longinus, and Annihilation Maker – three most powerful god-killing artefacts just gathered in the same place, if his Boosted Gear was included as well. It was practically Longinus Fanfare taking place in Kyoto.

"Say, Azazel-sensei…" Issei asked after swallowing a lump. "That… something-maker or another, is a bad news, isn't it?" Issei said as he kept his eyes on the two more 'humane' monsters besides Leonardo.

"Annihilation Maker." Azazel corrected the name. "And yes; while it did not possess Boosted Gear or Divine Dividing's raw combat power, Annihilation Maker's versatility in creating any monster based on the user's imagination, has more than enough potential to destroy the world." Azazel said in grim tone before he sighed. "The Three Factions, especially Grigori had been keeping tabs on the Longinus possessors over centuries, yet we still fail to notice that the most powerful ones had ended up as our enemies."

Cao Cao eyed Leonardo's with calculative look, before he hummed. "I see… I guess Leonardo could only safely create two of our latest monster projects." then he turned his attention to Issei. "Red Dragon Emperor over there. As Saitama's son, we would appreciate if you're willing to cooperate to test these two, um…" he hummed, tapping his chin with his finger, as he thought of something. "Anti-Saitama monsters."

When everyone blinked, one of the newly created monsters, Anti-Saitama – the one with smaller build – had already moved and arrived right before Issei, who was still staring incredulously.

"…Anti-what?" those were the only words that had come out from Issei before the creature took him and flew away from where the rest was.

"ISE!" everyone shouted as they watched Issei being taken to the sky. When they turned back towards the Hero Faction, the other humanoid creature with larger build had also vanished from its spot.

Automatically, Xenovia immediately aimed her sword towards Leonardo, who was still looking winded. However, before she could have made another step, she had to leap back when a bolt of light suddenly struck her previous spot. She and everyone turned to see one of the other black monsters had smoke coming from its open mouth, showing that it was the one who attacked Xenovia earlier.

"Cao Cao, you bastard! What have you done!?" Azazel yelled at the hero descendant.

"I believe you've figured it out, Azazel." Cao Cao replied. "The assaults against the major pantheons were to collect data for creating these anti-monsters… creatures that are specialised to combat other supernatural creatures. However…" Cao Cao paused and he smirked. "The ones that are now engaging the Red Dragon Emperor… Those are something we're still working on, in order to fight against Saitama."

"I see, hence the name Anti-Saitama… How original." Azazel's voice was laced in sarcasm. "However, I can tell that these monsters you're creating are far from completion, no?"

"….How did you figure it out?" Cao Cao did not even deny Azazel's claim.

"It's pretty obvious that the gods of pantheons you have attacked are still alive. Did not take long to figure out that you folks have yet to capable of creating god-killing beasts. Not to mention, when that kid created those so-called Anti-Saitama there…" Azazel eyed over Leonardo. "He's out of breath. You people who had spent quite some time with Saitama should have known that techniques and special abilities are next-to useless against someone like that guy."

Annihilation Maker, the Demonic Beast Creation, is a unique Longinus-class Sacred Gear that is capable of creating countless numbers of creatures depending on the user's imagination. However, while the user's imagination could grant forms, features, special attributes and skills upon the creature, there are some restrictions in creating the creatures.

One such restriction for example; if the user wanted to create a creature that was 'invincible'. Annihilation Maker requires the user to be as specific as possible in order to work effectively and efficiently. When the user's wish and intent were too broad or general, the Longinus would have to draw more of the user's power reserve to make up for the insufficient information.

Longinus or not, Sacred Gears responded to the wielder's desire and emotion; however, the wielders themselves had to possess sufficient amount of power in their own bodies so they could draw and sustain the power they drew from their Sacred Gears.

Thus, during Hero Faction's past experimentation and studies on Annihilation Maker, Leonardo had to observe the battle directly in order to gain better insight of what kind of monster he would like to summon in future. He had to understand what it took for his created-monsters to prevail against various enemies. That was why Hero Faction attacked various pantheons so the boy could understand what it took to create the ideal anti-monsters.

However, Saitama was a different case – a complete enigma. Nobody could comprehend the origin of his strength. He was human, did not possess any kind of Sacred Gear or special artefacts, nor possess any special bloodline. However, many members hypothesised that Saitama possessed 'something' that had assimilated with his person, allowing Saitama to be ridiculously powerful as he was currently.

During Cao Cao's last meeting with Saitama, Leonardo's ambush with his anti-monsters could not even scratch him - the creatures that had gained experiences from battling angels and demons alike. Thus, Leonardo ended up with 'something that is powerful enough to fight Saitama'.

Of course, while responding to its wielder's desire, the Annihilation Maker could not process Leonardo's intent due to insufficient knowledge. Thus, the Longinus had to draw as much power as possible from Leonardo's reserve to create the creature that was 'powerful'. That was the reason why Leonardo was out of breath from just creating two, because he simply did not have enough power to accomplish such a thing.

The same could be said in case of gods. While Leonardo had better understanding on them than Saitama, he simply did not have enough knowledge on god's ancient, millennia-old mysteries for his Annihilation Maker.

"You are right. Those Anti-Saitama are still prototypes, because we still had no idea of what sort of power Saitama possessed behind his strength. Are they just simple super-human traits? I doubt it, because I have witnessed several individuals that had trained their bodies even harder than Saitama, yet they're still weaker than him." Cao Cao then lifted up his True Longinus and pointed it towards the sky. "However, if it's a god… Then I can, and will kill it with this spear. Let the battle begin."

The anti-monsters then began to lounge and run to attack the Occult Research Club and Kunou. Azazel flapped his jet-black wings and took to the sky. "Make sure to protect that fox-princess and the non-combatants!" Azazel began to bark orders and instructions.

"Yeah!"

With that, the battle began. Xenovia swung her Ascalon in wide arc, cutting down a good number of anti-monsters in one strike. "Asia, Lady Kunou, stay behind me!" the aforementioned two nodded shakily, with Asia immediately prepared her Twilight Healing, ready to give healing support at the moment's notice.

"Irina, provide air-support while Kiba takes the vanguard!" Azazel said, receiving affirmative respond from the reincarnated angel. His strategist mind as a leader for over millennia was working to formulate plans. "We have to aim for that boy using the Annihilation Maker to deal with all of the monsters! Kiba, pass everybody your Holy Eraser to fend off those monsters!"

Yuuto blinked for a second before his eyes glinted in understanding. "…I see! Understood!" he then conjured his demonic swords and passed them to everyone, even Asia as means for self-defence.

Seeing that the Occult Research Club members were faring well, Azazel then turned towards Cao Cao. "And you… would you like to be defeated by me?" the fallen angel smirked as he took out and unleashed the power of his Downfall Dragon Spear, his body was encased in golden dragon armour.

In return, Cao Cao smiled fearlessly. "To fight the Scape Goat recorded in the Bible and Book of Enoch? I'm very honoured, indeed!" His True Longinus then started glowing in massive holy aura, as he looked back to order the other members to look after Leonardo, and his subordinates began to escort the young boy to the rear lines.

Cao Cao then stepped forward to engage Azazel. The two regarded each other for few moments before Holy Spear and Spear of Light clashed against one another.

* * *

Issei and one of the Anti-Saitama monsters just crashed into a random building after they had been tangling in the air. Apparently, Issei noted that the alternate dimension did not only cover the Togetsukyou, but possibly a good region of Kyoto as well, if not the whole capital itself. Another thing was, that it was not a flight, the creature actually possessed enough strength to leap far away while carrying Issei along. It just brought Issei away from his comrades with pure brute force of its arms and legs.

The two plummeted, and Issei got thrown off, away from the monster and rolled on the ground to gain distance. In the midst of dust and debris, Issei stood up and saw the monster was standing, staring at him impassively. Issei then took a deep breath to regain his bearings, and he hardened his glare at his enemy. "Alright, Ddraig. Kid's gloves are off!"

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

Issei then clad in his dragon armour, and immediately charged at the Anti-Saitama monster with high speed. However, the monster simply stepped aside and missed Issei by hair's breadth. Issei stopped, he turned around to stare at the creature's sharp reflexes.

Furrowing his eyebrows beneath his mask, Issei charged again, this time he engaged the monster in hand-to-hand combat. Issei threw several punches, which easily intercepted by the monsters, much to Issei's surprise. When the monster caught Issei's fist, it quickly countered with a solid haymaker, knocking Issei back.

Issei groaned as he could feel his mask were cracking from the punch, and he stared the creature tilting its head, as if taunting him, 'is that all you got?'. The boy growled and he charged again at the creature, only for the latter to swiftly grabbed Issei by neck, lifted him up and slammed him to the ground. While Issei was still coughing from being choked suddenly, the creature had already gotten a hold of Issei's body and proceeded to throw him again into fair distance.

"…Okay, it's freakishly strong." Issei groaned as he just crashed into several walls of buildings. "But still…" He stood up and saw the creature had already caught up with him, standing in front of him. "It's nowhere near that baldy."

With a roar, Issei charged even faster, harder, tackling the creature, as he was the one who brought the creature flying with him this time around. After flying across the town for few seconds, Issei launched the monster forward, sending it crashing against a truck-replica that was also created within the alternate dimension, erupting an explosion as Issei took off to the sky before he launched down for another attack.

The creature, getting up from the burning remains of the replicated vehicle, quickly reacted as it took off to the side, evading Issei as the boy's strike destroyed a good chunk of the road. Issei did not waste any time as he immediately took off towards the Anti-Saitama with his fist ready.

Alas, when Issei was only a meter away from the Anti-Saitama, another one – with the bigger build – suddenly caught his legs, preventing him to move any further, and proceed to perform a body slam, plummeting Issei hard to the ground, knocking a breath out of the Red Dragon Emperor. The battle soon became two against one as the bigger Anti-Saitama kicked Issei off the ground, and the smaller one followed with a lariat attack when Issei was careening at its direction.

At the combination attack between two monsters, Issei's body – with his front pressing against the ground - had received some damage beneath his armour, with the said armour had started cracking and falling apart bit by bit, his face-plate had been broken and revealing his right eye. The smaller Anti-Saitama then walked over him to flip his body so he was facing upwards. When Issei was about to get up, he saw the bigger one suddenly charged at him; it pushed him hard against the ground, destroying chunks of asphalt in the process as the monster dragging him forward. It then followed by landing a solid punch on Issei's torso, shattering the armour's front upon impact, forcing the latter to cough up bit of blood and saliva.

Issei then caught the sight of the shorter Anti-Saitama catching up to them, and before it could have thrown any attack, while still laid on the ground, Issei quickly caught its foot, tripping it down in the process, and made it in time to evade by jerking his body to the side when the bigger one stomped his foot on him, destroying the ground beneath him in the end. Issei immediately wanted to gain distance by activating his thrusters to fly away, but the monster quickly caught his legs again before Issei could have escaped. The taller monster brought Issei down again to keep him in place, and this time, the shorter one had recovered and proceeded to bring its hand on Issei's head.

Issei intercepted the said hand and once again dragged the monster down to the ground, and jerked his body to the side again to evade the taller one's fist that crushed the ground. Issei then brought the shorter one's body and slammed it against the taller one, gaining enough space and proceeded to fly away with the shorter one in tow. When he was outnumbered, one of the options was to split the enemy force apart and deal them separately.

However, before Issei could have flown far enough, the taller one had immediately leapt off and caught Issei mid-air, using its sheer size and weight to force all three of them to speed towards the unforgiving ground. After plummeting and bouncing on the ground, Issei was trapped again on the ground with the taller Anti-Saitama towering over him, and the latter brought both of his fists together and slammed it towards the Red Dragon Emperor. Issei managed to dodge the attack again, but the shorter one, who fell right next to him, quickly got up and caught half of his head, limiting his movement and allowing the taller one to grasp Issei's neck. The taller one used his other hand to throw a punch on Issei's head, only for the latter to catch it mid-way, as the three caught in a stalemate of power struggle – the Red Dragon Emperor tried to break free, while the two Longinus monsters tried to pin him on the ground and pummel him.

With his Scale Mail broken on his torso and half of his face-plate, Issei growled as he inhaled as much air as he could, gathered his demonic power and he breathed out a stream of dragon flames at the two monsters looming over him.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

"HAAAAAARRGHH…!" Issei roared as he spat out a large stream of flames. The intense pressure and heat of Issei's flame blaze was enough to force the creatures off him.

Once the monsters were off him, Issei used the chance and flew away to gain some space between them. Issei landed, his Scale Mail started to regenerate to protect his body again, and he stared at the two monsters that had recovered from this attacks. Aside from the smokes that came out from the spot that made contact with Issei's flame, the monsters were still standing tall, unperturbed by their burns. It was not that difficult for Issei to summarize that the two possessed the same strength and speed, while the shorter one was more nimble and agile, the taller one possessed superior defence.

These so-called Anti-Saitama monsters, while their power were still nowhere near enough to match Saitama, they were still strong in their own right, proven from the blows Issei took from them earlier. He needed to deal with these things, fast.

"…_Ddraig, how long do I have?"_

Ddraig then calculated the number of boost Issei had used and the amount of damage Issei had suffered on his person.

_**[…Five minutes, seven if you're lucky. Make them count.]**_

Hearing his time limit, Issei drew one more breath and with one more defiant look, once his armour had fully recovered, he clenched his fists and activated his booster. Issei and the two Anti-Saitama monsters then dashed at each other at the same time.

oXo

On the other side of the battlefield, Occult Research Club and Azazel were engaging the Hero Faction. Thanks to the Leonardo's monsters taking Issei away, the other members of Occult Research Club had lost a good deal of their fire power, but now with Leonardo exhausted, the boy would not be able to use his Annihilation Maker to create any more monsters for some time.

The monsters were in the end, mindless beasts. A coordinated team work and skilful tactical combat were enough to dispatch them; with Yuuto as vanguard – supported from the air by Irina – and Xenovia guarding Asia and Kunou on the rear. Issei's absence made things more difficult, but the group managed to pull it through thanks to the monster's limited number.

However, the real deal came after the monsters.

It was a handsome young man with silver hair. There were several swords – five in total – attached on his person. Each of them radiating ominous aura similar to Yuuto's demon swords, but those five swords' aura were more potent, sending chills to everyone who stared upon them. He stepped forward into the stage when the last of Leonardo's anti-monsters had crumbled into ashes.

At the corner of everyone's eyes of Occult Research Club, they could hear and see several explosions from the distance, presumably Issei was having another fight of his life time.

"I guess that's enough for warm-ups, don't you agree?" he spoke confidently. "It's a pleasure to meet you all for the first time, Gremory servants. I am Sig, the descendant of the hero Siegfried. You may call me Siegfried or whatever suits you."

Xenovia and Irina scowled slightly at the man. "I see… No wonder you look familiar. So it's true, after all?" the former asked.

Irina followed-suit after Xenovia's question. "No doubt about it. From multiple demonic swords at his waist, there is no mistaking him…. Demonic Emperor Sig."

Sig, or known as Siegfried, used to be an exorcist working for Orthodox Church, and was trained in the same institution that trained Freed Sellzen; the church's special conditioning and training caused his hair to turn white. He then became a top warrior in the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Church, gaining the title 'Chaos Edge Sig' for himself, and then 'Demonic Emperor Sword Sig' after gaining several famous demonic swords.

"Sig-san!" Irina then screamed at the former exorcist. "You betrayed the church – betrayed Heaven!?"

"I guess you can say that." Siegfried shrugged. "I'm now a member of Hero Faction of Khaos Brigade."

Hearing those words, Irina became aggravated. "Why?! Betraying Heaven and the Church for organisation like Khaos Brigade leads to eternal damnation!"

"I'm starting to feel sick hearing those words." Sigfried sneered. "So what if I did betray the church? The Church still has many exceptional warriors that can easily replace me, especially that particular one who's also a candidate for Brave Saint's Joker." He then unsheathed one of his demon swords. "…But enough of that. Aren't you sword wielders are very capable? Wielder of Durandal, Ace of Archangel Michael, and wielder of holy-demonic sword."

After Siegfried had issued his challenge towards Xenovia, Irina and Yuuto, the latter immediately accepted without a word and lounge to slash his Sword of the Betrayer with blinding speed. Siegfried easily raised his demon sword to meet with Yuuto's blade, and the two's blades locked on each other.

"Demonic Emperor Sword Gram…." Yuuto recognised Siegfried's sword as the former struggled to overpower the latter. "I guess a strike from my holy-demonic sword was nowhere nearly enough."

Gram, the Demonic Emperor Sword, the strongest demon sword, also known as Sword of the Sun, is a sword that was used to kill the Dragon King Fafnir. Its sheer raw power, combined with dragon-slaying property, making the sword as if it had been made by fusing Durandal and Ascalon together into something ominous.

The two then broke off to retreat, and prepared their stances again. Then, the two clashed in violent sword fight, causing sparks to fly around whenever their enchanted steels clashed one another.

Yuuto had his speed further enhanced by the Knight Evil Piece inside him, and his swordsmanship was taught by the formerly Shinsengumi Captain of First Division, Okita Souji, whom was now serving as the Knight of current Lucifer. The ability of his Sacred Gear - Sword Birth gave him versatility advantage in creating various blades with different attribute.

However, against someone like Siegfried, who was not only a descendant of the original Siegfried - the hero from European myth and legend, Yuuto had to rely on his Balance Breaker.

Despite the feints and speed Yuuto had utilised in order to exploit Siegfried's possible openings, the latter easily parried and dodged every single of Yuuto's strike, with calm expression on his face. After all, if Arthur of Vali Team was known as Holy Royal Sword, Siegfried could be said as Arthur's counter part due to his possession of Gram, the strongest known demon sword. The former exorcist-now-terrorist was slowly pushing Yuuto back with efficient movements, allowing no chance for Yuuto to counter attack.

Seeing that Yuuto was slowly being pushed by Siegfried, Xenovia – armed with Holy Eraser and Ascalon – decided to interfere. "Kiba! You can't win alone, even if you don't like it, I'll back you up!" she said as she attacked Siegfried from the side with Ascalon.

"…Thanks!" putting aside his pride as a swordsman, Yuuto reluctantly accepted Xenovia's assist.

"I will join too!" Irina also shot down from the side, making the battle into three on one fight; Siegfried's demonic sword against Yuuto's holy-demonic sword, Xenovia's dual-wielding, and Irina's sword of light.

However, despite the odds in numbers, Siegfried held his ground steadily while intercepting all four blades with only his one demonic sword simultaneously. After heated clashes between blades, Yuuto decided to use his enhanced speed to create after images of himself, trying to disrupt Siegfried's pace while looking blind spots to attack. In the mean time, Xenovia leapt and combined the power of both Yuuto's sword and her own, bringing down a massive blade aura towards Siegfried. Irina on the other hand, sped towards Sigfried with her sword of light aimed at Siegfried's sword-arm in order to disarm him. In summary, it was a three-way attack.

CLANG!

While defending from Irina's attack with his Gram, Siegfried immediately pulled another sword, and used it to block Xenovia's attack, destroying the borrowed sword from Yuuto in one strike. "This is Balmung. Another legendary demon sword of mine." Siegfried introduced his new sword.

When Yuuto launched his own attack, another sword suddenly blocked his holy-demonic blade. "And this one is called Nothung."

Siegfried was not supposed to be capable of defending against Yuuto's strike; he was opened, both of his hands were pre-occupied to deal with Xenovia and Irina's attacks. So how could there be a third sword? Who, or what was holding it?

It was because, much to everyone's surprise, Siegfried suddenly grew a third arm from his back. The arm was covered in silver scales, resembling that of a dragon; the said arm was holding the sword called Nothung to block Yuuto's attack.

"What the-!?"

"Dragon arm?!"

At the three warrior's shock, Siegfried only smirked a tad wider. "This dragon arm is Twice Critical, a very common Sacred Gear. Although, unlike its original form, mine is a sub-species, thus the current appearance."

Twice Critical – The Hand of the Dragon, is a dragon-type Sacred Gear. Its regular, original form is supposed to be a red gauntlet with green jewel embedded on its centre that manifests on the user's arm, leaving the wielder's fingers uncovered. Its ability is to double the wielder's power for a certain period of time. Many people mistook Twice Critical as Boosted Gear or the other way around due to their similar description, and because Boosted Gear also takes the form of Twice Critical when undergoing premature/incomplete awakening. It is still unknown if Twice Critical actually houses a soul of dragon.

In Siegfried's case, where his Twice Critical transformed into a dragon arm instead of gauntlet, his Sacred Gear allowed him to utilise three-swords stance.

"We are both Sacred Gear users…." Yuuto said with serious expression. "But to develop a sub-species form… He's also better in using his Sacred Gear than I am."

"Oh, for your information, I haven't entered my Balance Breaker yet." Siegfried's input caused everyone's eyes to widened, at the thought of the demon swords user's power could still go to even higher level.

And as if on cue, they heard another explosion, this time was rather closer than before.

oXo

Meanwhile, both Cao Cao and Azazel landed on the ground a bit apart from each other. Once landed, Cao Cao quickly moved back to the position in front of his group. Their battle had been an intense one; scenery of Arashiyama was destroyed, Azazel's armour had fallen apart in several spots, his wings were tattered; Cao Cao's attire was torn here and there, but both combatants only suffered superficial injuries.

"I guess I have to be glad that this is artificial dimension, that we can let loose a bit in this place." Azazel smirked.

Cao Cao simply cracked his neck a bit. "You're welcome. And I can say that Saitama's son is having one helluva fight over there." He glanced at the distance, to see a couple of explosions occurring.

Azazel's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the area where Issei was supposed to be fighting at the moment.

"….But still, we end up fighting harder than we expected." Cao Cao interjected again. "As expected of the devils from new generation. Especially that Saitama's son, the Red Dragon Emperor."

Azazel of course had predicted something like that. Being the host of a Heavenly Dragon and son of someone like Saitama, Issei had attracted many kind of individuals from left and right - Azazel himself was no exception. In fact, his father, Saitama, had attracted many attentions from various lands and pantheons, the fact that the current Red Dragon Emperor was his son only piqued the curiosity even higher. If Azazel's hypothesis and analysis were correct, with Boosted Gear in his arsenal and Saitama's blood running in his veins, Issei had the potential to be the most powerful Red Dragon Emperor in the history.

Putting his thoughts aside, Azazel then focused again on Cao Cao. "One more question, then. What are the motives of your Hero Faction?"

"Originally, we simply wanted to determine the limits of what it means to be 'human'. But we have learned it in a way by meeting Saitama. Surely you understand what I'm implying, don't you?" Cao Cao replied as he reminiscing Saitama's feats.

"….Yeah, I guess so." Azazel shrugged. "That guy is ridiculously strong that it's not even fair."

"To be perfectly honest, I once doubted if he's actually human." Cao Cao snorted. "But… Despite how inhuman he could be sometimes… He's still fundamentally a human."

"….You said 'originally' earlier, so you have another objective now?" Azazel moved on with his question.

"Indeed, yes." Cao Cao nodded. "Now that we know what humans are really capable of… We will prove what we have discovered about our limits as humans to the whole world, and fulfil our roles as descendants of heroes." Cao Cao finished as his eyes were gleaming.

Azazel narrowed his eyes at Cao Cao's reply. "What do you mean-!?"

The fallen angel could not finish what he said since there was something falling right at the battlefield where everyone else, including him, were fighting.

oXo

_**[Partner, you only have less than three minutes left!]**_

"_I got it!"_

Issei just barely managed to down the shorter Anti-Saitama monster after struggling for almost a good minute, and proceeded to kick it as far as he could. His tactic remained the same; separate the two monsters so he could deal with them one at a time.

The three had pretty much razed and decimated the area they had come across in the middle of their fighting; buildings were crumbling, streets were destroyed, public property became rubbles and debris – there were even water spraying out from the destroyed pipes. Issei was grateful that the fight took place in alternate dimension, thus he would not be able to get away with the collateral damage he had caused.

Alas, as soon as Issei just managed to keep the shorter one off his back, the taller Anti-Saitama was immediately lounged at him, landing a solid punch to launch Issei to a distance. Issei quickly stood up, and while his helmet was still regenerating from that hit, he quickly launched himself at the tall monster. However, before Issei could have made any turn to go around the monster's defence, the tall monster showed a surprising burst of speed as it quickly caught Issei by hands, resulting both of them caught in a tug war. While still grabbing Issei's hands, the monster mustered its strength to lift Issei up and slammed him to the ground, before it immediately leapt up, and performed seismic toss to throw Issei down again. When Issei was laid in another crater, he quickly jumped back, just in the nick of time to avoid the monster's body slam.

However, before Issei could have attacked back, he suddenly sensed that the shorter one was coming from behind, fast. Turning around, Issei quickly engaged again in a heated brawl with the other Anti-Saitama monster. Much to his chagrin, the taller one also joined the fray as Issei had to deal both of them at the same time again. Issei quickly ducked to evade a hook from the taller one and twist his body to deliver a round-house kick to the shorter one; whom easily ducked to evade as well.

Issei then engaged the taller one again; blocking another heavy blow before he used his own smaller height to sneak through the monster's opening to land blows of his own. Through the training and lesson Issei had gone through from the spar against Sairaorg, Issei focused his attacks on a single point to deal as high damage as possible, causing the tall monster to skid back behind from the force of Issei's strike.

However, the shorter one immediately followed with its own high kick, forcing Issei to flip back in order to dodge, and the taller one had already recovered and joined the shorter one to gang up on Issei again.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Boosting once to increase his speed and power, Issei was barely able to keep up – to dodge the taller one's heavy blows, and to properly intercept the shorter one's sharp and fast strikes. Issei then managed to caught the shorter one's kick directed at his mid-section, then he proceeded to twist his body, swinging and bringing the shorter one until Issei collided it against the taller one.

The taller monster automatically caught the shorter one that was thrown to his torso, and Issei followed with another round-house and planted his heels hard, pushing both monsters back.

The shorter one then recovered its footing and stepped forward again, engaging Issei into another hand-to-hand combat. When Issei threw a right straight punch at the monster's head, the latter caught the offending arm and proceeded to sneak an elbow strike right at Issei's side, cracking the armour. It then grabbed Issei's helmet, and it was about to flip Issei's body around. Sensing what the monster was trying to do, the moment it bend its body forward, Issei put his left hand right at its back, stopping its movement and pushed, allowing him to have a better footing; "HAAAH!" and with his right arm that was still within the monster's grasp, Issei mustered his strength to lift and slam the monster back to the ground, destroying more of the streets.

Then, the taller one was already on Issei again. This time, the monster caught Issei's shoulder, and proceeded to land several knee strikes at Issei's abdomen, shattering the Scale Mail's torso once again. Before any further damage could be done, Issei growled as he caught the next knee strike with his one hand, his other hand wrapped around the monster's waist, and Issei proceeded to push forward while sending several punches on its mid-section. The monster was forced to stagger behind a bit, before it retaliated by slamming its elbow on Issei's armoured shoulder blade, and slamming its fist on Issei's back.

When Issei was still busy dealing with the pressure and the pain as his armour fell apart from the taller monster's onslaught, the shorter one immediately came up behind him and wrapped its arms around his waist. Issei then felt something was tugging around his waist, and he realized that the monster's form and stance – it was trying to perform a German-suplex on him. Not wanting to give in, Issei then tightened his arms around the taller one's own waist.

With that condition, the shorter one was not supposed to be capable of performing its suplex due to excessive weight, however…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

BAM!

With a deafening roar that came out from the monster for the _first time_, and seemingly disregarding its taller compatriot, the shorter one then went through with its German-suplex, slamming _both_ Issei and the taller Anti-Saitama altogether, much to the boy's shock. The impact destroyed the ground beneath, creating a large size crater as debris and rubbles flying around from the shockwave.

The taller one landed on the ground first, breaking Issei's fall, but the shock that went through his body was enough for the monsters to turn the tables, as the taller monster beneath Issei quickly broke off from his grasp, and proceeded to push Issei to the ground. The monsters then did not waste any time to gang up the already down Issei.

This time, with much more ferocity, the monsters launched relentless assaults – punch, kick, stomp – as Issei could only defend and took the hits while still on the ground.

_**[Partner! One minute left!]**_

"Ddraig, the countdown is not really helping!" Issei shot back in frustration in the midst of the beat-down.

However, before Issei could have planned anything to get out of his predicament, suddenly the two monsters were struck by vast arrays of elemental magic from the sky – torrents of fire, water, lightning, thunder etc. were raining down upon the area where the fight took place. Ironically, since the two monsters were towering over Issei's form, the former two took all the brunt of the magic attacks, sparing Issei from the major damage.

The magical storm lasted for almost 10 seconds, and when the onslaught died down, the two monsters – with Issei still on the ground, spotted a woman with long silver hair was standing unsteadily outside a certain restaurant.

"…Rossweisse-san?! How did you-!? What are you doing here?!" Issei widened his eyes as he did not expect Rossweisse to show up. It appeared that the fight had been dragged into the restaurant where Rossweisse was sleeping from alcohol.

"Yer fucking…" Issei blinked at the _slurring_ words that came out from the woman's mouth. Now that he took a better look, Rossweisse's expression looked rather unwell. "Keep yer noize down fer Valhalla's sake! We hab-habe-hic-! Have people sshleeping here!"

"_Whoa, she's drunk!"_ Issei realized. The two monsters were now turning their attentions towards the seemingly unaware former Valkyrie.

"Whatssh the matter? Ya wanna fight? Sho! I'll (hic!) ssshhhow y'all the power of old man Odin's former bodyguard Valkyrie (hic!)!" Unaware of the threat before her, Rossweisse prepared massive amount of magic circles around her, and as if answering to her outburst, the Norse equations lighted up and rained down more volleys of magic attack in various elements. "(Hic!) Tazte ma' Norsh magic ye ass-whores!"

Issei was glad that he was laid on the ground, resulting Rossweisse's eyes more focused her attacks at the two standing Anti-Saitama monsters. Nonetheless, now that the monsters were overwhelmed and distracted by Rossweisse's magic storm, he wasted no time and began his counter-attack as well.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

"Rossweisse-san, get back!"

Issei's shout seemed to be able to snap Rossweisse back to her senses, even if for a bit. The drunken Valkyrie flinched at Issei's tone as the fraction of her senses returned, and the woman finally acknowledged the destruction around her.

"Huh? W-wha?! I-Issei-san?" Rossweisse rubbed her drowsy eyes to no avail, as she was still under the effects of alcohol. "What in the-! Uugh…" Her body went limp soon enough as she could not maintain her focus anymore due to intoxication.

With Rossweisse's barrage of magic attack had ceased, Issei quickly ambushed the still-disoriented Anti-Saitama monsters by catching the shorter one's back. Then, Issei proceeded to lift it up high and slammed it down with its back pointed at his knee. As soon as the shorter monster's back made contact, the sound of bone snapping was heard, followed by the monster's blood-curling howl of pain, as Issei had effectively snapped its spine.

With one monster had been incapacitated, Issei could focus on taking down the taller one. He ducked to avoid a wide swing from the monster, before Issei landed a nasty hook on the monster's abdomen. He then followed with flurry of combo attacks, relentlessly throwing punches without giving the monster any chance to retaliate. He then sneaked around to grab the monster's back of the neck, and he flew up, bringing the monster along, before he proceeded to twist his body so his could throw a punch to the monster's torso.

"HAAAH!"

However, Issei charged as much power as he could into his Dragon Shot, before he fired the highly concentrated demonic power at the point-blank range, launching the monster in massive explosion towards the direction where the others were fighting, apparently.

BOOM!

oXo

Azazel, Kunou, Occult Research Club and Hero Faction did not expect to have something literally hurling down to the middle of their battlefield. The impact caused everyone to cover their eyes from the flying dusts and debris due to the shockwave produced when the thing made contact with the unforgiving ground.

When the dust settled down, everyone's eyes were met with the sight of something… inhuman.

It was about seven, almost eight feet tall. Its body was ashen-black from head to toe. Rather than skin, its body was layered in some kind of armour or exoskeleton – which was broken and falling apart with cracks and dents littering its body. Its whole body was also smoking, and there was a good size hole right in the middle of his torso. The Anti-Saitama monster only tried to stand up while letting out a weak growl; before it dropped back and its body slowly crumbled into ashes.

"'Sup everyone?" the said 'everyone' turned to see Issei was walking to their location. The boy was looking worse for wear; while the Scale Mail had been protected his body from direct hits, the Anti-Saitama monsters were still strong enough to damage some of his bones. Dust and dirt also covered Issei's clothes. The said clothes, while not exactly torn, were still roughed up from the brawl. There was also blood trickling from the side of his head, few spots on his clothes were _soaking_, either from sweat or blood of injuries on his person. "What did I miss?"

The said something on the other hand, was the shorter Anti-Saitama monster that was being dragged by its head, or to be precise, Issei's gauntlet was clutching its face. The monster's body was basically falling apart with the tears, dents and cracks over its steaming body, and despite having its limbs intact, the monster could not move its lower body at all; and its hands were futilely struggling to break off from Issei's vice-grip, for few seconds before Issei decided to end it by crushing its head within his grasp. With sickening crunch, the monster's hands fell limp and its body dissolved into ashes as well.

"Ise/Ise-san/Ise-kun!"

"Rossweisse-san!?"

Issei's friends from Occult Research Club were worried when they saw Issei's injuries, but they were also relieved that he won his battle and pretty much alive. However, they definitely did not expect Rossweisse to be present as well, laid unconscious on Issei's shoulder, nonetheless. When they had regrouped, Asia quickly used her Twilight Healing on Issei's injuries.

"I see…." Cao Cao narrowed his eyes slightly at the defeated monsters from Leonardo's Longinus. "So our prototypes are complete failure, then."

"Ise, are you still up to fight?" Azazel asked to Issei, whom just settled Rossweisse down on the ground.

Issei stared at Azazel for a second before turning to his left hand. His body looked worse for wear, but when he saw that the enemy forces were still large, there was only one answer. "….Yeah, I am." Truthfully, he was nearing his limit, and according to Ddraig, Issei was only seconds away before his hidden _power_ started to burst out.

The Hero Faction had yet to suffer any loss of its members, because all that everyone fought and defeated mostly had been Leonardo's monsters, and even Siegfried who took the vanguard had yet to be defeated. Speaking of the former exorcist, when the Anti-Saitama monster fell to the battlefield, he had already withdrawn to regroup with his comrades.

Leonardo had not recovered yet, thus Cao Cao gestured for the rest of the members to take their positions. The others from Kuoh Academy also prepared for another all-out fight – Issei was determined to go swim or sink.

However, before either side could have made any move, a foreign magic circle suddenly showed up in between two opposing sides. The encrypted circle brightened up, revealing a foreign girl. She was a cute girl, most likely European-descend, with shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes; appearing to be around the same age as a middle-schooler. Her attire consisted of a sorceress-like dress with a huge blue hat with a black bow and yellow stars and matching cape with pink flowers and a white interior.

The said girl then turned towards Issei and the others and bowed her head deeply. "Nice to meet you all for the first time, I am Pendragon, Le Fay Pendragon – The Mage of Vali's team. Please take care of me."

The girl – Le Fay's introduction caused everyone from Kuoh Academy to widen their eyes at the prospect of such an adorable girl to be affiliated with Vali Lucifer.

"…Pendragon?" Azazel remarked. "I assume you are related to Arthur?"

Le Fay nodded in return. "Yes, Arthur is my dear elder brother."

"So…. Le Fay, as in that legendary witch, Morgana Le Fay?" Azazel scratched his chin in curiosity. "Like ancestor like descendant, Morgana Le Fay and Arthur Pendragon were blood related."

When Le Fay's eyes met with Issei's, she blinked and her eyes glittered in recognition. She then walked towards the boy and bowed her head deeply again when she was in front of him. "It – It's a pleasure to be your acquaintance, Mr. Hyoudou Issei!" she then looked up with flustered expression. "Y-your father, Mr. Saitama had taken good care of me before, I-I hope we can get along as well!"

Issei was rather taken aback at the girl's enthusiasm and how seemingly she looked up at him. "Err… Um, yeah. Sure, nice to meet you too." He replied while scratching his cheek awkwardly.

The rest of Hero Faction only stared in bewilderment at the sudden, unexpected interruption, and it was Cao Cao who asked first while scratching his head awkwardly. "So it's Vali's side. What's the matter?"

Le Fay then turned towards the hero descendant. "Yes! I came here to relay a message from Mr. Vali!" she then cleared her throat. "'I thought I told you not to get in my way' – that is the message… Oh! And, um, I'm also here to relay the punishment for spying on us~!"

As if on cue, the ground beneath them started to tremble like an earthquake, Asia and Kunou even lost their balances and fell on their bottom from all the shaking. Slowly, one particular spot on the ground began to crack, as if something was about to burst through, until that something literally tore the ground apart and sent dust-cloud all around.

It was a giant stone statue whose appearance resembled a Gargoyle.

"Is that…. Gogmagog!?" Azazel commented in disbelief at the sight of the giant.

"GUUUUTZ!" It was rather strange to interpret the giant's roar as such, but that was the only thing everyone could describe when the giant howled.

"Yes, this is the latest member of our team – Gogmagog. I call him Gogz-kun!" Le Fay introduced her companion with somewhat smug expression.

"Sensei, what's with that rock giant?" Issei could not help but ask in curiosity.

"It's called Gogmagog, Ise." Azazel replied. "Sort of a golem if you asked me. As far as I know, it was created by ancient gods as weapons of mass destruction, and had been abandoned within the Dimensional Gap and deactivated since forever."

"So it's some kind of artificial living being?" Issei clarified, receiving a nod from Azazel in return. "But it's obviously active and moving now." Issei pointed out.

"To be fair, this is my first time to see one to be activated in person…" Azazel's eyes shone in childish curiosity and excitement. "To see this thing moving after millennium of deactivation…. I want to study it now!" Then, his face became calculative as he seemed to realize something. "…..I see now! So Vali did not only want to witness the Great Red during his last trip to the Dimensional Gap!"

Le Fay then nodded at Azazel's words. "Yes, it was Mr. Vali who discovered Gogz-kun and brought him to this world. Lord Ophis once mentioned about the giant that could move in the Dimensional Gap, thus we went there to find it."

At the prospect of a new member in Vali's group, Issei raised a question. "Say, how many members are there in your group now?"

Le Fay thought up for a bit before replying. "Including myself, there are seven in total – Mr. Vali, brother Arthur, Mr. Bikou, Ms. Kuroka, Fenrir-chan and Gogz-kun."

Gogmagog then turned its head towards Cao Cao and Hero Faction, and it proceeded to raise its giant fist and with another roar, it slammed the location where the group was standing. The impact was enough to devastate the Togetsukyou in one hit. Everyone was glad that the destruction they were witnessing was not happening in the real world.

"Hahaha! Looks like Vali is angry, indeed! We've been busted!" Cao Cao laughed as the Hero Faction retreated and regrouped at the other side of the river to avoid the stone giant's rampage. Before the giant could have landed another attack, Cao Cao pointed his spear at Gogmagog, and the tip of the spear suddenly extended until it struck the giant's shoulder, knocking it back. When the golem fell to the ground, its massive size caused a shockwave to the surrounding area when its body made contact.

While the golem was still down, Cao Cao then signalled one of his subordinates – a young man with black hair and spectacles. The said man nodded, and the group was enveloped in the mist from earlier. And when the group was slowly disappearing into the mist, Cao Cao set his gaze one more time at the Occult Research Club. "I believe that would be enough for today. Governor Azazel, it was a fun battle!" When the young man himself started to vanish as well, his voice echoed one more time. "Tonight, we will be using Kyoto's ley-lines and the kyuubi leader, and conduct a great massive experiment project at Nijou castle! If you want to stop us, please come and participate!"

Then, the mist thickened and expanded until everyone's view was blocked again, and when the mist slowly dissipating, Azazel then turned towards the rest. "Hey, we're returning back to the reality! Put down your arms!"

True to Azazel's words, when the mist finally disappeared, everyone found themselves returning to the real Togetsukyou, with the crowds and tourists bustling around and the damage and destruction that had happened from the battle earlier were nowhere to be seen, as if never happened.

Le Fay Pendragon and Gogmagog had also vanished from sight, presumably returning to Vali's side.

"Hey, Ise. What's going on?" Issei then blinked to turn and see Matsuda was staring at him. "Whoa! What the hell's wrong with you, man!?" the latter was perplexed was shocked at Issei's state; while half of his injuries were already healed by Asia, unfortunately, Issei was still looked like someone who had gotten out from an avalanche.

Issei, along with others began to panic as Motohama and Kiryuu also bewildered at Issei's condition.

"What happened to you?"

"How did you suddenly all battered up!?"

However, before Matsuda, Motohama and Kiryuu could have asked more, Azazel suddenly appeared behind them and tapped his finger on their heads, causing the three students to faint – Xenovia, Irina and Azazel quickly caught their bodies from falling, while Yuuto had to attend to his classmates to avoid suspicion.

"Sorry, Asia. But Ise's healing would have to wait until we return to the hotel." Azazel ordered as he passed Kiryuu to the blonde girl. Asia was reluctant to leave Issei's treatment, but the boy convinced her that while his wounds had not completely healed yet, Asia's healing so far was enough to allow him to stand and walk like normal. Azazel then quickly casted some illusion spell to make Issei looked fine on the outside.

It appeared that Azazel had implanted some memory-alteration spell on Matsuda, Motohama and Kiryuu, because when they came to their senses, they thought that they only spaced out for a bit and acted as if Issei was never hurt in the first place.

When the three students went ahead, Issei spotted that Azazel was absolutely livid as he struck a nearby electrical pole with his fist. "Experimenting on Kyoto? Don't talk bullshit with us, you brats…!"

"Mother…." On the other hand, Kunou was trembling in fear. "Mother didn't do anything wrong…. So why…?" Kunou then clasped her hands together as she closed her teary eyes. "Saitama…!"

At the sight of Kunou's state, Issei could do nothing but place his hand in comforting manner on her head, stroking her golden-blonde hair gently. The fight with Hero Faction would be on a different level compared with the Old Satan Faction.

* * *

It was later at night in the hotel. After dinner and taking baths, followed with Issei and his group reviewing the photos they had taken so far – with Occult Research Club members could not fully relax due to upcoming battle; Issei, along with the rest of Gremory group plus Irina, Sitri servants, Azazel and Serafall Leviathan were now gathering in Issei's room, discussing their next move.

Speaking of Gremory group, Rossweisse had started to sober up, but she was still suffering under the hangover as her face was still pale badly. Nevertheless, she insisted that she was fine and joined the discussion. Issei was grateful at her, because it was thanks to her sudden intervention during the battle that allowed him to achieve victory at the end of the day.

"Alright, let's have this meeting going." Azazel said as he laid down a map on the table. "Here's our plan; the area concentrated around Nijou Castle and Kyoto station is now in a state of high alert. All devils and fallen angels stationed in Kyoto have been mobilized to search for suspicious characters. The Kyoto youkai are also providing us with assistance. Though we still haven't confirmed the movements of the Heroes Faction, we have successfully detected a disturbing anomaly concentrating at Nijou Castle as the center."

"An anomaly?" Yuuto voiced his concerns.

"Yes; since ancient times, Kyoto was a city constructed using the principles of Yin-Yang and Feng Shui like a large scale magic circle." Azazel explained. "The process resulted in numerous special power spots, such as The Well of Seimei's Shrine, Suzumushi Temple's Kofuku-Jizo, Fushimi Inari's pine tree Hizamatsu-san and many other locations with rich magical power. However, the flow of magic has currently gone turbulent and is gathering at Nijou Castle."

Saji then swallowed a lump and asked. "Then…. W-what will happen?"

"Who knows, but it's definitely nothing good." Azazel simply replied. "Since they plan on using the kyuubi leader who controls the ley-lines of this city to carry out some kind of experiment. We will use this key point as the basis of the entire plan."

After receiving everyone's nod of understanding, Azazel then began to explain everyone's role. "First are the Sitri servants. You will be on guard in the area around Kyoto station. Guarding this hotel is also your job. The hotel itself already has a strengthened barrier, so if anything happens there will be a safeguard. Still if anyone suspicious approaches, you Sitri servants will be responsible for handling them."

"Understood!" every devils of Sitri clan affirmed.

"Next is the Gremory group plus Irina." Azazel the turned his gaze to Issei and the rest. "I'm really sorry for putting you all on the spot every time, but you guys will be the main offense. In a short while, you will advance towards Nijou Castle." He then rubbed his chin with contemplating look. "We still have no exact idea about their full capabilities, but our main objective here is to rescue Lady Yasaka. So it's basically get in, grab her and get out; if they said that they require Lady Yasaka for whatever project they're working on, they losing her is our win. Still…" Azazel then frowned. "Knowing Cao Cao, there's still a possibility that he may still had a trick up on his sleeve should things go south on him."

"…And we still have those monsters to worry about." Issei voiced his opinion as he scowled. Automatically, everyone knew that the boy was talking about those so-called Anti-Saitama monsters.

"About them…" Azazel then paused and closed his eyes for few seconds before opening them again. "There's 50-50 chance that Cao Cao won't deploy them."

"….What?"

"I only have assumption and speculations…." Azazel scratched the back of his head. "But those monsters you fought before were prototypes – so they said. And we saw what happened to the Annihilation Maker kid when he attempted to create two – only two, despite the strength they possessed. If the Hero Faction really wants to pull off what they're planning, Cao Cao would prefer to have all of his members to not going down on him that easily, he would want everyone to be at tip-top condition until the end. Having the kid to exhaust himself in the middle of… fighting us and brittle experiment like tinkering the Kyoto ley-lines by using Lady Yasaka, where many things could go really wrong in many ways, Cao Cao maybe a crazy bastard and all, but he's definitely not stupid."

Everyone thought that was some valid reasoning, if not stretching it too much. "However, the possibility of Cao Cao having his subordinate to summon those Anti-Saitama monsters is not zero, especially if we're talking worst-case scenario." Azazel finished with grim tone.

"In any case, do we have enough combat power?" Issei then asked.

"About that..." This time it was Serafall who spoke up. "Since it's you kids from Gremory team who will go on offensive, I think it is only fair if there are more of you on the front lines." The Leviathan finished while giving a knowing smile at the door.

"Sorry, what are you-?"

Before Issei could have asked anything else, the door to his room was slid open, revealing familiar guests.

"It seems we just made it in time."

"My, my, ufufu… Good evening, Ise-kun, everyone."

Everyone, safe for Azazel and Serafall, widened their eyes at the sight of Kuoh's Two Great Ladies.

"Buchou!? Akeno-san too!?"

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**That's the wrap! What do you guys think of the chapter overall, especially about my own speculation about Annihilation Maker, fighting scenes, etc.? Please spare me the flames, but constructive criticism will be accepted. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	41. Kyoto (V)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello there, folks! Here's the new chapter of One-Punch DxD: Legacy! Honestly, I've been bumped out by several unpleasant reviews, but I admit that I'm suck at making twist. However, once again, I promise you that I'm in the middle of formulating some major plot-bunnies when this story enters volume 11, 12 and onwards.**

**Thank you again for those who keep their faith on this story to flourish, your loyalties are very much appreciated. Without further ado, R&amp;R! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 38: Kyoto (V) – Dragons x Devils x Angel x Heroes**

_(Flashback)_

"I'm leaving."

Those two words echoed in everyone's mind that night, the two words that finalised the conversation between two parties that night. After saying those words, a man with balding head walked away from a group of young people clad in set of uniforms. Everyone could only go silent when the bald man's back went further, as he took one step after another into the darkness.

"…..Come again? Wait, rather, where's Jeanne? Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

The man wielding a spear questioned, furrowing his eyebrows at the bald man's retreating back, as well as the lack of one woman who was usually seen always around him. That reply was expected, given that nobody saw what had come.

"You heard me. Oh, and that girl is fine, by the way." The bald man replied without looking back. He then waved his hand casually while he kept walking. "Bye."

The spearman that moved to catch up with the bald man and grasped his shoulder, halting the latter's advance. He honestly still could not believe what he just heard. However, his quick wit immediately ran through several speculations of what was going through the baldy's head.

"Is this about our last campaign?"

The spearman's question was able to make the bald man to turn his head slightly, enough for him to met everyone's eyes with his own. His gaze lowered a bit, before he then turned away and walked again, brushing off the spearman's hand from his shoulder.

The spearman watched Saitama's retreating figure for a second before he spoke. "You know that what happened was inevitable!"

The bald man paused on his tracks again. The spearman took his halt as another chance to speak up. "You already know what they are, their nature!"

When the spearman mentioned about the campaign, it was more about the clash of ideologies between different individuals. The bald man believed that it was possible for peace, and extermination war was absolutely pointless and merely a waste of time. The other party, or more like, the whole group believed that peace was impossible, and mankind should be protected from even potential threats.

Watching the bantering between the two men, the others had few thoughts. Some were hoping that the argument would not take a sour turn, some of them thought that it was only one of those days, where the two would (hopefully) find a common ground, make up, and things would return to normal; and some of them even thought that it was only a matter of time until the day came, since the two had been had clashing ideals more and more often.

When they talked about 'clashing ideals', it was more like the one-sided yelling with the bald man simply maintained his stoic persona while remain firm on his beliefs, while the spearman kept pushing his own beliefs into his head.

"There's no way those creatures could co-exist with humans! No matter what they do to avoid confrontation, it's only a matter of time until mankind rejects them!"

Again, it was all a clash of perspective and ideals.

The bald man only glanced back and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He admitted that he was not a man with many words. He was nothing compared with the spearman that possessed a natural charisma and leadership skills. "….Cao Cao." He sighed, addressing the spearman. "It's not that I don't understand what you're implying." The bald man then set his gaze on the rest of the people behind Cao Cao. "It's just that you guys are not that kind of heroes I want to be."

The man then resumed his walking. The group belonged to Cao Cao could only murmuring amongst themselves while staring in distraught, not knowing of what they should do.

One of the group, a man with glasses and a robe over his uniform, suddenly caught one of his companions clutching on the hem of his robe. It was a short young boy with stoic, expression. Well, not so stoic since the boy had such a sad expression on his face.

The bespectacled man considered himself not the type of people-person. He acknowledged he had comrades, but he never considered himself to be that close of friends. However, knowing the young boy's usual personality, and seeing such a rare, sad expression on himself, the man knew that things could not just be left as they were. "Cao Cao!" The man called out, inkling the spear-wielding man to do something.

Cao Cao clutched his prized holy spear tightly with his hand, and he shouted. "Saitama!"

The man, finally identified as Saitama stopped again, and he glanced back to see Cao Cao's hard expression. His subordinates behind him also hardened their stances, yet they did not move from their spots.

"We can't just let you walk away." Cao Cao said with warning tone. However, Saitama simply shrugged and kept walking away.

"Saitama!"

Cao Cao shouted again, yet he did not move from his spot. The other members behind him knew better than thinking Cao Cao could not back-up his words. Cao Cao could only click his tongue as he was well-aware that he and his group still lacked the power and everything necessary to oppose Saitama.

"Saitama!"

Cao Cao shouted his name again, yet Saitama kept walking away, his figure slowly fading into the darkness of the night.

"SAITAMA!"

Cao Cao shouted even louder when he could not see Saitama's figure any more. The meeting that night ended with the Hero Faction losing a valuable member.

_(End of Flashback)_

* * *

"So, that baldy is currently trapped inside a barrier?"

Issei asked as the strategy meeting went on. Apparently, since the riot in the underworld had been supressed earlier than expected, thanks to Saitama's help, Rias and Akeno had been sent over to Kyoto to aid the second years to fight the Hero Faction, while the rest who did not go to Kyoto in the first place remained in Kuoh to hold down the fort and act as emergency back-up support.

"Unfortunately, it appears to be so." Rias said with bitter tone. "Well, my mother, Grayfia and other magic experts from our side are working something out to undo the seal, but it would take sometime since, according to them, the barrier was created by some sort of high-level, probably even ancient spell."

"But…" everyone then turned to Xenovia, who raised her hand. "Shouldn't it be easy for Saitama-dono to easily just punch his way out?" her question actually garnered looks and nods from some others.

"That may be the case." Akeno nodded, but her expression remained serious. "However, how can you get out of a trap if you alone are not aware that you had been trapped? For all we know, Saitama might still be wandering around within the bounded field without any clue of his situation." Akeno's answer and logic caused everyone to look down in thought.

"So…" Issei finally spoke. "We can only wait until the seal trapping him is undone, or until that guy is agitated enough to start wrecking things left and right." He concluded.

"Well…" Rias's eyes darted around contemplating Issei's conclusion. "That's about it, more or less." She ended up agreeing with the said conclusion.

"Anyway." Azazel then interrupted. "Even if we can't expect Saitama to come here anytime soon, I also have called someone else over as our back-up."

"Is that so? Who?" Issei asked curiously.

"Some exceptional individuals…. We can rely on them." Azazel replied vaguely.

"Okay…" Issei then narrowed his eyes slightly. "Just a quick question, though…" he scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Are they acquainted with my dad?"

Azazel only blinked at Issei's question, and with knowing smirk, he merely replied with a shrug.

At Azazel's gesture, Issei could only sighed in understanding. "….Of course." The others seemed to catch on as well; most likely another powerful or famous mythical figures that were associated with Saitama without their prior knowledge.

"Finally, some bad news." Azazel then dropped the jokes aside as his expression went a bit grim. "This time, we could only get three portions of Phoenix Tears on our hands."

"Only three portions while we're up against a group of terrorists! Are you kidding!?" Saji seemed to be the only one vocal about his concern.

"I know, I know." Azazel tried to calm everyone down. "But since there have been terrorist activities left and right as of late, the Phoenix Tears are in high demand among the alliance in fighting against enemy forces. To begin with, Phoenix Tears are not something that can be easily mass-produced, as the Phenex clan has been busy. Now that the Tears are becoming such valuable items with high prices, this will affect the future Rating Game among the devil society."

Everyone took in Azazel's explanation into heart. With such tremendous healing property that might outclasses Twilight Healing in some aspects, of course everyone would go out of their way to get their hands on Phoenix Tears.

"And speaking of healing artefact…" Azazel continued with his explanation. "This is supposed to be a secret, but now that various pantheons have banded together against a common enemy, everyone has been working even harder to find more users of Twilight Healing. It is a rare Sacred Gear, sure; but it's not as unique as Longinus gears as there are several users other than Asia at different parts of the world. Even Underworld, Ajuka Beelzebub's department and Grigori are having researchers and projects to develop new healing tools – artificial sacred gears, for example. In fact, Asia here has been secretly helping us on our research and the results have been promising recently." The fallen angel glanced towards the girl in question.

Issei and everyone turned around to give Asia prideful and grateful looks, which Asia returned with sheepish, yet proud smile. Perhaps it would not be long for her to achieve Balance Breaker.

"So, that's the gist of things." Azazel concluded. "The Tears will be divided equally between Gremory and Sitri group. Make them count." Everyone chorused affirmatives at Azazel's instruction.

"Then…. Saji." Azazel turned to Sitri pawn. "You will be fighting along the Gremory servants with your Vritra's power."

"M-me?" Saji was startled at the sudden order, but after contemplating a bit, he nodded resolutely. "…Alright. I'm getting better at controlling the power of dragon king, lately. Though, I haven't seized a complete control over it."

"That's fine. If push comes to shove, The Heavenly Dragon there will back you up." Azazel gestured towards Issei, who also nodded in agreement.

The strategy meeting went on that evening, with more details from Serafall that the alliance had been stationed at the outskirts of Kyoto to prevent the enemy from escaping. Then, at the end of the meeting, Azazel turned one more time to Issei.

"Right, now Ise." Azazel called out. "Recalling of our last conversation with Cao Cao before, I'm going to give you a crash course of some heroes of old. It's important for you to know at least the background of your opponents." He practically dragged Issei on the floor to a different room.

"Wha-!? Wait! Oh, come on!" Issei protested only to fall on deaf ears as he finally dragged out of the room. Everyone else only stared at the door where Issei and Azazel had left, then Rias and Akeno turned to address their junior.

"My, my…" Akeno muttered with her hand covering her mouth in slight amusement.

"Um… What's that all about?" Rias asked her peerage, who only replied with shrugs, awkward laughs and smiles.

oXo

"He sounds like a villain." Issei said after he had been given a quick lesson of Cao Mengde.

"Well, the history of the Three Kingdoms did depict him as such." Azazel shrugged. "However, in the eyes of his people, Cao Cao was considered to be a hero, who was responsible for important political development in his territory around that period, as well as gathering and developing human talent. No matter the background, Cao Cao would recruit anyone as long as they were capable – making the State of Wei to be a strong meritocracy."

Azazel then scowled slightly. "However…. The Cao Cao we're facing right now is rather extreme in gathering his people. With a strong prejudice and differed from his ancestor, he's focusing more on gathering humans with special abilities, excluding non-human races and hybrids. His group's method of strengthening their arsenals through act of terrorism is going kind of too far."

The two fell into silence as Issei pondered over Azazel's teaching. It was after a minute that Azazel finally asked. "Something in mind?"

"That's not what heroes do."

Issei's mumbling was barely audible that Azazel had to incline a tad closer. "Come again?"

"That's not what heroes do." Issei repeated, clearer this time. "…At least that's what I think."

"Oho?" Azazel raised his eyebrows in curiosity amusement. "Is that so? What do you think about what heroes do?"

"Well…. I'm not sure myself." Issei scowled. "But pretty sure it's not something like kidnapping someone's mom for some large-scale, weird-ass experiment."

At Issei's simple reply, Azazel snorted. "You know…" Azazel grinned. "I think you're starting to be more like your dad these days."

"What!? No!" Issei furrowed his eyebrows as he groaned. "Come on, man! Don't say that!"

"Hahaha! Whatever you say, kid!" Azazel simply laughed it off before he stood up. "Come on, let's get prepared with the others before setting off to Nijou Castle."

* * *

After preparing (Saji saying his goodbyes while his teammates wished him luck), the Occult Research Club and Saji were heading towards the Nijou Castle while the Student Council would guard the hotel and surroundings.

When they were waiting for the bus heading towards Nijou Castle, everyone seemed concerned of Rossweisse's condition due to her hangover, as the former Valkyrie would have to fight the urge to vomit for many times. As he watched Rossweisse's misery, Issei himself began to reflect on his intoxicated behaviour during his trip to the Underworld last summer.

However, they did not expect when they saw a familiar little girl running towards them. "Please wait!"

Everyone turned around to see Kunou, clad in her shrine-priestess outfit, was running towards them.

"Kunou?" Issei blinked. "What are you doing here?"

Kunou simply proceeded to climb onto Issei's back until she settled on his neck. "I'm coming too, Red Dragon Emperor!" she said earnestly, causing everyone to widen their eyes in alarm.

"Lady Kunou, is it?" however, there was a calm voice that addressed the fox princess. Kunou turned to see Rias was talking to her. "This is the first time we meet each other. It is an honour to meet you, my name is Rias Gremory of 72 Pillars, Issei's master." She gave a quick introduction. "I'm sorry, but we can not take you with us."

"No! I want to rescue my mother too!" Kunou stubbornly replied, clinging on Issei's back like dear life.

"I understand your concerns, Lady Kunou." Rias attempted to reason with her. "But this will be very dangerous. I believe M'lady Leviathan and Azazel had explained so. Will you please stay back and leave this to us? We promise you that we will return your mother safely."

"Yes, I know!" Kunou's voice became desperate. "But I still want to rescue my mother! Please, take me along! I beg you!"

Everyone else could only stare at Kunou with uncertainty. Rias kept up her calm expression as she regarded the little girl. However, it was Issei who broke the silence. "Let's take her."

"Ise?" Rias thought she misheard of what her pawn/fiancé just said.

"Let's take Kunou along to rescue Lady Yasaka." Issei clarified.

"No, Ise. Can't you see that we'd be dragging Lady Kunou into danger?" Rias protested. She truly understood Kunou's feelings, but right now, it was not the time to be emotional. "Why would you want to take her along? She's clearly not suited for a real life combat!" it was rather harsh assessment, but true. Kunou's power was still weak compared with the rest others and the enemies they would face.

"I know." Issei closed his eyes, mulling things over again. "But… It's just…. Let's call it my instinct." Issei turned to look at Kunou with absolute conviction. "I think her presence might increase our odds to rescue Lady Yasaka."

Everyone could only blink at Issei's reasoning, although Akeno snorted a little bit in amusement at Issei's answer. Of course, Rias was not amused at all as she was about to refute.

However, a mist suddenly appeared around them, and when Issei got his senses and made out the view beyond the mist, he found himself at the subway station.

More over, he found himself alone with Kunou sitting on his shoulder.

"…Isn't this subway station platform?" Kunou looked around.

"I see…." Issei caught on the situation. "Dimension Lost. And we're separated from the others."

And while Issei and Kunou were still figuring things out, the former suddenly felt his cell-phone rang. Issei checked the caller ID and noticed it was Rias calling him. "Heh, so there is still reception in artificial dimension." Issei snorted in mild amusement before answering the call. "Hello?"

"Ise, are you there?" Rias' voice could be heard from the other end.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Kunou is with me too." Issei replied while he remained vigilant of his surroundings.

"I see…" Rias replied. "I wished I could have sent Lady Kunou back sooner, but now that things had come to this… Ise, can I entrust you to look after Lady Kunou?"

Issei's lips actually twitched upwards at the request. "Yeah, no problem. Leave her to me."

"I'm also transferred at…. Well, I'm not sure. I don't recall this part of Kyoto to look like this. Perhaps a massive renovation in a span of a year?" Rias said, Issei could imagine that the girl was looking around left and right, trying to discern her location.

"Do you have any preference for meeting point?" Issei asked.

"…Do you have a map?" Rias asked back.

Issei paused for a second as he checked over his inventory. "….Yeah, I do." He confirmed as he picked out a mini map of Kyoto.

"The power of Longinus is terrifying, indeed… To be capable of creating an artificial dimension with the size of the entire capital." Rias muttered from the other end. "Let's meet up at Nijou Castle."

"Understood. I'll also try to contact the others along the way." Issei nodded in affirmation.

"Good, I just got a hold with Akeno and Yuuto. They are fine. Can you contact Asia and the rest? I will try to contact Azazel as well."

"Got it." Issei nodded. "Oh, Rias?"

Rias blinked. She was still not completely used to being addressed by her name. "Yes?"

"Let's win this." Issei said with confident smile, and he bet that Rias also grew a smile as well.

"Yes. Be careful."

And the call ended.

"Alright." Issei put his phone away and clapped his hand, before turning to Kunou. "Are you ready? Let's go save your mother."

At Issei's face that was full of confidence, Kunou's face was flustered. Fixing her position to sit on Issei's shoulder. The girl wrapped his arms around his neck to prevent her from falling. "Yes!"

Issei nodded and activated his Boosted Gear. At the [Boost] command, the boy began to charge up his power as he made his way towards the Nijou Castle.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cao Cao and several other people – the core members of Hero Faction were gathering in a massive garden within Nijou Castle. However, if one to look again, there was one individual that stood out among the humans due to _her_ animalistic features. She was a young woman with a voluptuous figure and blonde hair with matching eyes, she was also clad in shrine-priestess attire, where nine fox tails could be seen from underneath.

"Cao Cao, are you sure this is fine?" the young man with spectacles asked, as he was seen preparing several magic formulas on the empty space of the garden, not far from the woman with fox-tails. "Numbers of our men had been decimated during our experiments to grant them Balance Breakers thanks to Saitama, and now we just heard that the Gremory heiress and her Queen had entered the fray."

He was Georg, The descendant of Johann Georg Faust, the human who contracted with the legendary Devil Mephisto Pheles. On that note, the young man was also the wielder of the 4th strongest Longinus, the Dimension Lost.

"Their arrival is still within our expectations. Besides, it's not a bad experience to meet the direct relative of the current Overlord." Cao Cao replied to the young man known as Georg. "In fact, I actually just thought of something about the back ground of Hyoudou Issei and the so-called Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess." He said as if he just got an idea as he rubbed his chin.

"Even so, the fact remains that we are under-staffed. There are barely enough numbers of our comrades to engage the enemy forces on their way here." Georg said.

"Relax, Georg. It's not that we expect that our subordinates will defeat them that easily." Cao Cao waved off. "Besides, Leonardo has supplied us with some of his monsters as well."

"True, but the monsters are rather low in quality in order to conserve his power, because Leonardo will be stationed outside of the bounded field to deal with the alliance force." Georg countered. "And that boy only brought even less men than we have at the moment with." He ended with a small sigh, while his hands remained flawlessly preparing many intricate and complex magic circles.

"Bah, come on, Georg!" A loud voice was heard next. "Stop being such a wuss!" the voice belonged to a man that stood two-meters tall, with well-built body. He was Heracles, a descendant of the legendary, mythological Greek hero who shared the same name. "We are heroes! Go take a look at Sig over there!" he pointed at the silver-haired swordsman, whom was silently polishing his blades to pass time. "Be confident! Even that Jeanne over there looks eager to kill!" Heracles pointed at a beautiful young girl with blonde hair.

She was Jeanne, the girl who carried the spirit of the famous Maiden of Orleans, Joan D'Arc. The girl was frowning as she stood impatiently, scowling at the ground. When she heard Heracles' remark, she only gave the bulky man a dry, exasperated glare.

"Come on, Jeanne! Don't tell me you're still sour about what we agreed on!" Heracles laughed as he lightly teased the girl.

"Jeanne." Cao Cao spoke up this time, causing the girl to turn to him. "We talked about this, remember? Leave Hyoudou Issei to me."

"I know, I know!" Jeanne moaned as she rubbed her forehead. "I'm not going to attack that…" she bit her lip for a second. "_That_ man's kid!"

The others raised their eyebrows that Jeanne chose to use that description in particular.

"Wait, don't tell me…" Heracles furrowed his eyebrows. Few seconds later, he blinked and he groaned. "Oh, come on…. Are you still hung up about Saita-!" however, his words were cut short when a sword ran right beside his head, nipping few strands of his hair, until the said sword was embedded into a wall behind him.

Heracles could not help but swallow a small lump at the fact that a sword almost ran through his head and he saw Jeanne was glaring back to him. This time, her glare was a lot colder, before her expression was replaced by too-sweet smile.

"Herc-kun…" Jeanne addressed the descendant of Greek hero with friendly manner, but one could not deny her bloodlust. "You are a fun fellow to have around, I really mean that, but can you please not to say that name around me?" she asked with disturbing chipper tone.

Heracles simply huffed and looked away in annoyance.

"Good boy." Jeanne nodded in satisfaction as her bloodlust dissipated.

"Jeanne, Heracles. That's enough." Cao Cao commanded, regaining the attention from the aforementioned two. "We haven't started the real battle and you two are already fighting yourselves." The wielder of Longinus sighed.

"Whatever." Heracles scoffed. "Speaking of, when do you think they will arrive here?"

"Hmm… Judging from their abilities and their performances last time, I'd say…." Cao Cao tapped his chin, before he turned his head towards the direction of the entry. "About now. They are here." And he quickly turned to Georg. "Georg, how's the preparation?"

"Just place here to here…" Georg mumbled, giving final tinkering on his magic formulas and with his mind-control magic, he sent telepathic command for the fox-woman to step into the middle of magic circle. "Alright, we're ready to go." The magician nodded to Cao Cao.

On cue, the students of Kuoh Academy plus Kunou had arrived at the garden where the Hero Factions had gathered. Cao Cao then immediately sent his greetings to welcome them. "I see that you have defeated the Sacred Gear users and monsters we have sent to you. Impressive, while the monsters are low-quality and the Sacred Gears were low to mid tier, the wielders we sent have achieved Balance Breakers; not bad at all, indeed."

The alliance of devils and angel turned their gazes towards Cao Cao, and the little fox-princess then caught the sight of the fox-woman. "Mother!" she cried at the woman.

The fox-woman in question was none other than Yasaka, Kunou's mother, as well as the current monarch of Kyoto Youkai.

"Mother, please wake up! It is me, Kunou!" the daughter shouted pleadingly towards her mother, but the mother did not seem to be even aware of anything around her.

"Contemptible, all of you!" Kunou then glared towards the heroes. "What have you done with my mother!?"

"Didn't I explain already?" Cao Cao replied as if stating the obvious. "We'd like to have your mother to cooperate for our little experiment, young princess." Receiving a nod from Georg, Cao Cao then tapped his spear on the ground. Then, the magic formula beneath Yasaka began to glow, and at the same time, Yasaka also let out a painful cry, and her body shone brightly as it changed its form.

The size of her entire vessel began to increase in size until everyone was marvelled at the sight of a giant nine-tailed fox with golden fur. Issei could not take his eyes off the sight of the legendary youkai at the sheer magnificence of Yasaka's true form; size that easily towered over everyone, as if saying that the creature was standing on a different plain than them; the golden fur that radiated like a sun, and the nine-tails that adorned her back – making the giant fox looked majestic.

Rias then stepped forward, making herself known. "We will only warn you once! Release the Youkai leader and surrender yourselves! Otherwise we will not hesitate to take all of you down with extreme prejudice!" she even flared out her own demonic aura to emphasize her point.

Cao Cao raised his eyebrows at the sight of the young she-devil. "My, my. If it isn't the heiress of the esteemed Gremory clan. It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Rias Gremory and her Queen." He gave a bow.

"Oh? I guess I should be honoured to be recognized by descendant of Cao Mengde?" Rias replied with sarcastic smirk.

"Oh, the honour is mine, in fact. To be known by the little sister of the Lucifer." Cao Cao returned the courtesy.

"Introduction aside!" Issei then quipped in. "What kind of experiment are you trying to pull here!?"

Cao Cao then began his answering. "The existence of Kyoto itself is actually a large scale magical device surrounded by powerful leylines. The various places known as famous sights are the power spots, abundant in spiritual, youkai and demonic power…."

Issei and everyone were listening at Cao Cao's explanation so far.

"…The ancient yin yang masters (onmyoji) hoped to mold the city itself into a kind of massive 'power.' Well, precisely because of that, all sorts of existences have been attracted to this place..."

Issei began to tap the ground with his foot impatiently.

"…Our current pseudo space is located in the dimensional gap, both infinitesimally close to and infinitely far away from Kyoto at the same time. The power of the leylines is now flowing here."

Issei's foot-tapping went faster as the explanation went on.

"…As the strongest level of existence amongst youkai, the nine-tailed fox is said to be on the level of the dragon kings in power."

Issei's eyes then twitched as a small vein bulged out on his temple.

"…The relationship between Kyoto and the nine-tailed fox is also intricately linked in a variety of ways. That is why-"

"Hey! HEY!" Issei finally snapped, interrupting Cao Cao's explanation. His shouting caused the heroes to blink at the boy's outburst. "GET TO THE POINT!" He pointed at his wrist like a wristwatch. "STOP WASTING TIME AND STATE YOUR PLANS IN 20 WORDS OR LESS!"

The palace fell into silence, the only sound heard was the noise of the giant nine-tailed fox whimpering and growling in pain.

"Heh… Kufufufu…" Then, few seconds later, Cao Cao slowly broke into a fit of laughter. "Fufu… Fuhahahaha!"

Even Georg, who was supposed to be focusing on watching over the nine-tailed fox was shaking to hold down his amusement from showing up.

The other heroes were whispering among themselves with amused looks on their faces. Sigfried's expression himself was more like incredulous rather than amused. Jeanne particularly narrowed her eyes at Issei's direction.

"Wow, he's really his son, isn't he?"

"Yeah, no kidding."

On the other hand, Rias, Akeno, Yuuto, Asia, Irina, Xenovia and Rossweisse were giggling and holding down their laughs despite the situation, even Rossweisse almost forgot her hangover. Saji and Kunou, however, were dumbfounded to say the least.

"What are you laughing about!?" Issei shouted to still-laughing Cao Cao, not aware of the effect of the words he just said.

"Only you, Ise-kun. Only you." Yuuto shook his head in utter amusement.

"So, sorry, sorry…" Cao Cao said between his laughs. "I was getting there, actually." He finally calmed himself down, though his expression was still completely filled with laughter. "Basically, we plan to summon the Great Red from Dimensional Gap through the power of Nine-Tailed Fox and the ley-lines of Kyoto…." Then Cao Cao shrugged. "Welp, those are over 20 words…"

"…I see."

"You… don't want to ask what we plan to do with that dragon?" Cao Cao enquired.

"I don't see why." Issei shrugged. "The end of this deal is that we are going to stop whatever you're doing with Lady Yasaka over there. I doesn't take much to conclude that having an Apocalypse Dragon in the real world is not going to end well for everyone."

"Heh, straight to the point. Just like Saitama, eh?" Cao Cao smirked, causing Issei's eyebrows to furrow.

"Anyway, Ise does have a point." Rias conceded as she fixed her pose. "Our objective here is to rescue and retrieve Lady Yasaka safe and sound. In order to do that we have to defeat you." She said with confident smile before she hardened her expression. "Everyone, prepare for battle!"

"YES!" Everyone chorused as they took battle formation.

Xenovia, taking the role as the spear-tip, stepped forward as she prepared her holy sword. The sheath that covered Xenovia's Durandal began to shift and transform, releasing massive amount of holy aura that covered the entire length of the sword. Xenovia willed the aura to take shape, and the holy aura assumed the shape of a blade.

Yuuto, who stood on the front lines with Xenovia then also stepped forward, brandishing his Sword of Betrayer.

Irina, who was also one of the front-liners, quipped in as she conjured a sword of light in her hand.

Akeno, taking the mid-support, let out her signature giggles and took by Rias' side, lightning and thunder were ready on her hands.

**[Boost!]**

Issei, taking the position just right behind the three sword-wielders, only let his Boosted Gear to charge up his power even further.

"Asia, go back to the rear and take Lady Kunou with you." Rias turned to her bishop.

"Yes!" Asia then ushered the fox-princess to come with her. "Princess Kunou, this way, please…" the younger youkai was reluctant at first before following. After all, she knew when she had to leave the battle for those who were more capable than herself.

"It's not possible to wake Lady Yasaka up with her current state…" Rias muttered as her eyes analysed the giant nine-tailed fox. "If she is forced to cooperate, then… Saji-kun." Rias turned to Sitri Pawn who stood on the side. "Can you use your power to subdue Lady Yasaka?"

Saji blinked at Rias before he turned towards the writhing nine-tailed fox. "…So it's coming down to this, huh?" Saji said with a sigh. "I don't like death battles, but… since this is for my comrades and Sona's friend asked me, then…" He then activated his power, conjuring a pack of black snakes on his arms, legs and shoulders and the snakes began to entangle his body. When his body was engulfed by a mass of black snakes, a large black serpent manifested itself from beneath his feet, standing by his side as it emitting black flames from its body. Saji then opened his eyes and his left orb resembled that of a snake itself.

As everyone was marvelled by Saji's power manifestation, the boy himself focused on making the Prison Dragon to follow his will. "Vritra… Once again I need your strength…." He then glanced to Issei. "Hyoudou, I need you to support me again if things get sour. Cause I'm still not in full control yet."

Then, Saji's surrounding was engulfed in black flames and massive black eastern dragon emerged from the flames.

**{Ah… my other self…}**

The black dragon said with deep voice, addressing Saji as his 'other self'. He then glanced around his surroundings, particularly at the Hero Faction and the mind-controlled Yasaka.

**{So, who is our prey this time? Is it the holy spear? Or that fox? Or the other humans? Either one is fine. I'm glad that you've been letting me out quite often these days.}**

The black dragon king said with seemingly very good mood.

**{….You know what? Let's just consume everything with my black flames. What say you?}**

Vritra might not be the strongest of dragon kings, but his history, reputation and numbers of his curses and abilities made him known as the most ominous. And despite his disturbing thoughts, Saji remained strong as he kept Vritra from lashing out.

However, before anything else could have been said and done, Xenovia had already taken the initiative to unleash the power of Durandal. The aura surrounding her blade then expanded until 15 meters-tall into the sky. "First strike is mine!" the bluenette then swung down her massive blade.

"DURANDAL!"

The massive blade of holy aura then crushed against the buildings, structures, practically the entire area where the Hero Faction was standing on. As the dust flying around, causing everyone to cover their eyes, Issei was impressed at the sheer power of Xenovia's new Durandal.

"Err… Xenovia." However, Issei could not help but complain a little bit. "Isn't that too excessive? There is our rescue objective there too, y'know?"

"No need to worry. After all, I did adjust the power." Xenovia replied confidently. "Though, to be honest, my aim is actually to achieve something like Saitama-dono's punch. That kind of power is my most ideal style." The knight was recalling the feats that Saitama had achieved with his fist alone.

Issei gave a deadpanned look at Xenovia for few seconds before speaking, "…Please don't do that."

"Why not?" Xenovia tilted her head.

"Because there's a possibility that you might go bald like he is if you chase after that kind of power. Can you possibly imagine yourself looking like that."

"Well, loosing your hair is a cheap prize if you get…" however, Xenovia's face slowly lose its colour as she imagined herself looking… like Saitama. "Err… On a second thought, it took years to make my hair looked like this now. I'm not sure if I can waste that so easily…"

Everyone else also shuddered at the thought.

"Focus, you two." Thankfully, Rias' voice managed to snap Issei and Xenovia back to the current situation as the dust covering the scene slowly cleared up.

When the dust finally cleared up, everyone saw that there was another cloud of dust – no, it was a mist; there was a cloud of mist protecting the currently unharmed members of Hero Faction.

Seeing that her attack from her already improved holy sword had no effect, Xenovia clicked her tongue. "So the power of Longinus could even withstand the newly Ex-Durandal…"

"Ex…. Durandal?" even with the fact that the enemies were still standing, Issei could not ignore the new name of Xenovia's sword.

"Allow me to explain." Irina volunteered herself. "Basically, they used all the Excalibur fragments possessed by the Church to create a sheath to cover Durandal's blade. Excalibur's power allowed Durandal's offensive aura to be contained. In addition, Excalibur's power can attack at the same time as Durandal's, allowing their powers to amplify each other... And a new sword, the fusion between Excalibur and Durandal is born!"

"Thus the name-sake: Ex-Durandal." Xenovia completed Irina's explanation, receiving a nod of understanding from Issei.

"I see…" Cao Cao sounded joyful on that. "Fusing Excalibur to suppress Durandal's destructive nature, but the offensive power is amplified at the same time…. Not bad, not bad at all." He laughed as he rubbed his chin. "You lot have done well against upper-class devils of Old Satan faction before; and you, sister of the current Satan…" Cao Cao pointed at Rias. "…Have gathered a group of excellent individuals as your servants. Should you officially join the Rating Game, I'd say that you'll achieve double-digit ranking in short time, even reach the top 10 in… few decades at most. Such glorious future…. Shalba Beelzebub is truly an utter fool for underestimating you all."

"That's only obvious." Sigfried conceded with Cao Cao. "Being bounded by anachronistic pride, they couldn't see the new generation is rising up to replace the old, as the old generation has no more place in new era. No wonder Vali did not want to lend them any hand and instead letting them perish." The Chaos Edge then turned to his leader. "Anyway, how should we proceed? After seeing such attack from earlier, I can't help but feel excited." He said with small, blood-thirsty grin.

"Oh, right." Cao Cao nodded. "Let's begin the experiment. Georg, if you would?"

"Understood." Georg then nodded, and began to put his magic into work. His preparations – the main formula within numerous magic circles were the pseudo dragon gate, with Yasaka the Nine-tailed Fox and the Kyoto leylines as its power source. Georg then activated the rest of the formula inside the magic circle to ensure that his pseudo dragon gate would be constantly fed enough power to emit signals towards the space, hoping that the Apocalypse Dragon would answer their summons.

Everyone from Kuoh had to be impressed at the numbers of magic circles Georg had deployed. Rossweisse, despite her hang over, could still, more or less make a quick analysis as she narrowed her gaze on Georg's arsenals. "There are magic arts from Norse, underworld, Grigori, some other dark and arcane arts, even fairy magic? Quite a diverse array of spells…."

Yasaka then howled even louder, her pupils dilated, her furs and tails were high strung, as she was exerted to fuel up Georg's magic circles. The look of things was enough for everyone to assume that Yasaka's life might be in danger if the so-called experiment went on.

"The ritual to summon the Great Red is working as intended. However, I need to constantly make sure that the power from leylines and the fox will keep feeding the magic formula. Sorry, but… I won't be able to fight at this rate."

"Got it." Seeing that the ritual was working so far, Cao Cao nodded then turned to his men. "We've been notified that Leonardo and the rest of our comrades are fighting off the allied force outside – led by Fallen Angel Governor and the Leviathan, and there's still yet any sign of… _that_ guy coming." He glanced at a certain girl. "…Jeanne, Heracles."

"Right, right."

"Ough!"

The aforementioned two then stepped forward. "Allow me to introduce you these two." Cao Cao gestured. "These are the inheritors of the heroes – Joan D'Arc and Heracles of Greece. By the way, Sigfried, who will you pick?"

"You should have known already, Cao Cao." Sigfried stared intently at both Yuuto and Xenovia, whom tensed under Sigfried's gaze.

"Of course." Cao Cao closed his eyes and nodded with small smile. "Then, Heracles? Jeanne? What about you two?"

"Well…." Heracless rubbed his chin as his gazed upon everyone. He took a glance at Jeanne, and made his decision. "I… guess I'm gonna have a go with the ladies, although the one with silver hair doesn't seem to be well."

Jeanne also looked around, and after staring at Issei for few moments, she then turned to Cao Cao. "Cao Cao…. Can I really not…?" she gave a mixed-expression of pleading and perhaps murderous; it was rather _twisted_, to put it simply.

"No, Jeanne." Cao Cao sighed. "I'm the one calling the shots here."

"Che, fine…" Jeanne pouted. "Then I'll take on that cute angel over there." She smirked at Irina's direction.

"I see, so that only leaves me, Akeno, Ise and Saji-kun…" Rias frowned. "Ise will take on Cao Cao. Saji-kun, please take care of Lady Yasaka; remember that you are to subdue her, please refrain from hurting her as much as you can."

"So I get the monster fight, after all…." Saji nodded. "I've promoted to Queen a while ago, let's do this! VRITRA PROMOTION!"

Saji's body then was enveloped in black flames, turning him into his dragon king mode. With a roar, the fiery black dragon then soared towards the giant fox youkai. As soon as Saji had arrived at Yasaka's location, he wasted no time and he put his techniques into work. His black flames arranged themselves into the magic circle where Yasaka was in, and he used his Vritra power to absorb as much power as he could to subdue the giant fox.

As Yasaka was still under Hero Faction's control, she automatically retaliated by releasing her aura as well. The aura of legendary youkai and dragon clashed against one another – Yasaka's golden and Vritra's black aura pushing each other; as Vritra's dragon form was struggling and slipping its long body around Yasaka's frame, the fox then spat large amount of fire at the dragon.

Simply put, Yasaka's fox fire and Vritra's black flame made their battle a very intense one, as each monster attempted to overpower one another. The only problem was the fact that Saji had to be careful and could not go all out, as he could not afford to injure Yasaka too much.

"This is… difficult! Unlike the fight against Loki…!" Saji gritted his teeth.

**{Focus, my other self…}** Vritra calmly guided his host. **{You must truly concentrate to use my power. Although she is powered by the Kyoto itself, the nine-tailed fox is powerful, not to mention the effect of the magic circle surrounding us. The mage's magic circle somehow has some unique barrier property that interferes with my power… With the leylines, the fox's already massive power reserve, the Longinus, and the mage's wide array of spells, it will be next to impossible to drain the youkai's power before we fall down first.}**

At the grim explanation, Issei then considered to utilize his Boosted Gear.

**[Do you need my transfer?]**

Ddraig dutifully sent a telepathic message to Vritra.

**{No! His control has yet to be perfect, he will lose himself in rampage if he receives more power from Red Dragon Emperor. He needs real life experience if he wants to master this power of mine.}**

"Understood, then." Rias nodded. "Yuuto, Xenovia! Take the battle elsewhere! We have to keep Lady Yasaka as far away as possible from these people!"

At the command, the two knights chorused in affirmative and moved away, and Sigfried immediately went after them. Soon after, sounds of steel clashing were heard, and sparks were seen flying around as the three sword-wielders had begun their fight.

"Irina, are you going to be fine?" Rias asked the reincarnated angel.

"Leave her to me!" Irina glared at Jeanne before she took off with her white wings, flying to engage the she-hero. Jeanne only smiled challengingly and drew her rapier.

"Akeno, Rossweisse, you will deal with that man there." Rias gave a glance at Heracles, who seemingly waited for them patiently - the fact that infuriated her as she felt underestimated. "I will deal with that magician there." Rias then turned towards Georg, who was still busy on supervising his own handiwork.

"Wait, Rias-san." Rossweisse interjected. "I believe Akeno-san should assist you instead."

Rias only narrowed her eyes slightly in disapproval. However, Rossweisse quickly explained her reasons. "Our objective here is to stop whatever experiment those people are doing, and to rescue the youkai leader." The Valkyrie then pointed at the mage. "That mage and the nine-tailed fox are the key operations. If we take him out sooner, the Hero Faction will lose their control over the nine-tailed fox, and our mission will be easier."

Rias contemplated for a second, and she turned to Rossweisse one more time. "Are you sure you can fight him alone?" she asked with stern tone.

The Rook only took a deep breath before she set her gaze resolutely at the still-waiting Heracles, despite her hangover still lingering on her. "Yes… I'll be fine." She then hovered over to Heracles.

"Ho? So you're coming alone? I don't mind if you brought a friend or two, I can appreciate some more lady companies." Heracles said with teasing tone, but he also prepared himself for battle.

"I alone will be enough to 'entertain' you…" Rossweisse narrowed her eyes in disdain and she prepared numerous arrays of magic spells and launched them towards the Greek hero. "Let's see if these can accompany you!"

As Rossweisse began her magic bombardment on Heracles, Rias, Akeno and Issei turned to face Cao Cao and Georg, where the latter was still supervising his magic ritual; although, the mage would occasionally throw glances at the commotion around him. After all, one could not be too careful in the battlefield.

Obviously, Cao Cao positioned himself right between the trio and Georg. "Sorry, but Georg needs to be alone right now." He casually said as he rested his Longinus on his shoulder.

"3 on 1, you're obviously outnumbered." Rias remarked. "Stand down and surrender. This is your final warning." She said as she let out her demonic aura.

"I'm outnumbered, sure. But does it mean that I'm outclassed?" Cao Cao then put on his stance. "Show me what you and your servants got, sister of Lucifer."

Rias, Akeno and Issei then gave one more glance at one another. Without a word, their plan was obvious – Issei would engage Cao Cao to create an opening, then Rias and Akeno, or either one of them would throw whatever they could to disrupt Georg and his ritual to release Yasaka. They then moved, giving each other some in triangle formation, with Issei as their vanguard, Rias on his right while Akeno on his left behind.

Issei stopped walking as he faced Cao Cao, the girls behind him were also ready to move. The devils could not help but feel anxious at the sheer bloodlust and pressure exuding from Cao Cao's being, his holy spear only made their case even worse. It was as if one wrong or careless move would cost their dear lives.

Clearing his mind from the devil instinct warning him about the Spear of Destiny, Issei then asked in his mind. _"Ddraig, how much have we stored up?"_

_**[…Should be enough to fight him.]**_

Ddraig simply replied and Issei inwardly nodded. He closed his eyes to make one last preparation, before he snapped them open, allowing his touki to leak out and cover his whole body.

Issei had been charging up as much power as he could during his travel to the Honmaru Palace, where they were having the showdown. And during that travelling period, Issei kept boosting, even when he was fending off the assassins sent by the Hero Faction. Issei honestly did not bother to count, how long he had been boosting. He simply focused to charge as much as his body could take.

**[EXPLOSION!]**

With that one command, all the stored up power was released for the world to see. Everyone in the location could not help but to at least give a glance at the sheer power exuding from Issei's body. However, the boy did not waste any time, nor to let anyone to watch too long, as he immediately disappeared from where he was standing, leaving a small crater and cracked ground on his wake.

Cao Cao, who was impressed at the display of power, widened his eyes in alarm and he barely managed to turn around and raise his spear to block a strike from Issei's gauntlet. The impact caused his muscle's to strain, even he had to supress a grunt from coming out. However, Cao Cao persisted as he used every ounce of his strength and skills to keep up.

Issei did not let up his assaults as he sent flurry of strikes by his gauntlet-covered left arm. However, each strike was perfectly parried by Cao Cao's True Longinus and the hero descendant found an opening to launch a wide-arc swing of his spear, forcing Issei to leap back to dodge.

Issei did not waste any time as he made a quick manoeuvre around the battlefield and engaged Cao Cao in another round of close-combat, as The Holy Spear of the Setting Sun clashed with Gauntlet of the Red Dragon Emperor. Issei was displaying a show of his agility by employing some hit-and-run tactics, as he would disappear after landing couple of strikes, only to appear on Cao Cao's flank to give another strike, before he vanished again.

One might have said that the two combatants were equally matched. However, surprisingly, Issei was definitely not winning. Despite being a human, fighting against a devil, whom was naturally superior in terms of strength, Cao Cao had proven to be a highly-skilled combatant as he fought toe-to-toe against Issei, who was supposed to have received a massive power-boost from his own Longinus. Considering the objectives of each side, Cao Cao was actually faring very well in fighting three exceptional devils, despite the stress going through his body and all.

On the other hand, Rias and Akeno could not see any opening to join the battle, either it was to assist Issei or to attack Georg, due to the size of the battlefield and the circumstances concerning each party's objectives.

The Hero Faction's primary objective was to summon the Great Red, the Dragon of Apocalypse into the human realm by using the legendary nine-tailed fox and Kyoto leylines as power source. Defeating the enemies before them would be ideal, but Georg and his magic were the essence of the mission. As long as Cao Cao could just prevent the mage and his ritual to be disturbed, victory would still go towards the heroes in one way or another.

However, when Cao Cao gave a wide-arc swing towards Issei's legs, the latter quickly jumped to evade, and he followed with a counter attack with a massive two-handed hammer fist. Cao Cao raised his spear to block the attack, and when Issei's hands collided with the True Longinus, the ground beneath Cao Cao cracked and gave in to the sheer pressure of Issei's strike, causing the 'hero' to grunt while enduring the strain on his body.

On the other hand, Issei gritted his teeth as he could feel the holy spear's aura was burning his hands. The short stalemate then was broken off in a second, as Issei roared in defiance and pushed through with his attack, the force of his strike caused Cao Cao to be launched back good distance away, bouncing and tumbling on the ground until he crashed to a nearby wall.

"Now!" Issei then did not waste any time and signalled Rias and Akeno the green light. The two girls nodded, then they quickly moved and prepared to attack the seemingly defenceless Georg; Rias with her Power of Destruction and Akeno with her signature lightning and thunder magic.

However, during that span of several seconds, Akeno then noticed from the corner of her eyes that something was wrong, and it was coming right at where she and Rias were standing. Being the one with more battle experience than her King, Akeno realised that there was a bolt of holy energy rapidly approaching them.

"RIAS, LOOK OUT!" Akeno cancelled her magic and quickly jumped to push Rias out of the harm's way.

BOOM!

The two devil ladies barely dodged the resulting blast as they stumbled and rolled around the ground. "Rias! Akeno-san!" Issei screamed in worry. It took only a second for him to see that the two ladies were relatively unharmed, before he turned towards where the holy aura had been fired.

Cao Cao walked out from the hole he just crashed into, with his Longinus glowing, signifying that the holy aura from earlier was indeed fired from the spear-tip.

"What!?" Issei asked incredulously. "How!? That impact should have at least broken several bones in you!" Issei referred when Cao Cao was crashed into the wall before.

"I… was actually in quite a bad shape, indeed." Cao Cao smirked. Then, he showed a small empty vial for Issei and the others to see. "But fortunately, I have this."

"Is that… Phoenix Tears?" Akeno narrowed her eyes. "Where did you get that!?"

"Black market." Cao Cao shrugged. "…Took quite a fortune, but there are lots of underworld channels for us to get our hands on these tears here."

"You dare to lay your hands on those…." Rias glared, her aura was flaring from sheer anger. "Many people in the underworld and various pantheons are suffering from your attacks, and in dire need of those tears, yet you terrorists are snagging them around!?"

"Hm, that's a good aura you have there. Your brother must be proud of you." Cao Cao mused. "Anyway, I can't let you two to interrupt Georg. As much as he appreciates companies of lovely ladies, he's doing an important task at the moment and cannot be distracted." Cao Cao then brandished his spear once again. "….And now I got a good grasp of your fighting capabilities, especially that Red Dragon Emperor over there. Let's take this up a notch, shall we?"

Issei only hardened his stance once again for another fight. "What, are you going to use your Balance Breaker or something?"

"Well… Why didn't you use your Balance Breaker from the beginning? Since you have to stop us and rescue the youkai leader, isn't it logical to go all out to get things over and done with?" Cao Cao asked back, showing his point.

Issei, Rias and Akeno could not say anything in return. Issei's condition was still a problem, and they just made another mistake by underestimating Cao Cao for being a human.

"Well, I know I'm just a frail human, compared with you devils and dragons…" Cao Cao spoke again, shaking some of his limbs that had been stressed through out the previous round with Issei. "I'm not sure why you didn't choose to use your Balance Breaker, but if in any chance you're underestimating us heroes…" his eyes then hardened. "That's very insulting, you know…"

Cao Cao eyed Issei, as well as Rias and Akeno. Fighting against Issei alone would be rough, however, with the two devil ladies that would joining the fray, Cao Cao felt that he could work something out. Winning a fight is not all about strength and power alone, while those two elements _do_ contribute immensely in winning a combat, it was the one who could make the better judgement during battle, make do the best out of the battlefield, will emerge victorious. Hyoudou Issei was indeed powerful individual, however, Cao Cao deemed that the boy was more difficult to deal with if he were to fight _alone_. With two devil ladies, with one of them were much less experienced due to her sheltered upbringing, joined the fight, Cao Cao could see more possibilities and chances to win this battle despite the odds.

Meanwhile, Issei still could not reveal his full power yet. Rias and Akeno then knew that going pass Cao Cao's guard was next to impossible unless the latter was taken care of. The three devils nodded to one another, as they dispersed into an attack pattern, encircling Cao Cao from three different directions. In return, the hero's descendant only grinned in anticipation. Issei glanced at his hands, he could feel the burn on his skin from Cao Cao's holy spear when they clashed earlier. He tightened his fists to resolve himself under the pain before he took the initiative to charge at Cao Cao first.

* * *

On the other parts of the battlefield, Yuuto and Xenovia were engaging Sigfried, a former exorcist who wielded five Demon Swords, as well as a descendant of the famous hero of Norse.

The tactic Yuuto and Xenovia employed was more or less the same they used to overwhelm Freed Sellzen during Excalibur fiasco. Well, it was not exactly a tactic that those two came upon, but the two knights just ended up agreeing about the combination – Yuuto's speed and techniques with Xenovia's brute strength and destructive power.

However, a rogue lunatic like Freed Sellzen could not be compared to a true seasoned warrior like Sigfried, as the hero's descendant possessed all skill, agility and the strength to match both Yuuto and Xenovia blow-to-blow simultaneously. The Chaos Edge was employing a three-sword style with the help of his sub-species Twice Critical.

Amidst the battle, Yuuto just remembered that he possessed something that was suitable to fight a person with dragon attribute. Focusing in his mind to prevent revealing his card to the enemy, Yuuto then summoned a particular sword from his pocket dimension.

Sigfried, who happened to engage Xenovia's Ex-Durandal with his Balmung and Nothung, he felt a certain chill on his spine. He then quickly used Balmung's whirlwind to blow Xenovia away into a good distance, and managed to raise his Gram in a nick of time to block Yuuto's newest arsenal. "I see…" Sigfried gained a gleam on his eyes at the sight of Yuuto's Ascalon. "So you possess a dragon-slayer. I guess you know one of my weaknesses."

"You, who possess a power of a dragon, one strike of this dragon-slayer will be more than enough to supress your Sacred Gear for some time!" Yuuto said as he employ Ascalon's holy aura against Gram's demonic aura.

"Hm, Ascalon is indeed a powerful dragon-slayer, but…" Sigfried then smirked as Sword of the Sun steadily overpowered St. George's Dragon Slayer. "I'd say my Gram is the stronger dragon-slayer than yours…"

Yuuto's widened his eyes as he struggled to stand up against Sigfried's pressure. "I see…. So Demonic Emperor Sword also possessed dragon-slaying property. It's like combining Durandal and Ascalon together, that's not even funny…" the knight smirked in irony.

"Don't forget about me just yet!" Xenovia's voice then was heard as both combatants turned to see the bluenette was grabbing a part of Ex-Durandal's sheath. From the sheath, she pulled another hilt that was showed to be Durandal, allowing Xenovia to use two-sword style with Durandal and Excalibur together.

"Oh, now things are getting interesting!" Sigfried gleefully exclaimed. "Three holy swords consisting Ascalon, Durandal and Excalibur! Those are my swords' worthy opponents, indeed!" He then gave a wide swing with his Gram, forcing Yuuto to jump back to avoid Gram's destructive power. Sigfried then focused the power within him and his body began to emit an ominous aura that sent chill to Yuuto and Xenovia's spine.

"Balance Breaker!"

With those two words, Sigfried's back then grew more dragon arms with silver scales covering them. With Sigfried already manifested one dragon arm, the Balance Breaker provided him four dragon arms in total. On top of that, the arms that recently grew out had a sword in each hand.

"These two swords are demonic swords Tyrfing and Dainsleif." Then Sigfried gestured to one mundane sword in his hand. "While this one here is just a normal sword of light to fend off devils. I brought this along from the church to round up the numbers." With six swords in total, with five demon swords: Gram, Balmung, Nothung, Tyrfing and Dainsleif, the former exorcist's appearance resembled that of an Asura, a deity of wrath and violence. "And these arms here… Is my sub-species Balance Breaker: Chaos Edge Asura Ravage."

_**Chaos Edge Asura Ravage – Feast of Asura and the Demonic Dragon.**_

It was a sub-species Balance Breaker that took a form of four dragon arms jutting out from Sigfried's back; with each arm doubling his power. That moment, Sigfried's strength and power had been enhanced by sixteen folds.

"Now that all of the cards had been revealed…." Sigfried grinned, each of his dragon arm twirling the swords with ease. "Shall we see if you two's holy swords can match my demon swords?"

It was the moment that Yuuto also decided to use two-sword style with his Sword of Betrayer and Ascalon in his hands, with Xenovia's Excalibur and Durandal. The two devil knights and the hero stood facing each other for few seconds, before they dashed and met their respective swords against each other.

oXo

Irina was conflicted. Having been study about subjects regarding the church and Christianity, Irina had come to learn various names of renown saints over the course of history, alive and deceased alike. One that she learned was Joan D'Arc, the Maiden of Orleans.

Here she was, standing to face off the person who was carrying the very spirit of La Pucelle herself. It was just inconceivable for Irina to believe, that a person who should have been carrying the spirit of a catholic martyr, ended up joining a group of terrorist who promoted the concept of chaos.

However, Irina knew better that her current mission took priority. With her new powers as reincarnated angel, blessed by Archangel Michel himself, Irina opened her wings wide and took to the sky for field advantage. She then summoned a dozen of spears of light with considerable size before she threw the spears down at Jeanne, a member of Hero Faction who carried the spirit of Joan D'arc.

However, despite Irina had aimed her spears to hit her target, Jeanne simply moved and ran graciously on the ground, evading Irina's spears of light with hair's breadth. Her speed was nowhere near Yuuto or Xenovia, but she was moving fast enough for Irina to have a hard time keeping up.

"Not bad, not bad at all!" Jeanne gleefully commented. "The angel's attacks are straight to the point, this big sister is very touched!" she cheerfully said as she just deflected one of the spears with her rapier.

Seeing that their distance was closing, Irina decided to dive down and engage Jeanne in close combat. However, when Jeanne spotted Irina speeding towards her, she stood her guard instead of evading. Brandishing a sword of light, Irina's light then clashed with Jeanne's rapier; the two ended up with a dead-lock. For few moments, both women tried to overpower each other, or to find any opening to exploit by gritting their respective swords against one another.

However, Jeanne then smiled, and she chanted two words, "Blade Blacksmith!"

Irina was barely able to jump back to avoid a sword that almost impaled her foot on the ground. "A Sacred Gear!? And it creates…. Holy swords?!"

Blade Blacksmith - Holy Sword Creation, was a Sacred Gear that allows its wielder to create numerous holy swords with different attributes at will. One could say that Blade Blacksmith is similar in ability with Sword Birth, as the only difference between the two are their opposing elements – holy and demonic.

Seeing that Irina lost her ground, Jeanne ceased the chance and she proceeded to push forward, thrusting and slashing her rapier with precise angles with her expert swordsmanship, whilst keep growing more swords out from the ground where Irina stood on.

"And here's more!" Jeanne shouted as she pushed her attacks, as the number of holy blades sprouting from the ground to impale Irina slowly increased. "And more…" more blades coming out. "And more!" the frequency and the numbers kept increasing.

Irina was already having a hard time dodging and intercepting Jeanne's rapier, and forcing to watch her ground to prevent herself from getting impaled by the hero's holy blades only made things more difficult. She was forced to keep jumping and leaping away after barely one second of touching the ground thanks to the use of Jeanne's Sacred Gear. As the numbers of the blades, as well as their frequency of appearing kept increasing in steady pace, it was getting harder and harder for the reincarnated angel to keep up with the relentless attacks from both Jeanne and the ground itself.

Feeling that she had enough, Irina sprouted her wings open and took to the sky. At last, Jeanne also stopped chasing, and her holy swords could not reach her in the air, giving Irina some time to regain her breath.

"Hm, good, good!" Jeanne nodded approvingly. "The cute angel is able to keep up this far, I'm really pleased!"

"Don't underestimate me!" Irina shot back. "Despite my appearance, I'm the Ace of Lord Michael, leader of the angels, you know!"

"Oh, that Archangel Michael? I see…." then, her eyes suddenly gleamed with power, followed by another oppressive aura leaking out from her body. "Well, then… Let's see if you can keep up with this baby as well! Balance break!"

With those two words being chanted, numerous holy swords suddenly grew from beneath Jeanne's feet. The multitude of blades and swords then meshed against each other, giving them a form and shape as the swords kept connecting with one another, building up in a certain pattern and formation.

Irina had to look up despite she was flying in the air. The shape formed by Jeanne's holy swords was resembling that of a dragon. Yes, in summary, Jeanne just summoned a dragon made of holy swords, its body was metallic silver with blade-like sharp scales adorning its entire body.

_**Stake Victim Dragon – The Holy Dragon of Judgement**_

It was Blade Blacksmith's Balance Breaker specially created by and for Jeanne, the carrier of the spirit of Joan D'Arc, Maiden of New Orleans.

"This child here…" Jeanne said as she gently rubbed the side of the metal dragon. "….Is my Balance Breaker. Like Sig-kun over there, it's a sub-species."

Irina ended up swallowing a lump as she knew that she was in a deep trouble. A newly reincarnated angel against a massive dragon – an artificial dragon made of holy swords, but a dragon nonetheless.

"I won't back down…" Irina then gathered her resolve, knowing that she and her comrades had something precious at stake. "Even I have to fight the successor of a saint, I will fight for my friends! For Lord Michael! For peace!" she bellowed and conjured a sword of light, before she raised it up against the dragon and sped towards it.

Jeanne only widened her smile as her 'pet' dragon also moved forward to intercept Irina with open jaws.

oXo

Meanwhile, Rossweisse was definitely _not_ feeling well. She felt like the inside of her stomach was constantly churning, shaking and twisting, she felt like she was about to vomit again anytime soon, and she felt like a Jotun was using her head as a bongo drum. And to make matters worse, while being under these conditions, she had to fight someone who was descended from Greek's greatest hero – Heracles.

She had been inwardly reprimanding herself for such a pathetic display, and she blamed Azazel for this; coercing her to drink on duty, even when he was not supposed to. However, she partially blamed herself as well for losing her own composure, considering that she was supposed to be the responsible one. Loosing her cool and stoop as low as Azazel was no excuse, looking at her current performance.

However, despite her state, she had to admit that the adversary before her was no push-over. She might not be at her best, but she knew well enough that her magic was still powerful enough to level several city blocks to the ground. However, the hero, Heracles as he named himself, could withstand everything she had thrown at him; the man was still standing strong in the middle of demolished buildings and structures.

"Hahahaha!" The bulky, muscular man bellowed. "That's some powerful magic attack you have there! Splendid!" he sarcastically remarked as if his body had not been hit in the first place. "Now, it's my turn to show you what I have!"

The descendant of the Greek demigod then marched forward, dashing towards Rossweisse with his fist raised. His large built clearly demonstrated that speed and agility was not his forte, thus Rossweisse could easily dodged his attacks. However, something was off.

Rossweisse did sense some considerable power leaking off from Heracles' body, but she could tell that the man's aura was not from outside enchantment. Then, how could his fists produce explosions upon every contact?

BOOM!

There it was again, Heracles' fist just landed on a tree behind Rossweisse when she dodged. A punch should have just broken the said tree into two, or in several pieces at best, not reducing it into dust with bright explosion.

"Pretty strong, isn't it?" Heracles chuckled. "This is the power of my Sacred Gear, Variant Detonation." He announced as his body was glowing with power.

Variant Detonation - Prank of the Giant, is a Sacred Gear that allows the wielder to generate explosions via direct contact. One could say it was kind of a fitting arsenal for a person of Heracles' stature.

Then, Heracles spotted from the corner of his eye, the other battles and his comrades who had utilised their trump cards. "Whoops, it seems that my comrades are having blasts, I guess I have to contribute as well!" He roared, and the glowing on his body intensified. The radiance then slowly morphed, forming a shape resembling protrusions of_ missiles_ adorning his limbs and back, turning the demigod's descendant into some kind of walking modern-armoury. "Balance Breaker!"

_**Detonation Mighty Comet – Malicious Wave of the Superman.**_

It was Heracles' Balance Breaker, and from appearance alone, it did not take a genius to tell its capabilities.

Heracles then took aim at the (former)Valkyrie, ready to unleash a barrage of missiles right at Rossweisse, whom quickly manoeuvred in evasive manner in anticipation. However, her comrades in arms came to her mind. "This is bad…!" she muttered, and she immediately changed her direction in order to lure Heracles and his missiles away from Honmaru Palace.

Seeing the woman flying away from the battlefield, or to be precise, the location of her comrades were fighting, Heracles grinned. "Oh, you want to prevent your friends to get caught in the crossfire? Good, good! Fine, then I will indulge you!"

Heracles then sent all of his missiles right at Rossweisse, each missile was homing at the (former)Valkyrie, making Rossweisse saw that it was unlikely to dodge every single one of them hot on her rear. Taking her chances, Rossweisse then stopped in mid-air and conjured numerous magic circles she knew to defend herself.

BOOOM!

A massive explosion occurred when Heracles' missiles hit their target. The surrounding air violently got sucked and released violently by the explosion, and when the smokes settled down, Rossweisse appeared looking worse to wear; wounds and injuries were littering her body, and it was thanks to her last-minute defensive measures, as well as the enhanced strength and durability given by the Rook piece, that saved her life from being blown to smithereens.

In the mean time, Rias spotted the state her latest Rook was in, and she shouted a quick order to Asia. "Asia, recover!"

Asia wordlessly complied and utilised her Twilight Healing, firing a healing aura towards the injured Rossweisse. As her body healed enough, Rossweisse took a deep breath and she made a thumbs-up in appreciation.

However, that did not mean that things had turned in her favour, as Heracles had not dismissed his Balance Breaker yet. "Ho, so you have recovered! That's fine by me!" he said with his grin widened. "I have come long way, I'm not going to settle with a short game!"

"Don't act as if you have won!" Rossweisse glared as she prepared her Norse magic again. It was only her sheer resolve and anger towards Heracles that kept her in fight while suffering a nasty hangover.

"Haha! Have at you!" with that bellow, Heracles then charged towards Rossweisse.

* * *

Issei widened his eyes as he caught a glimpse of the battles around him from the corner of his eyes. _"Balance Breakers? All of them! Even sub-species!"_

"Don't look away now!"

When those words were heard, Issei realized his blunder. He got pre-occupied by the developments around him that he failed to detect Cao Cao had already jumped with his spear raised, delivering a vertical thrust as he dived to the ground. Issei was barely able to leap away in time to evade, the spear-blade was able to tear his uniform. The boy rolled back on the ground before jumping again to gain distance.

At the same time, Akeno and Rias interjected; flying in the air, the two fired a barrage of holy lightning and Power of Destruction condensed bullets right at Cao Cao. The 'hero' did not show any attempt to evade, he simply employed his expert spearman-ship to smack the bullets away with precise grace. He was not fazed even as the deflected attacks were exploding on the ground around him. However, with fluid motions, Cao Cao twirled his spear, pointing its tip right at Akeno and Rias, whom quickly dispersed and he fired several shots of pure holy energy towards the devil ladies. The two devils were able to avoid any hits, but the sheer heat emanating from Cao Cao's attack was enough to send a sense of dread to the devil's minds.

It had been like this for sometime since the beginning of the three-way battle. Rias and Akeno were not cut out to engage close-quarter combat, much to their chagrin, thus Issei was left with the most dangerous task to face the ultimate spear head-on, while the two would provide support.

However, Cao Cao was slowly getting better and better at handling the devils' assaults. Issei might have had some training and experience in martial arts, but Cao Cao was simply out-skilled him. After all, the 'hero' possessed both experiences and had been training to fight and kill opponents and creatures that were naturally stronger than him. Combined with his holy spear, one could say that Cao Cao was supernatural creature's natural enemy. As he always believed, the strong ones are not winners, but winners are the strong ones.

Cao Cao was now pressuring Issei with relentless strikes of his spear. The former first just ambushed the latter with a high-strike by slamming his spear right on top of Issei's head. The latter blocked with his arms, grunting and hissing as the holy aura of the Longinus constantly burned his skin upon contact. Then, Cao Cao broke off for a second before he sent flurry of swings, followed with few thrusts towards Issei.

Issei could barely intercepted Cao Cao's spear with his gauntlet. The hero did not let him to regain his momentum, preventing him to use his full strength to overpower him. There it was, Cao Cao's combo caused Issei to lose his balance in the midst of dodging and blocking, allowing Cao Cao to deal another kick to his abdomen.

Rias and Akeno took another risk by hovering even closer towards Cao Cao, hoping that shorter distance would increase their chances to land a hit on the human. However, it was still too naïve for them to think such a thing. Shorter distance also gave Cao Cao the same edge – his spear gave him a wider attack-range, allowing him to almost land a blow on both of them; his swing that was aimed at Rias' neck just nicked few strands of her crimson hair as the heiress ducked in the nick of time, while his thrust managed to tear a mid-section part of Akeno's attire; the blade made a small contact with her skin. It was not enough to cut into her flesh and draw blood, but the holy property and Akeno's demonic nature were enough for the blade to burn her creamy skin upon contact.

"Akeno!" Rias shouted in alarm when she saw Cao Cao's spear tore through her best friend's defence. "Are you okay?!"

"Just a scratch." Akeno hissed as she felt the burn. _"A mere touch was able to burn like this… So this is the Ultimate Holy Spear…!"_ she thought incredulously with a hint of fear as well. The two ladies turned their heads to see that Cao Cao was now engaging Issei again.

Cao Cao then followed with a straight thrust right at Issei's abdomen again. However, this time Issei swiftly jerked his body to the side, avoiding the spear's blade by small margin, and quickly wrapped his gauntlet-covered hand around the spear's guard in vice-grip. It was a bold and dangerous move, as even with Boosted Gear preventing Issei's direct contact with the holy spear, the Longinus' aura was still able to seep through, burning Issei's skin underneath the red gauntlet.

""Ise/Ise-kun!"" the two great ladies shouted in worry when they saw Issei's reckless action.

Seeing that he was in a pinch, Cao Cao did not leave Issei any chance to take further advantage as he swung his spear in all angles. Since the burning on his hand was starting to become unbearable, Issei could not exert his full strength on his grip, thus he went with the flow, he leapt and twisted his body around, matching Cao Cao's movement with his own in order to prevent the spear getting forcefully wrenched out from his grip.

"Rias, Akeno, now's your chance!" Issei shouted, maintaining his grip on Cao Cao's spear.

The two ladies flinched, knowing that Issei was providing them an opportunity to go at Georg. Without anymore words, the two ladies turned their attentions towards Georg, who looked in alarm as he already had his hands full with the current task.

Cao Cao clicked his tongue, however, he soon also found a solution for his own problem. Sacred Gears, even Longinus, were basically artefacts that were stored within human body, and the humans possessing them willed their respective Sacred Gears to manifest their power to the real world. When Cao Cao discovered his Longinus for the first time, he manifested the spear out of thin air. Thus, when he had his spear currently getting caught by Issei, as crazy as it sounded, considering that Issei was a devil; Cao Cao simply willed the spear to 'disappear', returning it into his body, before he quickly manifested it again freshly in his arms.

"What?!" Issei was shocked at the fact that the spear in his grasp suddenly vanished, only to appear again in Cao Cao's grasp. The hero had already leapt away to gain distance before Issei could have done anything else.

However, Issei pushed on, despite his hands were burning and hurting from the contact with the holy spear. Issei immediately closed the distance again, kept aiming to keep Cao Cao's Longinus in place, while giving Rias and Akeno as much time as possible to take care of Georg.

It was quite effective, apparently. With Issei kept the True Longinus pre-occupied, Cao Cao could not launch any attack to prevent Rias and Akeno to make their way towards Georg. When he deployed the spear, Issei would keep attempting to grasp it, despite the repercussions, and when Cao Cao had to return his spear to his soul to keep it from Issei's hand, he had nothing he could use to intercept Rias and Akeno.

"Georg, you're on your own!" Cao Cao shouted in rather distasteful tone. He could have taken care of the things if he used 'that' trump card, but seeing that Issei did not use his trump card, his pride somehow got a better of his rationale. Besides, just because Georg was busy, it did not mean that he was vulnerable.

oXo

"Oh, really!? REALLY!?" Georg replied with frustrated tone. The ritual was going so smoothly until Cao Cao had to mess up with his pride to not going all out from the get-go. They were short on time, for dead-god's sake! If the ritual was delayed, they might end up not making it before the reinforcement from the alliance made their way through. Seeing that the two devil women were on him, he clicked his tongue and 'paused' his ritual into a stop, and making sure that the nine-tailed fox was still under their control.

Speaking of the fox, the youkai was faring quite well in battling the Prison Dragon. With her initial raw power, supplied with the power from the Kyoto's ley-lines themselves, the fox could weather all of the dragon's curses. The black dragon was slowly being overpowered, as the fox's nine tails were wrapped and entangling the dragon's serpentine body.

Back to the issues at hand; Georg definitely hated exerting himself, especially if he had to fight. After all, he was not a front-liner like Cao Cao, Jeanne nor Heracles; his Sacred Gear had no offensive abilities whatsoever.

Dimension Lost – Fog of Extinction, is a Sacred Gear that allows the wielder to create mists to defend himself from any attack, as well as to transport whatever trapped within the mist into artificial space. Then again, Georg was short on time, and there was a reason why Dimension Lost was categorised as Longinus.

Georg obviously could not waste his energy on Balance Breaker, but he had few tricks up on his sleeves, enough to handle two devils before him. So first, he used his signature trick: use his mist to transport the girls elsewhere. He manifested a mass of mist around him, and willed his mist to extend few 'appendages' to wrap around the devil ladies.

"Incoming!" Akeno shouted in alarm at the mist-appendages heading towards them.

"Don't get caught!" Rias ordered, and the two ladies split up to avoid the incoming mist, flying through the air and firing their signature magic attack at Georg, who easily blocked Rias' Power of Destruction and Akeno's lightning with the mist around him.

"Hm…. It's safe to assume that they have learned of Dimension Lost's capability to a degree…." Georg calculated as he quickly changed his plans. Then, he expanded the size of his mist; perhaps he would not go so far to transport everything within the mist, but he still had another plan to incapacitate his enemies. Besides, on a second thought, he could not teleport these two after all; teleporting them _outside_ would allow them to inform the alliance reinforcement outside of their plans, and teleporting them, relatives of the current Lucifer, to the Dimensional Gap might open a whole new can of worms on their agenda.

When Rias and Akeno found the area was covered in mist, they quickly regrouped, forming back-to-back formation. Both of them fired several shots of Power and Destruction and Holy Lightning towards the mass of mist in front of them, but their magic just vanished as soon as they hit the mist.

Then suddenly, Akeno conjured a defensive spell on a pure reflex, when she spotted an incoming projectile from the corner of her eyes. When the said projectile hit her barrier, she recognised the projectile to be none other than Rias' Power of Destruction. The attack was somewhat weaker, but it was definitely Power of Destruction.

At the same time, Rias also just blocked a blast of Holy Lightning. "He… Did he just re-direct our attacks?"

While Georg did not bother to explain himself as he kept his mists doing their work, it was more like Georg just 'transported' both Rias and Akeno's attack, by calculating the attack's trajectory, so the magic projectile would return towards the devils. It was quite a lengthy process, since the Dimension Lost's teleporting property was not as effective and efficient as Cao Cao's trump card. That was why the 'transported' attacks had lost some of their fire-power as the time passed by.

Rias and Akeno lost some of their composures as they instinctively fired few more of their spells towards the mist. However, their attempt only proved that Georg could 're-direct' their attacks back at them, albeit weaker.

"Rias, let's calm down for a sec." Akeno chided her King. The said King glanced at the Queen and immediately saw her point.

Rias took a calming breath as she studied her surroundings. Now that they have ceased their own attacks, they could have some down-time to formulate plans of their own. However, there was still the fact that they were trapped within Georg's mist and the only way was to retreat by getting out from the misty area.

Unfortunately, Georg did not grant them such luxury as the mage silently prepared numerous magic crests within the mist around the ladies. Rias and Akeno soon found themselves had to defend themselves against a barrage of elemental magic from various spell-crests.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"This is bad…" Rias muttered with a grim tone, which Akeno had to agree with. They were now trapped with no way out. If they were to attack blindly, their attacks would be returned at them, if they were attempting to escape, Georg's barrage of spells would be ready to intercept them.

"Sorry, ladies. But I have orders to fulfilled, so I have to make this quick." Georg's voice was heard from the mist as the mage resuming his onslaught.

oXo

"Rias! Akeno-san!" Issei yelled with worried tone when he saw the two girls were engulfed into the mist. He could not tell what happen in there, but he could make out some lightning and explosion would occasionally seen from the mist.

"And where are you looking at?"

Issei heard the voice and spotted Cao Cao from the corner of his eyes. The man was flanking him, his spear was pointed right at his head. The devil was able to bend his body back in a nick of time to avoid his head getting impaled by the True Longinus. However, with his body bent backwards, he lost his footing and balance, allowing Cao Cao launched him to a distance with a solid kick in the abdomen.

Issei tumbled and bounced on the ground until he managed to stand back up. He faced Cao Cao once again, but the fatigue, as well as the burns on his hand started to get to him. He was too naïve, choosing to believe that he would not need his Scale Mail to overpower the 'hero' before him, and now Issei had to pay the dear price.

He was about to step up his game when he suddenly heard Asia's cry.

"Irina-san!"

Issei spotted that Jeanne was walking with bloodied and injured Irina under her arm. "Oh, so I'm the first to finish?" The 'heroine' casually walked towards the direction of Asia and Kunou before she unceremoniously dropped Irina's body to the ground. "Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you, and the angel is still alive. You're the healer of the group, no? You can go ahead and look after her." She then waved her hand while walking away.

Asia took a quick glance on Jeanne's retreating back before she turned to attend Irina. Kunou, on the other hand, was glaring at Jeanne with a hint of anger and fear in her eyes.

"I see, so the Red Dragon Emperor is still standing. No surprise there." This time, it was Sigfried with the defeated and bloodied Yuuto and Xenovia being carried in his dragon arms. The former exorcist was only sporting minor cuts on his clothes, and he was only short of his sword of light, the said sword was presumably lost during the battle with the two devil knights. He also dropped the two knights before Asia and Kunou, and he walked away without a word.

"Ho, so the Welsh Dragon is still going?" Heracles also returned from the battlefield, with unconscious and heavily injured Rossweisse in tow. "Great! I want to have a round with him too!" he boasted before he dropped the Valkyrie's body. He walked away, but after he gave a grin towards Asia and Kunou.

Issei's eyes widened as his worry increased at the sight of his friends being bloodied, injured and defeated. Then, things became worse when he heard a roar from where Yasaka was fighting with Saji. The black dragon roared out in pain as his body was completely constricted by the fox's nine tails, the fox was still glowing with power, with the black dragon was laid beneath her, unable to move.

"Mother! Mother!" from the side lines, Kunou could only scream futilely at her mother. "Please, return to your senses! I am here! Kunou is here!"

BOOM!

"KYAAH!"

"Rias! Akeno!"

As if it was not bad enough, Issei turned his head when he heard that cry, only to see that Rias and Akeno were thrown out of the mist. Both of their clothes were tattered, some of their exposed skins were sporting second to third - degree burns, but it appeared that Rias had it worse as she was cradled by Akeno.

"Rias! Rias!" the Queen shouted worriedly at her King. The only thing that gave her sense of relief was the fact that Rias was clearly breathing, but she was barely conscious.

"I'm sorry…" Rias gritted out with bitter tone. Akeno could only hugged her best friend close to comfort her.

Issei closed his eyes tightly as his teeth were gnashing. He never felt more aggravated than ever, seeing his friends were injured and fallen left and right. And worse, the woman he fell for was hurt. The enemy forces remained strong, and all of it was because he chose not to go all out from the get-go.

"Sorry to say, but this is the end." Cao Cao declared. "All of you are strong and remarkable, indeed. However, it is only natural for us humans to stand at the top. With the power of heroes on the palm of our hands… Mankind shall prevail over demons, dragons and gods alike." He then turned to Georg. "Georg, can we still carry on with the experiment?"

Georg re-positioned his glasses while giving a small sigh. "We have wasted some time, but… We might as well keep trying here. As long as Leonardo can keep the Alliance pre-occupied, we still have time." The mage said as he returned to his previous task.

"…Not yet."

Cao Cao blinked and turned to see Issei was still standing, his eyes were overshadowed by his brown-locks. The hero narrowed his eyes as he felt the air around the Red Dragon Emperor had changed.

"It's not over yet…" Issei muttered, returning his attention back to the Hero Faction; his small voice was audible enough for everyone to hear. The boy gave a quick glance at his defeated friends one more time, though his gaze lingered a bit longer on Akeno and Rias, who replied with apologetic and hopeful looks.

Issei then took out his share of Phoenix Tears, and his gaze met with Asia's emerald eyes. There were no words need to be spoken, as Asia gave a nod, saying that she would tend to everyone, since she was well aware that Irina, Yuuto, Xenovia and Rossweisse sustained the worse injuries. The Phoenix Tears distributed among the devils, as well as Asia's Twilight Healing could heal them, but they would not be able to re-join the fight due to blood loss.

"Well…. Perhaps you are correct in that regard, it is not quite over yet." Waving the pressure he felt from Issei, Cao Cao rubbed his chin in humouring Issei's words, before gestured his surrounding. "But still, look around you. Even if we exclude Georg, there are four of us against you alone. You're obviously outnumbered."

"Perhaps I _am_ outnumbered…" Issei closed his eyes and clenched his burned fists. He then used his Phoenix Tears on himself, healing the wounds he received from contact with the True Longinus.

Rage, guilt and despair aside, Issei still had a job to do, _and_ he was even determined more than ever with the fact that he was the only one left standing. It would be a total defeat if he were to give up when things had come to this point. "…But that doesn't mean that I'm outclassed." Referencing Cao Cao's earlier remark, Issei then snapped his eyes open, which were as if glowing with power. "BALANCE BREAK!"

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

The power of the Heavenly Dragon immediately engulfed Issei's body, manifesting in a form of red draconic armour. At the massive power burst, all of the heroes were quickly put on their edges, their weapons raised to intercept whatever was going to come at them.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

The only thing that Cao Cao caught with his senses, after a second of Issei donning his armour, was a red streak of light flying pass his head. "What the-!?"

"Dragon shot!"

KA-BOOM!

"Guhah!" Cao Cao heard Georg's cry of pain, and he turned to see that the location of the ritual, where the mage had been stationed, royally exploded in brilliant red colour. The location was also where the nine-tailed fox was located, and that explosion was big enough to destroy whatever settings Georg had laid on the ground, as well as the bounded field surrounding the youkai. Immediately, the magic that was influencing Yasaka vanished, and the youkai let out one more howl before falling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, next to Saji's dragon form, whose fiery body simmered down until it only left the boy's unconscious form.

Without wasting anymore time, Issei quickly scanned his surroundings. In a span of few seconds, Issei did his hardest to take in as much as information about his enemies as he could.

Five hostiles; unconfirmed one down, and Yasaka had likely been freed from their control; four enemies left remained standing, each of them possessed a Sacred Gear. Issei recalled a glimpse of their capabilities: besides Cao Cao's Longinus, one could summon holy swords, one was an inferior version of his Boosted Gear, and one could blow things up upon contact.

The one that could summon holy swords could be a problem, given Issei's devil nature. However, Issei's Scale Mail was enough to protect him from the blades. The real problem was the sub-species Balance Breaker, the dragon made of mass of holy swords could be proven tricky to deal with.

The Twice Critical… Issei had to be amazed at how Sigfried could utilize such a mundane Sacred Gear into a whole new level. His Sacred Gear aside, the thing that Issei had to watch out of him was his Demonic Emperor Sword Gram, which possessed the bane of his dragon-typed Longinus. One strike of a dragon slayer would be enough to blow his entire armour away.

The tall, muscular man…. His Sacred Gear possessed quite a destructive force, but the man's overall ability was not as diverse as Cao Cao, Jeanne and Sigfried – a typical power type who charges head-on.

Thus, Issei deemed that Heracles was one opponent that was 'easiest to deal with'. Issei then dashed straight to his target, the said target was shocked at the sudden assault before he quickly cocked his left fist back, armed with the power of his Sacred Gear to intercept the Red Dragon.

"HAAAAA…!"

Issei kept push on with his advance as he prepared his left fist as well.

The two then threw their punches at each other, and when their fists collided, the area where they were standing on was covered in a brilliant explosion.

BOOM!

"GAAAHK!"

When the scream was heard, from the blast of dust and flames generated by the explosion, however, a bulky figure was thrown out, revealing Heracles who then plummeted to the unforgiving ground. A good part of his body was covered in lacerations and third degree burns, and his arm that made contact with Issei's fist was disfigured to say the least. His fingers were bent in unnatural angle, the bones from his knuckle up to his shoulder were broken, or rather, shattered, and some of its shards were jutting out from his charred flesh here and there. Unless treated by some impressive healing mysteries, Heracles' left arm was out of commission.

It took only five seconds for Issei to destroy Georg's ritual and incapacitating Heracles in succession. Issei then looked at his surroundings, scanning for another enemy that was the closest to him, and the one happened to be the closest, or to be more precise, was closing in towards him, was Jeanne. With killing intent written on her eyes, she had already activated her Balance Breaker and Issei watched as a massive dragon made of holy steel was lunging at him with its maws wide open.

In retaliation, Issei quickly marched forward and smashed the dragon's head with a diagonal right uppercut; the impact shattered the dragon's head into bits of steel and holy swords upon contact. However, when from behind the dragon's body, Jeanne suddenly jumped out, catching Issei in a surprise attack as she thrust her rapier at Issei's armpit, where the armour was the thinnest. The heroine looked sort of winded as she clicked her tongue at the remains of her Stake Victim Dragon. It would take some time for her to restore her pet dragon with her remaining reserves.

Not only putting Issei's strength into factor, using a Balance Breaker from a Sacred Gear was in fact, taxing on the body. Jeanne might be strong in her own right, but the parameter of her strength, stamina and reserves were a bit inferior in comparison with her male compatriots. Because she had the gal to 'show off' during her earlier fight against Irina, Jeanne was a bit exhausted to bring out the power of the Holy Dragon of Judgement to the fullest.

As Jeanne's rapier shot forward, Issei jerked his body to the left, effectively dodging Jeanne's strike by a small margin. He then trapped the blade in-between his right arm and his waist, before he immediately shot his left palm on the flat side of the blade, shattering the metal upon impact.

However, Jeanne was already crouching on the ground and had abandoned her broken rapier, as she placed both of her palms on the ground they stood on. "Blade Blacksmith!" with that command, numerous holy blades were sprouting from the ground to impale the Red Dragon Emperor.

Issei quickly took to the air, preventing the swords to pierce the thinner parts of his Scale Mail. Some of the blades that made contact with the armour's thicker parts were shattered, but the holy aura exuding from each blade was enough to 'sting' Issei's skin beneath the armour. He then charged up his demonic power and fired a dragon shot towards Jeanne, who quickly jumped back to dodge the magic bullet.

However, much to her surprise, Issei's dragon shot suddenly changed its trajectory to chase after her. Seeing the red bullet of energy speeding towards her, Jeanne abandoned further attempt of evasion and conjured a wall made of holy swords to defend herself.

BOOM!

"Kyaah!"

The wall of swords then exploded, shattering the enchanted steel when Issei's dragon shot made contact, the shockwave of the blast was strong enough to throw Jeanne backwards, eliciting a cry from the woman as she plummeted to the ground behind her.

Then, Issei sensed something behind him and he turned to see Sigfried was already on him with his Gram ready to cut him vertically in half. Issei's sheer reflex allowed him to catch the blade's flat sides with both of his arms, when the said blade was only few inches away from his face-plate.

As Sigfried pushed his Gram forward, he then muttered few words through his gritted teeth. "….Balance Breaker!" Upon those words, his extra dragon arms – Chaos Edge Asura Ravage, equipped with his other demon swords, swung to attack Issei from four different directions simultaneously.

Issei widened his eyes at the incoming blades, then he quickly took a deep breath, charged up the fire in his stomach and he breathed out a stream of Flame Blaze right towards Sigfried's face. The hero wanted to dodge with his Gram in his hands, but because Issei kept his firm hold on the blade, Sigfried had to abandon his prized Gram so he could jump out of Issei's fire breath.

Seeing that he still got a hold of the enemy's weapon, Issei attempted to use the Gram for his advantage; however, when he grasped on the sword's hilt, the Demonic Emperor Sword suddenly 'lashed out' with its aura flaring out, forcing Issei to drop the sword to the ground. "Ouch!"

**[Demon swords, like holy swords, possess a certain consciousness to choose their own wielders. And this one definitely doesn't want you to wield it. Besides, using a weapon is hardly your style to begin with.]**

Silently agreeing with the Welsh Dragon, Issei settled with kicking the Gram away to random direction before he dashed to go after Sigfried.

Cao Cao scanned the fast-pace development that had happened thus far: Georg was able to avoid a direct hit from the Red Dragon's first strike, but he was still quite close with the blast when the explosion occurred, thus knocked out from the sheer force of the blast and concussion. The mage should still be alive, and judging at the sight of his ritual and all magic he had casted were undone, as well as the size of the blast and explosion from earlier, it was safe to assume that even if Georg was still in the game, he would likely have to start his props and ritual all over again.

Heracles was grievously injured, especially his left arm. However, the man was way too stubborn to be put down by that level of injury, since Cao Cao noticed Heracles' grunts and groans, signifying that he would wake up soon enough.

Jeanne might be the only woman within the core members, but she was definitely not weak. Cao Cao could tell it would only take one minute or two before she would return on her feet.

Cao Cao's gaze then landed on the sight of Sigfried engaging the Red Dragon Emperor. Seeing that Sigfried had lost his dragon-slayer from his grasp, as well as how strong the Red Dragon was, Cao Cao immediately knew that the _real_ battle had just begun. Not having time to check over Georg, he quickly stepped up his game as well. "Balance break!"

_**Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin – Polar Night Sky Ring Becomes Holy King's Bright Rotation Spear.**_

Issei widened his eyes beneath his face-plate at the power-burst from Cao Cao, as seven orbs suddenly manifested around the spearman. _"So that's his trump card?"_

"Don't look away from me now, Red Dragon Emperor!" Sigfried yelled as he swung his Dáinsleif. Issei parried and avoided the blade easily enough, but it was not Sigfried's real aim. As the former exorcist smirked, huge pillars of ice shot out from the ground, entrapping Issei's movement. It only took a second for Issei to wrench his body free, but one second was all Sigfried needed to launch several combos by his Demon Swords.

However, what baffled Issei the most was the fact that suddenly, the Gram had already returned to Sigfried's hand. Issei was sure that Sigfried did not leave his sight, nor that Sigfried did any attempt to retrieve his sword, so how did Gram return to his hand?

Issei was not given much time to think, as he had to focus on intercepting Sigfried's onslaught. He could withstand Sigfried's other demon swords without much difficulty, but Gram was another story. Issei could not meet Gram head-on, as he was forced to take more steps further away in order to avoid Gram's range. Then, Issei finally found a chance to take to the sky once again. Still wondering about the mystery of Sigfried's Gram, Issei then noticed that Sigfried's sword magically returned soon after Cao Cao had activated his Balance Breaker. He turned to see Cao Cao still had the seven orbs floating around him, the spearman sported a knowing smirk at him.

"So it's his doing, after all?" Issei murmured. However, his line of thought was cut short when another person made his presence known.

"RAAAAAGH!" Heracles let out a furious howl as the aura around his body exploded, forming back his Balance Breaker on his remaining good limbs. With an expression that was screaming bloody murder, Heracles aimed his protrusion at the Red Dragon.

Issei widened his eyes at the dozen of missiles aiming his way. He took a quick glance at his comrades – everyone had regrouped, even with Saji – courtesy of Akeno, who was still able to move; and thanks to the combination of Asia's Twilight Healing and Phoenix Tears, everyone's injuries had been treated, Rias was also slowly returning to consciousness; though most of them could not return to the fight for some time due to exhaustion and severe blood loss.

Issei then immediately took high to the sky, making sure that Heracles would only focus at him alone. The latter than fired his missiles, the projectiles homing at the Red Dragon soaring in the sky. Issei had to simultaneously look at each missile coming at him; judging from which one was the closest to him, Issei had to make the right timing to dodge in order to avoid a direct hit. The blast that occurred later, Issei could shrug it off with the defence provided by his Scale Mail.

So far, Issei could avoid Heracles' missiles by skilfully moved away when the missile was only a second away from hitting him. Explosions were littering the sky like fireworks as Issei evaded the missiles one by one.

However, due to the explosions and dust clouds blocking his vision, Issei failed to notice a figure that _somehow_ had jumped high enough and dived straight to ambush him. Issei turned to see Sigfried with his Gram raised, and the latter quickly brought his dragon-slayer down. Issei tried to dodge, but the sword managed to make contact with his dragon armour and over half of his Scale Mail was shattered by the time Issei recognised the damage inflicted by the Sword of the Sun. "Argh!"

"ISE!" the girls shouted worriedly at the sight of Issei getting struck by the demon sword.

The Red Dragon plummeted to the ground, but he recovered quickly, enough to immediately dodge Jeanne's sudden assault by pure instinct. "You are mine now!" Jeanne yelled as she summoned one holy sword after another with her Sacred Gear to attack Issei. The latter used what remained of his shattered Scale Mail to fend off Jeanne's holy steel, but he could barely keep up due to the damage inflicted by Sigfried's demon sword.

The demonic power of Gram did not inflict as much damage compared with that of a holy sword, not to mention that the cut on Issei's chest was not too deep thanks to his earlier attempted evasion. However, the dragon-slayer property did wonders on his dragon power. Issei's Boosted Gear was linked to his soul, damaging Issei's dragon-type Sacred Gear with the power of a dragon slayer was enough to affect issei's own life force.

Inside Issei's body, Ddraig was having a hard time to regulate the flow of his power and his own host due to the effect of dragon slayer. Not to mention, Ddraig could not ignore the tantrum that had been occurring from the inner-gate to Issei's potential. It was as if something had been knocking from beyond the gate relentlessly, begging to be let in. The dragon could only take it as natural; after all, Issei's turmoil and his mind-set before his adversaries were like screaming, 'help me'; causing the power from beyond the gate to react on instinct to attempt to break through. The number of boost and the damage Issei had received only served to reduce his time limit even further.

Back to the battlefield, Issei was still defending himself from Jeanne's relentless attacks. Seeing that her holy swords would be unlikely to reach the devil, Jeanne decided to outsmart him by bending down to place her hands on the ground, then she manoeuvred her body to send her feet careening until her leg made contact with Issei's temple.

"Ugh!" Issei felt throbbing pain on his head where Jeanne's kick landed.

Disoriented, Issei could not intercept Sigfried's Dainsleif that nicked his waist, he then twisted his body so he could face Sigfried who was now swinging his lower right arm with another demon sword, and Issei retaliated with halting the arm's advance with his left leg, and Issei followed with a head-butt right to the face, effectively knocking Sigfried back.

WHAM!

Then suddenly, Issei turned around to be ambushed by Heracles who just backhanded him right in his face. Staggering few steps back, Issei could vaguely make out that Heracles was proceeding to aim his missile straight at him.

Issei was in a bad position. He was still disoriented thanks to Jeanne's kick to the head, his power was still in flux from Sigfried's dragon-slayer, and now Heracles was going to fire a fucking missile at him from only a metre away. Gathering whatever power he could, he attempted to re-equip his Scale Mail again, but so far, only his arms had been covered by the red armour.

That would do.

"ISEEE!" the girls were even more terrified when Heracles fired his missile, and Issei barely managed to raise his armoured arms to shield himself from direct impact.

BOOM!

The impact sent Issei flying and plummeting to the unforgiving ground behind him. Issei felt his arms were numbed, it was not that far-off to call it a miracle that he found that his arms were only slightly fractured. Hacking out some blood and dirt, Issei wobbly returned to his feet and faced the heroes once again. The effect of the dragon slayer had started to wear off as he slowly rebuilt his Scale Mail back. As for the wounds on his body, especially the gashes on his body from Sigfried's and Jeanne's attacks, Issei took a deep breath and forced his muscles to contract, thus forcefully closing the gashes and stopping the bleeding temporarily.

"You are one resilient fellow, aren't you?" Cao Cao mused as he led his companions in front of the Red Dragon Emperor. "I guess you got that toughness from your father."

Issei could not help but snort at the remark. However, Issei felt there was one thing off with the development of the battle so far, as he gave another glance at his defeated comrades at the side-line.

As if knowing Issei's question, Cao Cao smiled. "If it's making you feel any better, you don't need to worry about us going to your friends. We are not stooping so low to beat up the already defeated opponents." He then placed his spear on his shoulder. "…After all, we are heroes."

"Heh… Thanks for that, I guess." Issei concluded that the Hero Faction would only focus on him alone, a sentiment that he could actually appreciate, despite being enemies. "Come to think of it… Those orbs around you, I guess you are the reason behind how that former exorcist managed to get his Gram back, as well as outflanking me in the sky?"

"Why, indeed I am." Cao Cao replied by gesturing the orbs around him. "This is my sub-species Balance Breaker, and these orbs are my Seven Treasures." Then, seeing that Issei's Scale Mail had recovered on his torso and limbs, Cao Cao then pointed his spear again at the dragon. "…But anyway, I highly suggest that you just give up and let us be on our way, so…. Yeah, stand down. Final warning."

Issei only closed his eyes, as if in thought. However, unbeknownst to everyone, Issei was making contact with the Welsh Dragon. _"Ddraig, can you do me a favour?"_

The dragon hummed in response, ready to listen. Issei then conveyed his plan, and upon hearing them, Ddraig only narrowed his eyes.

_**[…You are crazy.]**_

"_Crazy is all we have now."_

"_**No, no, the stake is way too high." **_This time, Issei heard Elsha's voice_**. "You know what will happen if something goes wrong."**_

"_Things are already going south at this point. Besides, tell me Ddraig, how long do I have before the rebound effect takes place?"_

_**[…From the damage you received from the dragon slayer, demon swords, holy swords and that Sacred Gear…. as well as the number of boost you have used, you probably have less than 3 minutes.]**_

"_That's the point. I doubt that three minutes are enough to defeat all of them. Might as well to catch them off guard with some nasty surprise."_

Ddraig and Elsha went silent for few seconds, until another voice broke that silence. _**"Let's do as he asked."**_

Everyone recognised the voice belonged to Belzard, the strongest past Red Dragon Emperor. _**"The boy has a point. These heroes are formidable enough that it is not possible for us to defeat them in conventional way in this situation."**_ He reasoned. _**"It is time for us to show those heroes the power of the current Red Dragon Emperor, don't you agree?"**_

Ddraig went silent for a moment, digesting the opinions so far. A second later, the dragon gave in as he softly growled.

_**[…Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you.]**_

"_Thanks, Ddraig, Elsha-san, and Belzard-san."_ Issei inwardly smiled in gratitude. He then snapped his eyes open as he returned to the reality. _"Now! Open it!"_

When Issei said 'open it', he was referring to the 'gate' inside his soul. Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard then undid the seal and open the gate wide, enough to unleash the 'potential' from inside flooding through Issei's soul, before quickly closing the gate again.

Power. It was what Issei felt through the course of his body when he gave that signal to Ddraig. It was supposed to be a mere fraction, but pure, unadulterated power ran through Issei's being; now that he thought about it, it was similar to the sensation when he attacked the god-devouring wolf Fenrir during their first encounter. However, he also remembered Ddraig's warning about the time-span before the feedback kicked in.

* * *

_Four seconds._

It was at the same time that the heroes felt a familiar pressure descended upon them. They froze for a fraction of a second when Issei put on his faceplate, the green eyes on the helmet shone with power that they knew too well. They could have sworn that the pressure exuding from the Red Dragon Emperor before them was way too similar with their former comrade.

When Issei took off the ground, it was all they needed to realize that they were in for the real deal.

"SCATTER!" it was Cao Cao who snapped out of the stupor first as he shouted that command. There might have been better actions to that, but retreating was something that came up first in their collective mind, as if through instinct.

CRASH!

Sigfried and Jeanne had immediately moved out thanks to their agility, but Heracles was significantly slower. He only took few steps aside when a red blur went pass him, and the next thing he recognised was agonizing pain through his whole body as he was thrown to the air like a rag-doll.

Issei ended up crashing through several walls of Honmaru Palace before he skidded stop and realized that he had missed his intended target from moving too fast. He clicked his tongue at the fact that he could not control his newfound power yet, as his senses were still not used to the new sensation.

_Three seconds._

Cao Cao had to think and think fast. Judging from that one display of power earlier, and the pitiful state Heracles had been left in its wake, it was safe to assume that Heracles would have been literally obliterated into smithereens should Issei managed to land a direct hit, thus informing Cao Cao that the Red Dragon's current strength was somehow almost on par with Saitama's level. "GEORG!" He shouted at his fellow Longinus wielder, hoping that the mage would be already returning to the game. At this rate, another Longinus would increase the chance of survival, let alone victory.

Then, to increase the odds even higher, Cao Cao then activated another one of his Seven Treasures. "Kahabatei Ratana!"

When Issei returned to the battlefield, he was met with the sight of an army wielding swords. "What the hell?!" Issei saw the warriors were marching on him with high speed. However, that was the time he realized; his senses became more attuned, as he perceived that the warriors were moving so slow, slow enough that Issei could tell each one going from which angle. He also saw that Sigfried and Jeanne were trying to flank him.

"Sword of the Sun!" Sigfried then swung his Gram, sending a wave of pure destructive force imbued with dragon slayer element towards Issei.

"Stake Victim Dragon!" gathering the power she had, Jeanne manifested another dragon made of holy swords and sent it to hurl towards Issei.

Without delay, Issei moved. He instantly obliterated the army before him, each warrior was taken out with a single blow of his fist that so surreal. Issei then shot a quick dragon shot towards the incoming dragon-slaying wave of destruction, and the small orb of _power_ was able to overwhelm Gram's own and Sigfried was forced to dodge the explosion caused by Issei's own attack.

Issei then turned to see Jeanne's dragon was already on him. Issei then threw his punch on the dragon's snout, and the blow did not only destroy its head like before, but shattered its entire body.

_Two seconds._

Jeanne widened her eyes in alarm that her pet dragon was not just broken, but destroyed in a single hit, and Issei had already spotted her. Considering that Jeanne was at a good distance, and Issei was short on time, Issei decided to pick up the blades from the fallen man-made warriors and bits from the metal dragon earlier and threw a dozen of swords towards the heroine. Jeanne could only guarded her vital spots as several blades managed to pierce through her shoulders, waists, and limbs.

When Sigfried was still recovering from the earlier explosion, Issei had already flanked him and grabbed a hold on Sigfried's four dragon arms on his back. The upper pair of arms were trapped in Issei's armpits, while Issei's hands were grabbing on the lower pair of arms. Issei then planted his feet on Sigfried's back, and with a single motion, Issei tore Sigfried's dragon arms off his back, eliciting scream of agony from the former exorcist.

The students from Kuoh Academy, those who were still conscious, could only gapped at the sight and described what they saw as something out of a fairy tale; an army led by a band of courageous heroes fighting against a fearsome dragon. Ironically, the heroes are their enemies and the dragon was their greatest ally and only hope for victory.

_One second._

On that note, according to the fairy tales, heroes always triumph.

"Atsusa Ratana!"

When Issei was going to land a finishing blow on Sigfried, suddenly an orb touched Sigfried's body, and Issei ended up swinging his fist on thin air. Issei looked around, and he spotted Cao Cao with his Seven Treasures. Switching his previous target to another target in his sight, Issei then charged at Cao Cao. When Issei was closing the distance, however, Cao Cao suddenly smirked, and Issei found a massive cloud of mist suddenly appeared between him and Cao Cao, the said mist was attempting to envelope Issei within.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" Issei bellowed as he threw his fist forward, the sheer force of the punch blew the entire mist away, as well as causing turbulence in the artificial dimension. Issei then noticed that Georg was standing at the distance, had been awake for a while.

Desperate; Issei then decided to just charge at Georg. However, he suddenly heard Cao Cao commanding another one of his treasures. "Balinayaka Ratana!"

Suddenly, Issei felt as he had been hit by a tremendous force from his flank. Strangely enough, while the force was strong enough to shatter his Scale Mail through brute force, stumbling his steps, Issei did not feel pain from that attack. Or to be precise, the attack did not hurt his body under the armour.

Unfortunately, that distraction was enough to cause Issei's downfall.

_Zero._

The Evil Pieces that was engulfed by the _power_ finally reacted in violent manner as sparks and lightning were flying, causing havoc and total storm within Issei's soul.

"AAAAARRGH!"

Back to the real world, the boy was overwhelmed by unimaginable pain from head to toe. His body was convulsing like crazy, his insides felt like twisting and burning, and his limbs went numb.

Cao Cao was not sure what just happened, but he would not let this opportunity wasted away. "Now! CHARGE!" He bellowed one more command to whoever still combat-capable in his group.

Preserving the wounds and cuts on her body, Jeanne used her remaining strength to conjure two holy swords into her hands and proceeded to use two-sword style to attack Issei. Disoriented by pain, Issei could barely make out the form of Jeanne charging at him with holy swords in her hands. He raised his arms in almost-futile attempt to defend as Jeanne pierced her swords into Issei's shoulder and forearm. However, she did not stop there as she quickly placed her palm on the ground beneath them.

"Blade Blacksmith!" numerous holy swords sprout out from the ground, and Issei was barely able to jump out to evade as the blades managed to slash his unprotected body.

When Issei landed, his pain was now a mixture of the one from the rebound as well as the holy attribute from Jeanne's Sacred Gear burning inside his system. As if to make matters worse, while his eyes were not focused from the blinding pain, Sigfried had ambushed him by landing a solid diagonal cut across Issei's torso with his Gram, blood spurting out from the wound as Issei howled in pain.

Then, it was Cao Cao's turn to attack and land the finishing blow by impaling his True Longinus through Issei's abdomen. The spectators from the side-line were frozen in fear when they saw the Ultimate Holy Spear pierced through Issei's body.

Time seemed to stop as Cao Cao confirmed that his spear had pierced through Issei's stomach, all the way until the blade jutting out from Issei's back.

No devil, pure-blooded nor reincarnated, even Satan could survive after being pierced by the Spear of Destiny. When a devil was impaled by the Longinus Spear, the spear's holy aura would seep into the wound, and flow inside the devil's circulation, burning the devil's body from the inside out, until the devil is eventually erased from the plain of existence.

However, Cao Cao furrowed his eyebrows when Issei's body did not show any sign of disintegrating. On the other hand, Cao Cao sensed that there was something else happening. He could not tell how, but it was as if the holy aura from his spear was being blocked, no, _pushed_ out.

_BA-BUMP! _

Cao Cao widened his eyes as he felt a surge of power flaring out from Issei's being. Suddenly, not only the holy aura was completely overpowered to the point it was expelled out of Issei's system, the latter's hand shot out and grabbed a hold on the hand that was clutching on the True Longinus.

"Impossible!" Cao Cao then looked up to see Issei's face that was obscured by his brown locks. When the latter slowly lifted up his face, Cao Cao found that the Red Dragon Emperor was glaring at him with his eyes glowing with power.

"HRR….RRAAAAAAH!" Issei then used every last ounce of his strength to launch his fist to Cao Cao's face.

KA-BOOM!

An explosion then occurred when Issei's fist made its target. From the dust-cloud generated from the blast, Cao Cao leapt out and found that he had lost his right eye; his appearance looked worse for wear, and red liquid could be seen flowing out from his empty eye socket.

The wound was hurt as hell as Cao Cao covered his bloodied face and his breathing was heavy. However, the hero was grinning from ear to ear despite the development. When the dust settled, Issei was shown standing with his body battered and bloodied. The boy staggered for few seconds before he finally collapsed to his fours, hacking out bloods as he grunted and was seething to weather the immense pain.

"A devil that could survive my Holy Spear…" Cao Cao grounded out. "Just what are you?"

"ISE!" Rias, Akeno and Asia quickly ran towards the boy in order to tend his wounds.

However, when they arrived at Issei's side, the rest of the heroes were making their ways towards them, as they shared a common idea. "Georg, prepare to leave with the nine-tailed fox. Contact Leonardo and the others outside." Cao Cao gave a quick order to the mage, whom complied with a nod. "We… will take care of one loose end."

"W-what are you planning now!?" Rias glared at the heroes, but she knew that things were hopeless. The enemy forces were still standing, albeit badly wounded from the battle; Issei, their strongest member had been taken down, the rest had been defeated and still unconscious, even those who were awake had lost their morale before such adversaries.

"I honestly prefer to let the Red Dragon Emperor live out of respect for Saitama. But now…" Cao Cao then brandished his Longinus. "Hyoudou Issei is too dangerous to be let alive."

Rias and Akeno looked around to see Jeanne and Sigfried were preparing their swords as well. "Nothing personal." The female hero said while the latter did not say anything.

However, they suddenly found Kunou made a stand as she confronted Cao Cao with her arms outstretched, as if she wanted to shield the people behind her. "I… I am the princess of Kyoto, daughter of Yasaka! I shall not let you do anymore as you please!" she said through trembling voice. She was scared that she could wet herself any moment, tears were threatening to fall from her eyes, but she decided to remain strong and refused to move away from her position.

"….Away." Rias then caught Issei was murmuring something and she leaned in closer to hear the boy's words. "Run away…. Take Kunou and get the hell out of here…!"

"Don't be stupid! We won't leave you alone!" Rias vehemently denied Issei's words. Akeno and Asia also gave resolute looks to stand by his side until the end.

On the other hand, Cao Cao only let out a small sigh. Honestly, a part of him just wanted to get things done and over with. "….Suit yourselves, then." He then raised his spear, the True Longinus glowed in power ready to attack.

Issei's wounds were bad enough that Twilight Healing alone would take a while to heal him, and they were out of Phoenix Tears. The boy struggled to stand back to his feet despite the damage his body had suffered. _"Move!"_ he gritted his teeth as he begged in his mind. _"I said move!"_ he tried to make his body to move, but to no avail as he remained on his fours. _"I'm begging you, please! FUCKING MOVE!"_ his attempts only caused more blood to flood out more from his wounds.

The girls around him only held each other tight, preparing for the worst, as Kunou only closed her eyes tightly to brace herself.

Meanwhile, however, Georg was his telepathic magic to communicate with his comrades outside the bounded field. "Leonardo, are you there?" then, when he received a reply from the other end, his expression contorted into a mix of panic and anticipation when he felt a massive distortion in his artificial dimension. Georg then quickly whipped his head around to alert his leader. "CAO CAO!"

When Cao Cao was about to bring his spear down, he paused to turn towards Georg. Cao Cao wanted to say that it was not the right time, but the urgency in Georg's tone signified that _something_ was happening.

"HE'S HERE!" on any other circumstances, people would have asked what Georg was insinuating, but this time, Cao Cao could immediately understand what the mage was implying.

And before everyone could have learned what was going on, something else had taken place.

Rias suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu when something swop her off the ground. When she came to her senses, she and all of her peerage had been relocated to another corner of the Honmaru Palace, and in front of her was a man wearing a yellow superhero costume, sporting a bald head, and was cradling Kunou in his arms.

The 'heroes' were baffled at what happened. One second they were about to exterminate the devils, a second later a blur showed up and their targets had been taken away from them. What's more that the said blur was none other than their former comrade.

Kunou on the other hand, only blinked owlishly as she was enveloped by the warmth of the man who just saved her life(again). When she finally recognised the face of her saviour, tears began to flow freely on her cheeks. "Saitama….." she sobbed, as more tears were flowing from her eyes. "Saidamaaaa…..!" she began to choke on her words from the waterworks, and she proceeded to snuggle against Saitama's chest.

"It's been a while, Kunou." Saitama simply gave a comforting hug and caressed Kunou's small back. "Sorry for the wait. I'm gonna go get your mom back, okay?" Kunou only replied with a soft hum as she kept crying to Saitama's chest. The man then set the girl down and turned to address the students from Kuoh Academy. "….How's everyone?"

Rias, Akeno and Asia only blinked couple of times before the latter decided to answer. "U-um…. Everyone's is stable now, though Ise-san…" she then returned to see that Issei's wounds were still half-way done from being fully healed. "He had it the worst."

Saitama and Issei's eyes met and the two did not share any words. The latter was barely keeping himself awake while the former only gave unreadable expression.

"How nice of you to finally show up, Saitama." However, the silence was broken by Cao Cao's voice, and Saitama turned around to face his supposedly former friends. "It's been a while since the last time we met." Cao Cao sarcastically smirked despite the injury on his right eye.

"Cao Cao…." Saitama narrowed his eyes slightly at the Longinus wielder. However, before anymore words could have been exchanged, one person had another thing in mind.

"STAKE VICTIM DRAGON!"

When Jeanne landed her eyes upon Saitama, rage immediately filled her being, and that raw emotion was able to trigger her Balance Breaker once again. Holy swords began to clump together to form massive dragon made of steel; however, its shape was deformed and barely matched that of a dragon due to the instability of Jeanne's state of mind. With bloodshot eyes, Jeanne focused all of her killing intent towards Saitama as she climbed up to ride on her Holy Dragon of Judgement. "SAITAMAAAAA!"

Cao Cao widened his eyes for a second before he clicked his tongue. "….That idiot…!"

Before anyone else could have reacted, Saitama's hand had blurred away as he confronted the steel dragon head-on.

_Normal Punch Combo: 10 Hits._

"Aaghk!" The steel dragon was obliterated in an instant as soon as Saitama's punches hit their target. The force of the impact was enough to blow Jeanne away as she plummeted to the unforgiving ground.

"Sig!" Cao Cao quickly ordered as soon as Jeanne's body hit the ground, and the demon sword wielder wordlessly complied to retrieve the female hero as the latter had not seemed to give up yet.

"Let go!" Jeanne shouted as she struggled to break free from Sigfried's grasp, but her body had been too injured and exhausted from the battle. "I SAID LET GO OF ME!" she shouted even louder as she kept glaring daggers at Saitama. "SAITAMAA!"

"Georg!" Cao Cao then called out, and the said mage immediately used his Dimension Lost and extended the mist to cover Sigfried plus Jeanne in tow, as well as the prone form of Heracles to teleport them away from the battlefield.

When Saitama was about to give chase at Cao Cao, the latter immediately pointed his glowing spear towards Yasaka's giant fox form, causing Saitama to halt abruptly in his advance. The two then faced each other in a stand-off, nobody dared to make a move.

"I wish that we can chat more, but I'm afraid I have other engagements." Cao Cao said while maintaining his spear's position. "…Though, I must say that you haven't changed at all, Saitama."

"Mmhm." Saitama replied. "And I gotta ask, since when did you guys become bunch of people who like to pick on kids?" one would notice there was a hint of sarcasm and mostly anger laced in his tone.

Cao Cao only chuckled at Saitama's remark. "Fufufu… I guess we did go rather rough on them, especially your son." Saitama tightened his fists slightly when Cao Cao gave another glance at Issei, before returning his attention. "But enough of that, you'll let us go, in exchange of us returning the nine-tailed fox."

Kunou and Rias were about to make a retort about Cao Cao's proposal, but they decided to remain silent when they saw Cao Cao's Holy Spear was glowing dangerously at Yasaka's vulnerable state.

Saitama on the other hand, only stared at Cao Cao for few seconds before he relaxed his posture and gave a nod.

"Thank you. Oh, and you better look after your son properly." Cao Cao gave one last smirk on Issei before he pulled his spear away from Yasaka, then the mist of Dimension Lost began to gather around him. "Ah, one more thing before I leave… Red Dragon Emperor." Cao Cao called out. "I've researched a bit of your background, particularly when you became a devil in the first place." He then glanced at Rias.

Everyone was curious of what Cao Cao was implying at that point. Then, what came out of Cao Cao's mouth caused Rias to flinch.

"Do you really think that your encounter with Rias Gremory, as well as your reincarnation was something happened by chance or some twist of fate?" Cao Cao gave one last knowing smirk before he completely disappeared into the mist.

When everyone had confirmed that the Hero Faction had left the dimension, everyone then turned towards Rias, who finally collapsed to her knees from fatigue.

"Rias…." Akeno was sending her a worried look, while Asia's expression was that of confusion.

Rias was trembling ever so slightly when Cao Cao muttered his words before leaving. Slowly, she turned to look at her fiance's face, only to find that Issei had fallen asleep.

Unsure if she should have felt relieved or worse, she sighed dejectedly and she looked up only to find her gaze met with Saitama's onyx eyes; the latter's expression was impassive as always as they kept staring to one another.

In any case, the battle had ended with a question, which one who was actually victorious?

_To be Continued…._

**Whoa, this became a lot longer than I originally intended. Special thanks to Omnifiction for the input regarding the fight scenes; I hope I didn't mess anything up and lived up to your expectations. What do you guys think about the fight and this overall chapter? Constructive criticisms are accepted, so please put down your flamethrowers. Next chapter will be the closing of Kyoto arc! Ahsoei, over and out.**


	42. Kyoto (VI)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

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**First of all, I'd like to thank you for those who chose to subscribe this story, as well as the reviews, both good and bad alike. **

**For Guest Bogoljub igoja: I understand your concerns, but it is not my intentions to put some mortality limit on Saitama, I just came up with this after seeing some unexpected occasions where Saitama was sort of vulnerable; for example, he was once **_**scratched by a cat**_**, felt **_**itchy**_** after bitten by mosquito and there was a scene where he felt **_**sick**_** after eating too much spicy udon. And while vacuum space did not affect him, his action suggested that he does need air to breath.**

**The rest have stated that the story is progressing rather slowly, lacking twist, and I apologize for that. It's just that life is getting to me, and I'm doing my best to make some twist here and there without making the story too boring due to Saitama's overpowered strength.**

**But still, I do promise you that you will (probably) not expect what I have in store for future events. Without further ado, here's the epilogue of Pandemonium at the School Trip!**

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**Chapter 39: Kyoto (VI) – Aftermath, Determination to Grow Stronger**

_(Flashback)_

It was nearing the end of summer when Saitama was visiting Kyoto, the Demon Capital to be precise. Ever since his encounter with Kunou, followed by his meeting with Yasaka, who happened to be the monarch of all youkai residing within the inner Kyoto, Saitama had made it a new habit to visit the Demon Capital for at least once a year. During the visit, Saitama would always end up getting involved on Kyoto's affairs, whether he liked it or not. And during those times, fun or hard, Saitama had become closer with the youkai residents, especially with a certain mother and daughter pair who ruled over the Capital.

Here he was, after couple of years of mingling and getting used at the atmosphere and the fact that he was associating with creatures from people's horror story, Saitama just came back to the royal palace with young Kunou sleeping on his back. The two just spent time together playing and enjoying the summer festival in the downtown. The young one had been quite a riot, being a curious child she was; Saitama had to use every bit of his little to none experience of dealing with children when he ended up having to accompany the little fox princess in venturing through the streets of Kyoto.

Foods and delicacies were eaten, games were played, prizes were won and money were lost, but Saitama had to admit that it was quite worth it to see Kunou's beaming smile as she pulled him around to look at various sights of the festival. When Saitama stepped his foot on the palace grounds, he was met by a familiar sight waiting for him at the gate. It was a young beautiful woman with hour-glass figure that could make women envious and men aroused in a single glance; her hair was blonde, reaching a small of her back, with matching pair of eyes as well. She was standing at the gate, smiling fondly at the sight of Saitama carrying the little girl on his back.

There she was – Yasaka, mother of Kunou, as well as the leader who had been ruling and managing the inner Kyoto for at least several hundred years. Saitama still remembered about his first meeting with Yasaka, where she and her vassals repeatedly showed how grateful they were for him saving the princess. And Saitama definitely remembered how exquisite the banquet that was held for him. Before he knew it, he had been welcomed and accepted by the youkai living in the Kyoto.

When Saitama thought about it again, he had never met about Kunou's father – Yasaka's husband, nor the man been mentioned in the passing. Another thing was, Saitama was once told that Yasaka was an extremely busy person, since she had to manage hundreds of demons and monsters residing within her city, as well as managing the spiritual power beneath the very city itself. So it was not that weird if Saitama wondered if it was okay for Yasaka to wait for them at the gate like this every time they went out.

But Saitama shrugged and dismissed that thought soon enough.

It was later at night when Saitama was sitting on the porch facing the garden rooftop that Saitama could only describe as 'beautiful, traditional garden that you could only see ages ago', complete with small pond and a small bridge above them. The man was enjoying the night breeze, the sound of the leaves rustling ever so slightly from the blowing wind, and most of all, Saitama enjoyed the sight of the moon on the dark sky.

While Saitama was enjoying his current life, and not regretting that he had lived this life, Saitama could not help but to miss his actual home every once in a while. Looking at the moon like this felt nice sometimes for him to reminisce the past. How are they doing now; is Genos still working on hero business? Is Bang still maintaining his dojo? Is Fubuki and her group still managing the B-class? Has King's true nature been busted? So many questions that enough to garner a bit concern from Saitama, but the man would not worry much about them. Besides, there was not much he could do from where he was now.

"Good work for today." Saitama then was broken out of his musings when he turned his head to see Yasaka was standing beside him, a tray with tea and treats in hand. "It's not moon viewing festival, but might as well we enjoy tonight's atmosphere." The fox-lady smiled as she settled herself right next to Saitama, with the treats sitting between them.

"…Yasaka." Saitama nodded in acknowledgement, and the two fell into somewhat comfortable silence, as Saitama took a bite of a dango and a sip from his cup of tea appreciatively and returned his gaze to the moon.

The famed nine-tailed fox gave a brief glance at the man next to her and she matched her gaze towards the same direction as Saitama's. "What do you see up there?"

Yasaka's sudden question caused Saitama to avert his gaze from the moon towards the woman. Saitama had to admit, the moonlight that shone upon her otherworldly features made Yasaka looked extremely attractive. If Saitama was having any thoughts on Yasaka's appearance, he did not show them at all as he maintained his normal expression.

"Well…" Saitama then tore his gaze off the woman, looking at the garden. "It's nothing much." perhaps it was a bit rude to keep things from Yasaka when she was expressing concern, but then again, there was a thing about privacy.

Yasaka's eyes lingered on Saitama for few seconds, before she closed her eyes as she decided to let the topic slide. She then stood up from her sitting spot. "Saitama, would you mind to walk with me?"

Saitama then blinked at the sudden request after the sudden question. Seeing no reason to refuse, Saitama stood up as well. "Err… Yeah, sure." The two then walked together around the garden, overlooking the city beneath the palace.

As the two walked across the bridge, Yasaka then stopped to watch over the pond with koi fishes swimming tranquilly in the water. Her face looked somewhat unreadable, like the mixture of reminiscence, melancholy, and relief. However, Saitama saw that her lips were smiling lightly.

"It's been a long time since I saw Kunou having so much fun." Yasaka then said. "Before, she would go with my late husband whenever she wanted to venture outside the palace grounds."

Saitama then noticed the cue to be a good listener as he remained by her side.

"He was a kind of man that did not care about his status as a royalty, you know." Yasaka continued. "He simply wanted to be there for the people in need. Not unlike that of a hero children always talk about in the passing." She then chuckled. "…And when Kunou thought that she – no, we have lost him…. She thought she saw him in you." Yasaka turned to Saitama and smiled demurely with faint pink on her cheeks. "…And I start to understand why."

Saitama blinked at Yasaka's words. So that girl had been seeing him as some sort of father figure? He would be lying if he was not flattered, but it was kind of awkward as well. Kunou and Yasaka were good person and Saitama enjoyed spending time with them, but for some reason, Saitama was getting some… not that bad of a vibe, but he had a feeling that he might end up opening a new can of worms if he was carried away by the flow.

"Thank you." Saitama returned to reality as Yasaka muttered those two words. "For being with her." The woman was now smiling beatifically.

And Saitama just gave a small smile in return, as he looked away towards the distance. "…It's no biggie."

However, Saitama did not expect Yasaka's face to lean closer towards him, and the next thing he knew was, Yasaka had planted her soft lips on his cheek.

_(End of Flashback)_

X

"The project in Kyoto failed due to Saitama's interference, and Leonardo barely managed to escape with his life." Georg reviewed the events that happened so far. "However, the next project is under adjustments, we can proceed soon enough."

Currently, the Hero Faction was recuperating in one of their hide-outs, with Georg, Cao Cao and Sigfried discussed about their agendas and future plans.

"That's good." Cao Cao commented as he wrapped a cloth around his right eye. "…How's Jeanne and everyone else?"

Sigfried was the one to reply. "Heracles will recover. As for Jeanne…. She's behaving for now, but I can't tell for sure since she's been locking herself up in her room." He ended with a sigh. Jeanne had been ballistic ever since the reunion with Saitama. If it were not for her injuries from the Red Dragon Emperor, the woman would not put down unless Cao Cao personally interfered, and the man was already gravely injured as well.

Then, Sigfried's face turned into that of a curiosity. "Although…. That battle before, did my eyes deceive me? That devil… Red Dragon Emperor was able to survive your holy spear." He just found it inconceivable; not even God nor Satan, let alone a reincarnated devil, could survive when pierced by the Spear of Destiny.

"Incredible, wasn't it?" Cao Cao grinned lightly. "I'm not sure what happened, but Hyoudou Issei's potential… might far surpass our expectations."

"It's as if he's just like…. Saitama." Georg put in his two cents.

"Precisely. It's definitely possible considering the relations between those two." Cao Cao then chuckled. "Fufufu… Two Saitamas… I don't know to call it exciting or terrifying."

"Anyway, that Red Dragon Emperor really did your eye. How is it?" Sigfried asked, though inwardly he could not help but shudder at the thought of dealing with two opponents with Saitama's strength. And he did not even know if he was excited or scared.

"…No good. I can kiss my right eye good bye with this kind of injury. He really got me this time." Cao Cao put his hand over his bandaged eye.

"We can still prepare some Phoenix Tears to fix your eye, you know?" Georg offered, although he got inkling of what Cao Cao's answer would be.

"No, no. I'm gonna keep this eye as it is; as a valuable lesson, a reminder – that Vali Lucifer and Hyoudou Issei are the best host of Heavenly Dragons to date."

oXo

"…Are you sure?"

"W-well… Since we did not see it in person, there is a chance that there might be some malfunction in the connection with the familiars, but that is what we have been informed…"

Le Fay Pendragon explained nervously as she was alone in the study room within the hide-out of Vali Team. The witch descendant was giving her report to her leader, the White Dragon Emperor Vali Lucifer. Vali's question was regarding the fact that Hyoudou Issei, a reincarnated devil, survived after being pierced by the True Longinus, the most powerful Sacred Gear that could easily kill _gods_, benevolent and malevolent alike.

Vali went silent, taking Le Fay's reports into his mind. The silence went for some time that it began to make the witch nervous. "Um… Mr. Vali?"

"Fufufu…"

Le Fay blinked when low chuckle was heard from her leader. "Huh?"

"…FUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"M-Mr. Vali?" Le Fay asked with worried tone over the devil half-breed state when he suddenly burst into laughter.

"Sorry… Sorry for startling you." Vali calmed down, though his mirthful smile remained. "Thanks for the report Le Fay. So Saitama came and saved the day from Cao Cao's machinations?"

"Y-yes!" Le Fay replied. "And I'm glad that I finally met with his son – The Red Dragon Emperor!"

"I see. Good for you." Vali then leaned back on his chair, his expression was filled with anticipation and excitement. "I'm looking forward to see what kind of heights you can reach in the future, Hyoudou Issei…. I wonder if you can actually surpass _him_ at this rate."

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait." A man said as he stopped on his tracks. Well, not precisely a man; the said man was actually a monkey that stood for at least a meter tall, covered in golden fur, clad in ancient Chinese armour, and had a wrinkled and creased face. The monkey was also seen carrying a staff-like weapon, smoking a pipe, wearing shades, and also donning prayer beads on his forehead.

He was Sun Wukong, the first Monkey King recorded in the story 'Journey to The West', and was known as The Great Victorious Fighting Buddha and the Great Sage Equalling Heaven. The Monkey King was walking on a hallway with two other individuals.

One individual was actually Yu-Long, one of the Five Great Dragon Kings, who was also recorded on the 'Journey to The West' tale as the ride of the Monk Xuanzang. The dragon was supposed to be a fairly large green Asian dragon, but Yu-Long had shape-shifted himself so he was small enough to move around within the palace at the moment.

The other individual was none other than Saitama.

Originally, the Great Sage Equalling Heaven and the Jade Dragon had been called as reinforcement/ace in the hole to deal with the Hero Faction. However, when they finally arrived at the site, Saitama had practically bulldozed through the enemy defences and repelled the heroes, thus those two ended up helping around the post-battle recovery.

The three were walking on the hallway, conversing with each other, until what Saitama said caused Sun Wukong to stop abruptly on his track and look at Saitama with incredulous expression. Even Yu-Long was looked a bit stupefied.

"…So let me get this straight." Sun Wukong carried on. "Your son, the Red Dragon Emperor, as well as a reincarnated devil; had been pierced by the Holy Spear of Destiny, the True Longinus, that ultimate god-killing artefact, and survived without any healing aid?"

Apparently, Saitama was telling his 'reports' of what happened during the confrontation against the Hero Faction, and Sun Wukong reacted at the fact that a devil managed to survive from being smitten by the Ultimate Holy Spear. As Saitama more or less had surmised, without any sort of healing aid, Issei was able to resist the effect of True Longinus from destroying his body from the inside-out.

"…So they said." Saitama could only shrug.

"…Are you pulling our legs?" Yu-Long on the other hand, could only give that retort from Saitama's story. The problem was, the story just sounded so surreal, and Saitama himself had no reason to lie about it. "….By my father's aging whiskers and the old monkey's hairy ass… You are serious." Despite the strange remarks, Yu-Long truly meant his astonishment about the story.

Seemingly ignoring Yu-Long's remark about his body parts, the Monkey King then shook his head and proceeded to walk again. "Never mind. We'll talk about this again with Azazel and the other leaders later. We still have a work to do." Sun Wukong dismissed the topic as he ceased his smoking and put his pipe away.

"Right." Saitama and Yu-Long then followed the old monkey until they arrived into a massive room where a massive fox youkai was laying on the floor. Yasaka was seen to be sleeping peacefully, but her body was barely moving. She was the reason why Sun Wukong and Yu-Long appeared along with Saitama in the first place. "…Okay, so what are we doing again?" Saitama asked as he kept gazing at Yasaka's still form.

"Simple enough…." The monkey youkai then began his explanation as his eyes were examining the giant fox. "Lady Yasaka's Ki is currently tainted due to foreign magic casted by the heroes, she is also suffering from extreme exhaustion from the strain her body after constantly tapping into Kyoto ley-lines, as well as taking the brunt of Prison Dragon's curse. I can heal her by expelling the tainted Ki with Senjutsu, but I can only stabilize her so far. There is actually one way that might be able to hasten her recovery, and that's where you come into the picture." He turned to look at Saitama.

"….Me?" Saitama pointed at himself.

"Yes, the key here is to expelled the tainted Ki and other foreign aura out of Yasaka's body, and due to her massive reserves mixed with the taint, my Ki alone is not fast enough to purify them… Unless we have something powerful enough to give some… extra push."

"….Uh-huh." Saitama nodded, while Sun Wukong was not sure if the man understood.

"Basically, you will donate your… massive life-force in order to help me healing Lady Yasaka here. Just follow my lead, and I will take care the difficult stuff." Sun Wukong summarised.

"Uh… Okay." Saitama replied. "Not that I mind, but… Why me?" That was a valid question; after all, from Saitama's point of view, there were many other people who were more versed in this Senjutsu ritual thing.

"Senjutsu stuff. No need for you to fuss about." Sun Wukong merely replied while waving his hand. Saitama noticed that Yu-Long was silently snickering behind him. It was clear that these two had something else in mind.

But in the end, Yasaka's well-being was a priority and Saitama only let out a small sigh. "…Fine, I'm in. So, what do you need me to do?"

"That's the spirit." Sun Wukong nodded approvingly while Yu-Long was now trying to hold back laughter. The two of them had somewhat mischievous glint in their eyes. What came from the monkey after that kind of caught Saitama's off-guard. "….Now, strip."

Saitama blinked for few seconds at the order, until he managed to reply with the only coherent thing that came to mind. "…..Huh?"

* * *

Issei woke up in the futon inside one of the royal palace's bedrooms. He stared at the ceiling for few minutes, until he decided to get himself up. He woke from his sleeping into sitting position, as he stretched a bit some of his limbs. He was clad in a simple yukata, signified that his clothes were probably too tattered, and his injuries had been treated, albeit he still felt sluggish and lightly sore here and there.

He then heard the door to his room was slid open, and a second he turned to see who was visiting him, he was tackled by two figures that wrapped their arms around him. Issei only recognised the shade of black raven hair and golden blonde hair in his vision.

"Ise-san/Ise-kun!" the two figures, or rather, girls shouted his name as they embraced him and nuzzled their heads in his respective shoulders.

"Asia? Akeno-san?" Issei blinked as the two figures that came in were indeed the Bishop and the Queen.

Asia was the first to pull out as few tears were leaking out from her emerald orbs. "I'm so glad!"

"Do you know how much you scared us when you have the holy spear pierced through your stomach? You gave us heart attack!" Akeno was next to speak up, her violet eyes were also moist from fear and relief at the same time.

"Please… Don't push yourself too much again… I… All of us don't want to lose you…" Asia pleaded.

Issei could not help but smile at the concerns the girls had given him. "I'm sorry…." He said as he returned the girls' embrace. "I'll make sure not to worry you again."

"You better." Akeno replied with a nod together with Asia, as the three embraced each other and remained in that position for few moments.

The three then separated as the girls took seats right next to Issei's bed. "What happened with the battle? How's everyone doing?"

Akeno then took the duty to explain what happened after Issei had passed out. Basically, after Saitama had driven off the Hero Faction, the alliance finally broke through the bounded field and proceeded to tend the injured. Apparently, Azazel had contacted the Monkey King – Sun Wukong and dragon king Yu-Long as reinforcement should things went awry.

Yasaka had been safely rescued and while she did not suffer any life-threatening injury, the magic that had been casted upon her by the Hero Faction, as well as the fact that she had been forced to constantly tap into Kyoto leylines to fight Saji in his Vritra form had taken toll on her mind. Currently the nine-tailed fox was under Sun Wukong's treatment using Senjutsu. Speaking of, Akeno recalled that Saitama had been asked by the Monkey King himself to lend some aid on Yasaka's treatment; in what manner, nobody truly knew.

As for the rest from Kuoh, they were allowed to stay inside the royal palace and everyone had been treated and recovering just fine thanks to Asia's healing, as well as additional Phoenix Tears supplied by the Alliance. Rias was sorting out the post-battle recovery and other matters with Kyoto youkai as soon as she had been fully healed, since she was the King, together with Azazel and Serafall Leviathan.

However, due to Issei suffering the worst injuries among them, Occult Research Club decided to stay in Kyoto a bit longer and would only leave tomorrow morning while the Student Council had returned to Kuoh with other students and teachers. Rias and Azazel managed to 'convince' the teachers and trip supervisors for their stay in Kyoto.

"I see…. That's good, then." Issei concluded with small smile. "…How are you two doing?"

"We are fine now, thank you." Akeno replied, glad that the boy was worried about them. "Though now that you are well, I believe Asia-chan here deserves a good rest after looking after everyone."

"Eh? No, no. I'm fine. I'd like to stay here and…." Asia fidgeted a bit until her eyes met with Issei's. "Look after Ise-san…"

"Rest up, Asia." Issei replied. "Thanks, but I'll be fine." He reassured her with a smile.

"Ise-kun is right." Akeno followed. "You have exerting yourself enough by using your Twilight Healing. You should restore your energy while you can. In the mean time…." The gaze in Akeno's eyes then turned suggestive as she turned to Issei. "I'll tend his _needs_." Issei flustered slightly at the subtle movement of Akeno licking her lips.

"You're too sly Akeno-san! Ise-san must rest, after all!" Asia pouted while her eyes teared up in panic.

"My, my, ufufufu… If you are adamant about this, you can join us too, you know." Akeno teased further, causing Asia to whimper cutely; Issei only laughed sheepishly at the sight.

It seemed everything was good if Akeno could make jabs and teasing like that.

"Okay, you two. That's enough." Issei placated the two girls. "I guess I'll have some more sleep." Issei said as he plopped back onto bed.

Akeno and Asia looked at Issei for few seconds, until Akeno leaned her head closer. "Are you sure?" she tilted her head, Issei hummed affirmatively in return. Few seconds later, Akeno then stood up from her seat. "If you say so. But, if you need _anything_…" she said as she ran her hand over her body suggestively.

Before any more words could have spoken, Asia sprung up to action. "Geez, Akeno-san!" she finally broke down as she quickly ushered the Queen to leave the room in tow. Better just leave her boyfriend alone to recuperate rather than having other girls to steal the thunder.

"Ise-kun." However, Akeno then stopped herself at the door, and she gave one last glance to Issei. "…Are you sure that everything is okay?"

Asia blinked before she found that Akeno noticed something was off with Issei. When the girls turned to look at him, Issei's eyes were obscured by his bangs before the boy looked up with a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine, really."

Issei and the girls looked at each other for few more seconds until Akeno decided to drop the subject and after sharing a nod with Asia, the girls approached Issei one more time; with Asia giving Issei a peck on his cheek. Akeno on the other hand, chose to give Issei a quick kiss, full on the lips, causing Asia to whimper again.

While Issei was still stunned at the sudden gesture, the girls had moved to the door again and smiled to him. "Glad to have you back."

Issei finally smiled a tad wider as he waved his hand, prompting the girls to wave back as they finally slid the door closed and left the room. The boy then sighed heavily as he let himself fall back to the bed, thinking back of the past events. Once again, his father had saved the day, and he could not do anything in the end. The corner of his lips twitched downwards, he then looked around his room, and few minutes later he decided to get some fresh air, as well as stretching out his limbs further before going to bed.

_**[Partner]**_

Issei blinked when he suddenly Ddraig calling out from his mindscape. "Ddraig?"

_**[Good to have you able to stand on your feet again. This is actually the first time I see a devil survived the power of the Holy Spear.]**_

"Holy spear?" Issei muttered and he remembered that he was indeed pierced by Cao Cao's True Longinus. "…What happened back there? I'm glad that I'm still alive and all, but… Seriously, what just happened?"

_**[Walk and talk. I'll explain along the way.]**_

oXo

"So…. That's what happened?"

_**[Yeah, even Elsha and Belzard were actually amazed at what happened. This power inside you… is a lot more powerful than we originally thought.]**_

Issei had been talking with the Welsh Dragon as he was walking along the hall of the royal palace where Yasaka and Kunou lived. After hearing Ddraig's explanation, he could not help but to swallow a lump, as a small cold sweat trickled down his head."….How are the things down there?"

_**[It's fine now, although….]**_

Ddraig paused to look at Issei's 8 mutation pieces, that looked even worse than before.

_**[Thanks to what took place before, your Evil Pieces have received further damage.]**_

"…What's gonna happen, then?" Issei asked with worried tone.

_**[I honestly don't know of how exactly Evil Pieces work on reincarnated devils, but… I guess that you should expect some decrease on your demonic power.**_

"….You mean I've grown even weaker?"

_**[Not necessarily. From what I have observed so far, your Evil Pieces have been supplying demonic power into your reserves, which is already pretty massive thanks to your past trainings. I'm saying that, at least, your demonic power might take longer time to re-fill should you running out of juice.]**_

Issei remained silent as he took in Ddraig's words.

_**[But still, be careful. If this keeps up, who knows what's going to happen if your Evil Pieces were destroyed. Once we get home, you will resume your training to make contact with your predecessors.]**_

Issei nodded, and before they could have talked more, Issei bumped into someone when he turned to a corner of the hallway.

"Ooph!" the person who bumped into him fell to the floor. "Hey, be careful on where you are wal-"

"I'm sorry, are you-…" However, Issei then realized that he just bumped into a certain princess. "Lady Kunou?"

"Red Dragon Emperor!" Kunou, who was about to chide on the person who bumped into her, stopped her rant as her face gained a faint shade of red. "Err, um…" she fumbled on her words as she suddenly could not find the right thing to say.

Issei could not help but to smile as he admitted how cute the princess sometimes. "Anyway, are you alright?" Issei asked politely as he offered his hand.

"Y-yes. Thank you for the concern." Kunou seemed to snap out of it and she straightened herself up to befit her status as the princess. "Where are you going at this late night?"

"I'm just stretching out my limbs after staying in bed for sometime." Issei smoothly replied. "More importantly, what are _you_ doing at this late at night, Princess Kunou?"

"Well, um…" Kunou twiddled her fingers. "I-I want to know how my mother's treatment is going…."

When Issei saw Kunou's expression turned sad, he let out a soft breath as he kneeled down until he was on Kunou's eye-level. He was not sure what to say, but he could not stay quiet either. "…It's going to be fine. Your mother will be okay before you know it." Issei said as he patted Kunou's head gently.

Kunou furrowed her eyebrows as tears began to well up. "I know. I know that. Mother is still alive, But…."

Issei then proceed to pull the girl into a soft hug. "It's okay, it's okay…" Issei said as he caressed Kunou's small back, as the girl silently sobbed against Issei's neck. They remained in that position for a minute or two, until Issei spoke up. "…I'm sorry that I couldn't be of help."

Kunou then slowly pulled away from Issei's arms and wiped her tears. Issei kind of expected Kunou to get at least a bit angry at him, but instead, her expression was serene with small smile adoring her lips. "No, thank you for fighting for Kyoto and my mother's sake."

Issei blinked, did not expect that Kunou was more mature than she let out. "….Thank you for the kind words, Lady Kunou." He said politely and he stood up. "Come on, I'll walk you back to your room."

Kunou nodded, and the two proceeded to walk side-by-side towards Kunou's sleeping quarters. Issei did not notice that Kunou, with flustered face, was deliberately moving closer against him inch by inch as they walked together.

* * *

Long story short, after running into one of the palace servants, Kunou had been safety returned to her room as Issei continued with his night walk. Going back where he came before, Issei suddenly ran into a green Asian dragon in the hallway. He knew that the place was filled and ran by youkai and all, but he surely did not expect to see a dragon of all things. Perhaps this was actually a youkai who happened to look like a dragon?

"Oh, you are Ddraig's host, aren't ya?" the said dragon greeted Issei with amusement in his eyes. "Oh, oh, are you Saitama's kid? You sure don't look like him. And did you really survive after getting impaled by the Longinus spear? And before I forgot, I'm Yu-Long, by the way. Nice to meet 'cha."

Issei was a bit overwhelmed by the assault of questions. After the dragon's words finally sunk into his brain, Issei widened his eyes as he recognised the dragon's name. _"It's a friggin' dragon king!"_

**[Long time no see, Yu-Long. As lively as ever, I see. Even with your status as a dragon king]**

Ddraig said his greetings from Issei's left hand.

"Oh, Ddraig! It's been a while too!" Yu-Long chirped. "How's life? Have you beaten Albion yet?"

**[I haven't beaten Albion yet, unfortunately. As for life, it's very interesting to say the least.]**

Issei was not sure how to behave. He had met two dragon kings so far. Well, Tannin was a devil, but he was still pretty much a dragon. But in any case, both Tannin and Tiamat were acting in dignified manner befitting dragons that were called as 'kings'. However, Yu-Long on the other hand, was acting so light-hearted.

"U-um…" Issei finally spoke up, garnering the attention of the Mischievous Dragon. "Nice to meet you too, Lord Yu-Long. I'm Hyoudou Issei." For now, going polite and formal was always the safest bet.

"Bah, just drop the 'lord' and those formalities! Besides, Heavenly Dragon is technically a higher hierarchy than us. Not that we care much about that…" Yu-Long replied. "Anyway, you haven't answered my questions!"

"Oh, err… Well, yeah. I'm that guy's son." Issei shrugged. "And… Yes, I did survive the attack from True Longinus."

"Hm, hm, I see." Yu-Long nodded as his head leaned over to examine Issei's body here and there. "Feel anything weird on your body, now? You good?"

"Yes, so far. Thanks for the concern." Issei replied as he gave one quick check on his own body.

"Oh, right, right! I'm actually on my way to tell that Lady Yasaka's recovery is going smoothly, and we can expect her to get up and kickin' by tomorrow. Man, your dad really helped us back there." Yu-Long quipped.

Issei blinked before his face brightened up. "That's… great! Thank you!" Issei said at the sudden good news. "And did you say that Saitama helped?"

"Yep, though it was that old geezer who did most of the job. Anyway, I gotta go. Need to tell the little princess or anyone of the retainers about Yasaka. I wanna have a look around on the palace, anyway. Probably gonna run to some dining room or kitchen." Yu-Long laughed as he went on his way. "Oh, and that old monkey geezer wants to talk with you! He's probably still with your dad now. Follow this hall, turn left on that corner, go right at the next intersection, the room is at the end of the hall! See ya later!"

When the Jade Dragon finally vanished from sight, Issei only stared at the spot where he last saw the said dragon. "…Okay, that dragon is quite… something."

**[Sorry about him. After all, Yu-Long can be considered a kid compared with the other Dragon Kings.]**

"Let's just go." Issei then decided to waste no more time and proceeded to follow Yu-Long's direction. Few minutes of walking later, Issei finally arrived at the specified room. Without further ado, Issei slowly slid the door open. "Pardon the intrusion…"

Issei was frozen on the spot after opening the door, because of what he saw; On the tatami floor, Saitama clad in nothing but his boxer, was holding a completely naked woman in his arms. The woman had a long golden blonde hair, hourglass figure, and beautiful face. However, the most defining features were a pair of fox ears on top of her head and nine golden fox tails on her rear. The woman was sleeping in the man's arms, and Issei could have sworn that the woman's body was giving a faint glow before disappearing.

"Oh… Hey, Ise." Saitama casually greeted his son while still holding the woman in his arms. The two only stared each other for few seconds, and Saitama blinked at the fact that his son was only staring at her without any word. "…..Ise?" his son's expression was somewhat too tense and pale. What was wrong? what is he looking at-?!

It hit Saitama as he widened his own eyes. "W-w-wait, Ise. T-this is not what it looks like." Saitama stuttered. When Issei opened his mouth, Saitama had to explain the situation quicker than him. "THIS IS A SENJUTSU TREATMENT!"

Saitama's yell stopped whatever Issei was about to say, followed by a new voice in the room. "Hey now, Saitama. No shouting around the patient."

Issei turned his gaze to find an old monkey youkai was sitting nearby in lotus position, and a staff-like weapon was resting on his shoulder. "It's good to finally meet you, Red Dragon Emperor kid." The monkey then stood up to approach the boy. "I'm Sun Wukong."

Issei blinked once, then twice before he finally snapped out of it. "Oh… Oh! Err, um…" Issei looked around nervously before answering. "M-my name is Hyoudou Issei, it's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Sun."

"Well met. But no need to be so stiff." Sun Wukong waved off. "Saitama, your son has more manners than you." Saitama only replied with a shrug and small snort.

"So… This is…?" Issei asked while gesturing the situation Saitama was in. The boy noted that the woman in his arms gave a faint smile in her sleep as she unconsciously nuzzled closer against his bare chest.

"Yes, as you can see, I just finished treating Yasaka with your father's life force by using Senjutsu." Sun Wukong answered. "I heard that you were also undergoing a similar treatment from using Juggernaut Drive, correct? Sure you are familiar with this method."

Issei blinked again as he took in Sun Wukong's explanation. He did undergo Senjutsu treatment by Koneko, and the settings and display were not unlike Saitama and Yasaka here. Few seconds later, he finally sighed and relaxed his posture. "I understand. I guess it's good to have Lady Yasaka to be fully recovered."

"And you have Saitama to thank for." Sun Wukong nodded at Saitama. "Without his help, treating Yasaka's tainted Ki would have taken a lot longer."

Issei only gave Saitama an approving nod, which Saitama returned the courtesy with his own.

"Anyway, Red Dragon Emperor…. Issei, was it?" Sun Wukong called out. "I've heard stories about you and would like to talk. Would you mind to come with me for a bit?" He then turned to Saitama. "Saitama, don't forget to tuck Lady Yasaka to bed before leaving. Can't have her catch a cold."

"Yeah, got it." Saitama said and he glanced at Issei, whom returned the look as he complied with Sun Wukong's summon.

After the two left the room, Saitama then shifted in his sitting position, preparing to deposit Yasaka to bed. However, he soon found that Yasaka somehow managed to circle her arms around his torso, clinging on him.

"Um… Yasaka?" Saitama whispered, not wanting to wake up the fox-woman. "Come on… Get off me…" Saitama tried to pry Yasaka's arms off him, but the woman held firm. Hell, her hold on him was tightening as she nuzzled her face even closer to his chest.

Saitama sighed in exasperation as he contemplated of what he should do. He could easily force Yasaka to get off him and put her in bed with his strength, but at the same time, he did not want to go rough on someone who was recuperating. Decision, decisions…

It was going to take some time for the hero to get out from such predicament.

oXo

Issei was now standing on palace's garden with Sun Wukong. The two were walking casually, enjoying the night breeze with the youkai puffing out some smoke from his pipe.

"I've heard of what happened so far." Sun Wukong started. "I see that you are attempting to tap into your inner soul, the power of Boosted Gear."

Issei did not say anything in return as he simply stared back with full attention.

"That's wonderful, actually." Sun Wukong blew out a smoke. "Finding an alternative for the Juggernaut Drive. Power that takes your life and reasons as the price is no good at all. After all…" Sun Wukong then met his gaze with Issei. "You have someone important in your life, no?"

Issei blinked as the image of Rias, Asia, Akeno, his comrades from Kuoh Academy, as well as his parents flashed in his mind. "…Yes." Issei replied with fond smile. "…Yes, I do."

"Then you should not disappoint them." Sun Wukong replied back. "Anyway, back on the topic. I heard that your true power had been somewhat… an inconvenience to you."

Issei's expression went a bit sour, and that was the answer Sun Wukong needed to carry on. "Hmm…. Mastering something that is unknown, yet belongs to you sure is a hassle." The Great Sage rubbed his chin. "Do you have anything so far?"

Issei went silent for a moment, thinking back of all he had learned so far. "…So far, whatever inside my body… is not compatible with my Evil Piece."

"I see… So your reincarnation into a devil is the cause of your hardship." Sun Wukong summarised. "You don't regret it, do you?"

"Never." Issei replied with absolute conviction. Sun Wukong smiled approvingly in return.

"Back to the topic again. I believe it's a good choice to tap into your Boosted Gear as your alternative power source. In fact…. I take that you have considered to have your Sacred Gear to deal with that incompatibility?"

Issei only looked quizzically at the old youkai, prompting the latter to explain further. "If we're speaking theoretically and analogically…" The Sun Wukong played with his pipe, making a lecturing pose. "It's like trying to connect two pieces of puzzle that don't come from the same package. However, as long as they connect, you can put something in between them to make them connected. Are you getting me?"

It took some time for the old youkai's words to sink into Issei's head. However, Issei's eyes that were slowly widening showed that the boy was getting the big picture. "….Ddraig, is that possible?"

_**[Nothing is impossible to begin with. It's just that we have been looking for a way for you to fight without worrying about the feedback. What the monkey said sounds better, but I have to say it is less likely. In any case, the only way for you to make either one happen is to tap deeper into the Boosted Gear, as well as your soul.]**_

"I will take it as a 'yes'." Sun Wukong then walked pass Issei and the former patted the latter's back in friendly manner. "Give it some thought, but take your time as well. I will see you again, Hyoudou Issei."

"Oh, one more thing." However, Sun Wukong then halted on his tracks when he was already half-way from leaving the garden. "You probably have already aware of this, but there are many formidable opponents that can best you, even though they might be weaker; like those heroes for example." Sun Wukong's words reminded Issei of his defeat by the hands of Cao Cao and his group. "That Hero Faction, especially the Longinus wielders, are getting stronger as the time pass, especially since they have encounter Saitama." Sun Wukong then looked up at the night sky, his expression was unreadable. "Annihilation Maker, for example… It won't be that far off until a monster that can match Saitama to appear." Though when Sun Wukong looked at Issei, he had another thing going on regarding someone that can match Saitama's power.

Issei only looked down to the ground, contemplating the youkai's words. The said youkai only gave another faint smile before finally left the garden while waving his hand.

Issei was now alone at the garden, the boy just walked over the railings, a bridge railings to be precise, which was built over a small pond. Issei stood there, his body leaned over the railings as his eyes were generally directed at the water beneath him.

However, when Issei thought he could have some time alone, another presence making itself known. "Ise?"

The boy turned to see Saitama just entered the site, the man was now clad in a yukata similar like his. Issei only nodded at his father as the latter walked to stand next to the former. The two fell into… unreadable silence, with Issei kept staring down while Saitama just stared at general direction in front of him, both father and son had unreadable expression on their faces, with the latter's eyes were obscured by his bangs.

It was Saitama who finally broke the silence. "How was the talk with Sun?" he casually referred the Victorious Fighting Buddha.

"It went well. I gotta thank him later the next time we meet." Issei managed to answer with small smile.

Saitama nodded with a hum at his son's reply. Few moments later, Saitama asked again. "…How are things?"

Issei did not say anything for few seconds before replying without looking at his father. "…Fine."

"I see." Saitama nodded and he spoke again, his gaze was still glued at the same direction. "…That was a tough fight."

"…Yeah."

"You did all you could. Cao Cao is just that formidable of a guy."

"…Yeah." Again, that was the only word that came out from Issei's mouth in reply.

However, Saitama did not seem to mind about his son's too-short answer as he kept speaking. "You did good, kid."

"…Yeah."

This time, it took couple of seconds longer for Issei to reply. Saitama finally glanced at his son, to see that Issei's folded arms that rested on the railings were trembling, and his fists were clutched tight. "….Does it hurt?"

This time, Issei did not say anything in return as his trembling became more obvious. Saitama let out a soft breath before he gently placed his hand on his son's back. "….There's only two of us here. Wanna share?"

Few seconds – no, almost a minute passed until Issei began to speak. "….It hurts." His voice sounded hoarse, as if he was choking. "It hurts… When I found myself so powerless… and couldn't do anything to protect my friends…" Issei continued on. When Saitama gave another glance, he noticed that tears were flowing from Issei's eyes. "I never knew that being weak hurts so much…." The boy kept speaking through his gritted teeth and his tears.

Saitama merely moved his hand from Issei's back to on top of his hair as the former proceeded to caress the latter's head. Issei then buried his face into his arms as he kept sobbing, with his father wordlessly comforting him.

Meanwhile, from the entrance – a different one from where Sun Wukong just left, and the same one where Saitama came in, the members of Occult Research Club – Rias, Akeno, Asia, Irina, Yuuto, Xenovia and Rossweisse, had been eavesdropping the conversation for a while. Upon Issei's words and his tears of regret, shame and self-loathing; they could not help but to sympathise with him, as they also went through the same feeling by the hands of Hero Faction: _being powerless_. Even some of them were silently crying as well.

Later, however, they heard Saitama spoke. "But, you know your answer now… Don't you, Ise?"

The others by the entrance noticed that Issei had stopped sobbing, They peeked to see that Issei wiped the tears off his face, and even from their angle, they could see a fire had been lit in his eyes.

"…Yeah. I'll become stronger." Issei replied, but his tone was more resolute. "Strong enough that I can prevent any of us to go through _that_ again."

Issei's resolve and the clarity in his voice seemed to affect the members of Occult Research Club; they felt their hearts fluttered when they heard him saying those words. Hell, some of the girls even fell for him all over again. They then looked at each other, and without a word, they nodded to each other, as they agreed of the same course of action.

With renewed determination, the members of Occult Research Club wiped their tears away, silently left the father and son, and went to their own respective rooms. That night, the young generations had suffered defeat, but they would not stay down for long.

* * *

It was finally the day where the rest of students from Kuoh Academy, particularly the members of Occult Research Club, were departing from Kyoto to their home.

After some quick shopping for souvenirs, everyone was sent-off by Yasaka and Kunou themselves at Kyoto train station; the mother and daughter had donned in their human form. Yasaka in particular, was wearing the same shrine priestess outfit just like her daughter.

Pleasantries were exchanged, as Yasaka expressed her deepest gratitude towards Azazel, Serafall, Saitama as well as the students from Kuoh Academy. The youkai leader had also accepted the invitation to join the Alliance in order to protect Kyoto from Khaos Brigade. After Yasaka shook her hands with Azazel and Serafall to seal their agreement, everyone else had boarded the train, leaving only Issei, Saitama, Yasaka and Kunou at the platform.

On the other hand, Kunou was shyly talking with Issei. "Red Dragon Emperor…" she addressed him by title.

"Just calling me 'Ise' is fine." Issei replied in polite, yet friendly manner.

The shade of red on Kunou's face went a tad brighter, but she complied. "Then… Ise. Are you coming back to Kyoto?"

"Yes. I'll definitely come to visit again." The boy nodded.

Kunou then gathered her courage as she looked up to meet Issei in the eye. "Then, you must come back! Kunou will always wait for you!"

Issei was slightly taken aback at the bold declaration and request. He noted that Yasaka was looking at her daughter in amusement while Saitama gave a faint snort with small smile adorning his face. Nevertheless, he replied. "Yeah, when all of us return here, we will count on you to show us the hidden side of Kyoto." Issei grinned as he gently patted Kunou's head, a gesture that the latter highly appreciated.

"And Saitama!" Kunou then turned to the older man. "You'd better coming to Kyoto again soon!"

"Okay, okay…"

Saitama nonchalantly replied, while Yasaka chided her daughter. "Come on, Kunou. Have you forgotten about your manners before your elders?"

"Ah, right. I apologize." Kunou flushed and straighten up. "After all, Saitama is a future family, correct?"

At Kunou's innocent remarks, the other three seemed frozen. With Issei could only stare incredulously at the young fox. "….Eh?"

"I've been thinking that Saitama should just marry my mother, and we can become one big family!" Kunou opened her arms wide, as her expression was ecstatic.

"K-Kunou!" Yasaka squealed in embarrassment. Her face was blushing deep, and she pinched both of her daughter's cheeks, eliciting the child to flail her arms around.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! It huwts! It huwts, mother!"

Issei on the other hand only turned to give his father a dirty look, and Saitama refused to meet his gaze as he was sporting a faint blush as well.

"Fufufu… Please ignore what my little one just said, she could be such a joker sometimes…" Yasaka nervously laughed after she made sure that her daughter would not give any other embarrassing remarks.

Issei only sighed in return when the train let out a high-pitched sound, signalling that it was about to depart soon. "Ah, if you excuse me, I have to go on the train. I will see you two again, Lady Yasaka, Kunou." Issei gave one last glare to Saitama before he finally went in.

It was only Saitama, Yasaka and Kunou remained on the platform with the latter still nursing her swollen cheeks. The man and woman remained looking at each other with the latter giving the former somewhat fond look.

"Again… You helped us, Saitama." Yasaka said as her lips stretched into a smile, her face was now sporting a healthy shade of pink. "I don't know how to thank you this time, and…" Yasaka's tone then shifted to somewhat embarrassed. "I'm sorry for the inconveniences I caused you last night." She looked away as she covered her flustered face with her sleeves.

"It's no biggie." Saitama simply shrugged, his face remained stoic as ever. However, Yasaka's heart skipped a beat when she heard the exact same reply at _that_ fateful night, where she had affirmed her feelings.

Yasaka's gaze then shifted to the train, watching Issei's visage through the window. "…So that's your son."

"Yeah, we don't look alike, do we?" Saitama's lips twitched into a small smile as he said so.

"Perhaps, but I think you two are far more similar than you thought." Yasaka replied, her expression was telling that she approved of the Red Dragon Emperor.

Saitama only gave quizzical look before he turned to look at his son's visage through the glass, not knowing that Yasaka's gaze had returned to stare at him intently, the shade of pink on her face went darker as she bit her lower lip, as if she was contemplating something.

"…Anyway, I gotta go. I'll see you later, Kunou, Yasa-!" However, the rest of Saitama's words could not be spoken, because as Yasaka's hand lurched forward, something that Saitama did not see coming, just took place again.

oXo

Meanwhile, Issei had seated himself inside the train right in front of Rias Gremory. The boy plopped down and let out heavy sigh as he relaxed his body on the soft seat. "That was one helluva trip, wasn't it?" Issei casually asked.

Rias blinked at his fiancé and decided to humour him. "…Yes, yes, it was." She replied with a calm smile.

The two fell into silence, with Rias' peerage giving one or two occasional glances at the pair. Issei was just relaxing on his seat with his eyes closed, waiting for the train to depart, while Rias was looking aimlessly outside the window.

Rias was…. Worried, simply said. While she had been better since last night, after recuperating, having new resolution and all, she could not shake off the words Cao Cao had said from her mind. _He knew_. And she was terrified if Issei had actually heard it. Did he fall asleep before, during, or after Cao Cao had said those words?

She took a glance at Issei; her fiancé was sitting blissfully, as if he was asleep. However, the thorn in her heart finally forced her to take the first step. Taking a deep breath, she then mustered her courage to call out to him. "…Ise."

Issei immediately cracked one eye open. "Hm?"

However, when Rias was about to say more, she was stopped by collective gasps and 'oh' across the train. The two then found that the rest of the Occult Research Club was looking at the other side of the train across them, outside the window. All of them were sporting surprised and amused expression. Azazel was laughing, while Serafall was sporting disbelief look and she took out a cell-phone and used the camera feature to record whatever happened outside.

Curiosity took over, Rias and Issei quickly moved over so they could get a look of what everyone was seeing. When Rias saw what happened, her eyes widened in amusement, her hand was covering her open mouth. "…Oh, my."

Issei had his jaw dropped to the floor as he saw Yasaka was pressing her lips fully on his father's in a deep kiss. The woman had her hand firm on the side of Saitama's head, while the other was covering the eyes of the clueless Kunou.

The kiss did not last long, as Yasaka then pulled away and shoved Saitama inside the train. Saitama could only blink incredulously at the woman as the door slid closed and the train started moving. The last thing Saitama saw was Yasaka's beaming smile as she waved her hand at him.

Saitama let out a breath, not knowing what the _fuck_ just happened. Did a monarch, a queen to boot, just kiss him? Saitama was just glad that his wife was not around to see this. Hyoudou Haruka was already handful in general, and an angry Hyoudou Haruka downright terrified him. With one more sigh, Saitama rubbed his head as he began to walk towards his seat.

When he entered the passenger's car, Saitama was greeted by several stares from the Occult Research Club, Azazel and Serafall. The latter was giving him scrutinizing and dirty look, albeit her face was sporting a faint shade of pink. The middle was grinning from ear to ear at him. However, aside from Occult Research Club's look of amusement and disbelief, Saitama suddenly froze when he saw his son was staring at him with wide eyes, his face was looking pale, as his mouth was gaping open and close like a fish.

"…Oh god." Issei breathed out.

"Ise…" Saitama called out, as if he knew what was running inside his son's head.

Father and son simply stared, as if daring each other to make a move. It was Isse, however, who made the first move as the boy quickly stepped into the aisle and made a run towards the next car. "I gotta go!"

When Issei had dashed and move to the next car ahead, Saitama quickly moved as well. "Wait, Ise! ISE! YOU'RE NOT GOING TO PUT ANY STRANGE IDEAS IN YOUR MOTHER'S HEAD, YOUNG MAN!" Saitama screamed as he went after his son.

The devils, angel and fallen angel could only watch incredulously when the father and son began their game of cat-and-mouse, followed by a burst of power, and they saw a red streak of light flying out from the train, chased by a blur.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**And that's the wrap for Pandemonium at the School Trip! What do you guys think about this chapter, my idea about Evil Pieces and Issei's inner power as Sun Wukong had stated, and Sun Wukong's explanation about healing Yasaka through Senjutsu?**

**About Issei's Evil Piece, after looking through my notes, I just came up with the idea that it was the Evil Piece that also supplied the demonic power in the first place for a reincarnated devil. However, considering Issie's unique case, I don't think a decreasing rate of demonic power could hinder his fighting capability. Thoughts?**

**For the next arc, I will see what I can come up with regarding the fact that Issei, a reincarnated devil, just survived a Longinus spear.**

**No flame, while constructive criticisms are appreciated. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	43. Heart (I)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, folks! Now I have begun the volume 10 of canon LN! Let's go over some reviews on the previous chapter. **

**First of all, thank you for the reviews and I'm glad for those who were enjoying my story so far.**

**For those who were concerned about the progress of Issei and Rias' relationship, I plan to approach the issue and resolve it in this arc.**

**Those who claimed that Issei was over-reacting on Saitama x Yasaka moments… I have stated something like this before, but I will say it again to clarify. As one of the guest reviewer had guessed, Issei actually sort-of suffers a case of mother-complex. Added with his estranged view and awkward relationship with Saitama, it was not much of a surprise if Issei took it to the extreme if he caught his father 'cheating' behind his mother's back. Besides, has Haruka ever approved of Saitama having a harem in the first place? Issei on the other hand, had been approved by his girls to have a harem; and he did not even intend to do so. Saitama's relationship with Issei had been improving as time passed, so there the time will come where Issei will accept that Saitama is a chick-magnet just like him, whether he liked it or not.**

**And speaking of guest reviewers, while I'm fine with you people asking me questions in the review, please refrain from using the review section as means to communicate with fellow guest reviewers; review section is not a forum, thank you very much.**

**Without further ado, enjoy! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 40: Heart (I) - Preparations**

"…So the Hero Faction does possess three high-tier Longinus gears, gathering Sacred Gear wielders who could obtain Balance Breakers, as well as have attempted to summon the Apocalypse Dragon to the mortal realm… How troublesome."

Sirzechs and Azazel were speaking through private channels from their respective offices.

"Those heroes…. They deem us as evil existence, a threat to mankind. However, what they were doing is also endangering the lives of the people they supposed to protect… If we didn't know any better, we could have ended up seeing humans as a threat to this alliance as well." Sirzechs said with a grim tone.

"Can't say I don't understand." Azazel commented. "After all, we used to be a threat to many humans in the past, especially during the war when collateral damages were popping out left and right." The fallen looked down in reminiscence. "I guess the war did not only scar those who participated, but also those who were unwillingly involved as well. And now, thanks to the screw-ups we did, mankind have become such terrifying existence."

Azazel and Sirzechs nodded in agreement, as they were fully aware of the true power, potential and tenacity that humans had been possessing ever since the time of memorial.

"Enough of that." Sirzechs finally said. "How are things in Kyoto now?"

Azazel's expression sort of brightened up. "It went well. The youkais are willing to join our alliance. They could no longer ignore the threat of Khaos Brigade after what happened to their monarch. Yasaka just finished finalizing the details with Serafall."

"That's good to hear." Sirzechs smiled. "Then… there is one more thing that concerns me… Have you heard the details about what happened to Ise-kun?" the Satan said with serious expression.

"I can't say I fully believe the reports, considering that I didn't witness the event by myself." Azazel replied. "But we both know more than well enough that those kids would not lie about something like this. A devil, a reincarnated one even, could survive a strike of the True Longinus? I doubt that even you could have survive should you were stabbed by the Spear of Destiny."

Sirzechs had to admit; even he was not that confident if he could withstand a direct attack of the Holy Spear of the Setting Sun. Even if he were to utilize his full power, it was still debatable if he could come out without any repercussion. "…Do you think this has something to do with the fact that Ise-kun is Saitama's son?"

"That's likely. Considering what we have learned so far about his body." Azazel replied. "What do you think we should do about this? Because when I approached Saitama about this, the guy just said not to fuss over it too much."

Sirzechs snorted. "That's kind of expected from him. But Saitama-kun does have a point; a devil that could survive a god-killing spear, this news could tip the power-balance between the Three Factions, if not the whole world if the words got out. There is also a possibility if Issei was merely lucky. For now, we should just watch until next development shows up."

"…Fine." Azazel sighed. "Though, just so you know; I'm actually doing this because… I do believe in those father and son for some reason. Beats the hell out of me why."

Sirzechs only giggled, causing Azazel to lightly laugh as well. "I know, I know…. Oh, one more thing. The match between Rias and Sairaorg is coming soon, right? What do you think about that?"

"Hm…" Azazel rubbed his goatee-covered chin. "This is just a speculation, but the key player in the game will be Hyoudou Issei and Sairaorg Bael. Both of them were similar in more ways than one."

"Tell me about it. Both of them are the main powerhouse of their respective team, both of their power are on par with ultimate-class devils, and they are recently learning under the same tutelage." Sirzechs commented as he thought of Saitama.

"But Ise is currently facing problem with his own power, thus he's been busy in focusing more on getting control of them, while Sairaorg has more time to perfect his fighting style and skills. In fact, the Emperor himself just volunteered to supervise Sairaorg's training during Saitama's absence." Azazel commented.

Sirzechs blinked at the news. The Emperor, the professional who was also the champion of Rating Game, supervised Sairaorg's training? "Is that so? I thought Sairaorg has Saitama as his teacher… Well, not that Saitama ever openly admitted the fact." Sirzechs shrugged. "In fact…. Just between two of us, does Saitama…. Y'know, know how to teach people?"

Azazel only laughed in response. "Hahahaha! Knowing him, that guy himself probably had no idea what he was doing! I'm still wondering how Sairaorg ended up as the strongest young devil under his guidance." Azazel then smirked in amusement. "Speaking of which, during last summer, Saitama did give Sairaorg a visit or two before the Rating Game of young devils started."

Both leaders truly looked forward the Rating Game match between Rias Gremory and Sairaorg Bael; or to be precise, The Red Dragon Emperor vs The Lion King.

* * *

_You do not deserve him._

Rias kept running in the dark, chasing after the back of a figure in a distance, while the voice echoed around her.

"_No… No!"_

Rias desperately ran with all her might, stretching her arm forward, hoping that she could reach the man in front of her.

"_Please… Please! Don't leave me!"_

Rias begged and prayed in her mind to whatever god or deity that might have heard her, but no matter how hard she ran, she felt the distance grew larger.

_After everything you have planned and pulled on his life, you have the gall to actually keep him to yourself? Saitama was right all along._

"_No! It's not like that!"_

Tears started to fall from her eyes as Rias kept arguing with the voice around her.

_Is that so? And I recalled that you saw him as nothing more than a pawn so you could get out of that blasted engagement. That really worked out, eh?_

She finally tripped and collapsed to the ground. Her breathings were heavy as she clutched her chest tightly. Then, she looked up to confront the voice.

"But it's different now! I love him! I truly do! With all my heart!"

_But that did not change the fact that you are held responsible for his demise! The pain of your chest getting impaled by spears of light! His agony! Those are all on you! His life was his own, yet you took it away from him for your own ends!_

"I know! I know that! That is why I'm making amends!"

_By what, spoiling him? Spreading your legs and seduce him with that body of yours? Keeping him all for yourself while there are many girls who deserve him more than you? You saw him as a mere pawn, now you want him as your man? How selfish can you be?_

Rias knew well that there was unlikely chance that she could not keep Issei all for herself, and she had accepted that. However…

_What do you think he will say, when he finds out about what you just pulled on him?_

Suddenly, Rias found that Issei was looking back at her. Fear began to creep up on her being once again, as she found that the boy's gaze on her was… cold, unnerving.

"…Ise?" Rias called out, she could not help but getting hopeful.

"…How could you?"

Those three words caused Rias to freeze on spot. Issei's expression however, tore her heart; it was a mixed expression of anger, sorrow, and betrayal.

"How could you go so far? Were you that desperate?"

"I… I…" Rias was trembling. Her fear grew even more when Issei narrowed his eyes at her with disdain.

"You disappoint me." ignoring Rias' plea, Issei turned around and began to walk away.

Rias' eyes widened as she realized that she had to do something, anything. "Wait!" she cried out. "Please, let me explain! I'm sorry! I lo-!"

However, Issei cut her off as he turned to glare at her one last time. "You don't love me." He said with cold tone. "After all, I'm merely your pawn, a piece that have always been dancing on the palm of your hand." He then turned away and walked again. "This ends now. Goodbye, Rias."

Rias suddenly found herself frozen on the spot, unable to move a muscle, nor let out a single voice. _"No…."_ She remained glue on the spot, watching the man she loved getting further away. _"No… NOO!"_

Rias then gasped as her body shot forward from her sleeping position. She looked around frantically, only to find herself on the bed. She was breathing heavily, her throat felt dry, sweat was covering her bare skin, and her body was shaking. She blinked in the dark, and she slowly turned to see that Issei was sleeping soundly beside her, with Asia hugging his arm from the side, and surprisingly enough, Xenovia sleeping on his chest.

She took a deep breath and sighed, slowly getting off her bed when she found that it was 3 in the morning. Feeling her skin was sticky from the sweat, Rias decided to take a quick shower.

"…Rias?"

When Rias was on her way towards the door, she heard Issei's voice and she turned to see him rubbing his sleepy eyes; the boy carefully set Xenovia to her side lest she woke up, so he could raised his torso to sitting position. "…You good?" he said with rather drowsy tone.

Rias only smiled lightly in return. "Yes, just… some bad dream. I'm going to take a quick shower."

"…Mmkay." Issei yawned once again, although he noticed something was definitely off with his fiancée, despite the drowsiness. "…You really okay? Wanna talk about it?" this time, Issei's tone was genuinely concerned.

It was just a simple gesture of concern. It did not have to be done between lovers, even normal friends could exchange that sort of gesture, but Rias did not understand just how such gesture could possibly shake her so much. She loved him, and he loved her; but somehow she just could not look at him in the eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Thank you." She managed to force a smile. It was thanks to mostly her back facing him that Issei did not notice. "You should go back to bed. You have a lot of work tomorrow."

Rias left the room, and Issei only stared at the door where he last saw her. The boy fell back to bed with small sigh escaping him. He wondered what was happening as he stared at the ceiling.

When Rias was inside the shower, in the midst of steam and hot water, she looked up, covered her eyes with both hands as she kept reassuring herself. "Everything will be okay… He doesn't need to know. It's going to be fine."

_Oh, being a liar now, eh? _

However, when the voice echoed in her mind again, her tears flowed in the midst of the hot water washing her face.

* * *

"Err… So the main events during the Civil War were the battle at Agreas, Azmodan, Thorns and…." Issei attempted to memorize the history text he had read, until he furrowed his eyebrows and slumped his head down. "Ugh… Ravel, do I have to learn all of this?" he whined.

"Yes, Ise-sama. As you have entered the middle ranks within devil society, it is important for you to at least know the general knowledge upper-class devils should know in preparation for your next promotion. Now, go and read them again." Ravel then put another stock of thick books on the desk. "And don't forget to read these as well." In reply, Issei only groaned and dropped his head on the desk.

It was the time when Ravel Phenex officially moved into Hyoudou Residence (much to Haruka's delight). Apparently, Ravel was a part of Gremory clan's plan in preparing Issei into devil society. Since Rias asked about Issei's education as middle-class devil, her family decided to send Ravel, who was going to attend school in the human world, to help in Issei's study about middle-class devil, as well as his preparation to become a high-class devil.

Initially, Rias stated that she would be enough to help in Issei's devil study; however, her family argued that involvement of third party would increase Issei's odds for the better. Ravel was a high-class devil from a well-known noble family, friends with Issei and knew her way around the high-class society, deeming her as a perfect tutor for Issei. And currently, Ravel was doing her role as Issei's tutor in Hyoudou Residence's study room.

"Come on, you can do better than that." Ravel tried to encourage her charge. "At this rate, it won't do for you as Lady Rias' suitor."

"I know, I know…" Issei drawled out. So far, he had been learning about devil's history, magic, science, and basic politics; and so far, Issei hated politic study the most. Not to mention, he had never been a fan of studying in the first place.

However, his 'rescue' came in the form of Rias, Asia and everyone else coming inside with a tray of snacks and refreshment. "Ise-san, here's we brought your snack!"

"Everyone!" Issei immediately stood up from his desk, abandoning his books and papers as he bolted to the door where the girls were. "Oh, am I glad to see all of you!" he exaggerated as he hugged Rias, who was surprised at the sudden contact.

"I-I-Ise?!" Rias spluttered, her face was flustered as her fiance's arms were wrapped around her. Issei only made her case worse as he also rubbed his cheek against hers.

Asia whimpered at the spectacle with teary eyes as her hands that were holding a tray of refreshments were trembling. Xenovia and Irina, who were by her side, only smiled awkwardly while doing their best to console the Bishop.

"My, my, ufufufu…" Akeno giggled. "It seems that studying to be a high-class devil is proven to be too much for Ise-kun."

Koneko on the other hand, simply narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at Ravel while munching a chicken drumstick.

"Okay, okay, Ise. Get off me, please." Rias gently pried herself off from Issei, much to his chagrin as he playfully whined in return, before she turned to Ravel. "How's his study so far?"

"Lady Rias." Ravel greeted with a nod, then she looked back at Issei's progress so far, and she gestured 'so-so' with her hands. "…At least he's not doing bad." Ravel then sighed. "Well, I guess we can use a break. However, do remember that you will have to learn how to play chess, as the game of chess is the basic model for Rating Games."

"Yes…" Issei sighed heavily. Seriously, he felt like he started to regret his decision to climb up the ranks of devils.

"It's okay, Ise-san. I'm sure you'll be just fine!" Asia said in encouragement. Well, Issei thought that actually kind of worked on him, with Asia giving him such a radiant innocent smile.

"Anyway, Ravel." Rias spoke. "Are you ready for school tomorrow? Have you prepared everything?"

The girl nodded in response. "Yes. The paperwork had been organised and finished by Lady Sona. I'm ready to enrol as a first-year tomorrow."

Rias then nodded approvingly. "Good. I'm looking forward to have you as my junior, Ravel."

"Yes, I'll be in your care!" Ravel beamed in return.

"Ise, everyone. I don't need to ask you to look out for her, do I?" Rias asked to her peerage.

Everyone else looked at Rias affirmatively as they chorused, "Yes!", albeit Koneko alone was sounding rather reluctant.

oXo

The next day, school went relatively well, and Issei was currently in front of a first-year's classroom. After confirming that Ravel had enrolled as a first-year high-school student that day, Issei took it upon himself to check on the new student after the homeroom had ended. Unfortunately, rumours about Issei stole Rias Gremory's virginity was still circulating and have reached the ears of first-years, causing some female juniors to throw some dirty glances at him. The boy in question simply sighed at the treatment.

Then, before Issei could have touched the classroom's door to open it, he was greeted by a familiar voice. "Oh, Ise." he turned to see Rias was approaching him, her arrival eliciting some squeals and looks of admiration from other students. "Are you here to check on Ravel as well?"

"Ah, buchou." Issei greeted back. "Yeah, Since… y'know how Ravel can act around other people sometimes." He gave a sheepish smile, which Rias understood completely, considering Ravel's background and upbringing.

Truth to be told, both of them were worried whether or not Ravel could adjust to human school-life. Worst-case scenario, that Ravel's haughty and noble attitude got the better of her and she ended up causing troubles to her mortal classmates.

When Rias and Issei peeked into the classroom, however, everything turned out to be better than they thought. Everything was pretty much normal, with Koneko, Gasper and some of their classmates were chatting at one corner of the room, while Ravel… was surrounded by her classmates with questions launched at her. Apparently, the blonde girl exuded enough charisma that caused everyone to be attracted to her.

"Phenex-san, do you have your own textbook?"

"The surname Phenex sounds so cool!"

"So where do you come from? Are you from the same country as Gaspie?"

Ravel on the other hand, was overwhelmed as she was assaulted by one question after another. She stuttered and looked around in confusion, not sure of which question she should have answered first.

Rias and Issei only blinked at the turn-out of events. "…It seems we're worried over nothing." The latter remarked. The former only nodded while smiling in relief.

When Ravel's gaze met with Issei's and Rias', her eyes lit up in relief as she stood up from her seat. "Excuse me, everyone." She politely made her way towards her seniors. Ravel then took Issei and Rias' hands respectively as she took them away from the class.

After taking a corner and making sure that they were alone, Ravel then turned to face Issei and Rias. "I-I'm sorry…"

Concerned by Ravel's apology, it was Issei who replied. "What's wrong, Ravel?"

"It-it's just…" Ravel drawled out after a deep breath. "It's my first time attending a school in human world. I'm a devil, so I have no clue of what kind of topics humans usually talk about."

Rias and Issei only sighed at that. It was a normal issue for transfer students in general, as a matter of fact; even if you were a fellow human. However, Issei had to admit that Ravel's flustered expression in front of her new classmates was quite adorable.

"That's fine, Ravel. You're doing good so far." Issei reassured.

"Besides…" Rias then carried on after Issei. "It's not like you don't want to befriend them, right?"

Ravel nodded in response. "O-of course. After all, it is important for nobles to understand the lives of commoners!"

"That's the spirit." Issei nodded approvingly. "Um…. Actually, I think you can use some help." He then turned on his heels to return to the classroom, only to see one Toujou Koneko standing before him, along with Gasper.

"…'Sup." The girl raised her hand in greeting, while Gasper only nodded meekly.

"Oh, Koneko-chan." Issei greeted. "Just perfect, I need a favour. You see, Ravel is still adjusting to school-life here… So can you become friends with her or something?"

Koneko's eyes twitched, which was not unnoticed by everyone. She pouted adorably as she looked around, between Ravel, then Issei, then Rias, back to Ravel…

"…Fine." Koneko said (reluctantly). "If Ise-senpai wants it, then I'll do that."

"Well, then it's settled." Issei concluded. "So, Ravel. Koneko-chan here will be-!"

However, Koneko suddenly made some remarks while staring at Ravel with half-lidded eyes. "…Useless grilled-chicken princess."

Issei swore he heard something cracked when Koneko said those words. He, Rias and Gasper then slowly turned to see Ravel's reaction.

Not surprisingly, Ravel was trembling with barely contained anger as she put on a strained smile. "E-Excuse me… What did you just call me?" she asked with veins popping out on her face.

"…Spoiled princess." Koneko replied without mercy.

"W-w-why you…!" Ravel was now livid. "You dare to talk in such manner towards a member of noble household of Phenex!?"

"What, it's not like I was far-off the mark." Koneko replied without missing a beat. "First day in school and you've already caused trouble for Ise-senpai... Useless, spoiled grilled-chicken princess."

"How rude! It's not that I want to trouble Ise-sama in the first place!" Ravel growled.

From other's perspective, they could imagine the visage of a cat and a bird facing off against each other in a heated showdown. Gasper was whimpering in fear at the intensity between Koneko and Ravel.

Issei only watched, and Rias whispered into his ear. "…Shouldn't we stop them?" Rias honestly expected Issei to quickly step in between the two.

"I don't know why, but for some reason I think they are getting along just fine." Issei smiled.

Then, before anything else could have come down between Koneko and Ravel, a first-year female student came pass and accidentally dropped a pile of papers to the floor. Looking at the first-year in distraught, Issei was about to help when Ravel had already beaten him to it.

"Are you okay? You are from my class, aren't you?" Ravel said as she helped the student picking up the sheets. Koneko also joined to help cleaning up the mess.

"Y-Yes… I'm Murota from your class, Phenex-san." The first year introduced herself as she kept picking up her mess.

"Please, call me Ravel." The blonde girl smiled at her classmate.

"T-then, Ravel-san." The girl, Murota, smiled sheepishly and they finally finished picking up all the papers. "Thank you very much for the help, Ravel-san, Koneko-chan! I'll see you later in class!" she then went to the opposite direction.

Ravel waved at the leaving first-year with smile on her face, with Koneko only nodded with small smile of her own. The two then looked at each other for a second before they quickly turned away with a huff.

Rias, Issei and Gasper smiled in relief, with Issei winked at Rias. "…They'll be fine." Rias only giggled in amusement; Issei ignored the fact that Rias was not facing him at all.

As Rias and Issei left the first year's classrooms, the former was walking behind the latter. She could not help but stared sadly at Issei's back. He just… so kind and knew how to handle things, like Ravel's issues. However, lately, despite Rias' growing feelings towards Issei, so did the 'darkness' inside her. Every day, it kept taunting Rias with the same point whenever possible.

_After what you have pulled on his life, you do not deserve him._

oXo

It was after school when the members of Occult Research Club – with Ravel as the newest addition – began preparing for the annual school festival. As everyone had agreed upon, Occult Research Club would create 'Occult Mansion' as their attraction. With the whole old school building as the site, Occult Mansion would present various entertainments; such as haunted house, fortune-telling room, café, and report revelation on occult research.

Each room was cleaned and tidied for different uses, resources were utilised to the fullest, and works were divided efficiently. While the devils could just use their mystic arts to make their job easier, Rias was adamant to finish the job through conventional means – by hand; stating that there was a satisfaction of finishing jobs through pure effort.

The girls were in charge of making costumes and decorating the rooms for their planned attractions and entertainment, while the boys were in charge of heavy lifting and 'harder' jobs. The teachers – Azazel and Rossweisse on the other hand, were attending the teachers meeting to deal with other administrations.

Truthfully, even the girls could have handled the boy's jobs just fine to increase efficiency, but considering that they were working in human environment, they decided to work according to human's norm and common sense.

While Issei and Yuuto were doing the woodwork, they talked about Rating Games, particularly about the Top 10 rankers in the game. Issei learned from Yuuto that entering the rank 20 and above were veterans, top 10 would be considered as heroes, while top 5 was said to be immovable, with the top 3 to be on par with the Four Great Satans themselves; especially the one standing at the top, the 'Emperor' Diehauser Belial.

On that note, apparently, the 2nd and 3rd rankers were from Extra Demon clans – Roygun of Belphegor clan clan and Bedeze of Abaddon clan. They did not want to involve themselves in the government of 72 Pillars, but they joined Rating Game in order to gain status, fortune, power, etc.

Of course, the Satans were not allowed to participate in Rating Games in order to maintain power balance. The topic reminded Issei that Tannin, the former dragon king was also among the Top 10 Rating Game players.

"So that means… Considering buchou's dream, we will eventually face against Diehauser Belial…" Issei concluded, in which Yuuto nodded in agreement. The two of them were busy cutting the wooden planks with saw.

"But for now, let's focus on our upcoming match against Sairaorg Bael." Yuuto replied, as he began to put the planks together with hammer and nails.

"Mmhm." Issei hummed. "Say, how's the training going?" Issei said as he took an axe to chop another wood block.

"Well…." Yuuto said pondering, his hands were skilful as he just finished another woodwork and ready for the next one. "Ah, can you pass me more nails?"

"Ah, sure, sure." Issei quickly handed the Knight another set of nails.

Yuuto thanked him, and he began to work again. "Well, I'm working on a new technique lately, and by the way, Xenovia is also training to get better control of her Ex-Durandal. And…" Yuuto then glanced to Issei, after making sure that one nail had been thoroughly jammed through the plank. "What about you?"

"Still focusing on tapping into my deeper consciousness…" Issei replied as he was preparing to arrange another set of planks. He got the nails, but he could not find an additional hammer. "Err, Kiba. Do we have another hammer?"

"Ah, it used to be me alone doing the work last year, so there's only one hammer." Yuuto replied while he also helped to search in case there was actually an extra tool. "We can ask the Student Council for more tools or borrowing from another club, you know?"

Issei pondered for a bit, then he looked around, making sure that nobody would walk on them before he shrugged. "…Meh." Utilising his touki on his hand, he then literally pounded the nails into the wood with his palm; and he was not even using a promotion to become a Rook.

Yuuto blinked at the display, and he quickly looked around to see if there was any pass-byer. It would be weird to see someone hammering down nails bare handed. "Err… Ise-kun. I think you really should just borrow some tools or something."

"Eh… But we're almost done here… Come on, it's fine as long as nobody notice, right?" Issei argued.

Yuuto only stared at the pawn for few seconds before he made sure there was nobody around. "…Make it quick. We need to finish it in five minutes."

"Got it." Issei nodded in understanding. "So yeah, back to my training." he continued with his work in faster pace. "Attempting communication with my predecessors were a lot harder than I thought."

"Hm… I see." Yuuto nodded. Truthfully, the Knight got a vague idea of what Issei was trying to pull, but he decided to focus on his own growth first. "…Say, have you considered asking your father for help?"

Issei paused for a second, before he continued with his work. "…No need."

Yuuto had to rise up an eyebrow on that respond. "…Are you sure? I mean, really, _really_ sure?"

Issei paused again, this time longer as he glanced left and right before he returned to his work. However this time, there was a faint red tinge on his cheeks. "…I'll think about it. Not that I expect him to help out, though. After all, last time I heard he's Sairaorg-san's teacher."

Yuuto snorted at Issei's respond, causing the latter to look at him. "…What?" the Pawn asked with a pout.

"No, nothing." Yuuto replied as he reigned down his amused laughter into small, amused giggles.

Issei narrowed his eyes at the Knight for few seconds before he let out a small huff and resumed his work. "Anyway, do we have anything about our opponents?"

"So far, we only have what we got from the video recording we saw about Sairaorg Bael against Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas." Yuuto replied.

"I see…" Issei muttered as he slammed another nail down with his palm.

"What's up kids?" a new voice called out, causing Issei and Yuuto to turn and see Azazel was approaching them.

"Azazel-sensei." Issei greeted, with Yuuto giving a nod. "So the staff meeting have finished?"

"Nah, still over half-way. I just skipped by feigning sickness and leave Rossweisse to deal with the rest." Azazel shrugged with his usual goofy smile.

"…You are evil." Issei said he gave a dirty look, while Yuuto only sighed exasperatedly. Azazel on the other hand, simply laughed it off.

"Anyway, Ddraig." Azazel ceased his laughing and focused on Issei's left hand. "How's your host's training so far?"

**[Not great. No much progress so far. That's all I can say to you.]**

Ddraig replied with short, concise words.

"Hmm… That's bad, alright." Azazel rubbed his chin in thought. "Though, Ise. You do know what you are dealing here, don't you?"

"…Yeah." Issei said as he looked down, his fist clenched tight. "There's also the fact that I'm going to face Sairaorg-san…"

"True, true." Azazel nodded. "And even with your Balance Breaker, Sairaorg still outclasses you in terms of skill and technique. There is also the factor that Saitama did train him in the past."

Then, as the men carried on their discussion, another voice called out. "Oh, Ise. So you are still working."

"Buchou." Both Issei and Yuuto greeted, with the former just slammed another nail down.

Rias blinked. "…Ise, did you just use your bare-hand as a make-shift hammer, in a neutral ground?" she furrowed her eyebrows slightly as she asked.

"Err… Yeah?" Issei sweat-dropped at Rias tone, showing that his palm was not even scratched. "Rather, what's wrong? We ended up wasting time by talking instead of working. Sorry."

Rias then sighed while shaking her head. "Never mind. It's just that I have something to take care of in the underworld, so I want to let you know that I'm leaving the work to you for a bit."

* * *

"It has been a while, aunt Misla."

Rias was sitting in front of a woman lying on the bed before her. The woman was Misla Bael, formerly Misla Vapula, mother of Sairaorg Bael. She had been married into Bael clan, and gave birth to a son that failed to inherit Bael clan's prized Power of Destruction. Since Bael clan was known for their pride over their bloodline and traditions, the whole clan scorned Misla and her son as 'failures', and banished them to live at the countryside.

As if to make matters worse, few years after her banishment, Misla was caught with an illness and had fallen into coma ever since.

Misla was the very reason why Sairaorg had been training and strengthening himself so hard into the person he was now. After gaining enough power and defeated his half-brother in one-on-one, Sairaorg had gained the right to be the next head of Bael clan. Alas, even with that title, Misla's life would be still in constant danger from Bael clansmen who were still holding grudge towards Sairaorg and his mother. Thus, Misla was sent to be treated at the hospital at Sitri territory, where she could recover safely.

Some people who actually cared for her, such as people from Vapula and Gremory clan, would visit her every now and then, just like what Rias was doing at the moment.

While Rias was talking with her aunt, she heard the door to her room was opened and she turned to see Sairaorg and Saitama walking in.

"Rias." Sairaorg said, half-expecting his cousin to come over. "Thanks for the visit as always." He gave a small smile at her.

"Sairaorg, Saitama-san too." Rias stood up to greet both men. "What is Saitama doing here?" she honestly did not expect for the bald man to be in the underworld.

"I… have been visiting her along with Sairaorg here from time to time." Saitama replied, pointing at his so-called 'disciple'.

"I see… That's very kind of you. Thank you, Saitama-san." Rias smiled pleasantly at the man. Perhaps she should bring Issei along during her next visit.

Few minutes later, the three left the room, then Rias and Saitama were sitting in the hallway, while Sairaorg had a meeting with the doctor to discuss his mother's recovery status.

The two fell into somewhat awkward silence, with Rias calmly closed her eyes to wait the time went by, while Saitama absent-mindedly looked at his surroundings.

Truthfully, Rias was feeling anxious when she met Saitama. Her anxiety came from Cao Cao's words at the end of the fiasco in Kyoto, and his last words before leaving had been heard by Akeno, Kunou, Asia and Saitama.

Kunou probably had no idea what Cao Cao was saying, and most likely could not care less, which Rias did not need to about.

Akeno and Asia…. Well, simply put, the latter actually asked her about it, and Rias simply kind-of lied and told her not to worry about it. The former, however, while she did not say anything, she gave Rias a look that silently told her to settle things before they getting out of hand.

And Rias was worried about Saitama's reaction the most. The man might be had not full control about Issei's life, but in the end he was still Issei's father. Should Saitama deemed that Rias was not fit to live by Issei's side in the worst case scenario, Saitama's relationship with her brother, the demon king would be enough to convince her family to find another suitor, which she wanted to avoid at all cost. More over, while their relationship was still considered awkward at best, Issei and Saitama had grown closer in steady pace as the time went by. Issei would not follow Saitama's every word, but Issei had come to respect him enough to at least consider some of his father's advice.

Back to the hospital hallway, the silence between Rias and Saitama was broken by the latter. "How are things between you and Ise?"

Rias almost jumped at Saitama asking her out of the blue. Quickly gathering herself, she cleared her throat a bit before replying. "Everything is going well with him. Ise is a wonderful person as usual." Rias said, smiling; she felt her heart calmed and fluttered at the simple thought of her fiancé alone.

"Hm, good, good." Saitama nodded. Rias glanced at the man, but she found his face to be…. Somewhat looked different than his usual expression; and that bothered her to no end.

"Say, Rias…" Saitama's eyes then turned to her, which Rias found to be… sharper. "…Is it true?"

Rias froze at that. She pursed her lips ever so slightly from being seen, and she tried her best to suppress the sound of her swallowing a small lump. Deep down, she knew what Saitama was referring, and the 'it' in his question had been causing her distress.

However, she could not help but to ask back. "…What are you talking about?"

Saitama and Rias only stared at each other in silence for a minute, but it felt longer for the latter. However, Saitama simply sighed as he broke the eye contact. "…Never mind. It's not really my business." Then he glanced at Rias again. "But I'll say this; that kid really loves you, y'know."

Rias bit her lower lip, as if she understood the hidden message in Saitama's words. Then, before the situation could have become tenser (and probably awkward), intervention came in the form of another visitor in the hospital.

"Rias? Saitama-san?"

"Mother!" Both Rias and Saitama turned to see Venelana Gremory was greeting them. The former two quickly stood up to greet the brunette. "How are you?"

"I'm well, Rias. Thank you." Venelana replied with demure smile as she gave her daughter a quick hug. "So both of you are here to visit Misla? Where's Issei-san?"

"No, I originally came here alone." Rias waved his hand. "Saitama came here with Sairaorg, he's speaking with the doctor now."

As if on cue, Sairaorg also came out from the doctor's office. "Oh, Lady Venelana."

"Sairaorg." Venelana said as she also gave her nephew a quick hug as well. "Haven't I told you to drop the formalities when you are addressing your own family, especially outside of Bael territory?"

"I'm sorry… Aunt Venelana." Sairaorg smiled sheepishly, although there was a hint of appreciation on his expression.

"So you are here to visit auntie as well?" Rias asked her mother.

"I heard you're coming here, so might as well for me to visit too." Venelana replied.

"Once again, thank you. All of you, I'm truly grateful for the assistance from both Sitri and Gremory family." Sairaorg said once again. "And thanks, sensei. For coming over today." He said to his 'teacher'.

"It's fine, that's all we can do at least." Rias offered her smile along with her mother.

Saitama also gave a small smile. "I do know your mom, after all."

Sairaorg then turned to his cousin, as his expression became more serious. "However, don't expect me to go easy on you during our upcoming Rating Game, Rias. I also expect you to go at me with full force."

Rias also returned Sairaorg's gesture with one of her own. "I… No, I and my peerage will not lose to you."

Venelana only smiled proudly at the exchange between the youngsters, and she glanced at Saitama, offering a knowing smile. Saitama on the other hand only sighed softly at the kid's interaction.

The visit went by without a hitch until Venelana turned to her daughter. "Oh, before I forgot. Rias, can I talk to you for a bit?"

Rias blinked at her mother's sudden request, but complied nonetheless. While the mother and daughter pair moved to find some private spot, Sairaorg resumed his conversation with Saitama.

"Saitama-sensei… Is it alright for you to check up on me like this? I thought you would watch over your son's training?" the young devil inquired.

"Nah, it's fine." Saitama waved off. "I still have enough time to watch him later. And speaking of Ise…" he then stared right at Sairaorg's eyes. "When the time comes where you're facing my kid, don't hold back and just give him hell."

"No mercy, I see… Very well, I understand." Sairaorg only chuckled at his teacher's words. "Then, sensei. Do you mind to relay my message to Hyoudou Issei?"

* * *

Rias was told to go home first while Venelana would like to spend a bit more time with Misla, and the girl was currently sitting inside her family limousine with solemn expression, as she recalled her conversation with her mother from earlier.

"_So there's yet a progress between you and Issei-san?" _

_Venelana asked with somewhat disappointed face. _

"_It's fine if you want to take it slow, but don't forget that there is only a matter of time until another clan beside Phenex that wants your hand in marriage. Your engagement with Issei-san is yet to be official to the rest of the public, so you need to set up some 'grounds' about your relationship with Issei to make other clans thinking twice before sending us any marriage proposals."_

_Rias understood well her mother, as well as her family's concern about her life, but it was not that simple for her. Not to mention her mother's last question._

"…_Is everything okay, daughter?"_

It was highly likely that Venelana knew something was weighing her daughter's mind, but the former decided not to push the subject… temporarily.

Another thing was what Saitama just asked her. Now, Rias was convinced that Saitama began to have the picture of what happened during Issei's recruitment into Rias' peerage. After all, prior to the Kuoh Treaty, Saitama had actually made somewhat correct speculation about the subject.

"_It's like, you deliberately let him summoned you if he ever found himself in peril, so he would owe you a huge favour, and you can gain his loyalty…"_

Rias felt her chest twisted as she put her hands on it. She was reminded of her sins; for dragging Issei into her own agenda with such methods.

"What am I supposed to do….?" Rias muttered. Her mind was filled with the thought of the person she loved the most. "Ise…"

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**That's all for the opening act, folks! This chapter ends up shorter than I originally intended, sorry for that.**

**For this arc, I'm focusing on the development between Issei and Rias here, but fear not; as I also will figure something out for the Rating Game Gremory vs Bael. Did I do justice on the drama here?**

**As you have seen, since Oppai Dragon doesn't exist in the story, I have made few changes here and there, including Rias' visit to Misla Bael, because Pailingual doesn't exist in this story either. There were not much of a twist, but what do you guys think?**

**Overall, please review of what do you think of this update. No flames, but constructive criticisms are appreciated. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	44. Heart (II)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, folks! Here is the next chapter of my story!**

**For guest Bogoljub igoja and other guests who reviewed about Saitama should have been a person with unlimited power, etc., etc…. I'd say that you people are reading things too far. While I do agree to your opinions about Saitama's not having limits, the point in the end is that Saitama is a joke character with unlimited strength and power without weakness whatsoever. The limits imposed by his own common sense, is what makes One-Punch Man such a good read in the first place. This is my story, so it's up to me how I want to depict Saitama in my own plans; as long as Saitama is undefeated when it counts, there should be no problem, yes?**

**Making Saitama too OP in too much aspect might end up making this story too bland for my won taste. **

**Oh, for those who hope for the solution for Issei x Rias issue, I'll say this once again; their issues will be settled in this arc. In what manner, it's up for me to decide.**

**Without further ado, enjoy! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 41: Heart (II) – Dilemma**

Issei was currently standing inside his mindscape, facing his 8 mutated Evil Pieces that looked like huge pillars, together with Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard. If they were looking at the condition of the evil pieces, they would say that it was not a pretty sight. The evil pieces looked like pillars that had been through numerous storms and abuse, with corrosion and cracks appearing on the structures, even some parts of the said structure had begun to crumble bit by bit.

"**So…"** Elsha began. **"You're saying that not only we should prevent the power beyond the gate to burst out of control, we also need to reinforce your Evil Piece?"**

"…Yeah, that's basically it." Issei nodded.

**[That's a sound plan.]**

Ddraig voiced his input.

**[Though, we have screwed up by giving this issue a wrong approach. And now, it's going to take a lot of Boost to reinforce the Evil Pieces in this state]**

"**But this will be an improvement."** Belzard quipped. **"If we can reinforce the Evil Piece enough to withstand the power and react less violently, it might serve as pain suppressant at the very least."**

"Alright, let's get it on, shall we?" Issei said as he equipped his Scale Mail. However, he blinked when he saw Elsha and Belzard also equipped themselves in the same dragon armour. "Elsha-san… Belzard-san… Are those Scale Mails on your person?"

"**Of course they are."** Belzard said with as-the-matter-of-fact tone. **"We might be dead, but we are still Red Dragon Emperors here."**

"…Right. Let's carry on." Issei went along and they walked towards the Evil Pieces.

They then began to boost as much power as they could muster, and few minutes later, they put their hands on one Evil Piece each.

**[Transfer]**

Green glow enveloped some of the Evil Piece, and the three Red Dragon Emperors proceeded to do the same with the rest of the pieces. Soon all of the Evil Pieces were glowing from power transfer.

"…Okay, I guess everything has been set." Issei then turned to the Welsh Dragon. "Ddraig, if you would?"

The dragon hummed in affirmative and moved towards the gate.

**[Ready?]**

Everyone nodded at the dragon's mark as they prepared themselves.

**[Alright, opening the gate in 3…. 2… 1…]**

oXo

Asia, Akeno, Koneko and Saitama were circling around Issei, who was sitting in lotus position. It was during training session in the basement of Hyoudou Residence in preparation for the Rating Game against Sairaorg Bael.

Yuuto and Xenovia were practicing their swordsmanship and techniques with Irina helping them, while Rias had to leave as soon as she had finished her training regimen to attend her other duties as King and heiress. Issei on the other hand, was doing his own agenda of tapping into his inner power with the help of others.

Asia and Akeno were proficient in reading magical signature, with the former's healing ability ready to use in case something went awry. Koneko was also on stand-by in case Senjutsu was required, while Saitama decided to help out should… things went out of hand.

It was only after good several minutes when Issei suddenly broke down into a coughing fit, his breathing sounded more like wheezing, as his body was shaking and convulsing with his veins shown on his skin.

"Ise-san/Ise-kun/Ise-senpai!" the girls quickly went to tend Issei.

It could be said that Saitama was the calmest compared with other girls, but the man himself also kneeled down to inspect his son's condition. "….How did it go?" he simply asked.

After series of deep breath, Issei finally calmed down and he fixed his sitting position. "I'm… probably getting something." Issei said as he clenched and unclenched his hand.

_**[It's working, but far from good enough]**_

"_**In the end, you still need to communicate with the rest of your predecessors and convince them to lend you their power."**_ Elsha quipped following Ddraig's conclusion.

Issei drew another breath, taking in Elsha's advice. He then noticed that Asia, Akeno and Koneko were still looking at him worriedly. Even Yuuto, Xenovia and Irina had come over to check when they heard the commotion.

"It's alright, guys." Issei smiled. "I'm fine now." He then stood up to emphasize his point. He stretched his limbs and neck a bit to test his body, before he turned to Yuuto and Xenovia. "Say, what do you guys say if we have a round or two?" Issei said with a smile on his face.

Everyone blinked at Issei's words. It was obvious that they were worried for the boy after what just happened, but now Issei was trying to prove that he would be just fine by having spars with Yuuto and Xenovia. The two knights stared at Issei, as if searching something in his eyes.

"Why not?" everyone turned when they heard Saitama's voice. "The kid's gonna be fine. So why don't you two indulge him and give him some good beatings?" Saitama then glanced at Yuuto and Xenovia, who were staring at him wide-eyed. "…If you can, that is."

Everyone blinked again. Did Saitama just taunt Yuuto and Xenovia? Not unheard of, but it still sounded weird.

Finally, Yuuto and Xenovia let out a smirk as they accepted the challenge. "If you insist, then." Yuuto stared at Issei. "…But I won't go easy on you, neither will Xenovia." The said female knight brandished her Ex-Durandal to show her point.

Issei's smile widened, but before things could have proceeded, the door was opened revealing Rias. "Alright, that's all for today's training, everyone."

The rest quickly obeyed and began to leave the training hall. Issei, Yuuto and Xenovia, however, were not sure if they wanted to leave. After all, the three were just eager enough to test each other out. "Hm? What's wrong, you three?" their master asked with raised eyebrows.

"Um, well…" Xenovia replied first. "Is it okay if us three just have a round of spar?"

Rias blinked at her Knight's request, then she checked the clock. After pondering few seconds later, she shook her head. "Sorry, Xenovia. But we have a big day tomorrow. It's good that you want to grow stronger, but I need all of you to be on your tip-top condition since we are having a press conference tomorrow. I'm not going to take any chances of you all straining yourselves too much."

"Wait, what?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows. "Press conference?"

"Why, yes." Rias replied simply. "We will be interviewed along with Sairaorg's group, and the conference will be broadcasted on television. Of course I want all of us to be presentable."

Issei blinked owlishly at the news, he and the two knights then glanced at each other again for few seconds. Then, it was Yuuto who relented first. "…I guess orders are orders." He said with a small sigh.

Issei and Xenovia only gave him a look, and the latter only shrugged. "No offence, Ise-kun. I hate to admit, but I don't have your resilience. And if my King wants me to be at my best condition tomorrow, and I shall comply."

Issei and Xenovia glanced at each other this time. Few seconds later, the latter sighed. "Well…. I guess Kiba has a point." Issei raised an eyebrow, expecting some explanation behind the reasoning. "No offence, Ise. Even with your limits and all, you're still pretty much a beast compared with the rest of us."

Issei gave a dry look, unsure if he was flattered or insulted. But in the end, Issei sighed in resignation. "Fine… So, another time?"

Yuuto and Xenovia smiled pleasantly at the words. "Yeah, next time for sure." The former said with resolute eyes.

Everyone then left the room and turned in for the night.

* * *

Next day, after school activities, Rias and her peerage went to the restaurant located at Gremory territory. In the waiting room, Issei was sitting in the sofa, wondering what kind of interview he would deal with.

He would be lying if he said that he was not nervous, but he was doing his best to keep his composure as he took a deep breath and let his body sink into the sofa. He scanned around the room, on his comrades to be precise; all of them had varying reactions on the upcoming interview. There were those who were maintaining calm composure – Rias, Akeno, Yuuto, Xenovia and Koneko, who was sitting on his lap while eating snacks; and there were those who were not – Asia and Rossweiss who were busy checking their appearance over and over in front of a mirror, and Gasper who was being his usual shy self. But composure aside, everyone was all dressed up nicely and more than presentable enough to do the interview.

Issei then felt Koneko shifting on his lap. On a second thought, Issei noticed that Koneko's snack was…. More proportional than usual; he also noticed that the girl's movement while eating was different, probably kind of frigid, than how she usually did in the clubroom. Not to mention, during the trip from the human world, she had been clinging on him by holding the sleeve of his shirt.

"Are you okay, Koneko-chan?" Issei asked as he craned his head a bit to see Koneko's face.

The tiny Rook's face reddened, as she shifted her sitting position again to make herself comfortable. It appeared that she was just as nervous as some others, and she had been doing her best to keep her composure. That explained the amount of snacks she was eating. "…Today the grilled-chicken princess isn't around, so I can have Ise-senpai's lap for myself."

"My, my, ufufufu…" Akeno overheard the conversation and started to giggle. "Koneko-chan is afraid that Ravel will steal Ise-kun from her." Her comments seemed to get some amused reactions from the others as well.

Issei on the other hand, felt his face getting warmer as well at Koneko's flustered attitude; the girl was so cute that it was kind of unfair. "Come here, you cute litte…" With sheepish smile, Issei wrapped his arms around Koneko's torso and pulled her closer, eliciting a small yelp from her.

"Nya-!?" Koneko's face was blushing even deeper at the proximity, her nekomata features sprung up out of instinct, and before she could have said anything else, Issei moved one of his hands to softly caress the top of her head.

"There, there…" Issei's administration on the right spots caused Koneko to purr in bliss. Issei had to admit that hugging Koneko like what he was doing at the moment, affected him better than he expected.

Many girls were looking with slight jealousy at the sight of Issei and Koneko together, albeit the jealousy was also mixed with an odd sense of warmth at the sight of Koneko's cute attitude.

While watching the moment, Akeno noticed Rias' expression from the corner of her eyes. The heiress was smiling pleasantly, but there was something else in her teal-coloured eyes as she watched Issei. It was not just sadness and jealousy; there was something else that had been bugging her as of late.

"…Rias?" Rias blinked at turned to her Queen. The said Queen was looking at her with concern. "Everything alright?"

"Y-yeah, everything's fine. I guess I'm a bit nervous myself." Rias replied with few (forced) giggles. "Thank you, Akeno."

Akeno furrowed her eyebrows, obviously not buying it. After all she had been Rias' best friend for as long as she could remember, and she was one of handful people who understood Rias the most. Thus, she knew well that Rias was not just nervous.

However, before she could have pushed her question any further, the door of the waiting room was opened, revealing a staff of the establishment. "Everyone, it's almost time."

"Ah, yes." Rias then quickly walked over the door, effectively avoiding Akeno's bullet, much to the latter's chagrin. She then turned to address her peerage. "Is everyone ready? We're moving out."

oXo

"Ah, Rias-senpai, Hyoudou and the Occult Research Club."

On the way to the interview venue, Gremory group encountered a familiar face. "Saji? What are you doing here?" Issei asked the Pawn of Sitri.

"Obviously, because we are still contestants of Rating Game. Although, the match between losing teams didn't get much attention." Saji shrugged.

"I see, the match with Agares, isn't it? So Sona's group is having interview as well?" Rias surmised, receiving a nod from Saji in return.

"Yes. Our match will be held at the stadium on the floating island in Agares territory." Saji then scratched his cheek sheepishly. "But as I said, people are more interested with the fight between Rias Gremory's group who housed the famous Red Dragon Emperor, against Sairaorg Bael's group who happened to be the strongest of the current generation."

Then, another voice was heard. "Gen-chan! We need to get going or we'll be late." It was Hanakai Momo, Sona Sitri's Bishop.

Issei blinked at how the Bishop was addressing Saji, whom turned to reply the said Bishop. "Got it!" Saji then gave one more bow to the Gremory group. "Excuse us, we'll be off, then."

"Yes, until next time. Please send my regards to Sona." Rias said back, and Saji left with Momo after giving her one last nod.

The group then continued to trek towards the venue, which happened to be another hall upon arrival. The said hall was also filled with many people waiting for them – the reporters and journalists showed their eagerness as they applauded the group's arrival. There were also flashes of cameras taking their pictures.

Amongst the camera's flashes, Issei could make out that the event was not just a mere interview. Writings of 'Gremory vs Bael' was held up high above the audiences, camera recorders were ready, journalists and reporters had prepared their notes and recording equipment to learn every single details.

Issei also noted that beside the table where Gremory group would be stationed, Sairaorg and his peerage had been seated as well.

This was not the match, but the intensity inside the hall was barely bearable.

The group then took their seats, with Rias, Akeno and Issei being in the middle to gain attention, since Rias was the King, Akeno was the right-hand of the said King, and Issei was gaining popularity due to his status as the Red Dragon Emperor.

The host of the conference then scanned the guests for a second and he nodded in confirmation. "Now that everyone is present, let's begin the press conference."

Time passed by, and the conference went quite smoothly thus far. Information and outlines were given, questions were asked, and answers were provided. Both Sairaorg and Rias were doing an excellent job in representing their respective groups as King – calm, dignified, and confident.

Sairaorg's peerage did well in addressing each question. However, there was one individual that caught the attention of everyone in the hall; it was a large figure covered in hooded cloak. The size was enough to be considered humanoid, but the bulky figure made it hard to discern the person's posture. The only thing they knew was that the individual was Sairaorg's one and only Pawn.

When the audience asked about the Pawn's identity, Sairaorg made it clear that he had the right to keep his Pawn's identity secret until the right moment; and further question would be regarded as an offence and harassment against the Great King. Sairaorg's statement and pressure were enough to make the audience left the topic for another time.

The servants of the Gremory group also fared well enough to take the questions. After all, the group possessed many attractive-looking rookie devils who had been recently reincarnated. Issei was doing his best to keep his composure, but he could not help but to dread the moment the question was directed to him.

"I will ask Hyoudou Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor, whose name is raising popularity as of late."

Ah, speak of the devil.

"There are rumours that you are courting your King, Rias Gremory, into marriage. Is that true?"

The question caused Issei and Rias to blink. The former openly flustered on the question, while the latter was able to keep her calm expression, albeit there was a pink tinge on her cheeks.

"Err…." Issei glanced to Rias, who only looked back wordlessly.

Rias meanwhile, was not sure either of what to say. _"How did the words leak out?"_

On one hand, revealing their engagement status might be a good way to show the other nobles to re-think of asking Rias' hand in marriage. On the other hand, those said nobles would not go silent if they found out a pure-blood devil, a heiress to add, was going to marry a low-class, reincarnated devil. Issei's status as the Red Dragon Emperor and the possessor of the Boosted Gear could only do so much to help the situation.

Issei and Rias only glanced at each other for a moment, until Issei finally decided what to do. He took a deep breath, and he steeled himself in front of every audience in the hall. "…No comment."

_Smooth, Ise. Very smooth._

The audience then decided to press the question further, hoping to get any form of juicy information for their stories. Apparently, the 'no comment' answer was more than enough for the journalists to make several conclusions.

Everyone only turned to stare at Issei, who was blushing crazy at the sheer lameness of his answer. Rias could not really blame him, but she could not help but giving her fiancé a bit of stink eye. The rest of the peerage was doing their best to comfort the Pawn.

Thus the conference went on…

oXo

"Don't be too hard on him, Rias. I think that's not a bad answer."

After the conference, both Gremory and Bael group were resting in another room. Issei was still a bit down, and his friends were cheering him up. Currently, Sairaorg was placating Rias, who was still a bit miffed at what happened.

"I know, I know." Rias sighed at her cousin's reasoning. "But that 'no comment' reply was enough for people to start rumours. Who knows what kind of can of worms we just opened, once other noble families find out about this."

"I'm so sorry about this…." Issei said with a heavy sigh, while his head remained down.

"I told you not to worry about it." Sairaorg waved off. "In fact, I believe we should just focus on our upcoming match. Leave those people be, as long as you lot perform well in the Rating Game, they would not dare to raise any question about your decisions."

After all, devils do respect power and those with it.

"I'll take my leave. Tonight has been fun." Sairaorg then prepared to go. "The next time will meet will be on the match. I'll see you on Agreas." Sairaorg then turned to his peerage. "Let's go, everyone!"

"OUGH!" Sairaorg's peerage replied with fully-spirited cry, following their master.

The Gremory group watched their soon-to-be opponents went their way, all of them were determined to give their all, for the better or worse.

* * *

"…Huff~" Issei let out a breath as he relaxed inside the bath of his house, immersing his body inside the hot water.

However, his thoughts drifted back to the conference, particularly when he was answering the audience's question about his relationship with Rias. He answered 'no comment', but those 2 words alone were enough to start rumours, and who knew what kind of headlines Issei would read from the Underworld newspaper in the following day. Things could go scandalous at this point.

On another note, there were two baths in Hyoudou Residence. One which Issei was currently using, the large-size bath in the basement; and a regular-size bath on the first floor. The large bath was for Issei and the girls to use, while the regular-size bath was for Issei's parents' use.

Despite the fact, however, Saitama would occasionally use the large bath whenever he felt like it, causing some 'moments' much to the girls' embarrassment when they ended up running into the naked Saitama in the bathroom. Issei recalled that only Xenovia and Koneko who did not mind sharing bathroom with Saitama.

In the end, it took Haruka's 'convincing' to make Saitama complying to use the bathroom on the first floor. On that note, Haruka also volunteered to only use the first-floor bathroom to _accompany_ Saitama, and Issei felt that he must never set his foot inside the first floor bathroom from there on out, especially if Saitama and Haruka were using the said bathroom. Considering how Haruka spent her time with her husband, who knew what happened in that bathroom whenever those two married couple were using it.

Having enough of hot water, Issei decided to go to sauna next (yes, the bathroom also had sauna installed). After making sure that he had set enough steam, Issei then sat on the stool and let his skin to sweat for good few minutes.

While enjoying the hot atmosphere, Issei then noticed that the door to the sauna had been opened, revealing Rias Gremory in her naked glory. With her creamy skin started to glisten in bath water and sweat, Issei was glad that he had his towel around his nether region, it would be awkward if his little guy suddenly popped up for Rias to see.

"Oh, Ise." Rias greeted.

"Uh… Hi." Issei awkwardly replied while doing his best to reign over his instinct.

Rias then helped herself to sit next to her fiancé, crossing her legs. She could feel Issei would steal glances at her body, and if it were any other man, she would take slight offence to that, but Issei's flustered expression while he silently fought between his conscience and desire was just so cute sometimes.

"You know…" Rias then spoke up. "I… actually heard about what you did with Xenovia in Kyoto."

Issei inwardly flinched. And while the sauna had been hot enough, Issei began to sweat more than he's supposed to. At his expression, Rias only giggled.

"Geez, you don't need to react like that, you know. I'm not mad." Rias gave a sly grin. "Seriously what am I going to do with you? First was Asia, then Xenovia. I wonder who you will lay your hands on next? Akeno? Irina-san? Or perhaps…" she then leaned closer to him. "…Me?" she whispered next to his ear. "There's only two of us here, you know."

Issei swallowed a lump at the gesture. Would they continue where they left off _that night_? Issei felt his heart-beat began to quicken, and he felt that his little guy was tugging against the towel over his crotch.

He needed to keep his composure; he needed a distraction. And the said distraction, ironically enough, was from the same girl that was slowly thinning his rationality bit by bit.

"…Were you taking shower faster than usual? And did you use new soap and shampoo?" Issei sniffed the air that was mixed with steam and sweaty smell.

"…You can tell?" Rias blinked and pulled back, a bit surprised at Issei's words.

"It's just…" Issei tried to describe. "Your scent is usually kind of thick… You know, like you spend some time in the shower, and now, your scent is… kind of not as thick as usual, meaning that you just took a quick shower. And of course I know what soap and shampoo you usually use." Issei smiled sheepishly.

This time, it was Rias' turn to feel her heart skipping a beat. Issei had been paying attention at her all the time, and it made her _so_ happy. So happy that she felt another pang on her conscience. However, she had been set on what she planned to do here, in this very sauna, with Issei.

Without another word, she lifted her hand to grasp on the side of Issei's head, and when his face was right in front of her, Rias lunged forward, capturing his lips with hers. Issei widened his eyes at the sudden contact, but soon enough, he closed his eyes as he placed his hand on Rias' hand that was holding his face, and he kissed back.

Their lips moved in tandem, and it was Rias who took the first move to prod Issei's lips with her tongue, requesting access. Their lips were completely meshed with each other as they explored each other's mouth with their tongues; their conjoined mouths would part every now and then so they could take quick breaths. Before Issei could have brought his free hand to grab a hold of Rias' body, the girl had already moved from her spot to straddle him.

Their make-out session heated up as Issei's arms were wrapping around Rias' hour-glass figure, they kept kissing and tasting each other with their torso pressing against one another. When Rias was straddling him, their nether regions were separated by only one piece of cloth. Rias moaned into the kiss when Issei's erection pressed against her private through the towel. Few seconds later, as they maintained their conjoined mouths, Rias began to move her hips and rub her nether region against Issei's bulge.

Issei also groaned at Rias' administration. Who knew that Rias could be this aggressive? Last time it was him who took the first move. He remembered well her taste, feels, and other things that he could never had enough of. Issei then moved his hand, from Rias' waist, until her hips, and he squeezed her buttocks, eliciting a louder moan from her.

At the same time, Rias also pried herself off from Issei's mouth, and proceeded to give him licks and love-bites; starting from his jawline, down to his neck, collar-bone, and chest, while she kept rubbing herself against Issei's erection. Issei groaned as his sanity was wearing thinner and thinner under Rias' ministrations, their breaths became heavier as the heat in sauna was playing tricks on their minds.

In the midst of pleasure, Issei managed to note that Rias was indeed being aggressive at the moment.

Things went up a notch as Rias pushed Issei down, making the boy laying with his back on the bench, as she returned to furiously kiss him senseless, while keep rubbing herself against him.

"_Seriously, what's gotten into her?"_ Not that Issei dislike it, but Rias was very assertive than he originally thought. He would have asked what was wrong if Rias was not driving him crazy right now.

However, that was the time that Issei noticed; Rias' body was trembling, and she was panting hard after she pulled out from him, her naked body was towering over him. Not to mention, Issei then felt that something wet dropped on his face; and that was when he finally got a hold of what was going on.

Rias was crying.

Issei blinked at the sight of tears streaming down on Rias' face. It was normal for the girl to tear up when they were doing the 'deed', but Rias' tears at that moment was that of anguish, pained.

"…Rias?" Issei asked, wondering if the girl was alright. "What's wrong?"

"…Eh?" Rias let out a shuddered breath, as she began to frantically wipe the tears off her face. "Wh-… I…" she then looked over her state as well as Issei's.

_How could you?_

"Ah…" Rias eyes widened as her previous nightmare returned with vengeance. She covered her face with her hands as she relieved the image of Issei's hateful face.

_You don't love me._

"_No… No…! It's not!"_ Rias' body trembled even more as she shook her head slowly.

"…Rias?" Issei was really worried at this point. She looked so distraught.

_Goodbye, Rias._

"I… I'm sorry." Rias then slipped off from Issei's prone form, and quickly moved towards the door. "…I'm so sorry." She said without looking back and left the sauna.

Issei woke up, staring at the door where Rias just left. "What the hell…?"

Yes, what the hell, indeed. Things were going great, and suddenly Rias was crying, trembling, and apologized before she just ran off.

_**[What are you doing, still sitting here!?]**_

Issei blinked and dumbly looking around as he was caught surprised by Ddraig's voice. "Huh? Wha- What!?"

_**[Go after her, you dolt!]**_

"Err…! R-right!" Issei shook his head as he proceeded to leave the sauna. The woman he loved was obviously hurting, what was he doing? He needed to know what was going on.

Securing his towel around his waist to cover his modesty, Issei quickly bolt out from the bathroom, just in time to see Rias' crimson hair disappearing at the staircase. "W-wait, Rias!"

Rias was running like never before towards her bedroom, without anything covering her modesty. _"WhathaveIdoneWhatamIdoing?!"_

However, Issei could still run faster than her in the end. When Rias arrived and was about to enter the room, Issei's hand shot out and grabbed hers, stopping her just at the door. "Rias, what's going on!?" Issei asked with urgency and worry in his tone.

Rias could not bring herself to face Issei at this point. Closing her eyes in despair, she only tugged to break her hand free.

"Please…" Issei blinked at Rias' plea. "Just… Just leave me alone…" when Issei leaned closer to get a look at Rias' face, he was frozen at how hurt she looked. Tears were still flowing freely from her eyes, and the girl also refused to look at him.

And few seconds later, Issei's hold on her loosened, allowing her to break free and lock herself in the room, leaving Issei standing in the hallway. A minute passed, and Issei was still standing like a statue in front of Rias' bedroom, listening to vague voices of Rias' sobs.

_**[…Partner?]**_

From inside his soul, Ddraig asked with worried tone.

_**[Partner? You okay?]**_

"Ise?"

Before Issei could have replied to the Welsh Dragon, Issei turned his head to see his mother was standing before him. "What happened? I heard commotion from downstairs and saw Rias running naked, followed by you."

"I… Err…" Issei tried to come up with an answer, but it was futile. "…I don't know." Issei only closed his eyes in resignation as he sighed with his head down.

Haruka only stared at her son with discerning eyes for few seconds, before she spoke up again. "Would you like to talk about it?"

Issei looked up to see his mother's gentle smile, and somehow he found himself blushing at his own mother.

_**[…Momma's boy?]**_

"_Shut the fuck up, Ddraig…"_ Issei inwardly twitched at Ddraig's snickering at him.

Seeing his son scratching his head awkwardly was enough answer for Haruka about what Issei needed. "We'll need some privacy; we'll talk in my room." Haruka then turned around and walked off. "…And put some clothes on before you come." She said while throwing Issei a teasing smirk.

Issei yelped a bit when he realized his own state of dress. Blushing even deeper, Issei quickly ran back to his room to get some clothes for himself.

oXo

"…Why is he here?" Issei raised an eyebrow as he sat at one corner of the king-sized bed, his parent's bed to be precise. His eyes were set on Saitama, who was also sitting on his own spot of the bed.

Currently, Issei, Haruka and Saitama were sitting together in triangle formation on the bed of the parent's room.

Issei then realized; he was sitting on the bed of his mother and father. He looked down, and his face got pale as his mind raced – what kind of deeds had his parents done on this very bed?

However, before Issei could have dreaded about anything more, Saitama's snapping fingers woke him up. "Hey. Focus, kid." Saitama chided. "Your mom is going out her way to hear your problems. Might as well to get your mind out of the gutter."

Issei blinked, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. Honestly, he just began to wonder why he complied to talk with his parents in his parent's bedroom nonetheless, while there were several other places that could be used. But what's done was done, and as Saitama said, Issei had to focus at his own issue. However…

"Does he have to be here too?" Issei pointed at his father again.

Saitama was a bit offended at the remark, but at the same time, he was not in mood to provide counselling, even for his own son. "Yeah. Do I have to be here too?" Saitama asked his wife.

"What are you two saying?" Haruka replied. "This is a perfect opportunity for family bonding!" she said ecstatically. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for this moment, Saitama? Ise is asking us advice about his love life! Isn't this exciting!?"

Saitama and Issei only stared at the woman for few seconds, before they glanced at each other. The son raising one eyebrow in question, while the father only shrugged, silently said, _"Just get on with it."_

Issei then looked at his mother again, who was eagerly ready to listen. "Whenever you are ready, sweetheart." Haruka nodded.

"…_Here goes nothing, I guess."_ Taking a deep breath, Issei began to tell his story about his relationship and Rias.

However, at the first one minute when Issei said that he was 'engaged' with Rias, Haruka _exploded_.

"WHAT!?" she cried with wide-eyes. She then proceeded to pull her son into a tight hug, burying his face into her bosoms. "Omygodomygodomygod!" Haruka was completely ecstatic. "Engaged! You are getting married! Congratulations! I'm so proud of you! When's the wedding!?" she let go of her son only to hug her husband next. "Honey, we are going to have lots of grandchildren!" Haruka said with ecstatic laugh.

"You didn't tell her?" Issei turned to his father, who was trying to pry Haruka off him without hurting her.

"Err… It slipped my mind." Saitama replied. "Besides, Venelana told me that your status with Rias is still a secret."

Issei could not really refute that statement.

"Um, Haruka?" Saitama turned to his still-ecstatic wife. "Issei hasn't finished with his story, remember?" he hoped that his wife's attention would be re-directed from him.

That managed to stop Haruka as she let go of her husband. "Right, sorry." Haruka bashfully apologized. "It's just… I mean, _engaged_? This is such big news! I know you are popular among the girls, but…" Haruka then cleared her throat. "Anyway, we're getting side-tracked. Carry on, Ise."

"…Okay." Issei said as he took another breath.

Thus, the boy continued on with his story, of how he was engaged (in a sense) with Rias, how their relationship had gone so far, how Rias suddenly started to act weird, to say the least; and until the scene in the sauna.

"And… There you have it." Issei said with another exhale. "So…?"

Saitama looked stoic and impassive as ever, while Haruka was staring at her son with somewhat scrutinizing eyes. Issei found himself so small under the gaze of his parents, especially his mother.

"Ise."

The boy almost jumped when his mother called to him. "Y-Yes?" Issei stuttered. It was not like Haruka looked angry, but her jovial expression from earlier had been replaced with seriousness.

"…What have you done to Rias?"

At the question, Issei only blinked at her mother. "I... I don't know!" Issei made sure not to raise his voice too much. "Like I said, she suddenly just cried, apologized and ran off! I have no idea what's going on either!"

"Ise." This time, it was Saitama who spoke. "Let me tell you something. When a girl, _any_ girl, apologize to you… Then it's definitely your fault."

"What?! How!?" Issei was incredulous. "That-that makes no sense!"

"Exactly." Saitama said back. "…But that's just how it works when it comes to relationship between a man and woman. Nothing makes sense, and it probably won't ever make any sense." Saitama then pointed his thumb to his wife. "Trust me, I've tried with your mother over here." The woman in question seemed proud of it.

"…Whatever." Issei shook his head. "So what do I do? The problem now that she doesn't want to share her problems."

"Now that's the one-million dollar question, isn't it?" Haruka hummed. "There is no concrete answer to that question, Ise. It could be that you need to push on, or you need to give her space to think things over. But let me share something."

Issei then nodded, paying attention to what his mother wanted to say. After making sure that his son was ready to listen, Haruka began.

"Do you know that… my relationship with your father was a rocky road?" Haruka glanced to her husband while smiling in reminiscence.

Issei blinked. He knew that Saitama could be insufferable sometimes, but he never thought that way about his father and mother; considering how head over the heels Haruka towards Saitama.

"I mean, your father is literally an alien."

Issei had to give his mother that. After all, living with a person without a legitimate identity would bring more problems than one. "So you told her?" Issei turned to Saitama.

"Yeah, at some point." The man shrugged. "You know that we can't keep things from her, it's a matter of time." Issei nodded in agreement; the boys in Hyoudou household could not stand a chance against Haruka.

"It was a challenge for me to get used to your father's… habits and lifestyle." Haruka continued. "I didn't know what actually happened, but whenever your father is going out, I'd always see…. Bizarre news and events involving him from television."

Haruka recalled the memory that the news were usually those about disasters, crimes, etc. where people's life were in danger. "…And every time I watched the news, I'd hear and see information about your father saving the day."

"You showed up on tv?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows at Saitama.

"And surprisingly, nobody ever found out about his identity." Haruka quipped. "I got an inkling of how he did that, but who cares, it's all taken care of when he came home." The woman shrugged.

"Going back to the main topic; long story short, it took… a lot of communication and obstacles for us to finally…" Haruka then blushed, while smiling demurely. "Accept our feelings."

Issei blinked, not only finding his mother's smile, he also noticed that Saitama also gave a small smile of his own.

"To be honest, what we have gone through is kind of similar with what's happening with you and Rias." Haruka said. "We refused to open up to each other."

Issei only raised one eyebrow, a gesture that showed that he was curious of what was to come.

"I… never thought of settling down." Saitama was the first to speak. "…Until I met your mother, that is." He continued as his eyes trailed to his wife.

"For as long as I've been living most of my life, all I know was punching the daylights out of bad guys. Other than that, I barely have any skills to make money." Saitama shared. "So, while I was living in your mom's home, I still played hero to kill time."

"…And that's the problem; back in my old home, being a hero literally pays off. But here, it doesn't work that way." Saitama carried on. "And… I always felt that I was only dragging her around."

"…So you always know that you are an annoyance? Wow, I was wrong about you." Issei raised is eyebrows.

"Shut up! Your parents are sharing here!" Saitama shot back, with Haruka merely giggled in amusement.

"So, I've always felt bad that… In that world, I felt that I brought nothing but trouble to your mother." Saitama confessed, making Haruka giving a slightly sad smile. "….And, perhaps that was the most dishonest moment I've ever experienced." Saitama sighed.

The room fell into silence, with Issei only gave Saitama narrowed look, clearly curious of what happened next.

Few moments later, Saitama continued. "When I told her that I'm leaving…. That's actually the moment when I realized that I can't live without her." Saitama bashfully scratched his cheek.

"And do you believe that it took couple of weeks for your father to finally come to me and ask if he can always stay with me?" Haruka quipped, giggling as if she was fond of the memory.

"It's my first time to feel so insecure after a long time. But no matter how much bullshit I forced her to go through, and no matter how much I felt sorry about it, at the end of the day, I just want to live with Haruka." Saitama said with tinge of embarrassment all over his face.

Issei only raised a single eyebrow again; he started to feel confuse of what his parents were trying to say.

"But that's the story for another time. What we are trying to say is, there must be NO secrets in relationship. And… sometimes it takes drastic measures for both of you to open up." Haruka concluded.

"…Okay." Issei nodded. If anything, Issei thought that the story Saitama and Haruka shared almost had zero relevance with their conclusion. Well, there was the part where Saitama left home and realized his feelings, but… never mind.

"And, with no secrets, opening up, you also need to open up your 'shelter'; be someone and place where Rias can run to."

"…Shelter? Run to?" Issei quipped, not sure about the meaning.

"Imagine that love is a battlefield, where guns, bombs and flames are blazing from every direction. And you and Rias are in the middle of it; if you don't move, you die." Haruka used her lecture pose. "Let me ask you this first; what will _you alone_ do in that battlefield?" Haruka emphasized the two particular words for Issei's clues.

"I… make the run for it." Issei answered.

"And, with making the run, I'll ask you this; what do you feel about Rias?" Haruka asked again.

Issei stared at his mother's eyes for few seconds, before he glanced at his father, whom was also staring at him. Issei then closed his eyes for a second before he opened them, showing his conviction for his parents to see.

"I love her."

Those were just 3 simple words. No poems, oaths, claims, sugar-coating, nor any other sort of romantic exaggeration plastered over them. However, those three words alone, accompanied by the look in Issei's eyes, were all Saitama and Haruka needed to know how far Hyoudou Issei would go for the sake of Rias Gremory.

"…Well said." Haruka smiled proudly, with her husband gave approving nod. "That means that you're already armed to the teeth. However, Rias on the other hand, is lost, insecure, confused and doesn't know where to run." Haruka then jabbed her finger on his son's chest. "…And it's your job to reach for her, show her that you can be her emotional safety."

Issei took in Haruka's words for few seconds, before he began to speak again. "So… I need to keep pursuing her, so she can open up and we can gain understanding."

"Essentially, yes. But don't forget that it's still possible that all she needs is just some time alone." Haruka nodded. "And if Rias does love you back as much as you do to her, everything will be just fine."

"So you think she loves me? I mean, she doesn't hate me?" Issei asked with hopeful tone.

"Please, if she does hate you, she won't be staying in this house in the first place." Saitama replied with a scoff.

"Honestly, Ise?" it was Haruka's turn to gave her opinion. "The day Rias comes to hate you is like the day your father grows hair."

That comment actually caused Issei to almost burst to laughter. Haruka was also giggling like crazy over her own comment, resulting a glare from her husband. After the amusement died down few minutes later, Haruka turned to her son again. "So, in the end, do you know what to do now? Or do you still have other questions?"

Issei stared at his parents for few seconds before he smiled sheepishly. "…Yeah, I guess I do." He scratched his cheek. Then, he looked up at his parents again. "But… if Rias ends up… You know…" but he could not help that there was still anxiety in his heart.

"You can talk to us again." It was Saitama who replied with a shrug, which Haruka did not really see it coming. The wife blinked and she smiled in approval before nodding to her son.

"…Thanks, mom." Issei then proceeded to give his mother a hug, which the said mother returned gladly.

When Issei was about to leave the room, however, he stopped at the door to look back at Saitama. "…And thanks to you too…. Dad." Issei quickly vanished as the door closed.

Haruka and Saitama stared at the door for few seconds, before Haruka turned to Saitama with glittering eyes. "Did you hear that?" the wife said.

Saitama only blinked in confusion. "Hear what?"

"Ise just called you 'dad'! Again! After a while!" Haruka's face brightened as she proceeded to lunge and push her husband down to bed, her body straddling him. "Hahaha! I knew I made the right choice to take you along!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down there, woman. So what if- mmph!?" Saitama's protest was silenced by Haruka pressing her lips on his own.

When Haruka pulled back, Saitama held back a sigh when he saw _that_ look on his wife's expression. "Just shut up and kiss me, you fool." Haruka bit the corner of her bottom lip as she proceeded to undress herself. "This is something to celebrate for!" she then returned to kiss her husband senseless.

"_That's your idea of celebration!?" _

Saitama frustratingly thought as his wife 'assaulted' him. However, he did not do anything to stop Haruka's advance; and instead, he simply made the best out of it. With what just happened, it was possible that none of them would get enough sleep by the morning came.

oXo

When Issei arrived at his room later on, he found the girls were standing right in front of Rias' room that was adjacent to his own. Everyone turned to him and sported worried looks.

Without even asking, Issei already knew what their concerns were; Rias was locking herself in her bedroom without willing to see anyone. He gave a nod, and the girls wordlessly made a path for him, giving him small nods in the process. Issei then stood in front of the door, steeling himself. He raised his hand to knock on the door, but before his hand could have moved, Ddraig quipped.

_**[I highly advise you to think things over, partner. What you are going to do and say will decide what shall happen next.]**_

Issei paused; the Welsh Dragon was right. He knew what he needed to do, but at the same time, he must not be hasty. He needed to pick his words correctly if he wanted to solve this issue.

Taking a deep breath, Issei decided his course of action and knocked on the door. "Rias, can you hear me?"

Everyone waited for few seconds, and when a minute had passed, Issei actually considered to break the door down. However, Rias' tearful expression flashed in his mind. Releasing a breath, Issei spoke up.

"I don't know what is going on, but I want to help you. If it's something that I did to you before, I apologize." Issei closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm not gonna force you to share. I'll wait as long as you need to gather your thoughts. Have a good night, Rias."

With another sigh, Issei then turned around to face Akeno, Asia, Koneko, Xenovia, Irina, Rossweisse and Ravel. They stared at each other for few seconds before the Queen spoke up. "…Well?" That one word alone was enough to convey the message that they wanted to know what was going on.

"Honestly, I have no clue." Issei shrugged. "It's probably– most likely my fault, but…." Issei then sighed again. "I'm drawing blanks here."

Akeno then narrowed her eyes at Issei, as if she was searching something. Rias had been her best friend, and she was still her best friend. If there was a chance that the man before her was the cause of her best friend's distraught, regardless of her own feelings, then….

"….I guess we need to find out tomorrow." Akeno sighed. When she opened her eyes, her looks and expression had considerably softened. "Let's go to bed, everyone. We still have work tomorrow." Doing her duty in her King's absence, the Queen then took charge.

Thus, the night ended with uneasy peace.

* * *

Next morning, everyone found that Rias had woken up in the early morning and had gone off to school by herself. It did not take a genius to figure that Rias was deliberately avoiding Issei. However, she did leave a message to Akeno to take charge of her peerage for the morning duties.

Strangely enough, Saitama and Haruka appeared to be a lot calmer when they were told about the issue. When everyone was about to go to school, they blinked at the sight of Saitama and Haruka giving encouraging tap and nod to their son, whom also nodded in return.

"What's that about?" Irina voiced the question in everyone's mind.

Issei simply gave a knowing smile and walked off. "…Let's go, everyone."

"Hey, wait up!" the girls then proceeded to hurry after the boy.

Long-story short, Issei was sitting in the Occult Research Club with Yuuto and Gasper after school. That afternoon, the Occult Research Club were going to have a meeting with Azazel, to discuss about the upcoming Rating Game against Sairaorg Bael.

While waiting for the girls, the boys were spending their time with some idle talk, mainly encouraging Gasper who was still doubting himself. Some pep-talk later, Gasper gained back his confidence, and that was when the rest of the club members arrived.

When Rias came in, however, when her teal eyes met with Issei's light-brown, the boy noticed there was sadness and fear in Rias' eyes, before she quickly looked away to avoid any further eye contact.

Thus, with all members of Occult Research Club present, Azazel then began the meeting.

The meeting was about to discuss the Rating Game; however, Azazel had to address the fact that the Hero Faction of Khaos Brigade began to reach out towards everyone with Sacred Gears, even reincarnated devils, and guided them to achieve Balance Breakers, in order to amass power and brew some chaos in the underworld. From what Azazel had gathered, rebellion against high-class devils that housed Sacred Gear possessors was very likely.

Sometimes, it was confusing about why Biblical God would create something so powerful like Sacred Gears in the first place.

"But enough of that. I came here as the advisor for the Rating Game against Sairaorg Bael." Azazel moved on.

Having the atmosphere in the room suddenly shifted by the change of topic, Issei raised his hand. "Speaking of advisor, is my da- I mean, Saitama still Sairaorg-san's advisor?"

Everyone noticed the sudden shift in how Issei addressed his father, but they chose to pretend not hearing that.

"Not really." Azazel replied. "While most of Sairaorg's training regimen is made by Saitama himself, the one who was supervising Sairaorg's team is Diehauser Belial, the Emperor."

Rias blinked at the name. "…The champion."

"Yep, the very one. Considering your goal to win all Rating Games, you will face him sooner or later. Same goes to your peerage as well." Azazel nodded at Rias.

"Moving on, has everyone memorised the date about Sairaorg's peerage?"

Everyone had indeed engraved the footage of Sairaorg's fight with Zephyrdol Glasya-Labolas. The sheer strength and power that Sairaorg showed in the match was not even his true power.

"Sairaorg and his group are rare devils who actually train, just like you guys. They definitely have leveled-up during the time back in their match against Glasya-Labolas." Azazel said.

The high-class devils in general never trained; they simply believed the power of their demonic heritage from respective clan, and they depended on their servants to win their battles. If the servants were deemed to be too weak or incompetent, the King would simply trade them or recruit even more powerful individuals.

So far, Sairaorg Bael, Rias Gremory and some devils of new generation were the only ones who actually trained to strengthen their peerages.

"They also had real-battle experience during the attacks of Khaos Brigade, which makes them even more formidable."

While Azazel was still explaining his piece, Rossweisse raised a question. "…Come to think of it, we never know the identity of his Pawn, don't we?"

True, as far as everyone had remembered during the conference, Sairaorg Bael's peerage consisted 1 Queen, 2 Knights, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops and 1 Pawn. All in all, the formation was similar with Rias Gremory's peerage.

"Apparently, the Pawn is… akin to a 'trump card' for Sairaorg, and he rarely uses him in battles. As far as I know, the Pawn has the value of 7 Pawn pieces."

Everyone widened their eyes at Azazel's reply. Apparently Sairaorg's team was more similar with Rias' team than they thought previously; one Pawn that was on par with multiple Pawns at once.

The meeting went on, with everyone voiced their opinions and discussed about the strategy, tactics, and counter-measures for the match. Even Irina, who was not involved in the game also gave her input to add more insights, while Ravel put everything down in her notes for reminders and references.

Azazel only smirked in excitement as he scanned the young devils with analytical eyes. Truly, the current generations had surpassed his expectations, especially Rias Gremory's peerage. They had experienced real battles against powerful enemies that could give even gods and demon kings a good run for their money, and lived to tell the tale. It would only be a matter of time until the young generation to enter the Top 10 of Rating Game rankers.

Azazel would not mind to tear off another arm if he could get a front-seat to watch the young devils to fight against the veteran of the Rating Games.

He could sense the breeze of the new era of the Rating Game- no, the new era of the world, flowing in the air.

oXo

After the meeting had ended, Azazel and Rossweisse had to return to their duties as teachers, and the students were left to take care of their own preparations for the school festival.

When Issei glanced at Rias, the former found the latter was focusing on paper-works and documents, but he could tell that the girl's mood was still gloomy, as she still refused to meet his eyes.

While Issei was still mulling things over, a magic crest appeared on the centre table of the room. Everyone then stopped their respective works to pay attention at the glowing magic symbol.

"…Phenex."

Just as Koneko had said, it was Phenex symbol that appeared. A transmission from Phenex clan? Who could it be?

The crest then showed a holographic image of a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. On a closer look, one could say that she was the very image of mature version of Ravel Phenex in her twenties. The only difference was that the woman's hair was tied up in grand ornaments befitting that of a noble.

"Mother?"

That explained the appearance when Ravel addressed the woman in recognition.

"**How do you do, Ravel."** The woman replied her daughter with warm smile. **"Forgive me for the sudden call, for I could not afford a free time. It is still school period in human world, correct?"**

Despite the woman's polite, warm greeting, Ravel could not help but to feel nervous before her mother. "Y-yes, it is. But why did you call all of a sudden?"

"…**Can I speak with Ms. Rias and the Red Dragon Emperor?"** was all the lady of Phenex household said in return.

Without delay, Rias stepped forward to greet her guest. "How do you do, ma'am. It has been a while." She greeted with proper manner and elegance as the heiress of Gremory household.

"**Ah, Ms. Rias. How do you do, it has been a while, indeed. And…?"** Lady Phenex trailed off as if she expected another person to greet her.

Issei then stepped forward so he was face-to-face with the guest. "Hello, I'm Hyoudou Issei. Nice to meet you."

"**Hello to you too."** The lady nodded. "**This is our first time meeting each other, isn't it, Hyoudou Issei, the Red Dragon Emperor? I apologize for introducing myself in such manner."**

"It's fine." Issei replied with polite smile. "So, is there something I can help you with?"

"**In the light of my daughter living in your house, I normally have to go and greet all of you properly in Hyoudou Residence, however, the circumstances did not allow me such luxury…"**

Everyone nodded in understanding at the lady's reasoning. After all, with the terrorist's relentless assault nowadays, the Phenex clan would be busy to provide Phoenix Tears for various allied pantheons and factions.

"Not at all, ma'am." Rias replied amicably. "Your kind words alone are more than enough. You can entrust Ravel with us."

"**I see…"** relief seemed to appear on Lady Phenex's expression. **"…I'm truly sorry for giving you with such a task. After we forced you to deal with Riser, now we're asking you to take care of our Ravel… You have our deepest gratitude."**

Lady Phenex then turned to Issei. "**And Hyoudou Issei… Please **_**do**_** look after my daughter."**

"Yes, leave her to me- to us." Issei gestured his friends, who nodded in affirmation.

"…**Then I believe both me and my husband can rest easy if Ravel has these people as her friends at school. But there's another thing. Hyoudou Issei, please make sure that no weird pests come near her."**

Issei blinked at the term the lady used, but he nodded nonetheless. "Err… Yeah, sure. No problem. Ravel is in good hands."

"**Once again, thank you very much."** the lady spoke. **"…And, Ravel."**

"Yes, mother?" Ravel had become more composed as the conversation went on.

"**You know what to do. You have to support Ms. Rias, and you have to listen to your seniors. Most importantly, you have to deepen your relationship with Hyoudou Issei. Work hard as a befitting member of Phenex household."**

Ravel nodded at her mother's instruction without hesitation on her face. "Understood!"

The mother nodded approvingly, and she turned to Issei again. **"And lastly, Hyoudou Issei… I hear that you are aiming to become a high-class devil?"**

Issei was actually busy taking in what Lady Phenex just implied to her daughter; 'deepen the relationship'? But Issei decided to think about it later and focus on what the woman wanted to say this time. **"Yes. I am."**

To be honest, Issei never really cared about ranks and status; however, considering he was integrating into devil society, he might as well raising his rank along the way. Not only that it would come in handy in future, it was a good thing to have something to work hard for.

"**I see… My daughter is currently a free Bishop after I took her from Riser."**

"Yes, I have heard that."

"**Please remember, my daughter is a free Bishop. She is not affiliated with Riser, nor anyone else. Understand?"**

Issei stayed for a few seconds, taking in the woman's words in his brain. Then, Issei grew a smile as he bowed his head lightly. "…Yes, I'm looking forward to it."

Lady Phenex then nodded with satisfied smile on her face. **"Good. Then, my business is done here. Ms. Rias, Hyoudou Issei and everyone, forgive me once again for the sudden intrusion. And Ravel, don't forget to behave as a lady should."**

"Yes, mother." Ravel nodded, it appeared that Ravel was also glad at Issei's respond of her status of free Bishop.

"**Until then, everyone."** Lady Phenex then vanished with the magic crest.

Everyone silently released sighs of relief. While the matriarch of Phenex clan appeared to be kind, friendly woman, speaking with a noble would always take some toll on the minds. While still relieving the tension, Issei noticed that Rias was leaving the room.

Issei blinked; that could be the chance for him to settle things. "Rias?" Issei called out. "Where are you going?"

The girl froze on her steps, not daring to turn around. Swallowing a lump and biting her lower lip, she muttered. "Say, Ise…. What do you think about the others?"

"Excuse me?"

"Asia, Akeno…. Everyone. Do you love them?" Rias clarified her question.

The said question caused everyone in the room to perk up, turning their attention towards Issei.

Issei closed his eyes and took a breath. _"Alright, Ise… Let's not fuck this up."_ He then opened his eyes, and took glances at everyone in the clubroom. "…I love them. And I'll fight the whole world if that means I can protect their everyday lives."

Compared to what he said to his parents about his feelings, his answer this time was rather corny. However, he did not care; he had to be sincere, and despite how his answer sounded like, every girls in the room felt their hearts stopped beating for a second and heat crept up to their faces, as they heard Issei's answer.

Even Yuuto and Gasper were impressed at the sheer conviction on Issei's expression.

Rias balled her hands into a fist and clutched them on her chest. "Then…. What do you think of me? What am I? Who am I to you?"

This was it; the moment of truth. Clenching his hand tighter into fists, Issei took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a second to open it again. "You are who you are. You are Rias, our King, our master, our friend; the founder and leader of Occult Research Club of Kuoh Academy, and…" at this point, Issei even started to feel a tad embarrassed of what he was going to say next. "…The woman I love. One of those who I treasure the most."

In any other circumstances, everyone would have given Issei salutes.

However, few seconds later, Rias only shifted her body ever so slightly, before she suddenly stormed out of the room and slammed the door close. Everyone only stared silently at the door where Rias vanished. Then, everyone slowly turned to look at Issei's reaction.

The boy in question only released a heavy sigh as he bowed his head down, his eyes seemed defeated in more ways than one.

_**[….That could have gone worse.]**_

Issei's eyes twitched. Welsh Dragon's comment was the last thing he wanted at the moment.

"…I'll go after her." Akeno gave a quick apologetic smile to Issei before she quickly went out of the room as well.

Issei, still standing with his head bowed down, felt someone grasped his shoulder. He turned to see Yuuto by his side. "If it's any consolation, I think you did well there." The Knight said as he gave a comforting squeeze on his shoulder.

"T-that's very cool, senpai!" Gasper also joined in cheering the Pawn up.

Issei only nodded appreciatively while giving bitter smile. He then felt someone was tugging on his pants. He looked down to see Koneko was staring at him. If he did not know her better, Issei would have seen Koneko was being her usual stoic self, but currently, her eyes were that of a supportive person. She even offered him a plate of her own cake. "Please cheer up."

Issei's smile widened a little bit as he proceeded to softly pat on Koneko's favourite spot, eliciting a purr from her. "Thanks, Koneko-chan."

"Ise-kun."

Issei then turned to see Irina, Xenovia, Asia and Ravel were smiling at him. "Let's just sit down for now, shall we?" Asia ushered. "I'll make us some tea."

Soon enough, everyone was seated (with Koneko taking her 'usual spot') and Asia had served the drinks. The room then fell into companionable silence as they gave Issei some time to gather his wits.

"So… would you like to tell us what happened?" Asia asked first as she took the spot next to her boyfriend.

Issei only stared into his tea for few seconds and he drew another breath. "Well…. It's just as you saw earlier." Issei replied. "…I royally messed up, didn't I?"

"I don't think that's the case." It was Irina who replied. "Normally, I would've said that you are at fault, but…" the reincarnated angel then blushed as she averted her eyes away in embarrassment. "…I was really happy when you said those words."

Everyone smiled warmly when they recalled Issei's proclamation.

"But back on track." Irina cleared her throat. "Seriously, what's that all about?"

"No clue." Issei shrugged. "She just ran away, like yesterday."

"'Yesterday'?"

Everyone blinked at the fact that the similar had happened before. "Alright, I believe an explanation is in order." Ravel clapped her hands. "Ise-sama, our curiosity aside, all of us here just want to help you. So…. Please?"

Issei scanned everyone in the room, their expressions alone said that they had no intention of letting him go at this point. With another sigh, Issei then began the story when Rias joined him in the sauna…

"…Wait, what?" Ravel blurted out. "You two… Naked together, in sauna…?!" her face began to flush at the image of the two, sweaty bodies pressing against one another.

Koneko who was on Issei's lap sent him dirty glance, while Asia and Irina were just as uncomfortable as Ravel.

"Hauuu… Ise-san and Rias nee-sama… Geez…!" Asia whimpered with her face flustered as well.

"I-I-Ise-kun!?" Irina stuttered, her face was beet red. "S-so you and Rias-san were…!?"

"Hm, so you're re-enacting what we did back in Kyoto, but with buchou this time? Not bad at all, Ise." Xenovia was actually nodding approvingly.

"I-indecent!" Ravel could only made that one-word retort.

Issei was amazed at how the atmosphere of the conversation took such a turn with a mere mentioning of him and Rias spending time in sauna.

"Come on, everyone. Aren't we supposed to help him?" thankfully, a rescue came in front of Yuuto who stood up to placate everyone. "Let's put that aside and focus of what the main issue, shall we?" behind him, Gasper was actually blushing like crazy as well, but at the same time, he was also too shy to make any comment out loud.

Seeing the point, the girls then quickly composed themselves. "Sorry about that. Ise-kun, carry on." Irina gestured.

"Thanks, Kiba." Issei nodded to the Knight who nodded back. "Anyway, things were going great, and…"

Issei then re-told the events that took place last night, from where Rias suddenly having a break-down, until Issei found everyone was standing together in front of her bedroom.

"…And that's pretty much what happened, really." Issei ended his short story.

"Hmm…. That's…. I didn't see that one coming." Xenovia commented while rubbing her chin with one hand.

"I guess… Most likely the problem is with Rias-san instead of Ise-kun." Irina nodded in thought.

"Then, what do-… Ise-san?" Asia was about to voice her own comment when she found that Issei was more silent than earlier. "…Ise-san?"

Issei was simply staring down, not saying or doing anything.

"…Ise-senpai?" Even Koneko, who was sitting the closest to him, started to get worry as well.

"Say…." Issei drawled out. "Do you think… she actually hates me?" doubt had once again crept to his heart.

Everyone tensed at the question; never once they saw Issei looked so lost. However, before they could have done anything…

SLAP!

Issei felt stinging on his cheek, as someone just literally slapped him across his face. He turned and looked up to see Ravel was glaring down at him.

"Get yourself together, Ise-sama!" the Phenex admonished. "Do you think Lady Rias' feelings towards you are that shallow?"

Issei blinked at Ravel's aggressive approach. Sure, he was being too gloomy and all, but he sure did not expect to receive a slap of all things. _"…I'm not sure I kind of deserve that."_ He could not help but think of that line.

_**[…I think you **_**do**_** kind of deserve that.]**_

Ddraig's retort aside, Ravel continued with her 'lecture'. "Look, I might have not known Lady Rias as long as you do, but I at least understand her as a fellow woman!"

The other girls seemed miffed at the fact someone just slapped Issei, but on the other hand, a part of them completely agreed that someone had to snap the boy out of it.

"Now, now, let's calm down." Asia, being a gentle soul she was, placated the angry phoenix.

No need for violence.

"But Ravel-san does have a point, Ise-san." Asia was the one who spoke this time. "I don't believe that Rias-san hates you."

"Yes, yes, that's right!" Irina quipped this time. "She probably just needs some time to sort out her feelings!"

"Hn, I concur." Xenovia nodded. "Even I was lost for words when you said those bold things."

"Listen, Ise-sama." Ravel lectured. "The heart of a maiden is delicate and complicated. So you have to be sure…"

Issei felt warmth across his chest. While Ravel was hammering the concept of a maiden's heart into his brain, he scanned the room, when his eyes met with everyone else's, they smiled kindly in return.

There was nothing to fear of; all of his friends got his back all along. Even if the issues with Rias took a worse turn, his friends, the girls would be there and ready for him to turn to.

Issei smiled as he felt tears started to gather on his eyes. Closing his eyes to prevent any tears from flowing out, he was inwardly grateful that he had met these people.

* * *

"Rias, open the door." Akeno asked as she knocked on the door before her.

When Akeno went out of the Occult Research Club's room to chase after Rias, it did not take too long for the Queen to figure out that her King had ran back towards Hyoudou Residence, locking herself up in her bedroom again.

"….Rias, can you hear me!?" she then half-shouted as she started to bang her knuckles a bit harder at the door.

She tried to shake the door handle few times, but despite the strength given through her Queen-piece, Akeno found that the door was sturdier than she recalled. It seemed that Rias had magically reinforced the door to prevent anyone from intruding her.

"…Alright, that's it." she muttered as she prepared small sparks of lightning on her fingers.

Time for some tough love.

However, before Akeno could have done anything else, a hand was placed on her shoulder, causing her to turn to see Saitama standing before her.

"…You might damage the house's interior if you do that." Saitama gestured at the lightning dancing on Akeno's fingers. "Allow me." he then gently pushed Akeno aside and stood before the reinforced door.

"Oh, by the way." Saitama paused to look at Akeno again. "I and Haruka are gonna leave the house for you two alone, so be sure that you'll settle things by dinner time. Is that okay with you?"

Akeno blinked at the man's instruction. On the corner of her eyes, Akeno also noticed that Haruka was peeking from the corner of the hallway, giving her a nod.

Akeno then looked back at Saitama, giving him a nod. "…Yes."

Saitama hummed and nodded, then with relative ease kicked the door open, magical reinforcement be damned. As a matter of fact, one might think that if Saitama were to put more force into his kick, the door would have been completely torn off its hinges as well.

The said man then walked away as soon as the room had been opened after giving one more tap on Akeno's back. "…Good luck."

Akeno gave a wordless, appreciative nod as she watched Saitama and his wife left the house.

When she stepped inside the room, Akeno saw that her King was lying face-down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow; Akeno could heard that Rias was sobbing. The Queen then did not waste any time as she stomped forward. "Rias, what was that all about?"

Rias flinched, and when she turned to face her Queen, Akeno finally noticed the fear and anxiety plastered over her King's face. Knowing that she had to tread carefully, she sighed and softened her expression. "…Rias, please tell me what's wrong. I'm worried, and I care for you."

"I….I'm sorry."Rias sat up, still hugging her pillow. "It-it's just…" She closed her eyes in shame.

"What is it?" Akeno pressed a bit further. "Is it something Ise-kun said?"

"No, it's not like that." Rias refuted. "When Ise said those words…. I was… _really happy_."

Akeno raised her eyebrows when she sensed that her King was genuinely happy for a second.

"And yet… I was scared." Rias buried her face again into her pillow, hugging it tighter. "So, very, scared."

Akeno's expression became saddened and she scooted over so she was sitting closer to her King. "Rias…." She grabbed her arm, gently tugging them down so that she could see her face. "Please, tell me what's wrong. I can't help you if you keep shutting yourself away from us. Everyone would get hurt if you keep this up."

Rias stared at her Queen for a moment, and she looked down. "Akeno…. I've… I've done something terrible to Ise."

Akeno tensed. She knew Rias long enough to believe that her King was not someone who would harm people around her without good reason. However, the recent events caused her to feel edgy, especially if it involved the boy she loved. "…Enlighten me, then." She softly asked.

Rias then started from the days where she was agonizing over the fact that she had been engaged with some womanizer of other noble clan, without her consent.

That part, Akeno knew well. She still remembered how frustrated her King was.

Rias was at the part where she began to scout for potential peerage members. At that point, she had already recruited Akeno, Koneko, Gasper, and Yuuto. However, note that when she recruited them, it was out of her goodwill. As if by some twist of fate, Rias ended up encountering them when they were at mortal danger.

Akeno was on the run to get avoid being murdered by her own very family – although Rias later learned that she had been rescued before meeting her.

Koneko was about to be executed unjustly for the crime she did not commit. It was by the grace of the Lucifer himself that she was entrusted to Rias.

For Yuuto – Rias was having a winter break, as well as the tip on Europe with her parents to learn about magicians. It was during one of her night excursions that she happened to stumble on a dying boy.

For Gasper – Rias was accompanying her brother, who happened to have a meeting with one of his contacts in Romania. She just happened to run to dying Gasper Vladi when she was horse-riding around the forest near her lodging.

Nobody knew they were mere coincidences or some twisted fate, while Rias wished she could have recruited her servants in more favourable situations, her encounter with them made the kind of group they were at the moment. Rias could not ask for better people to be her servants.

Issei, on the other hand, was different. She first viewed him as a 'jackpot'; a valuable prize that possessed a powerful Sacred Gear, which based on Koneko's observation, contained a feeling of a dragon inside. Dragons were notoriously powerful; a Pawn, the most versatile piece in the Rating Game, with the power of a dragon? Rias would not let go this one out of her grasp.

Thus, she began to formulate a plan to recruit him. She had considered to approach him, asking him to serve her as a devil with all the quirks it could offer, rewarding, even seducing him. However, as far as she had learned about dragons, she was told that dragons and those who possessed the power of dragons, tend not to easily submit to anyone.

She needed something that could ensure his loyalty. Perhaps he might wanted to join her peerage out of his own free will, but when she thought of her peerage again, a small part of Rias believed that their loyalty was from the fact that she had saved their lives, giving them a place they could call home where they have lost their original place in the world.

That gave her the idea – what if she happened run to him when he was in mortal danger? As the saying, 'what happened twice, could happen thrice'; perhaps all she needed was to take it easy in order to recruit him. That was why she assigned her peerage to observe him for the time being.

Then some time later, she found the opportunity when she learned that a fallen angel was aiming him… The rest was history.

"I expected him to die, Akeno." Rias confessed. "This is not just a freak accident; I could have saved him, I should have warned him! But I didn't. And I feel… disgusted at myself." She said with self-loathing tone. "And now…. After seeing him as a mere Pawn to get me out from that blasted engagement… Do I have the right to long for his affection? I just can't bring myself to face him…"

Akeno had been silent as Rias shared what was weighing her mind, her eyes were hidden by her black bangs.

"What if he hates me? When he found out about what happened behind his reincarnation?" Rias' voice started to tremble in fear as tears began to drop again. "I love him, I truly do. I've been trying to move forward, but… whenever I see him smile so brilliantly… Whenever I see him so reliable, seeing me as who I am… Whenever I fell for him all over again…. My chest hurts so much…"

SLAP!

Rias felt her cheek kind of burning, she turned to see Akeno's hand just slapped her across her face; the Queen's face remained hidden by her raven hair.

Rias' tears were renewed, as she understood that her Queen was angry at her. Understandable; after all, Akeno had been head over heels towards Issei, especially after she had made up with her father. Of course she would be angry at the fact that her King had manipulated the man she loved.

Rias looked down in shame and resignation, a ghost of self-loathing smile started to creep up to her face.

"_I guess I get what I deserve…" _

She thought of those things when Akeno suddenly pulled her into a gentle, warm hug.

"…Eh?"

"You are such a silly girl…" Akeno whispered softly, as she placed Rias' head over her shoulder; her hand gently ran over her, starting from the back of her head until her waist, in comforting manner. "Ise-kun is not someone who could hate you over something like that…"

Rias was silenced at the sheer warmth enveloping her. Slowly, she felt her heart melting, then she proceeded to return the hug while burying her face into the crook of Akeno's neck, relieving her tears as she sobbed.

The afternoon went on with Akeno comforting her best friend. Rias did not know how it worked; after all, it was just couple of sentences, but for some reason, a part of her mind began to believe that…

Things might be just fine in the end.

oXo

When everyone got home by dinner time, Issei and the rest of Occult Research Club was met by Rias who was accompanied by Akeno. Issei could tell just by looking that Rias had been crying her eyes out; however, her mood had somehow been significantly better than before.

"…Ise." Rias merely greeted.

"Rias."

The others did not dare to say a word as the two engaged couple staring at each other.

"I'm… sorry about earlier." Rias averted her eyes awkwardly. "That was… unbecoming of me."

"It's fine." Issei managed to smile, albeit in awkward manner as well. "You probably got a lot on your plate. Sorry." Issei scratched his cheek as his eyes darted here and there. "So…."

"Let's focus on our upcoming match against Sairarorg." Rias suddenly cut off.

Everyone blinked at the sound of Rias just dismissed and moved to a new topic. However, her face was more resolute.

"Until I have finished sorting out my feelings… Can we focus on our Rating Game match…. Please?"

Everyone stared at their King for few minutes, as if searching something. Then, Issei was the first to answer.

"As you wish." Issei nodded with warm smile across his face. "If you need time, then I'll wait."

Everyone seemed to agree with Issei as well as they gave their King their own smiles, wordlessly saying that they would be with her until the end of the line.

"We're home!"

Suddenly, the front door was opened, revealing Saitama and Haruka. Everyone snapped their heads, surprised at the sudden intrusion of the married couple. The said couple only blinked as they stared at the atmosphere where everyone was gathering in one room.

"Um…." Haruka awkwardly scratched her cheek. "Did we miss something?"

* * *

Time went by, and it was night before the match.

Issei stood in front of a door, he took a deep breath, and he proceeded to knock.

After knocking several times, the door was opened revealing the topless Saitama. "…Ise? What's up? It's almost at 12 midnight." The man said while rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry." Issei gave a quick apology. "Err… Is this a bad time?"

"Well, define 'bad time'." Saitama yawned as he looked back, seeing that his wife was still deep asleep. "Never mind, actually. What do you want?"

Issei bit his lower lip as he was not sure of any other way to approach. "I need a favour."

oXo

"You sure you only need me around? What about asking Akeno and Asia to help as well?" Saitama asked as he was standing with his arms crossed inside the training ground with his son, who was sitting on lotus position in front of him.

"Everyone else had done well in the training, they deserve rest." Issei took a deep breath. "I, on the other hand, am still far from good enough."

Saitama only stared at his son before he let out a breath and took a seat in front of him. "So? What do you need me to do?"

"I… um, kind of going to do some gamble here – a swim or sink." Issei replied. "And…. I need you in case things went sour."

"…Ise, what are you planning?" Saitama narrowed his eyes slightly.

"…I'm going to convince my predecessors inside the Boosted Gear to help me out. Depending on how things turn out, I might end up going Juggernaut here. You have to stop me in case I'm going berserk; knock me out if you have to." Issei said as he stared right into his father's eyes.

Saitama's expression went serious; clearly that he did not like the whole idea. However, seeing the look in Issei's eyes made him unable to tell him to stop for some reason.

"…Fine." Saitama sighed. "But don't expect me to pull my punch, you hear me?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Issei only smirked as he began his meditation.

oXo

Deep inside his soul, Issei arrived at the hall where the consciousness of his predecessors were gathering. Issei himself was standing together with Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard.

"…Well, here we are." Issei began. "Is this everyone?"

[Yes, I suppose so. After all, apart from Belzard and Elsha, nobody had ever moved from their spot.]

"Say, Elsha-san, Belzard-san… How did you manage to answer my call, when I tried to communicate with the past Red Dragon Emperors?" Issei turned towards his two strongest predecessors.

"**They, along with us two might be dead, but our consciousness still possess sentience, at least to a degree. Perhaps that both of us are exceptions, considering that we were the strongest before you."** Elsha provided, with Belzard nodded in agreement.

"I see…. So that means that I have to make sure that they got my message, is that right?" Issei surmised, receiving a nod from Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard.

Issei then stepped towards Belzard and Elsha and offered his hand. "Um, sorry. Can you touch my hand?"

Belzard and Elsha raised a single eyebrow at Issei's request. They glanced at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to shake Issei's hand. **"…Issei-san, what are you getting at?"**

Issei only stared at his hand that made contact for a second. "I see… So I can touch the consciousness of my predecessors."

**[Of course you can. After all, you yourself are in your spirit form when you dived into your soul. That's just a natural outcome. More importantly, what do you plan with this information.]**

"Just… something." Issei shrugged and he nodded to himself. "…Alright." Issei then turned around and proceeded to walk towards the rest of predecessors, who were sitting together at a large table.

Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard could only wonder of what their current host was planning to do.

**[Partner, what are you-!?]**

"Snap out of it already, you bastard!"

BAM!

**["EEEEHH!?"]**

Of all things, they never thought that Issei would literally punched the consciousness of his predecessor right in the face.

More over, Issei did not stop only at one, but also at the other predecessors as he proceeded to punch the next person after another.

"**W-what the hell do you think you're doing!?"** Belzard could not help but shouted that question, while Elsha and Ddraig were lost for words.

Issei then donned his Scale Mail, and proceeded to shoot multiple dragon-shots towards the rest of predecessors, resulting several explosions.

**[Whoa, partner! Time out! Just chill out for a sec!]**

Issei then stopped his onslaught, but he was still clad in his armour, as the predecessors began to turn to look at him, much to the other's shocks; they were definitely not amused at Issei's stunts.

"Now listen up here!" Issei shouted at his predecessors. "I'm fucking serious. I'm _not_ going to bust my balls!" He even tapped his own crotch to emphasize his point. "So either you get it together, hear me out now, OR FUCK OFF!"

Without a word, the predecessors' eyes seemed to light up, and all of them proceeded to equip their own respective Scale Mails.

At the corner; Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard were completely lost of what was happening. Hell, they did not even know what surprised them. Whether it was the fact that Issei just resorted to such barbaric and childish methods to make contact with his predecessors, or the fact that it actually worked; if Issei could somehow 'communicate' his intentions towards his predecessors, he would make a significant step to master the power of Red Dragon Emperor.

Nevertheless, as the three watched the total rumble between Issei vs everyone, they concluded that the boy had to somehow win or at least survive the inner fight against his predecessors, and it was a matter of time until Elsha and Belzard had to step in as well.

And Issei only did all this only at one night before his battle against Sairaorg Bael.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**First of all, I deeply apologize for the lack of action in this long-ass chapter. Let's say that I got caught up in the moment, I'm having too much fun in writing this, especially in family bonding moment.**

**So, what do you think of this one? Please review. Flames are not allowed, while constructive criticisms are welcomed. **

**Next chapter, the battle! Ahosei, over and out.**


	45. Heart (III)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**A bit note for the readers and reviewers:**

**I sincerely appreciate those who actually gave constructive reviews and understanding. I hope you can enjoy the rest of this ride with me. m(_ _)(y)**

**I have nothing to say for those haters and flamers - I just don't want to bother with them, but I will spare some time to respond to Bogoljub igoja: You want to know if Saitama will remain invincible in my story? Why don't you just shut up, sit back, and patiently read in f**king peace? You dissed me because of you're having a f**king bad day? Sorry, but that's still no excuse for you to vent your shit on other people. That question sounds like… Asking the colour of the sky.**

**Without further ado, enjoy! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 42: Heart (III) – The Game**

It was late midnight before dawn, when Rias suddenly woke up at the sudden surge of energy coming from below her, or more precisely, _way_ below her. She got up from her bed, put on enough clothes to cover her modesty as she stormed out of her bedroom. She then met Akeno, Asia, Koneko, Xenovia, Rossweisse and Irina who also woke up from the power surge. Rias even received a call from Yuuto and Gasper all the way from their apartment.

On that note, Ravel had already gone ahead few days prior for the underworld to make few arrangements.

When they hurried down to the basement, where the source of the power had been located, they saw two figures sitting in the middle of the training ground.

Saitama was sitting right in front of meditating Issei, who was clad in his signature dragon armour. When the former noticed everyone's arrival, he merely waved his hand casually. "…'Sup."

"Saitama-san?" Rias furrowed her eyebrows as everyone cautiously approached closer. "What are you two doing here?"

"Well…." Saitama turned to his son for a second before addressing Rias. "Ise is having last-minute training. I'm here to make sure things won't go out of hand."

"Okay… So why is Issei clad in his Balance Breaker?" Rias pointed at his armour-clad fiancé.

**[This is just a side-reaction, natural response from what is happening within his soul.]**

Everyone blinked at the sound of Ddraig echoed from the jewels on the armour. "Welsh Dragon?" Rias asked. "What is going on? What is Ise doing?"

**[Simply put, my host is currently… talking with his predecessors. The real deal has just begun.]**

"…Okay, I see." Rias nodded grimly. "So… how is he doing in there?"

**[Err….. I think he's getting along with everyone….?]**

Ddraig's answer caused everyone to raise their eyebrows skeptically.

oXo

BAM!

The sound echoed across the room when one of the past Red Dragon Emperors managed to land his fist right on Issei's face-plate, cracking the helmet in the process.

Issei stumbled back, but he used the force of his enemy's punch to easily back flipped and land his left foot right on another enemy's shoulder that was approaching from behind. Then, he sprung back with his hand to his feet and intercepted the one that just punched him, by sending a nastier punch right on his chest-plate, forcing the enemy to stumble few steps back.

However, two enemies outflanked him by grabbing both of his shoulders respectively, and Issei quickly retaliated by jumped and performed a split in the air, both of his feet kicked enemies on his sides away. He then parried another strike from his right when he just landed, and another enemy quickly approached from his six. Without wasting any time, Issei jumped again, performing a quick jab on the enemy in front of him while sending his foot on the enemy behind.

The one that just punched Issei's face earlier was already on him again. Issei, still laid on the ground, mustered the strength on his leg to send his predecessor away with another kick. He stood up while performing a round-house kick on another incoming enemy, and when he just recovered his ground, another one sent a hammer fist on him.

Issei easily caught the fist mid-way, but the enemy quickly grabbed a hold on his torso, and immediately performed an over-head throw on Issei; sending the boy hurling to the unforgiving ground.

Groaning, Issei then looked up to see several people were going to drop on him. He then activated the booster on his Scale Mail and skid away to safety, avoiding the enemy's feet from stomping him flat.

Meanwhile, Ddraig, Belzard and Elsha were standing on the side-line, watching their current host being chased by a mob of past Red Dragon Emperors.

"WAAAAAAGH!" Issei screamed in agony as he was running for his life.

"**Whew, look at how he run."** Belzard observed.

"**You are doing good, Issei! Keep it up!"** Elsha just cheered, although Issei did not hear her.

**[Is this really okay?]**

Ddraig on the other hand, was the most worried out of three.

It had been like this for over an hour; Issei had been surprisingly, able to fight off tens and dozens of his predecessors non-stop. However, there were actually hundreds consciousness of the past Boosted Gear possessors that were after Issei. It would not be surprising if Issei would be outnumbered sooner or later.

There were two reasons why those three did not interfere; first, they believed that this was a trial that Issei needed to overcome alone; and second, they were actually pressing themselves against the very gate that sealed the 'power' of Hyoudou Issei. The power beyond the gate was attempting to break through as the royal rumble went on.

However, Issei truly was faring better than they expected. Apparently, the past Red Dragon Emperors before him came with variable strength. Apart from Belzard and Elsha, there were some that were particularly gifted, talented, or even weak, depending on how they lived their lives previously.

Those that were considered as weaker possessors had already been taken care of; after Issei had taken them down, the weaker ones decided to simply remain idle without giving any further attempts to attack him.

Those that were stronger, however, proved to be far more stubborn and resilient as they kept coming at Issei no matter how many beat-downs Issei had given them.

Back to the boy, he just kicked another enemy away from him, followed by intercepting another two- no, three hostiles. He landed a hay-maker at the enemy in the middle; then while dodging a hook from the enemy on the left and right, Issei kicked the left one on the rib-cage, and landed another kick that launched the one on the right away from him.

There was no room or time to breath as Issei had to immediately jump-kicked another approaching hostile in front of him. He landed only to quickly crouched so he could swipe off a hostile's footing behind him, and before the hostile could have fallen to the ground, Issei immediately followed with another kick, launching him towards few more hostiles behind him.

Issei then was engaged by another pair of his predecessors, but was quickly overwhelmed as one hostile managed to land a punch right on his chest, pushing him to stumble back. Issei then was immediately caught by another enemy waiting behind him; and with his movement restrained for a moment, one enemy quickly punched his face, which Issei retaliated by kicking him away. Another enemy followed-suit to strike, but Issei quickly stopped him by another kick. Issei then sent his knuckle to land on his captor's face, forcing the said captor to release him, and Issei proceeded to slid through him and overthrow him towards a mob of enemies.

The brawl went on as Issei fiercely fought back against the relentless assault of his predecessors. The boy had been punched, kicked, thrown and even blasted from every direction, but he preserved. He did not know how long he had been fighting, but he knew he could not stop or back away now, not when the match was close.

He had to make it, he had to succeed; for _her_, and also his own sake.

One enemy just ambushed Issei from behind again, grabbing him in place so the rest could gang up on him. Issei retaliated the incoming hostiles with numerous combination of kicks, and Issei proceeded to throw his head back right on his captor's face-plate, releasing his grip. Issei performed an over-head throw on his captor, however, right after Issei recovered, another enemy had already right in front of him and landed double straight on his chest-plate.

BAM!

"Gahk!" Issei coughed out, his armour was finally shattered from the stress. Issei's body was launched until his back hit a wall, or to be precise, his towering Evil Piece.

Issei crouched on the ground as fatigue began to take its toll. He panted heavily as he looked up to see the enemy numbers remain strong. Then, all of the predecessors proceeded to jump on top him, using the sheer weight of their numbers to pin Issei down.

As Issei was overwhelmed by the multitude of his predecessors piling up on him, he heard them whispering.

"**It is futile…"**

"**There is no other way…"**

"**Juggernaut Drive…."**

"**It is the only way…"**

"**It is perfection…"**

"**This is as far as you can go…"**

"**This is our limit, your limit as well…"**

oXo

Back to the reality, everyone suddenly felt another spike of energy, or rather, they noted that Issei's aura was fluctuating.

"Ise, what's wrong!?" Rias shouted in worry as she reached out her hand.

**[No, don't touch him!]**

Ddraig's roar managed to freeze Rias on her tracks.

**[If you interrupt him now, everything will be for naught. Or worse, my host might end up losing control.]**

The dragon's explanation even gave more reason for everyone to think that Issei should stop his stunt.

However, before Rias could have voiced anything else, she suddenly noticed Saitama raised his hand to stop her from doing anything else. "…Saitama-san?"

"Just watch for now." Was all Saitama said as he kept his eyes locked on the prone form of his son. His eyes did not seem to have any emotion, but if one took a closer look, they might have seen a small glint of faith and conviction within the man's orbs.

Everyone still hesitated, but they decided not to question Saitama for the time being.

oXo

Back to Issei's soul; from the side lines, Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard looked downcasted as they also heard the whispers of the past Boosted Gear possessors. Especially for Belzard and Elsha, the highest peak they could ever achieve was when they utilised the Juggernaut Drive.

Issei did not say anything back for few seconds. One might have thought that the boy had surrendered, consumed by the negative thoughts of his predecessors. However, the predecessor heard Issei muttered something. "…Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

Ddraig, Elsha and Belzard blinked as they caught Issei's murmuring.

Slowly, but steadily, the past possessors felt power building up from beneath them, particularly from the body of Hyoudou Issei as the boy slowly raised up.

"Don't you dare…." Issei's eyes then flashed as he exploded. "…DEFINING MY LIMITS WITH YOUR OWN!"

BOOM!

The pile of past Red Dragon Emperors suddenly erupted, leaving Issei flailing a past Red Dragon Emperor around before he threw it away to a distance.

At the same time, Issei's statement seemed to strike a chord within Elsha and Belzard.

They almost forgot; Issei was the symbol of new possibility, and here they began to think that they shared the same limitations. His limits are his own, and for all they knew, Juggernaut Drive was might as well nobody's limitations but their own.

It was them who believed that Issei could reach new heights in the first place.

However, when Belzard and Elsha took a step forward, ready to interfere and give Issei helping hand, the rest of the past possessors raised up, ominous aura surrounding them.

"…**.It can't be!"** Belzard widened his eyes along with Elsha. The source of their wariness was the words that came out from all of the past predecessors.

"**I, who am about to awaken…"**

Issei also blinked and widened his eyes at what his predecessors were about to do.

"…**Am the Heavenly Dragon who has taken the principles of domination from God."**

Even Ddraig knew that they were in for it.

**[This is bad…!]**

The past possessors were going to forcefully coerce Issei into entering Juggernaut Drive.

"…**I laugh at the 'infinite' and I grieve at the 'dream'…!"**

Ddraig was about to call out for Saitama to intervene, when a new presence suddenly let itself known.

**{My, my… It appears that you people are in a real pinch right now.}**

Everyone turned their heads towards the source of the voice, and their eyes were met by the sight they did not expect to see of all things.

"**You are…."** Elsha muttered in recognition, along with Ddraig and Belzard.

Issei could tell more or less who he was staring at, but his biggest question was, how could he be here?

"**You….!"** The rest of the past Red Dragon Emperors however, were completely aggravated as they gave hateful glares at the newcomer.

The said newcomer, equipped with a pair of shining wings of light, only showed fearless expression as he bowed down theatrically.

**{Hello, everyone. The White Dragon Emperor at your service.}**

oXo

"What the?!"

Rias and everyone had to close their eyes when Issei's armour was suddenly enveloped in a blinding crimson light. Saitama himself was not perturbed at the light, as he simply stared at the turn-out of events with absolute interest on his expression.

* * *

Ravel Phenex had dressed herself up appropriately for the occasion, complete with her usual hair-style, as she stood by the entrance of the gondola port on the floating island of Agreas.

Few days ago, she had volunteered herself to prepare necessary arrangements for the arrival of Rias Gremory's peerage on the day of the match with Sairaorg Bael's peerage.

She checked the clock, then double-checked the schedule and her bookings again, as she noticed that the group she assigned on would arrive at any moment shortly. Then, she noticed several familiar faces approaching her from inside the port; that was her cue. She then put on her best etiquette and expression as she curtseyed in greeting.

"Welcome, I have been waiting for you…? Ise-sama, are you alright?" Her greeting was cut short when she noticed that Hyoudou Issei was looking haggard with bags under his eyes – sign of exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

"It's… I'm okay, Ravel. Just lacking some sleep, is all." Issei yawned as he was holding a cup of coffee. Some of his friends only rolled their eyes good-naturedly at the Pawn's antics.

On the other hand, Rias and some other girls were not amused of the fact that Issei had pushed himself too hard. For the duration of the morning, even during the trip from the human world to the underworld, Issei had been asleep for most of the time; he only awake when he had to walk to the station, changing vehicles, or if he wanted to use the restroom; otherwise he would just fall asleep there and then, in order to restore as much stamina as he could.

"This is what you got after pulling that stunt without telling any of us." Rias chided. "I expect you to perform at your best during the match. Understood?"

She might have sounded cruel, but everyone had to agree with her in more ways than one. None of them aside from Issei was crazy enough to pull such exerting all-nighter. What he did was as same as, if not worse, than a failing student pulling all-nighter before national exam.

Moreover, Issei also had missed some worth-noting discussion during the trip; such as the politics between Bael clan, Gremory clan, as well as the Four Great Satans themselves; the anonymous message that said about a certain group of outlaws led by the White Dragon Emperor offering extra security, ensuring that Khaos Brigade would not interfere the fight between Gremory group and Bael group, etc.

"Well, just give him a rest, Rias." Azazel intervened. "If what Saitama's words were true, then we can expect that Issei had achieved something incredible for the match later. Just trust your fiancé for now, will you?"

Azazel's half-advice, half-teasing only received several glares from the students, especially from Rias and Akeno. Overall, the rest of the trip towards the stadium inside the limousine was spent without much conversation, as Issei fell asleep once again.

oXo

When the group had arrived and entered the luxurious hotel next to stadium, Issei blinked his drowsy eyes when he noticed a group of hooded figures in the lobby. What caught his attention was the fact that the said group was definitely not devils.

Especially the one in the centre of the group, which appeared to be the leader, since the aura centred around him. If Issei had to describe the appearance of the leader, he could only describe him as a 'walking skeleton'.

Indeed, it was a skeleton; the other distinction compared with the other hooded figures was, that the attire the skeleton was wearing resembled the attire worn by high-priest of ancient order – a mitre cap on his head and a ornamented staff in his hand.

When the skeleton's eyes landed on the Gremory group, Issei saw the empty socket of his eyes flashed in recognition. **"Well, well… If it isn't the heiress of Gremory clan and the fallen angel governor…"**

His voice sounded somewhat unnatural, whether the voice was product of magic or ancient mysteries, the fact remained that the skeleton just _talked_.

"Oh, if this isn't the Ruler of Realm of the Dead, Lord Hades." Azazel returned the greeting sarcastically. "What brings you all the way from the depths of the your realm, until here, along with your squad of grim reapers? I thought you don't want to associate with devils and fallen angels like us?"

"**Fafafafa… You sure know how to talk to your elders, you raven brat. As for my reason to be here, it's because I heard a lot of noises up here, so I've come to observe."**

Azazel took in Hades' words before replying. "I see…. Say, old man skeleton. It seems like you are the only Greek gods that hasn't made a choice about entering The Alliance."

"**And what of it? Are you going to oppose me, just like what you have done with Loki?"** Hades asked. If his face possessed a bit more resemblance with that of a normal human flesh, his expression would have been slightly offended.

The members of Occult Research Club swallowed a lump nervously – except Issei. Nobody offended the Greek Ruler of Underworld and walked away unscathed.

Azazel then shook his head and sighed, wishing no hostility. "No, nothing like that. I'm just hoping that you'd be more open-minded like Odin, or your brothers from Mt. Olympus."

"**Kukuku…"** Hades chuckled as his aura dissipated. **"You expect me to enjoy the noises made by herd of crows and bats flocking together? Do not forget that I prefer peace and quiet in my realm."**

From the metaphor Hades used, it clearly showed that the God of Underworld was not fond of devils and fallen angels in general.

Then, the said god turned his attention towards Issei and his eyes flashed in recognition. "The Welsh Dragon… How nostalgic."

Everyone shifted when Hades set his hollow eyes at Issei. While the Greek God of Death did not seem to want causing trouble, who knew what he could do with mere flick of a wrist.

"…**I still remember the days where you and Vanishing Dragon were rampaging across my realm of the dead…"** Hades reminisced with neutral tone. **"…Come to think of it… The wielder of Boosted Gear… Of course, the descendant of that recent hero, eh?"**

Everyone, even Azazel blinked when Hades referred to a certain bald hero. Even Issei's drowsy eyes seemed to widen. "…Mind to share, old skeleton?" the fallen angel governor narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Saitama encountering Hades? Even Azazel never heard of that.

"**Kukuku… I only know of him from stories…"** Hades chuckled again. **"The rumours of a mortal wielding Thor's prized Mjolnir had spread across the world, including Greece."**

"…**But enough of that."** Hades then prepared to leave. **"I will enjoy myself for today. Try not to die early, youngsters… Especially you, Red Dragon Emperor… Fafafafafa…."** The god even gave a small tap on Issei's shoulder – that caused everyone to inwardly freak out, fearing the worst – before he finally left while laughing with his squad of Grim Reapers.

Everyone let out a breath that they had held in for who knows how long, while sporting some cold sweat and shivers. "…I did hear some stories about Lord Hades from my seniors back when I was a Valkyrie…" Rossweisse commented. "But even when he wasn't doing anything to us, I could feel as if he's holding my soul within his grasp…"

"T-t-that skeleton is scary…." Gasper whined as his body could not stop shaking.

Everyone silently nodded in agreement, safe for Issei, who was more nodding from drowsiness.

"Ise, are you okay?" Rias asked in worried tone at her Pawn and fiancé.

"That old man earlier… He's crazy strong." Issei muttered. "But… Yeah, I'm good. Still sleepy, though." He yawned again.

Everyone could only blink owlishly at Issei's reaction. Hades was one of the eldest and most powerful supernatural entity to date; the god who governed over the souls of the dead within the domains of Underworld. Legends stated that a single wave of his hand could turn a jungle into a wasteland, a continent into land of the dead. Normal humans could have their very souls taken away by simply staring into his hollow eyes.

And after facing such power, Issei could still feel sleepy? Not to mention that he just made a direct contact with the hands of death itself. Was it because Issei was just too sleepy to care? Or was it because he simply felt no threat at all?

Everyone else were likely not able to sleep anymore for the rest of the day after facing the Hades. Azazel was staring at Issei with the mix of calculating and bewilderment in his gaze. He understood if they were talking about Saitama, but…

Suddenly, a thought struck him and he smiled lightly few seconds later. Perhaps, just perhaps, Issei had started to become more like his father little by little.

However, two boisterous voices suddenly interrupted his musings.

"DEHAHAHAHA! I HAVE COME, AZAZEL!"

"AND SO HAVE I! GAHAHAHA!"

Azazel's expression brightened up as he turned to address the two newcomers; one was an elderly man with well-built body with moustache adorning his face, a crown on top of his wavy grey hair that reached his shoulder, and clad in toga; another one was also an elderly man, but this one was topless, and his expression was more friendly than the other person – who was actually seemed friendly enough as well.

"So you came, old man Zeus and old man Poseidon…" Azazel addressed the toga-wearing old man and the topless man respectively, who apparently were the legendary Greek God of Thunder and God of Earth and Seas. "Good to see you guys loud and clear as always. Man, I wish that Hades can share your bright attitude."

The two Gods of Olympus and the Scapegoat began to converse with each other like old friends; although Azazel seemed to be overwhelmed by the gods, he enjoyed their company nonetheless.

"**I am here, you lot." **

A familiar voice caused the group to turn and see a small purple dragon floating in the air. It took few seconds for everyone, including Issei to recognize the heavy voice coming out from such small body.

"…Old man Tannin?" Issei narrowed his sleepy eyes. For a second, he thought the lack of sleep started to cause hallucination.

"**Looks like you are not used seeing me in this form."** Tannin nodded in understanding. **"After all, it would be inconvenient if I walk around this place in my true form, would it not?"**

Everyone nodded at the sense of Tannin's words. It appeared that the former dragon king possessed shape-shifting ability.

"…**Hyoudou Issei, what is with your appearance?"** Tannin narrowed his eyes slightly at Issei's drowsy state.

"Please forgive him, Lord Tannin. It's just… side-effects of his last training session." Rias gave the boy a quick glance before she turned her attention back to the dragon.

Tannin remained silent as he observed Issei, and the rest of the group, before he finally sighed. **"Get yourself together, Hyoudou Issei. After all, the one you will face today is the strongest of the young generation. However…"** His eyes then returned to appraise Issei once again. **"Despite your state, I sense…. That you have grown significantly stronger."**

Everyone then blinked at Tannin's comment, before giving their respective small smile at Issei who only blinked owlishly.

"**In any case, this is your big day. Go out there and show them what you are made of!"**

[Yes!]

Everyone chorused, albeit Issei's reply was not as energetic due to his lethargic state.

Then, Rosweisse suddenly caught something at the corner of her eyes. It was an elderly man clad in ornate robe, with long white beard that reached all the way down to the floor, and a monocle on his eye. The Valkyrie's eyes widened as memory of hardship, humiliation, and betrayal washed over her brain. Her eyes flickered for a second to a young woman who was clad in an armour that was similar like hers during her days as a Valkyrie, before her eyes returned to the elderly man.

When her eyes and the old man's eyes met, the latter seemed to recognise her with a hint of fear on his face. Well, not exactly fear, more like heavy reluctance to interact with her.

"Oh, shit." The said old man simply muttered and he quickly made his way out of the lobby.

"Hold it right there, Lord Odin!" Rossweisse suddenly lashed out as she moved to go after the old man. "You old bastard, we are going to have a talk whether you like it or not!"

When the former Valkyrie had vanished at the entrance, the rest of the group could hear her voice echoing from outside. "WHO'S THE VALKYRIE JUST NOW!?"

Rias sighed at the sight of Rossweisse's episode. She was about to ask Issei to go after her new Rook, but she held her thought as Issei was still too lethargic to carry out the duty. Thus she had to settle with others. "Yuuto, Xenovia, Koneko, can you please go after Rossweisse and bring her back?"

Thus the day went on.

* * *

Issei woke up on a couch inside a spacious room complete with furniture, food, drinks even training equipment. Apparently the group had been assigned into waiting rooms for the Rating Game contestants to relax and prepare for the match. On that note the group had six hours before the game.

"Ah, Ise-san." Asia was the first to greet him. "Good morning, how are you feeling?"

Looking at the time and circumstances, one might thought that Asia was being sarcastic, but everyone in the room knew that Asia could not and would not ever being sarcastic; her greetings were genuine with her signature smile.

"Hey, Asia." Issei stood up and stretched his limbs for a bit. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Um… I think almost three hours." Asia then turned to the others. "Everyone else is doing some last exercises."

Speaking of, everyone else also noticed that the Pawn had awoken. "Ise." Rias called out. "Are you good now?"

Issei finished his stretching as he shook his head one last time. "Yeah…. Yeah, I'm awake now." He took a sip of quick drink before he walked to join the others. "Okay, so I'm game. What are we doing now?"

Just when everyone was glad that Issei was back in shape, someone entered the room. "Pardon the intrusion."

When everyone turned to see the guest, Rias and Ravel did not expect who they saw.

"Riser!"

"Onii-sama!"

The guest known as Riser Phenex raised his hand casually in greeting. "Glad to see you're doing well, Ravel." Riser then nodded at his ex-fiancee. "…Rias."

Everyone, including Riser, took a seat and Akeno poured the guest a cup of tea. After taking a sip, Riser then explained his purpose of visit. "I came here simply to discuss about the game. Considering that my dear sister is involving herself with you lot, I guess I should give some advices as a veteran in Rating Games."

Everyone followed so far; while Riser still sounded a bit haughty, an advice from someone with more experience could be very useful for future references.

"You guys are probably new for the game, but I'll say this; this upcoming match is on the same level as the professional games. There will be lots of spectators, your performances will be rated and evaluated. There will be pressure and stuff when you are standing on such a grand stage, so I can only suggest that you go all out there." Riser said with no non-sense tone. "Especially you, Rias. This might be a team-battle, but the higher-ups are looking forward to see of how you, as the King, are managing your servants."

Rias nodded in understanding. "I understand. Of course I will give my best for the game. Although I'm not as smart as Sona or as powerful as Sairaorg…" she admitted her weakness. "…But I'm blessed with my servants." Rias said with brighter expression.

"That is true…" Riser nodded, and his expression went a bit sour. "…And you also possess an element that I hate to have; working hard. You and others of the youngest generation are the first ones to actually train and strengthen your group as individual and as a group." Riser then scanned the rest of Rias' peerage and everyone could see approval in his eyes. "…And again, you have some kind of talent of gathering those with talents. I mean, look at your peerage."

Riser then gestured at Issei, Asia, Yuuto and Gasper. "First, Sacred Gear users. Even you got someone with a god-slaying Longinus to boot." Then Riser pointed at Rossweisse, Koneko and Akeno. "And there are also those with unique heritage, making them specials even among reincarnated devils." Then Riser pointed at Xenovia. "And, I think you are one among few that have a devil servant with a holy weapon."

Everyone felt flattered from Riser's appraisal. Rias herself only smiled proudly at Riser's comment. "So, there you have it, one helluva roaster of your servants. You should treasure them." That comment only boosted everyone's confidence even more.

"So believe me when I say this; you guys are already on par with professionals." Riser said again. "Especially that Red Dragon Emperor there. Perhaps my defeat from you had already been sealed, the moment you reincarnated him as your servant. With someone like him in your group, you have a chance to win against Bael, the so-called strongest youth."

Riser then stood up as he prepared to leave. "That's all I have to say. Good luck out there, Rias."

Rias nodded as she smiled gratefully. "Of course. Thank you, Riser."

Riser nodded, and he shifted his gaze to Issei. "Red Dragon Emperor." He then pointed his fist at the Pawn. "We will have a rematch one day, and I will be the one to come out victorious. Mark my words."

"…Bring it on." Issei smiled fearlessly, which Riser also returned the gesture in kind.

"Well said. And, I also leave Ravel to you. She might be handful like Rias, but she's a great earnest girl." He smirked as he noticed his sister's flustered reaction.

"O-onii-sama! It's none of your business!"

Riser chuckled before he suddenly glared at Issei. "Alright, alright… But seriously, do take good care of her. Otherwise I'm going to burn you to crisp. Is that clear?"

"ONII-SAMA!"

Thinking that Issei would accept his request/demand, Riser simply laughed off and quickly left the room to avoid Ravel's further outburst.

Then, when everyone was about to resume their activities, Riser suddenly popped in through the door again. "I actually forgot, Red Dragon Emperor."

Issei blinked when Riser called him out.

"This is just a heads-up. Your father, and a woman who I assume to be your mother, are here in the Underworld. I think they will be watching you from VIP seats along with the rest of Gremory family and other VIP guests. That's all."

When the door closed, signifying that Riser had finally left, the room fell into silence for few moments until Issei muttered one response.

"…Eh?"

* * *

The stadium where the Rating Game between Rias Gremory and Sairaorg Bael's peerage were packed with people, low-class and high-class devils alike. On the VIP section, there were Sirzechs Lucifer, Grayfia Lucifuge and Milicas Gremory, as well as Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory; along with other gods and leaders from various lands and pantheons who would like to watch the match live.

And from the judge's seats, there were three individuals; the announcer - Naud Gamigin of Gamigin Household, and the special guests - Azazel of Grigori, and Diehauser Belial of Belial Household.

And last but not least, there was a holographic projection of a silver-haired man with European descent in the middle of the stage. It was Rudiger Rosenkreutz, a reincarnated devil who had achieved the 7th rank in Rating Game, the highest position of reincarnated devil ever achieved. The person would serve as the arbiter of the match.

After some introductions, followed by cheers of the spectators, Naud Gamigin then spoke again.

[…And finally from the west gate, the contestant Rias Gremory and her peerage!]

The crowd cheered with thunderous voice, causing everyone in the group to feel incredibly nervous from the sheer voice and pressure. Riser Phenex was not kidding, standing in front of the crowd alone had made their hearts felt like bursting out from their ribcage.

Issei on the other hand, was nervous for another reason entirely. He looked around, and when he saw what it seemed to be VIP box seats, his eyes landed on two humans that were sitting among gods and other celestial beings.

Hyoudou Haruka and Saitama were sitting on the same row as the Gremory clan; the matriarch was seen to be ecstatically cheering at the children; especially her son, while Saitama was watching with his usual stoic looks and Sirzechs was giving him a knowing grin and flashing a thumbs-up. Zeoticus and Venelana on the other hand, simply waved and gave encouraging smiles.

"Wow, they really are here." Xenovia quipped. The rest could only stared incredulously at the unexpected presence, although Asia was sheepishly waving back at her two surrogate parents.

Issei's jaw dropped while his voice seemed to die in his throat. Cold sweats were appearing on his skin as he was worried for more than one reason. His mother, a supposedly normal human, was sitting among the most powerful, possibly also the most dangerous beings on the planet. Hell, the mother was looking so out of place that he could see Odin, the Trinity Gods of Olympus, as well as some other celestial beings were stealing few glances at her.

Issei would not have been able to focus on the match if not for the fact that his mother was safe sitting between his father and the Crimson Satan.

"Oh, look! That's Irina-san!" Asia pointed at a direction.

Issei turned and truly, Shidou Irina was seen among the children spectator holding a banner of Gremory team, cheering and rooting for them.

Rias was smiling pleasantly in gratitude at her supporters. "Now that we have a lot of supporters on our side, let's not disappoint them, shall we?"

Everyone chorused in agreement, while Issei also took a deep breath. Now that his parents, especially his mother, were also watching him, he could not afford to mess up.

Naud Gamigin then proceeded to explain the rules and the settings of the match. Firstly, each team would be given one vial of Phoenix Tears. Secondly, unlike the classic team-battle duel in most Rating Games, the match between Gremory and Bael would be conducted with Dice Figure rules.

Basically, Rias and Sairaorg would have to roll a six-sided dice respectively to determine which servants would battle a short duel on the stage. The number of the value would be added, and the total value would determine what Pieces could be sent to the field. The value was based on a Pawn. A Queen equalled to 9 Pawns, a Knight and Bishop equalled 3 Pawns respectively, and a Rook equalled 5 Pawns. In case of a reincarnated devil that possessed more than one Evil Piece, they would have the added up value of the Evil Piece.

Since both Rias and Sairaorg did not possess a servant that possessed only one Pawn, both of them would have to come up with value of three or higher, otherwise they would have to roll the dice again until the sufficient value came up.

During the match, each team was not allowed to send out the same combatant continuously, the same went for the Kings.

Of course, like any other Rating Game, the peerage would lose together when their King fell defeated. And speaking of King, both Rias and Sairaorg's value were decided by the judging committee; with Sairaorg possessed the value of 12 while Rias possessed the value of 8.

As vexing as it felt, Rias had to admit that Sairaorg was indeed stronger than her in terms of power. Who would win in the end, however, would be decided in the match.

The group then conducted a quick strategizing, considering that Asia was not suited for combat, Rias would only have 8 combatants including herself – Akeno, Yuuto, Xenovia, Koneko, Rossweissei, Gasper and Issei.

Thus, the game began when both Kings were called to role the die.

* * *

The game went with the first round resulted in Rias Gremory's favour. With both teams resulted the value of 3 during the dice roll, each team sent out one Knight – Kiba Yuuto of Gremory team and Beruka Furcas of Bael team – to fight the first round.

As soon as the two combatants entered the stage, the magic deployed across the stage relocated the Knights into a grassy plain, where Yuuto and Beruka would face off against each other.

When the match began, Beruka Furcas managed to hold the advantage of his superior horse-riding skill combined with his spearman-ship. His mount and partner, Altobrau, was a pale horse – a species of horse from the deepest part of the underworld that had been known to be notoriously difficult to tame, let alone ride on.

Things became more unfavourable for Yuuto when Furcas revealed that he was capable of creating multiple copies of himself through illusion magic, pressuring Yuuto from all sides.

However, Yuuto turned the tables when he revealed that he possessed Blade Blacksmith, a Sacred Gear that created holy swords, when he achieved his holy-demonic sword for the first time through the help of the spirit of his deceased comrades. Apparently, the holy element that Yuuto received during Excalibur fiasco also contained the Blade Blacksmith.

Moreover, after a couple weeks of training, Yuuto also managed to obtain his own sub-species Balance Breaker: Glory Drag Trooper – Supreme Holy Dragon Knight Army, which allowed him to conjure an army of dragon knights on his beck and call. Each dragon knight reflected the speed and other physical attributes of Kiba Yuuto, although unfortunately, the knights could not reflect his techniques.

Blade Blacksmith's original Balance Breaker was known as Blade Knight Mass – Supreme Holy Knight Army, and Yuuto was able to create a variant of the said move. While Yuuto's Glory Drag Trooper and Blade Knight Mass were awfully similar in both properties and descriptions, it was still up for debate which one was superior.

On that note, according to Yuuto himself, one of the reasons for his Glory Drag Trooper was due to his constant sparring with the Red Dragon Emperor himself.

In any case, Yuuto's newly achieved Balance Breaker allowed him to obtain victory after a heated showdown between him and his dragon knights against Beruka Furcas and his clones.

Currently, both teams were preparing for the next round as Rias and Sairaorg rolled the die, which ended up with a value of nine; allowing each team to send out a combatant or more, as long as their value equalled the die.

Rias rubbed her chin in thought as she contemplated on who she would send out. She looked back to her peerage – Issei or Akeno could go, but they could only go alone, risking a chance that enemy might came up with more combatants. Yuuto was out due to the rules, and the Knight was still recovering under Asia's Twilight Healing. Perhaps she could send out a combination between her Rook and her Bishop and Knight; but for a power-house with holy sword like Xenovia, Rias preferred to save her until later. However, with the value of eight, Rias considered that sending out Rossweisse and Xenovia was the most logical choice.

"…I'll go."

Rias blinked out of her reverie when she, along with everyone, saw Issei raised his hand up, volunteering himself to go for the second round. The other members were surprised at Issei's volunteering, but they themselves were not sure if that was a correct decision. They then turned to see their King's reaction.

Rias only stared at Issei with calculative look; her mind was scaling the pros and cons of sending her strongest member early in the match. On one hand, she had a feeling that the second round was as good as hers if she sent out Issei; on the other hand, it was also the same as deploying her trump card prematurely.

Then again, there was his look – the look that showed confidence and comfort, as if saying that everything would be just fine.

Few seconds of staring later, Rias narrowed her eyes slightly at her Pawn, as if she was about to come to a decision. "…Are you sure about this, Ise?"

"Yeah." Issei replied without missing a beat. "…Besides, I can use a little pick-me-up." He said with a small grin.

The others smiled lightly at Issei's confidence, and Rias finally sighed with small smile adorning her face. "…Alright, you can go. Just be careful, okay?"

"I will." Issei nodded and he was transported through the magic circle.

oXo

When Issei looked around at his surrounding, he found himself being transported into what appeared to be a dark shrine. The interior seemed like it was western-style shrine, with massive pillars supporting a building. However, Issei grimaced when he had taken everything into his eyes. After all, the place was similar with the location where Issei confronted Diodora Astaroth; the place where he had almost lost Asia.

Issei then noticed that his opponents had arrived at the location. Emerging from the darkness was two individuals; one of them was a young man with blond hair wearing a set of light armour, a sword was strapped on his waist as well.

The other person was a large man towering around 3-meters tall, his body was packed with muscles and his arms were thick until his fingers. Issei almost felt like he was looking at the Hulk, with his skin was not green and his face was more beastly.

[Oh, Lady Rias Gremory has sent out her Pawn, Hyoudou Issei – The Red Dragon Emperor! While Sairaorg Bael has sent out his Knight and Rook respectively, Liban Crocell and Gandoma Balam!]

Naud Gamigin's announcement received a roar from the spectator, most of them were eager to see The Heavenly Dragon in action.

"I'm one of the Knights serving Lord Sairaorg Bael, Liban Crocell." The young man with blonde haired introduced himself, before gesturing to his partner. "…and this big gentleman is one of Lord Sairaorg's Rooks, Gandoma Balam. We shall be your opponents, Red Dragon Emperor." Gandoma Balam simply nodded without saying any words during the introduction.

"Hyoudou Issei, Lady Rias Gremory's Pawn. Let's have a good match." Issei nodded, returning the courtesy.

"Yes, let's." Liban smiled faintly, at least he got a good first impression of his opponent.

Issei remembered his two opponents from previous encounters during the conference, as well as from the video recording. He recalled that the Knight – Liban Crocell possessed an ability that forced one of his opponents immobile, as if being pinned down by some overwhelming force; possibly a Sacred Gear's doing.

In addition, the Knight also showed talents in magic, allowing him to earn the status of Magic Swordsman – a combination of magic and swordsmanship made Liban Crocell an opponent one could not take lightly on.

Gandoma Balam on the other hand, was a power-house. In addition of his already immense physical strength and defence bestowed by his heritage as Balam, Further enhancement by Rook piece allowed his physical attributes to raise to even higher stats than Rooks in general.

With the combination of magic, swordsmanship, and strength before him, Issei felt that he could not afford to go easy on this round. _"So much for saving energy…."_

_**[You could have just stayed behind and let others fight instead, you know.]**_

"…_Shut up."_

Issei scoffed at the Welsh Dragon's retort; what's done is done.

**[WELSH DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER!]**

As soon as the arbiter announced the beginning of the match, Issei immediately equipped himself with his Scale Mail. "Let's get this quickly over and done with!"

The rest of Gremory group watched in slight worry. Considering Issei's condition, they could not help but wonder if Issei could defeat two opponents within the time limit. Not that they knew that beneath the armour, Issei's face was not worried at all.

And without wasting time, Gandoma Balam charged ahead, while Liban Crocell stayed behind while he was also ready to move at moment's notice. However, the Knight's eyes were glowing as he set his gaze on the spot where Red Dragon Emperor was standing on.

"Gravity Jail!"

As the name implied, Liban possessed a Sacred Gear that allowed him to manipulate the gravity of anything within his line of sight. The extent of how much the gravity he could control, as well as the duration, depended on his reserve of magic power.

As soon as Liban activated his power on Issei, the ground where the latter was standing on was suddenly cracked, as if caving in from overwhelming pressure. Issei was seen still walking towards the charging Balam…

BAM!

And Issei literally launched Balam's massive body to a distance with his fist, forcing Liban to duck to avoid the giant hurdling towards him. The Knight only looked back to see the Rook crashed into a couple of pillars before he finally dropped on the ground.

[Oooh! One attack from combatant Hyoudou Issei was able to send Gandoma Balam's giant body flying! Even Liban Crocell's Sacred Gear was not effective against the Heavenly Dragon!?]

Liban turned his attention back to Issei with disbelief look. "How can you still move like that?" While it was still possible for someone to be able to move under the effect of Gravity Jail, even if the Pawn had promoted to Queen, he at least should have experienced some difficulty in moving, let alone overwhelming Gandoma in terms of strength.

Issei did not say anything from beneath his Scale Mail as he simply walked towards Liban at steady pace, while gesturing his hand in taunting manner. Liban flinched slightly, it was a bit aggravating looking at Issei's taunt, but he could not lose his composure. After all, he could tell that Gandoma would not go down from that easily.

True, the said Rook had recovered to his feet and was returning to his comrade's side. "….Liban." It was perhaps his first words in the match. "…Using your Sacred Gear on an opponent on his calibre is only a waste of energy. I say we overwhelm him while we have advantage in numbers. What say you?"

Liban remained silent for a few seconds, as if taking in Gandoma's input. Then, he closed his eyes for a second, de-activating his Gravity Jail, and brandished his sword. "…You have a point."

Issei suddenly felt his body a lot lighter, perhaps the change in gravity did affect him. Nevertheless, the match went on, and Issei saw that his two opponents were circling him.

The first to attack was Gandoma Balam as he proceeded with a swing of his massive arm, which Issei easily dodged it. However, when Issei turned around, Liban Crocell had already been waiting at him with his sword ready, throwing several strikes.

Liban displayed an impressive speed and swordsmanship combination; however, Issei felt that Yuuto was harder to deal with. Then, when Issei parried a strike and was about to counter-attack towards Liban, Issei sensed that Gandoma was already on him again from the back.

[Such teamwork! Gandoma Balam and Liban Crocell were showcasing a formidable combination between power, speed and magic; placing The Red Dragon Emperor on ropes!]

On another note of Naud Gamigin's observation, Liban mainly served as distraction, a means to keep Issei occupied, while Gandoma was the main damage-dealer. To make matters worse, Liban then began to coat his blade with magic; reinforcing the blade to match against Issei's Scale Mail. While dragon's scale was almost impenetrable, it would be troublesome if Issei did not deal with the magic sword any time soon.

In any case, Issei's tactic against two opponents was the same as the time he was facing the monster created by Annihilation Maker at Kyoto – separate the two, and deal with them one at a time.

Issei just sent a kick towards Liban's abdomen, which the Knight barely managed to block with the flat of his blade. While Liban was able to avoid direct hit, the impact was enough to launch him away, leaving Issei to engage Gandoma.

While Gandoma was powerful for a Rook, his main fighting style relied heavily on his sheer strength and size, which Issei had learned the way to deal with. Focusing each strike to a point, Issei easily dodged each of Gandoma's attacks and delivered precise blows to Gandoma's vitals and joints. If the Rook was in pain, he did not show it. However, he could not hide the effects done of his body as his movement became more haggard from the damage he received from Issei's strikes.

[Gandoma Balam is under Hyoudou Issei's mercy! None of the Rook's attack has even touched the Pawn's armour!]

"HAARGH!" Gandoma finally roared as he slammed his fists down, forcing Issei to jump back to evade the attack and the aftershock.

Then, the teamwork between the Rook and the Knight was proven again when the latter suddenly jumped out from behind the former large built, catching Issei by surprise in the process as Liban brought his sword down.

Issei jumped back again, and noticed that the Knight and the Rook were standing in one straight line. Wasting no time, he charged his demonic power right before them.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

"Dragon Shot!"

A massive bullet of demonic power then shot forth towards Liban and Gandoma, however, when the magic bullet was getting closer, the Knight smirked as if he was waiting for that very moment.

Liban chanted a spell, and a mirror was suddenly conjured in front of him, shielding both him and Gandoma behind him. The mirror's surface was also laced with several markings and enchantment, and when Issei's Dragon Shot made contact made contact with the mirror, the attack was seemingly absorbed for a second, before it was fired back right towards Issei, resulting a massive explosion.

BOOM!

[An unexpected development! Liban Crocell suddenly returned The Red Dragon Emperor's attack! What do you think about this, Lord Azazel and Lord Belial?]

Naud Gamigin turned to the special guest.

[Interesting…. I can only assume that Liban was attempting to create something similar like Mirror Alice of Sona Sitri's Queen. However, the mirror did not possess the amplifier property that returns the attack twice stronger.]

[Sairaorg Bael's peerage had done their research on the past matches.]

Azazel and Diehauser Belial gave their respective comment.

However, when the dust cleared up, Issei was not seen anywhere. "What the-!?" Liban widened his eyes when nobody remained from the redirected attack. Something was off, while the shot earlier was powerful, it was nowhere enough to destroy someone, especially someone on Red Dragon Emperor's calibre to ashes.

"Too bad."

Liban and Gandoma froze as they recognised the voice from behind them, particularly from behind Gandoma. The Rook turned to catch Issei at the corner of his eyes, another orb of demonic power was ready to be fired from _point blank_ range.

"…Shi-!"

"This is another more!"

Faster then they could have reacted, Issei immediately punched his fist and fired his dragon shot, launching Gandoma and Liban together through several pillars and further into the shrine's interior, as the massive demonic energy kept firing its course.

BOOM!

[A comeback! The Red Dragon Emperor was able to make a comeback and fired his attack to hit Gandoma Balam and Liban Crocell simultaneously! That's amazing!]

When the dust settled, everyone was met with the sight of Gandoma and Liban sprawled on the ground, among the debris. Liban was seemingly unmoving, while Gandoma was unable to move, albeit conscious enough to groan in pain from the burns and injuries adorning his body. Few seconds later, their bodies were enveloped in light before disappearing from the field, followed by the announcement by the arbiter – Rudiger Rosenkreutz.

[Sairaorg Bael's Knight and Rook retire. The second round goes to Rias Gremory's Pawn.]

The supporters of Rias Gremory's team then cheered. The group was also pleased at Issei's win, when Rias noticed that from the VIP seats, among the esteemed guests that were remained composed yet amused at the development, Hyoudou Haruka was being the most vocal of seeing her son's victory. She sweat-dropped when she saw Saitama had to deal with his wife's childish antics as Haruka shook him back and forth in excitement, while Sirzechs and the rest of her family only smiled sheepishly at the couple next to them.

* * *

The match went on; the third round, the die rolled five, where Rias sent out her Rook, Rossweisse to battle, while Sairaorg Bael sent out his Bishop, Coriana Andrealphus – she was a young woman with long, wavy blonde hair that wore a business suit that was similar to Rossweisse's suit in general.

One might have said that it was a mismatch between a Rook and a Bishop – one was specialized in brute strength and defence while the other one was more versed in mystic arts. However, note that Rossweisse had been an expert magician before she was a devil; her Rook enhancement allowed her to withstand all of Coriana's magic, while Rossweisse's variety of Norse and devil mystical arts were able to overwhelm the Bishop.

Overall, it was an overwhelming victory for the former Valkyrie.

Moving on to the fourth round, the dice rolled was eight. Both teams sent out their respective combatants to match the value – Toujou Koneko and Gasper Vladi of Rias Gremory's peerage vs Ladora Bune and Misteeta Sabnock of Sairaorg Bael's peerage.

On that note, while Gasper had been enlisted as a combatant, it was quite surprising when the shy dhampir volunteered himself for the match, something about reserving the main powerhouse like Xenovia for later, as well as showing his fruits of training; Koneko also volunteered to go with Gasper.

They were transported to what it seemed to be wasteland with rocky landscape. When they got a sight of their opponents, they noticed that Ladora Bune – the Rook, was a tall man with lanky build, and Misteeta Sabnock – the Bishop, was a young man with somewhat 'beautiful' face.

The fight began; the plan was to have Koneko to engage Misteeta with her superior close-combat skill while Gasper would keep Ladora in place with his Sacred Gear.

So far, so good; with Koneko utilizing his touki and Senjutsu, she was able to put Misteeta on ropes, the Bishop was doing his best to dodge and parry Koneko's attacks.

On Gasper's side, it appeared that Ladora was stronger than he appeared to be, as Gasper struggled to keep the Forbidden Balor View's effect on.

However, the tables suddenly turned when Misteeta released a weird aura – it was not devilry, Misteeta then focused his attention on both Koneko and Gasper.

"Vanish!"

As soon as the word was spoken, Koneko suddenly lost the feeling of her ki, and Ladora suddenly was freed from Gasper's power. While Koneko and Gasper were disoriented on their sudden loss of power, Ladora immediately used his own trump card as well.

Everyone safe from those from Sairaorg group was shocked when they saw Ladora's body slowly morphed and transformed into a black dragon.

[That Sairaorg…. So he managed to awaken the Bune clan's true power?]

Azazel could not help but be astonished at the development. The Bune clan had been well-known for their abilities to tame dragons. There were even rare cases where some clansmen were able to transform into a dragon itself; and Ladora was actually one of those rare cases.

"Gasper, Koneko! What is going on!?" Rias asked through their ear-piece.

"I-I don't know! I suddenly can't use my Sacred Gear!" Gasper panicked as he quickly turned into a flock of bats to aid Koneko. It seemed his vampire ability was untouched.

"I can't use my Senjutsu as well…" Koneko replied as she stared at her hands.

[Oh! What's this? Combatant Koneko and Gasper are suddenly forced into defensive! Lord Azazel, what do you think is happening?]

Azazel was watching with interest.

[Hmm… I only know from records, but Misteeta Sabnock possesses a Sacred Gear that allows him to seal one's ability. Fascinating.]

Trick Vanish – Coffin of Unusual Talent, was a Sacred Gear of Misteeta Sabnock that granted him an ability to temporarily seal his opponent's ability at the expense of his own reserve and stamina. He just used the Trick Vanish to seal Koneko's Senjutsu, as well as Gasper's Forbidden Balor View.

ROAAARGH!

Koneko and Gasper were snapped out of their thoughts when they saw the black dragon was upon them. The dragon inhaled and both Rook and Bishop could guess what the dragon would do from the gesture.

"RUN!" both Koneko and Gasper barely managed to jump out of the way when Ladora's dragon form released a torrent of fire breath. The dragon did not stop, as he made sure that his flames were spread in front of him.

However, when he stopped, Ladora found the burning landscape without any sign of the enemy remains. There was neither any announcement about the end of the match. The enemies were still active.

Maintaining his dragon form, Ladora looked around and sniffed to the air, before he turned to address his comrades. The said comrade was sitting on the ground, his breathing was laboured as Misteeta was extremely exhausted; the Bishop was barely able to last without being forfeited.

As if knowing Ladora's concern, Misteeta waved his hand. "I'm fine… Just need to have a minute." He said as he calmed his breathing. "Just focus on finding the enemy."

Ladora nodded, and with another roar, the black dragon returned in searching his preys by flopping structures and using his fire breath to smoke out Koneko and Gasper from among the rocks. The problem was, the Rook and Bishop's small built allowed them to use the rocks as a perfect hiding ground.

Meanwhile, Koneko and Gasper were hiding within the shadow of one particularly huge structure, silently and wearily watching the black dragon looking for them. With the dragon's sense of smell, it was a matter of time until the dragon found them.

"W-what should we do?" Gasper stuttered as he was doing his best to not shaking in fear.

"Gasper, can you do something about the seal placed on you two?" Rias asked from their communication link.

Gasper made a quick check on himself, and a minute later, he replied. "I… I can pull something off." He then picked out a vial of Issei's blood from his pocket. "I can just drink Ise-senpai's blood to boost my power and forcefully remove the seal."

Vampires drank fresh blood to sustain themselves. The blood did not only serve as a form of sustenance, but also feeding them power.

"But on the other hand…" Gasper then turned to Koneko. "I can use the blood as catalyst to perform a small ritual to remove the seal on Koneko-chan… The amount of blood is only enough for one person… What should I do?"

The two were faced with a dilemma; basically, only one person could be free from the seal earlier while the other one had to wait until the effect wore off by itself. And during that time, they had a black dragon hot on their rears.

"Gya-kun, use the blood on yourself." Koneko finally came to a decision. "I'll manage by my own somehow."

"W-what are you saying!?" Gasper shot back. "I can't just leave you untreated!"

"I also have an idea about this seal." Koneko replied. "Please, just trust me."

The Rook and Bishop stared at each other for few seconds, before the latter finally gave in. "I… I'll buy you some time." Gasper then opened the vial and drank the content.

Then, Gasper's eyes shone, the seal of Trick Vanish was removed by the sheer power boost. At the same time, Misteeta noticed that something had happened with the connection between him and the seal he placed upon the enemy. "Ladora!" he called out to the Rook. "One of my seals had been forcefully removed! Be careful!"

The dragon glanced at the Bishop, and he started to look around, preparing for any form of surprise attack. Suddenly, a flock of bats flew out from one of the rocks. The bats flew around to disorient the dragon and the bat's eyes glowed, staring at Ladora's dragon form.

Then, Ladora suddenly froze, as Gasper's Forbidden Balor View worked its power. The dhampir actually aimed to freeze Misteeta as well, but considering Ladora's raw power in his dragon form, keeping him frozen had taken quite a lot of his hands. It was only the fact that Misteeta was still exhausted that Gasper could focus on the Rook.

Meanwhile, Koneko – still remained in her hiding spot, was meditating in lotus position. She got an idea after recalling the use and application of Senjutsu again; what if she focused herself to tap into her life force? Would she be able to forcefully remove the curse on her by the said life force? Whatever the outcome, it was worth a shot.

The feeling when she was struck by Trick Vanish ability was as if she returned to square one again. However, that only meant that she just needed to 're-learn' how to feel the energy again, and how to do that? – Through meditation.

She could feel the curse was blocking her access to her chakra, her life force, preventing her to utilize her Senjutsu, so she had to concentrate even more if she wanted to break it through. She only hoped that Gasper could last long enough until she could regain her powers back.

Back to the battlefield, Misteeta gritted his teeth in agitation. He had not recovered enough, and using Trick Vanish to seal Gasper's Sacred Gear again would risk him to retire early from extreme exhaustion. He could not afford that to happen, after all, there was still the enemy Rook into account. However, he could tell from looks alone that the dhampir had already had his plate full on keeping Ladora in place. The black dragon showed occasional twitch on his body, almost broke free from Gasper's eyes, but the dhampir stood his ground as he focused his Sacred Gear on the dragon.

If what Ladora needed was an opening to break free, then Misteeta did not have to rely on his Sacred Gear. Conjuring several spells with his remaining reserve, Misteeta then released a torrent of flames and light magic towards Gasper's bat form.

"Eeek!" Gasper shrieked as soon as he saw the attack, and instinctively manoeuvred to evade, the magic ended up grazing him. However, it was enough to make Gasper losing his focus and soon enough, Ladora was free from Gasper's Sacred Gear.

Gasper could not react in time when Ladora immediately released his fire breath upon him. With his bat form flying around to avoid the torrent of flames, Gasper returned to his original form with wounds and burns littering his body, even his clothes were charred here and there.

From the spectator side, the Gremory group could only watch helplessly as Gasper struggled alone against the enemy pair. It could be said that everyone wanted nothing more than jumped into the field and rescued Gasper there and then.

Rias, getting the front seat of her Bishop's fight, closed her eyes as she turned away from the battlefield, unable to bear looking at Gasper's state.

"…Don't look away."

Rias blinked, and she looked up to see Issei was looking ahead, his expression un-wavering. However, she noticed that his fists were tightening so hard that his bones were creaking, as well as his veins were showing around his trembling knuckles.

"Right now, Gasper is fighting as a proud member of your peerage. The shy little boy we knew before is now standing up as a man. He may be losing, but please watch until the end!"

Everyone was touched by Issei's speech. When they looked at the battlefield again, they could see Gasper's expression was not an expression of someone cowering before the enemy; Gasper's eyes remained locked on his enemy, on his surrounding, refusing to give up; the Bishop kept struggling to see any opening he could exploit to obtain victory.

"…Aargh!"

However, a scream caused Ladora and Gasper to turn their heads, only to see Koneko had ambushed Misteeta. With her Senjutsu returning for her to use, Koneko's body was covered in touki, granting her additional strength and speed to overwhelm the Bishop.

Koneko was focusing on taking down Misteeta as soon as she could. The Bishop had proven his ability to be the real trouble for her and Gasper. As long as the supporter was taken care of, both her and Gasper could team up to take down the black dragon down.

Misteeta, exhausted from using his Sacred Gear, as well as using his remaining reserve to distract Gasper and support Ladora, knew very well that he would inevitably lost. If he could not survive, at the very least…

Focusing his power for one more time, he made sure that his attention and power was directed solely on Koneko, as well as Gasper. "LADORA!"

That yell alone was enough to convey Misteeta's message towards his comrade as his eyes glowed with power. "…VANISH!"

With that one yell, Misteeta activated his Trick Vanish on Koneko and Gasper, effectively robbing them of their powers once again. Then, with every ounce of his strength depleted, Misteeta collapsed on the ground as his body was slowly disappeared in a flash of light; the Rating Game system had deemed the Bishop unable to continue fighting.

[Sairaorg Bael's Bishop retires.]

Ladora did not waste Misteeta's sacrifice as he immediately turned towards the most vulnerable of the enemy pair. Gasper was still injured, and when he saw the black dragon making its way towards him, his first instinct was to use his Sacred Gear – Forbidden Balor View to freeze the dragon in place. However, the momentary fear caused Gasper to forget what Misteeta had placed on him.

Ladora did not take any chance as he inhaled another fire breath at the dhampir, aiming to finish the job. Gasper could not dodge in time, even with his vampire power; Koneko was a bit too far away and would not make it in time for the rescue.

When a large stream of flame came over him, Gasper did not falter as he met the attack head-on; for he was a man of Rias Gremory's peerage.

"GYA-KUN!"

Along with Koneko's scream, the Gremory group suffered their first casualty.

[Rias Gremory's Bishop retires.]

"HYAH!"

With all the strength from her Rook trait alone, Koneko lunged and drove her fist as hard as she could at Ladora's dragon-maw. The impact was enough for the black dragon to stagger on his feet.

It was actually an unwise move from Koneko, considering that her Senjutsu was still sealed. Perhaps because it was a momentary rage at the sight of her fallen comrade? At least Koneko was able to land a hit to honour Gasper's tribute.

With the match became a one-on-one between two Rooks, the victor would be decided depending on how the combatant made the best out of the situation. Ladora still used his superior size and strength with his dragon form, as he began to lash out at Koneko with flurry of slash and swings of his claws and fangs, followed with some small fire breath to keep Koneko on ropes.

Now calm and collected again, Koneko began to employ her guerrilla tactics, since her trade-mark ability had yet to return. While avoiding another fire breath, she retreated towards the rocks, using her small build to hide under the shadows, biding time until she could utilise her Senjutsu again.

It became another game of hide and seek with Ladora Bune literally attempting to smoke Koneko out by burning and flipping the landscape around, while sniffing in the air to find Koneko's scent among the smokes and other burnt scents.

It was probably the luck factor playing out, but the hide and seek game did not last long as Ladora found Koneko hiding under one of the rocks. To be precise, Koneko was found meditating, attempting to remove the curse place on her by tapping into her life force – which was interrupted when Ladora ambushed her.

[Oh! Combatant Ladora is hot on combatant Koneko's tail! The Nekoshou still has her power sealed by combatant's Misteeta's Sacred Gear, and Ladora doesn't seem to allow her any chance to recover!]

Per what Naud Gamigin surmised, the black dragon had made sure to keep the cat within his sight. The game hide and seek had become the game of cat and mouse – for the lack of better term.

While dodging and evading Ladora's fire breath, Koneko did not stop as she kept trying to tap into her life force, despite the difficulty to do so without meditation and the curse Trick Vanish placed on her person. Even as a Rook, the past training she had went through with her comrades had allowed her movement faster than Rooks in general, allowing her to weather Ladora's attacks for some time.

"_Come on… Come on….!"_ Koneko gritted her teeth as she mustered her power to forcefully manifest, while she endured the sheer heat of Ladora's flame, as well as the brunt of his attacks. Ladora's hits might be powerful due to his dragon form, but just like average Rooks, it was slow enough that Koneko was able to avoid them with relative ease. However, the shock wave produced from each swing was still enough to throw her out of loop from time to time.

The fire breath, on the other hand, was a bit tricky. Previously, Ladora was unleashing his fire breath for wide area attack, allowing Koneko to exploit the torrent of flames as a wall to cover her escape into the rocks. Now, Ladora had reduced the output of his flame, while remained strong enough to damage her significantly, yet not too big that Koneko could not escape from Ladora's sight.

It proven to be quite a herculean task for both Koneko's mind and body – she had to constantly avoid and weather the black dragon's assaults while tapping into her life force. If she could not remove the curse on her, it would be a matter of time until Ladora managed to deal a fatal hit.

Few minutes later, after constant concentration, methodical breathing, and flexing her muscles – anything that allowed her to force her ki to manifest; Koneko blinked when she felt a jolt from inside her. She looked down to see changes on the markings on her person.

Ladora widened his reptilian eyes when he saw the curse marks on Koneko's person began to fade, and the latter suddenly enveloped in white aura.

[And the combatant Koneko seems to have been freed from the effect of Misteeta's Sacred Gear! Both Rooks are now fighting head to head!]

With touki coating over her body, Koneko had slightly easier time to weather Ladora's fire breath. Pushing through the flames, Koneko jumped out to surprise the enemy Rook as she sent her ki-coated fist reeling towards Ladora's temple. The sudden boost of strength from Koneko's touki was able to finally force the dragon to collapse the ground.

However, even with additional strength, speed and defence, the fact did not change that Koneko was already exhausted from weathering Ladora's assaults from earlier. As Ladora slowly got back on his feet, the Rook engaged each other again.

It was a seemingly mismatch fight between a dragon and a cat, with the former using his superior size, strength and defence to overwhelm the latter.

On the other hand, Koneko's Senjutsu allowed her to disrupt the flow of life energy inside Ladora's dragon body, although the latter's sheer size would need Koneko a while until her Senjutsu took effect.

Until then, it was a battle of attrition, whether the cat would fall before the dragon's might, or the cat could inflict fatal-enough internal damage on the dragon.

When Koneko landed several hits on Ladora's abdomen and chest, the latter suddenly found that it was more difficult for him to unleash his fire breath.

There were many theories about how dragons breath fire. Some people suggested that dragons possessed two sets of lungs. One set was for breathing, the other was to help them flying, as well as breathing fire. Other theories stated that dragons possessed something like 'magical core' – the source of their destructive breath, inside their stomach.

Whatever the truth was, Koneko's ki-fused attacks finally took effect on Ladora's flow of power. His movement had become more sluggish, it became harder to gather magic to breath fire; and to begin with, Ladora was not an actual dragon; thus even with his dragon form, his strength was far cry from the real deal.

However, dragon's physiology and strength still allowed him to deal significant damages on Koneko's petite stature.

All in all, in the end, every fight must come to an end.

[Both Rooks of Rias Gremory and Sairaorg Bael, retire.]

It was a bit surprising, despite Ladora was able to eventually overwhelmed Koneko, the latter's Senjutsu also managed to wreck Ladora's body and system from inside out. One was retired from burns and heavy cuts from a dragon's rampage while the other suffered a severe internal damage of his own life force from Senjutsu attacks; even if Ladora were to be treated by Phoenix Tears, the internal damage would need longer time to heal.

Thus, the fourth round ended with a tie.

* * *

The match went on – the fifth round, where Rias and Sairaorg rolled nine; thus they decided to send out their Queens for the round. Himejima Akeno of Gremory group vs Kuisha Abaddon of Bael group.

A match between two Queens – both of them were exceptional in their own right. One came from House of Abaddon, an Extra Demon clan with a unique ability to create 'holes' from thin air and manipulate them. The other possessed blood of fallen angel, giving her the power with holy attribute, the bane for devil kind.

When the fight began, both Queens flew to the air and tested each other out with battle of magic – both combatants unleashed various elemental-magic and countered each other heatedly.

Then, when Akeno decided to use her trademark holy lightning, Kuisha also activated her own trump card.

House of Abaddon, where Kuisha was originated, possessed an ability to create a black hole that served as a portal to an enormous pocket dimension. Members of Abaddon household could use the holes they created to redirect whatever comes their way by absorbing them into the hole, and take it out somewhere else. The said 'whatever' could be physical object, and even lightning. It was also possible for the user to manipulate the attribute and elements of the absorbed object within the hole.

The hole created by Kuisha absorbed Akeno's holy lightning, and Kuisha quickly disassembled Akeno's holy lightning inside the hole. When Akeno increased her output of holy lightning in attempts of overpowering Kuisha, Akeno just basically dug her grave even deeper, as Kuisha proceeded to summon more holes in various sizes to absorb Akeno's holy lightning.

In the end, Kuisha was able to achieve victory after she returned Akeno's holy attack.

The next round, the dice roll was twelve, the highest value. The crowd went wild when Sairaorg decided to participate for the match himself. From Gremory group, while Issei voiced his eagerness to come out and end the battle there and then, Rias firmly rebuked him as she wanted to take a careful approach.

Thus, Yuuto, Rossweisse, as well as the very eager Xenovia – who finally was able to join the fray, to test the waters (much to Issei's reluctance) as well as to wear Sairaorg down as much as possible for later rounds.

It might be sounded cruel to send out troops towards a losing battle, but everyone had determined to do what was necessary to achieve victory.

When the fight began, however, it was fierce, yet almost one-sided at the same time.

It was fierce – Yuuto, Xenovia and Rossweisse threw everything they had at the lone enemy King; combinations of Yuuto and Xenovia's holy and demonic blades, Rossweisse entire arsenals of magic, coordinated attacks between feints, techniques, traps, and even brute force to gang up on him, but Sairaorg flawlessly weathered and evaded the assaults coming at him.

The fight did not last long. In less than five minutes, Sairaorg had made all three of Rias' combatants retired from the game through sheer power and ability of his body.

Note that not only Sairaorg did not use his demonic power, Sairaorg was barely scratched from the combination assaults of exceptional Knights and a Rook.

[U-Unbelievable! Sairaorg defeated all three – combatant Yuuto, Xenovia and Rossweisse within minutes, as if they are children! Is this the power of the so-called Strongest Young Devil?!]

Naud Gamigin's comment elicited another roar of cheers from the crowd, especially those who were rooting for Bael team.

Even Azazel and Diehauser Belial were impressed at the performance. The latter did hear that Sairaorg had received guidance from a particularly strong individual, but he never thought the young devil could have reached that kind level of strength.

"_So you have gone this strong, all for the sake of your dream?"_ Azazel grinned in excitement. _"…Or is it for the sake of reaching on _that person's_ level as well?"_

Gremory group on the other hand, were going through mixed feelings of awe, worry, and mostly, _aggravation_; at the sight of their friends fell one by one by Sairaorg's hands.

Rias closed her eyes, giving a silent prayer and tribute for her fallen servants. She had acknowledged their efforts, that they had fought magnificently, she could never be more proud of them. But the showcase of Sairaorg's overwhelming strength – it somehow felt more powerful than the last time he sparred with Issei, and it put her on edge.

Asia was feeling nothing but worry. Her role was the medic for her injured friends, but now that all her friends had fallen and transported to intensive care unit, what else could have she done? She felt so useless.

Issei on the other hand, was surprisingly calm. However, when both Rias and Asia took another look, they could not help but shudder at the atmosphere surrounding the Pawn.

It was rage.

However, they noted a difference. So far, the rage they had witnessed from Issei was akin to wild fire that burned and destroyed the surroundings. This time, his rage felt like a bottomless sea that could swallow everything.

Then, the crowd was caught in surprise of what Sairaorg did next.

"ESTEEMED MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE!" he roared to the air, making sure that his voice could be heard loud and clear. "Is there any point of continuing the game like this?"

Everyone only began to murmur among themselves; while a part of the crowds wished to see the climax of the battle, there was still a rule to uphold. Just what was Sairaorg Bael wanted?

The next words that came from Sairaorg's mouth would surely cause another unexpected development.

"Let us save time; I wish for a team battle, between Rias Gremory and the rest of her peerage against me with the rest of my own peerage!"

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Whew! This chapter was harder than I originally thought. What do you think overall? I hope I didn't mess up with the fights and stuff. I kind of feel that this story felt kind of rushed, because I've hit several walls when I wrote this chap.**

**I'm truly sorry for Xenovia fans out there; I wasn't able to give her any spotlight during the game. Because seriously, writing something from canon – which everyone had already known of, was a pain in the ass. But since I can't just disregard them, I decide to just summarise them; not too lengthy, but enough to explain the key events.**

**For those guests who wondered, asked and wished regarding Hyoudou Haruka, well….. Let's say that I'm leaving her details to your imagination. ;3 But you know what, I'll give you this one hint: Bouchuujutsu! XD**

**On another note, I need you guys to expect for slower updates, since I'm facing my final exam of the semester. I need to put this project aside for the time being, perhaps for one or two weeks; could be longer, could be shorter. Let's just hope for the best, yeah?**

**Next update, Hyoudou Issei vs Sairaorg Bael! Ahsoei, over and out.**


	46. Heart (IV)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, my dear readers! Here's another chapter of One-Punch DxD: Legacy!**

**I want to thank you for the supports I have received so far. I must say that the guest reviews are kind of overwhelming, but supports are supports in the end. Although, forgive me, but for the questions from guest reviewers, I can only ask you people to be patient and wait the revelations to unfold themselves. Answering them here will spoil the story. I hope you understand.**

* * *

**Chapter 43: Heart (IV) – 'Tis an Honour!**

"_Thank you for having me today, Saitama-sensei."_

_Young Sairaorg Bael bowed his head respectfully as he was standing with Saitama on a spacious field. _

"…_You're really set on doing this, aren't ya?" Saitama dryly replied, his mind was flashing déjà vu of a certain cyborg. _

"_Yes, you did accept me as your disciple, didn't you?" _

_Well… only this time, his current so-called 'disciple' was not as serious, and a little bit more mischievous. _

"_Okay, okay…" Saitama sighed. "But I'm gonna remind you again of how I'll do things here."_

_He then showed one finger. "Firstly; I'm not gonna teach you all of those kinds of how to fight and throw your punch. You will learn everything through first-hand experience. The rest is up to you, either you improve, or stuck there."_

_After past experience of handling one disciple, Saitama thought that he might as well setting up few ground rules if it could make his job easier. _

_Saitama was about to point out another thing, but he ended up pausing for a bit. "…Well, that's that, basically. The point is that I'm not gonna guide you every step along the way. It's all your call. Is that okay with you?"_

_Even after over 20 years, Saitama was still not cut out to be a teacher material. _

"_Yes, I couldn't ask for more!" Sairaorg was more than eager to proceed. After all, experience is the best teacher. "Please treat me well!"_

_Saitama only sighed silently once again, before he gestured his hand forward. "…Let's just begin, okay?"_

oXo

Sairaorg wondered why he was musing about the past in the middle of the game, although everyone was currently still waiting for the decision from the game committee after he voiced his suggestion for the final round.

[I have received a report from the committee.]

Naud Gamigin finally spoke up as he read a piece of paper.

[It has been approved. The next round will settle everything! Sairaorg Bael and the rest of his servants against Rias Gremory and the rest of her servants as well!]

The crowd then roared in excitement as both teams made their way to the final stage. Sairaorg arrived at a spacious field with the remaining members of his peerage; his Queen, Kuisha Abaddon and his still-unidentified Pawn. The King then saw that Rias and Issei were standing side-by-side in front of him.

"…Rias." Sairaorg nodded his head in greeting. "…And Hyoudou Issei as well."

"Sairaorg." Rias returned the gesture.

"…I don't see your Bishop." Sairaorg noted. True, Asia Argento was not around.

"She was not a combatant, we both know that." Rias waved off. "Besides, I know you long enough, Sairaorg. Whether my other Bishop is here or not doesn't matter, right?"

"True, true." Sairaorg chuckled. "…So you know what this means."

Rias nodded, and Issei wordlessly took a step forward – his Boosted Gear was encasing his left arm. The boy's face was expressing a calm expression. However, everyone could sense the pressure exuding from the Red Dragon Emperor.

Sairaorg also took a step forward, and soon he and Issei was now standing face to face. "Well, here we are." Sairaorg said, the confidence did not slip off from his face.

"…Yes." Issei merely nodded.

"Before we began, can I propose another thing?" Sairaorg asked. When Rias and Issei blinked in question, Sairaorg did something unexpected.

He took out his share of Phoenix Tears, and _smashed it to the ground_. The crowd letting out collective gasps at the development; even Rias and Issei did not see that coming. Kuisha and the Pawn, however, were unperturbed at their King's decision.

Then, Issei's expression morphed from shock to understanding, as he turned back to address his King. "…Buchou, do you still have our share of Phoenix Tears?"

Rias nodded as she took out and showed her vial of Phoenix Tear.

Issei then nodded in confirmation. "Then, please save that tears for the winner."

Rias then widened her eyes as if she finally understood. Her gaze went from Issei to Sairaorg, and after she had confirmed of what was going on, Rias nodded resolutely as she kept the Phoenix Tear back into her pocket.

[What is this? Combatant Sairaorg Bael just discarded his share of healing item. Did he do this out of sheer confidence?]

Naud Gamigin voiced the question that was swirling around among the crowds. Then, it was Diehauser Belial who provided the answer.

[…An unspoken agreement had been made just now.]

Azazel then followed suit.

[Yes. After all, the only member from Rias Gremory's peerage who stood a chance to defeat Sairaorg Bael in one-on-one is Hyoudou Issei – the Red Dragon Emperor.]

Per Emperor's answer, with Rias holding the Phoenix Tears, an agreement had been made between the opposing teams. Should Issei defeated Sairaorg, the game would end with Rias' group won with the enemy King fell from the battle. On the other hand, should Sairaorg defeated Issei, Rias Gremory could not hope to win the game, especially when Sairaorg still had his Queen and Pawn behind him.

Rias could have just keep the tears for herself to increase her little chance of victory should Sairaorg won, however, her pride and honour would never allow such conduct.

The crowd then roared even louder as the decisive fight was about to begin.

"_Saitama… You'd better not miss this."_ Azazel grinned in excitement. Then, when he took a quick look over the VIP seats, he blinked when he learned that Saitama was nowhere in sight.

"…_Where's he going?"_

oXo

"Whew…."

Saitama just zipped his pants back as he flushed the toilet. He planned to take a quick toilet break while waiting for the committee to decide on Sairaorg's suggestion, but finding the restroom itself ended up taking some time.

"I hope I can still make it for the finals..." Not that it was any of his business, but the fight between his son and 'disciple' might be a good way to pass time.

He washed his hands, and when he was about to reach the hand-dryer, another individual was also reaching for the same utility. Saitama noted it was a man with a buzz-cut hairstyle. He also was wearing circular sunglasses, aloha shirt, and a jewel around his neck.

The said individual only raised his eyebrows at Saitama. "…You mind?"

Saitama blinked once and decided to step back, giving the man to dry his wet hands first. When it was Saitama's turn to dry his hands, the said man was staring at him quizzically.

"Say… You're him, right?" the man rubbed his chin. "That so-called hero, as well as Red Dragon Emperor's dad?"

Saitama blinked again before he turned to address the man next to him. "…Do I know you?"

"No, no, this is our first time meeting each other." The man grinned as he introduced himself. "Indra of Mount Meru, the Sakra, Heavenly Emperor at your service."

oXo

"Sairaorg-san…" Issei said as he put up his fighting stance. "Sorry to say this, but… why do I feel that you still have something up your sleeve?"

Sairaorg only blinked before he asked back. "…What if I do?" his face was sporting a knowing look.

"Well, if you do… Please use whatever your trump card is. Otherwise…" Issei then put on his Scale Mail, the emerald eyes on the helmet glowed ominously. "I might end up killing you."

The pressure exuding from the Red Dragon Emperor increased by folds, and that moment Sairaorg knew, he could not go half-hearted in this match. "…As expected of sensei's son…" he chuckled. "Then, allow me to apologize with all I have. Regulus!"

Then, the Pawn – covered in cloak, stepped forward to Sairaorg's side. At first glance, the Pawn's height was more or less that of a teenage boy. Then, his body went through some spasms, as the body began to grow in size, the cloak covering him was slowly torn down. When his form was unravelled for everyone to see, everyone did not expect to see a huge lion with golden fur. The beast stood four to five meters tall on its four limbs, with a jewel embedded on its forehead.

The lion's roar shook the surrounding air, signified that it was no ordinary beast.

[The Nemean Lion…]

Azazel commented as his eyes widened in recognition.

[The very same beast that Heracles fought in one of his twelve labours. The Biblical God captured his soul and sealed it into a Sacred Gear, and enlisted as one of the thirteen Longinus…]

_Regulus Nemea – Battle Axe of the Lion King. _

[That Longinus possesses both offensive and defensive ability… Whoever master its power can split the earth in half. Heh… Who would've thought that the Longinus has become Sairaorg Bael's pawn.]

Azazel explained with excited tone.

"Allow me to introduce you my Pawn – Regulus, the Nemean Lion who was sealed into Longinus Regulus Nemea." Sairaorg ran his hand through the mane of the legendary beast. "I first met him when his previous possessor died by the hands of some random group, and I saw this lion slaughtered the very same group that killed his master. Then, with lion-taming power I inherit from my mother, I made him into my servant."

"Wait, so your Pawn is technically a Longinus?" Issei was still dumbfounded at the fact. "I heard in the conference that he's some kind of trump card of yours. So you intend to use it… against me?"

"Yes, I won't let him interfere in normal situation, but…" Sairaorg then stared at Issei with what appeared to be battle-hunger in his eyes. "…Against you, my teacher's son, it'd be disrespectful of me if I'm not going all out."

Sairaorg then turned to Regulus. "Let's do this, o' Lion King! Balance Break!"

The lion roared once again, and the field trembled when a pure raw power gathered around the King and Pawn pair.

The field was enveloped in a bright light for a second, and when things cleared up, everyone was breathless at what they saw.

It was something that could only be described as 'majestic'.

Covered in gold, Sairaorg was clad in lion-themed armour. That was his sub-species Balance Breaker, _Regulus Rey Leather Rex – Iron Skin of The Lion King_.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sairaorg said with what appeared like a blood-thirsty grin. "Let's get the show going, shall we?"

Issei and Rias were petrified – for the lack of better term, at the sheer power exuding from Sairaorg Bael.

Issei himself was keeping himself from visibly shaking. The pressure… reminds him a lot when he fought Sirzechs Lucifer, and _slightly kind of_ like Saitama as well. Who would have thought learning under that baldy's guidance could make someone this terrifying?

_**[So that Bael was able to pull out the power of Nemean Lion to this extent? Impressive.]**_

Even the Welsh Dragon acknowledged Sairaorg's strength.

"Yes… Let's do this." Issei glanced back at Rias, who seemed to snap out of her stupor as she gave another nod to her fiancé.

"Ise, this is an order; WIN!"

As if on cue, the dragon and lion lunged forward.

"_Promotion: Queen!"_ Issei silently promoted and quickly got his first strike with a solid jab.

BAM!

The Lion King managed to block the hit; however, the said hit was also able to push him skidding back as the impact shook the surrounding air. Sairaorg only widened his grin and he proceeded to return the courtesy. He dashed and threw his fist forward.

BAM!

The hit was also as powerful as Issei's first strike; the red dragon skid back as the impact also produced another shockwave.

Rias and Kuisha had to take safe distance in order not to get caught in the crossfire.

When Issei took Sairaorg's jab, it was only thanks to his Queen promotion that Issei managed to weather the strike. He could feel the hit shook his being. However, it only made him more eager to carry the fight out.

When the dragon dashed forward, the two legendary monsters proceeded to engage into a heated, fierce exchange of blows; with their fists and arms doing all the work.

[What a speed! I can barely see the movements of both combatants as they were engaged in close combat! And it seems that neither of them had land any hit so far! And such powerful blows too!]

Just as Naud Gamigin's observation, Issei and Sairaorg seemed like blurs in front of most people's eyes. Both of them flawlessly threw and dodged every single hit towards each other. More over, each of their attacks was able to shake the very air as shockwaves were booming left and right every time they threw their fists.

WHAM! WHAM!

But still, everything had to end, both combatants finally landed a hit on each other's cheeks, forcing them to gain distance from each other again.

The stage went silent for few seconds after Issei and Sairaorg had broken off each other, and a second later, the crowd went chaotic.

[I…. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY! COMBATANT HYOUDOU ISSEI AND SAIRAORG BAEL'S FIGHT WAS SO INTENSE THAT I'M COMPLETELY OUT OF WORDS!]

Rias and Kuisha could only rooted on their respective spot at the sheer magnificence of the fight, not bothering to shield their faces from the dust cloud.

On the stage, Issei who just received a solid hit on the face from Sairaorg, noticed that the helmet protecting his face was crumbling down, revealing his head. Even when Sairaorg's punch did not directly make contact, Issei still felt his head dizzy from the impact.

On the other hand, since Sairaorg's head was not as fully protected as Issei's in full body armour, Sairaorg moved his jaws to get a feel of it, to make sure that there was no fracture on his face. "_That was one good hit, even better than when we sparred last time."_ Sairaorg thought as he wiped a small blood-stain near his nose.

"…You've improved." Sairaorg then commented.

"…And you are actually a hell lot stronger than I thought." Issei replied with wary grin.

Most of the crowds would not notice, but notable individuals could tell that the earlier combat was just a warm-up, both combatants were testing each other. When the real deal began, it would not go for long.

The battle between Red Dragon Emperor and Nemean Lion would not be too long.

_**[Partner.]**_

Issei then heard Ddraig speaking in his head.

_**[You might want to use 'that'. That possessor of Regulus Nemea is more powerful than expected. This is the first time I've seen someone who can bring out the power of Nemean Lion to this level. Even with your Queen promotion, our regular Scale Mail won't cut it anymore.]**_

Issei took in Ddraig's words and he composed himself by taking a deep breath. When Sairaorg saw Issei had regenerated his armour, he also sensed a change in atmosphere around the red dragon as well. Even Rias and Kuisha also noticed the change as well when Issei went still.

Meanwhile, Issei was preparing himself for the latest move he just got his hands on in the morning that day. When he opened his eyes, power was unleashed from his very being, taking the form of torrent of crimson aura.

* * *

[What is this!? The aura surrounding Hyoudou Issei suddenly spiked up! And are those orbs of light floating around him? What does he intend to do!?]

The aura explosion from Issei's body caused the wind to blow violently around, forcing Rias to cover her eyes from the dust that had become more intense as well. Sairaorg on the other hand, was watching in high interest.

The same could not be said for the Gremory heiress. While she knew that the aura leaking out from her pawn's body was lacking any sort of malice, the pressure was all too familiar for her to forget; _Juggernaut Drive_.

Just the memory of Issei turning into _that thing_ was enough to send shivers to Rias' spine. Even if she could not feel any maliciousness, she was worried to no end of what Issei might have done next. "Ise, what are you doing!?"

While Issei was still focusing his mind, the flash back of his last-minute training occurred.

oXo

"_**You…!"**_

_The past Red Dragon Emperors turned their attention towards what appeared to be the White Dragon Emperor, clad in his Divine Dividing Scale Mail; their previous attempts to forcefully activate the Juggernaut Drive were all forgotten._

_**{Yes, me.} **_

_The figure in white armour simply replied fearlessly. Belzard, Elsha and Ddraig were surprised for a second before look of understanding appeared on their faces._

_**[I see… Considering that it was the White One's power that had been taken, your existence in this place is only natural.]**_

_**{Red Dragon Emperor – no, Hyoudou Issei!}**_

_Issei only blinked in respond when the White Dragon Emperor called out to him._

_**{There is no much time, but I shall assist you.}**_

"_W-wait, wait! What!? Are you sure!?" Issei was taken aback; if anything, he was rather confused, considering the history between the Welsh Dragon and Vanishing Dragon, Issei never expected to receive help from White Dragon Emperor._

_**{Simply put, you are interesting. After observing you ever since my arrival in this place, I'm convinced that you will be able to reach a new height beyond the Heavenly Dragon!}**_

"_**We won't let you!"**_

_Whatever the White Dragon Emperor was about to do, the past Boosted Gear possessors did not like it in the slightest._

"_**Destruction is the only path for us, Heavenly Dragons!"**_

_However, in front of mass of hatred and malice, the White Dragon Emperor extended his hand as the wings of light on his back shone._

_**{Divide!}**_

_The blood red aura surrounding the past Red Dragon Emperors suddenly diminished by half._

_**{Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide! Divide!}**_

_**{Hyoudou Issei, now is your opportunity! What do you intend to achieve?}**_

"_E-eh? What do you mean by that question!?" Issei was honestly lost at the moment. One moment he was battling and almost overwhelmed by his predecessors, and next moment he was receiving the unlikely aid from his supposedly nemesis. Even Belzard, Elsha and Ddraig chose not to interfere as well._

_**{You are currently fighting over dominance of your power with your past predecessors! Remember the reasons why you are here!}**_

_As if refusing to submit, the past possessors of Boosted Gear roared in defiance and began to boost their power as well, resisting against the dividing power of the White Dragon Emperor._

_**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**_

_Of course, a single White Dragon against at least tens and even hundreds of Red Dragon Emperors, the outcome was only natural in matter of time._

_**{You need to come up with an answer soon, Hyoudou Issei! The time is running short!}**_

_The White Dragon Emperor shouted as he persisted against the sheer mass of hatred._

_Issei then closed his eyes in contemplation. What was he trying to achieve? Why did he train like this again?_

_He thought and thought, then, the image of his comrades and family appeared._

_I wished to be strong enough to protect them and those every day lives…._

_That beautiful crimson hair, the woman he fell for…_

_Although, was that all? It seemed that he forgot one more thing._

_Then, an image of a man with bald head, with his back, with white cape waving, facing him._

_To reach and stand on the same ground as that man._

_Ddraig suddenly sensed a shift in the mindscape, or rather, the Boosted Gear itself. In addition, he also felt that the power from beyond the gate suddenly seized its struggle._

_**[Something's happening…]**_

"…_Ddraig?" Belzard and Elsha furrowed their eyebrows quizzically at the Welsh Dragon._

_**[My partner… He's done it!]**_

_At the same time, the past possessors of the Boosted Gear had increasingly more livid as they restart their previous attempts of Juggernaut Drive. _

_**["I, WHO AM ABOUT TO AWAKEN…!"]**_

_Unbeknownst to everyone, a tiny ember escaped the gate, flew over and made contact with Issei. _

_When he snapped his eyes open, raw, unadulterated power was flaring out from his body as he thought of something else regarding those chants. The other occupants abruptly stopped whatever they were doing, as their attentions were directed at the sheer brilliance that enveloped Issei._

_He opened his mouth in order to get his message across…_

oXo

"I, who have awoken…"

[Ooooh! Combatant Hyoudou Issei muttered some sort of chant while his body is pouring out powerful aura! Is this that infamous Juggernaut Drive!? Lord Azazel, Lord Belial, isn't this bad?]

Naud Gamigin said restlessly.

[…It's different.]

[Eh?]

[It's different. Kind of similar, but this isn't Juggernaut Drive. Holy shit, did that kid manage to pull it off?]

Azazel was grinning from ear to ear in anticipation and Diehauser was watching with great interest. Meanwhile, those in VIP section were curious of what was happening, safe for Saitama (who managed to return in time for the match to start).

When Issei spoke those words, those who in the know, were aware that it was not actually the chant of Juggernaut Drive from the lines alone. Across centuries, all possessors of Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing would chant specific aria and words when they were to activate the Dragon of Supremacy.

Another thing was, that the orbs of light that surrounded Issei were also responding in completely different manner.

**[We have been enslaved by the cycle of rebirth and despair…]**

**[But it ends now! Hyoudou Issei's hopes and dreams have opened us a new path!]**

"…Am the Red Dragon Emperor who have rewritten the principles of domination!"

Rias could not tear her eyes away at the visage of the Red Dragon Emperor, whose aura somehow became more and more brilliant as he continued chanting.

**[Even if the entire world stands in our way!]  
**

"I dominate all evils in the infinite world while pursuing ideal dreams!"

**[Our burning passion and furious fist will decide our future!]**

Sairaorg on the other hand, had his eyes and smiles widened by seconds, as if he was like a child in Christmas holiday.

"I shall become the Crimson Dragon Emperor…"

**[We shall transcend through heavens and dimensions...!]**

**[…AND WE WILL DEFY ANYONE WHO WILL OPPOSE US, TO GRAB HOLD OF OUR PATH!]**

"AND HERE IS MY OATH! I SHALL GUIDE YOU TO OBTAIN ALL VIRTUES OF THE HEAVENS, THROUGH PERFECT HEROIC WAYS!"

**[CRIMSON FORCE OVERDRIVE!]**

The field then was enveloped in bright crimson light.

X

When everyone regained their sight, they would think that they were looking at something out of story-books.

The dragon armour was crimson in colour, the form was kind of sleek - the armour's mass was less bulky than the previous Scale Mail. The jewels adorning the armour was slightly different; while the jewels adorning the limbs were still emerald green, the centre jewel was blue.

When everyone took in Issei's new form, it could not be helped that their first thought was, 'a hero'; the ones that came out from comic books or kids movies –kind of hero.

In Rias' case, it was actually her first time seeing her Pawn's new form. Apparently, during Issei's last training, his body glowed brightly, and when the view cleared up, Issei had been found sleeping unceremoniously on the floor. Nobody actually knew how things had ended up specifically.

"Ise, that form…" Rias muttered. Issei only turned his head to glance at his master, his face was still concealed by the faceplate.

However, Rias could tell that Issei was smiling lightly behind that mask. "Yeah, the result of my last training; I'm still not sure about its full capabilities, though. Never had a chance to test it out." he shrugged at the end.

"…Incredible." Rias and Issei's musings were interrupted as Sairaorg voiced his opinion. "What is this? Is this an alternate move, or perhaps enhanced version of the infamous Juggernaut Drive?"

Issei opened his mouth, but words did not come out. Issei paused into thinking position for a second before shrugging. "I'm… honestly not sure myself. I mean, seriously, I just got a general grasp on this new ability like… 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning? But what I can tell so far is, at least this form doesn't feed on my life force nor my sanity anymore."

Sairaorg only blinked before his fierce grin returned to his face as he tightened his fists again. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's test it out here."

The two then ran towards each other – the Red Dragon Emperor and the Golden Lion King.

When the two were close enough, Sairaorg was the first to throw a punch, only for his fist to be deflected by Issei's kick. Without further ado, the two engaged in another, even fiercer, exchange of blows.

The crowd cheered in thunderous voices as the dragon and lion fought toe to toe against each other. Blows were deflected, dodged, and landed; however none of the two seemingly getting an upper hand over each other.

There, Issei just managed to block Sairaorg's left hook with his right arm, and Sairaorg quickly followed with a swing of his right. Issei leaned back to dodge Sairaorg's swing by hair's breadth, and he raised his arms to block Sairaorg's left back-hand.

Alas, the lion quickly followed by a solid right on Issei's right abdomen, but the dragon armour preserved as Issei quickly countered with one-two on Sairaorg's rib-cage, followed with a jab on Sairaorg's face.

Sairaorg quickly countered by giving the same jab on Issei's face, when he followed with another left, Issei blocked the attack and retaliated with a solid left kick on Sairaorg's armoured stomach. But Sairaorg simply brushed it off as the two kept fighting.

Both Issei and Sairaorg were versed and experienced in close combat, but their method of training was the key difference. During the period when Issei was still focusing on controlling his inner power, Sairaorg was training his combat skills to the fullest of his capabilities.

Perhaps Issei's 'last-minute training' had provided him enough insight about combat by fighting his past predecessors, but there was no guidance, in that period, Issei had to learn through self-taught and his survival instinct alone; while Sairaorg had the Emperor himself as his supervisor.

Analogically, comparing Issei and Sairaorg was like comparing a master combatant who learned through street fighting experience and the one who learned through proper training of martial arts and combat itself.

But in the end, the fact that they were good at what they were doing did not change.

After series of bouts later, Sairaorg and Issei landed a solid punch on their respective faces at the same time.

BAM!

When their fists connected, both of them were launched away. Issei gracefully flipped back in mid-air and landed on the ground with loud thud, while Sairaorg plummeted to the ground, causing the said ground beneath him to cave in and be destroyed under the sheer force and weight of his body. However, despite the harsher landing, Sairaorg was not discouraged a little bit; it only made his fighting spirit grew even stronger as he was still grinning fiercely.

In that moment, Sairaorg's mind flashed back at nostalgia. He was also plummeting to the ground like this back in those days…

oXo

"_Guhagh!" _

_Young Sairaorg Bael plummeted and skidded across the ground, destroying the earth beneath him as his body fell. Before him, Saitama was standing with his fist stretched forward, right at the direction where Sairaorg was laid defeated on the crushed ground._

"_Do you still want to go?" Saitama simply asked as he lowered his fist, his face remained impassive as ever. _

_It had been around a week since Saitama began his routine spar with Sairaorg. The youngster would fight him at least once every day; and the result was, Sairaorg just had his asses handed over to him. _

_As Saitama stared at the groaning Sairaorg, who was struggling to get back on his feet, he wondered if all of this ordeal was alright. So far, he could not take this a spar, much less a battle. It was more like complete one-sided beat-down with Sairaorg at the receiving end._

_Then, Saitama thought again, how did he 'train' Genos back in those days? As far as he recalled, they only sparred ONCE, and it ended with Genos concluded that the difference of strength between them was akin to heaven and earth. Afterwards, Saitama simply made up task and homework for Genos in order to keep the cyborg off his back all the time. Saitama was glad that their relationship had become more that of a friends/roomies than teacher and disciple. _

_Now that he thought about it, Saitama just realized that he had been kind of dick to Genos during early times they spent together; and he was about to do the same with Sairaorg. Not to mention, should their routine reached Misla's ears, who knew what kind of ranting, scolding, and complaining Saitama would have received from the mother who learned that her son had been beaten down without proper guidance?_

_Time for Saitama to take his end of the deal more seriously. _

"_Sairaorg." Saitama called out the name that he needed three days and three nights of frequent contact to remember properly. "Do you actually learn anything from what happened so far?" That might be rather harsh question, but it was better than nothing._

_Sairaorg, who finally got back to his feet, only looked back with full attention to Saitama. Few seconds later, Sairaorg answered, "I believe… that I need to move faster, react faster, hit harder, and make better judgements on the battlefield…?" Saitama's question accompanied with his stoic face was kind of pressuring._

"_That may be true." Saitama exhaled lightly. Come on, come on, what else is there to it? Saitama wrecked his brain and his poor memory for any reference or lessons he had encountered in the past…. That's it! _

"_Don't just always rely on your own brute power and strength when dealing with stronger enemy!" _

_That martial-arts action movie that he watched in the past actually came in handy. _

oXo

Sairaorg then gave a quick look over himself, and he noticed that parts of his armour were cracked and crumbled under the force of Issei's strikes. "Regulus, are you alright?" he asked to the Pawn he equipped himself with.

**{I will manage}**

The Nemean Lion replied.

**{However, master… The Red Dragon Emperor is more powerful in that crimson armour. Our armour will not last long if you kept receiving his attacks.}**

Sairaorg took in the lion's words into heart, and when he took a look at Issei, he saw that the Red Dragon Emperor was still standing strong, even with the power and strength granted by his sub-species Balance Breaker and his touki, the damage on Issei's crimson armour was far less noticeable than Sairaorg's own golden armour.

Appearance could fool, indeed; Issei's crimson draconic armour possessed less mass and was less bulky than Sairaorg's Regulus Rey Leather Rex, as the armour was not as 'spiky'; yet was far stronger and more durable; the sleek appearance granted Issei more flexibility in movement and allowed him to move faster. Hell, even if the dragon theme remained noticeable, the current armour was less draconic than his regular Scale Mail – with the fingers on his arms resembled more of human fingers than dragons, and the armour covering his feet was akin to human shoes instead of dragon's talon feet. The only thing draconic about the armour was his helmet that still resembled a dragon's head, as well as the tail-like protrusion that jutting out from his back.

Sairaorg then got back to his feet, as he prepared to resume his fight with Issei once again.

When faced with someone who was stronger than you, there were still ways to go around them.

Sairaorg dashed forward, raising both arms, causing Issei to raise his arms as well in reflex to counter them. However, Sairaorg's arms were mere faints, because when Issei raised his arms up, his lower body was open, and Sairaorg quickly dived down to employ low tackle – which caught Issei by surprise, and hook his right leg on Issei's left to force the latter dropping back to the ground.

Both of them fell to the ground with Sairaorg got ahold of Issei's left leg, the former manoeuvred to perform grappling technique on Issei's legs. With his arms around Issei's left leg, Sairaorg began to put the pressure around the limb, attempting to crush the bones.

When Issei saw Sairaorg was about to slam his elbow on his left leg, he quickly reacted by slamming the ground with his right hand so he could gather enough force to move his body over, he threw his free right leg around to increase his momentum, so his body twisted and his left leg was freed from Sairaorg's grasp.

However, when Issei's was lying with his stomach down, Sairaorg quickly followed by hooking his right leg back onto Issei's left, Sairaorg then immediately caught the left foot and began twisting, this time attempting to dislocate Issei's ankle.

The red dragon grunted as he felt the muscles and bones around his ankle began twisting, and before Sairaorg could have incapacitated him, Issei retaliated by twisting his body around again, avoiding his left ankle to be twisted further and he forced Sairaorg off him by sending his right heel on the side of Sairaorg's face.

The two quickly stood up, Issei gave a quick check on himself, making sure that his limbs were still in one piece. Who knew that Sairaorg would use aikido? Issei had to admit that he had been outsmarted.

Both combatants then dashed forward once again, with Issei threw a punch at Sairaorg, who surprisingly again, did another unexpected. He manoeuvred to dodge Issei's fist, then he wrapped both of his arms around Issei's head and his outstretched hand and kept them locked together in joint locks; and followed by a swipe on Issei's legs to destroy his balance, bringing them down to the ground together; with Issei's head squished against his shoulder and arm around Sairaorg's armoured arms.

[Unexpected development! Combatant Sairaorg has resorted to grappling and joint-lock techniques, putting combatant Issei under his mercy!]

Naud Gamigin announced and his words were followed by crowd's cheer, as Sairaorg had the upper position over Issei's downed form.

[That's quite a creative way of fighting someone without relying on brute strength.]

Diehauser Belial commented with approving nod.

[Indeed, but that also means that Issei is currently stronger than Sairaorg, albeit by small margin. Still, I don't expect Sairaorg to resort to such complicated move like that. That technique is specifically created against stronger people.]

Azazel commented with interest in his gaze. _"Did he learn that from you, Saitama?"_

Meanwhile, from VIP seats, the guests were paying full attention at the match. Haruka and the Gremory family were rather amused at the development. "Say, dear… Did you teach Sairaorg-san those moves?" the woman asked her husband.

Saitama's expression remained stoic, albeit there was a glint of interest in his eyes. "…Kind of, yeah." The others raised their eyebrows at the tone in Saitama's reply, but decided to focus on the match for the time being.

"_Wow, that actually works out."_

Back to the arena, Issei quickly toppled Sairaorg off his body in order to regain his ground and reversed their position, but when Issei was hovering over Sairaorg, the latter quickly grabbed the former's right arm and proceeded to perform triangle choke-hold, trapping Issei's head with his outstretched right arm once again.

"_I never got the chance to try this technique out with sensei yet, but this will do!"_ Sairaorg grinned as he kept his hold firm.

Issei struggled to break free, but Sairaorg only tightened his grip around him. Few seconds later, the armour around Issei's shoulder and jaw – the parts that were squashed together under Sairaorg's chokehold – began to crack under the sheer pressure. Issei himself also began to feel the choke to be suffocating.

"_So that's how you want to play?"_ Issei growled internally as he grabbed the legs that were choking him with his free hand, loosening the hold a bit, enough for Issei to inhale as much air as possible.

Shifting his head as much as he could, so Issei's face was directed right at Sairaorg, Issei then unleashed his signature fire breath right at the lion king. It was proven effective as Sairaorg was forced to release his hold from Issei, breaking the two off each other in the process.

When they gained distance again, Sairaorg did not suffer any injuries, thanks to the defence granted by his ki and his armour, albeit his body was smoking from the heat of Issei's flame. On the other hand, Issei was not seemed to have ended his counter-attack yet. His body suddenly unleashed a massive spike of energy.

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

Sairaorg then witnessed the blue jewel on the centre of Issei's armour was began to glow, as the latter's power kept doubling. However, he quirked his eyebrows in wonder when Issei deliberately moved his position around until Rias was positioned behind him.

"_What is he doing?"_ Sairaorg could not help but ask, but when Issei's blue jewel's glow became even brighter, his instinct gave him the answer. _"…Oh!"_

Sairaorg quickly leapt away to dodge a massive beam of destruction fired from Issei's armour.

BLAAARR!

The field was engulfed in massive explosion, forcing Rias to shield herself from the shockwave of the blast.

[H-HOLY SHIT! Combatant Hyoudoud Issei suddenly fired a massive beam from his chest! Look at that explosion!]

Following the crowd's thunderous cheer, Naud Gamigin expressed his astonishment.

Issei only blinked at the destruction laid before him. _"…Was that me doing that? Ddraig, did I just fire Longinus Smasher!?"_

[Not exactly. It's more like the down-toned version of the Longinus Smasher. The real Longinus Smasher could have done much more.]

Issei swallowed a lump, and he was too late to realise that Sairaorg had actually dodged his attack when a fist suddenly collided his side of the face, launching him to a distance in the process.

After plummeting and skidding on the unforgiving ground, Issei was groaning in the midst of debris. "Uugh… What the hell…?" his defence should have been enhanced even further, and even if Sairaorg was able to gather enough momentum to deliver such a blow, the damage should not have been to this extent.

When Issei wobbly got back to his feet, even with the armour remained intact, Issei could feel that Sairaorg's attack actually reached him.

_**[Look carefully on his limbs.]**_

On Ddraig's advice, Issei focused his eyes to see white aura surrounding Sairaorg's fists. It was touki, but Issei noticed that the ki surrounding Sairaorg's knuckles were particularly thicker than his body.

"He's… manipulating his touki?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows.

_**[Even without Senjutsu, it's still possible to control one's ki with enough training. His control is not even close to mediocre, but to be able to focus his touki like that…. I can only wonder how hard he has been strengthening himself.]**_

Sairaorg on the other hand, decided to change his approach on attacking. He knew better that Issei would not fall again for his grappling techniques.

_**[Careful now.]**_

Ddraig spoke again.

_**[From what I can tell now, your current crimson armour should be more powerful than the original Scale Mail, and maybe on par with Juggernaut Drive; but the power is not absolute. With properties of touki in his disposal, Sairaorg Bael along with the power of Nemean Lion could be dangerous even for the current you. I've done what I can to increase the armour's defence and resistance, but it's still not impregnable in the end.]**_

On cue, Issei suddenly felt a 'shift' in his armour, as if the armour became kind of heavier, but he could still move like usual. Clenching his fists several times, Issei then made his way towards Sairaorg. He approached the lion king with steady pace cautiously; after all, if he were to charge recklessly again there was likely that Sairaorg would trap him in another chokehold.

When Issei was closing to him, Sairaorg then raised his fists to cover his face.

[Oh, combatant Sairaorg Bael is covering his face, and he's currently taking a defensive stance after managed to land the hit from before!]

Naud Gamigin's observation made everybody wondered, just what the strongest young devil was planning.

Issei only exhaled, his focus was dead-set on his target. If his target chose to put up a wall, then he just had to break through that wall.

Issei then rushed in, throwing several heavy combinations. Sairaorg was not given any chance of retaliation as he stood his ground against Issei's devastating blows.

The crowd cheered as Sairaorg kept blocking Issei's onslaught with his touki and armour coated arms, wondering if the Red Dragon Emperor would be able to break through the Lion King's tough block.

"_His upper guard is solid…"_ Issei analysed as he paused his attacks every now and then, giving another look-over of his foe. _"I can just aim for the torso, but…"_ when Issei caught a glimpse of Sairaorg's eyes behind the guard, he noticed that his eyes were eerily calm; as if the lion was waiting for something.

"…_I have a bad feeling about this. Is he waiting for me aiming for his lower body, or something else?"_ Issei was about to aim for a low kick at his body, but he suddenly took a step back, cancelling his kick as his instinct screamed at him not to do it.

But as seconds passed, Issei came to an answer; "…Well, one way to find out."

He rushed in again, pushing forward with his punches as Sairaorg remained in his solid defence. For numerous times Issei spotted that Sairaorg's body was wide open; and he had been tempted just to aim for body blow. Even the spectators would think that Issei should have just attacked Sairaorg's body there and then.

However, that was in case of normal circumstances, and neither Issei or Sairaorg was normal on that point. For Issei, the first rush where he aimed his blows towards Sairaorg's head was merely testing waters, the second rush after he deduced about Sairaorg's defence was when he went for real.

It was no longer battle involving wits; the battle of pure power had begun.

Issei's relentless assaults finally bore fruit; his punches managed to break through Sairaorg's block as his fist managed to create an opening. However, when the dragon was about to score…

WHAM!

Sairaorg's left hand – the one that Issei managed to make an opening from, suddenly shot forward, and in that fraction of second, Issei's eyes widened and he quickly leaned his head out of the way of Sairaorg's fist.

[Aah! An incredible counter from combatant Sairaorg! Combatant Issei barely managed to avoid it!]

Naud Gamigin shouted, while the crowd went silent for a bit; the punch that Sairaorg threw earlier was practically out of nowhere and it shocked the audience.

Due to premature evasion, Issei lost his balance and forced to jump away from Sairaorg. _"…That was close."_ Issei thought grimly as stray sweat trickled down beneath his helmet.

_**[True. It would've been bad if that hit landed.]**_

_"So he was waiting for that moment."_ Issei surmised. _"…And he hasn't changed his game plan."_ Issei thought as Sairaorg returned to his defensive stance.

Issei then lowered his guard on purpose, intending to bait Sairaorg into offensive, eliciting several reactions from the audience. However, almost a minute later, both combatants only stared at each other, with Sairaorg's only respond was a small smirk while he kept his stance.

"…_So he's not falling for it, after all."_ Issei frowned. _"Then I'll take you on it."_

Issei chose to rush in again, this time he threw more punches and kicks towards Sairaorg, even employing lower body blow. However, Sairaorg flawlessly defended against every attack, he also even dodged slightly every now and then to reduce the strain on his arms guarding him.

Sairaorg finally had to fully dodge when Issei threw an upper cut, the Lion King had to fall back a bit. Then Issei followed with a left hook, tearing Sairaorg's defence once again. However, as soon as Issei thought he had made a good opening, Sairaorg immediately retaliated by sending rapid punches with one hand, forcing Issei to dodge every blow until he was forced to jump back again.

_**[His observation skill is amazing.]**_

Ddraig commented.

_**[Even in the midst of your relentless attacks, he was able to spot an opening to counter, and it all had been done flawlessly. We are stronger, but that Sairaorg Bael still has a chance to defeat us. It's as if… he has experience of fighting stronger opponents.]**_

Upon the Welsh Dragon's words, Issei's mind arrived at one conclusion. _"…Heh, another fruit of training with that old man, eh?"_

The audience kept roaring to cheer both fighters, and Issei dashed again.

[Combatant Issei rushes forward again, while combatant Sairaorg only waited for him with his solid guard in place!]

As soon as the fighters were within attack range, Sairaorg's guard was subjected to fierce attack. Issei kept throwing blow after blow, but he had yet to land a clean hit. Sairaorg on the other hand, was as if put under Issei's mercy.

However, some of the audience could tell that Sairaorg was definitely not cornered, because he had barely moved from his spot ever since the fight was commenced.

Another difference between Issei and Sairaorg; the latter could use his head better than the former. Trains and hardships through Saitama's merciless beating had made Sairaorg to adapt one particular habit; when faced with powerful opponent, use as much time as possible to observe and understand your enemy – their strength, speed, and timing. As long as you remained composed and standing in the battlefield, you would not lose.

There was something else that Sairaorg expected in the match, which was battle of attrition. If what Issei said was true, that he still had yet to fully understand the capability of his new form, there was a chance for him to release that armour prematurely. Maintaining something that powerful would require lots of stamina, and while Issei had immense reserve and endurance, he would not be able to maintain that form forever, especially in a fight with a worthy foe. Sairaorg just had to stay calm and seize the victory when the opportunity presented itself.

It took few seconds until Sairaorg finally grasped it – Issei's attack rhythm. When Issei threw another punch, Sairaorg flawlessly moved his body that Issei's fist harmlessly flew pass him. The evasion was different than the one from the upper cut, which was of pure reflex. This evasion was as if Sairaorg had seen Issei's punch coming from miles away.

Issei was losing his momentum when he found that his fist had hit an empty space, and failed to see Sairaorg's counter-fist that had collided with his right side of the helmet

BAM!

The audience was caught by surprise, when Rias had it the worse. "ISE!"

[Aah! A right straight! Combatant Sairaorg landed a clean hit on combatant Issei!]

"_It's fine… it was a damn good hit, but I'm still good to go…"_ Issei thought as he regained his balance.

The first clash was just a warm up, and now Sairaorg was the first to get a good grasp of his opponents, leaving Issei one step behind. The problem was, Issei did not really remember of Sairaorg's movements during the previous clashes, most of Issei's moves were based on instinct rather than knowledge.

And that moment, Sairaorg decided to drop his defensive stance, showing his confidence that he could take on Issei. However, he still did not show any sign of attacking.

"_Dammit, and he still refuses to throw the first punch."_ Issei grimaced. _"…At this point, I gotta force him to go offensive. Come on, Sairaorg-san! Show me something!"_

Issei did not have other choice but to rush forward again. He threw another combo of hits, but Sairaorg easily dodged and blocked every blow with flawless footwork and hand-to-hand coordination. The Lion King immediately scored two hits on Issei's faceplate, causing the red dragon to stumble back.

Issei then attacked with a wide swing of his leg. Sairaorg simply leaned back to evade, and Issei quickly followed with massive hook, which was dodged by Sairaorg ducking his head down, then followed with a strike on the rib-cage, which Sairaorg easily deflected and quickly countered with another hit on Issei's face; stumbling the red dragon back again.

_**[Partner, calm down!]**_

Issei seemed to freeze for a second when he was about to rush in again, as soon as the Welsh Dragon roared in his mind. _"Right, right… Cool, keep cool…"_ although Issei had begun to feel restless for some time now.

Issei took a deep breath to collect his wits, he inched closer with more careful approach and he threw a quick jab at Sairaorg's stomach, Sairaorg simply stepped back and quickly jerked forward with a counter-punch. But this time, Issei had seen it coming as he managed to jerk his head back, avoiding the blow. The dragon then retaliated with a low kick, which Sairaorg easily deflected.

"…_He's starting to learn as well."_ Sairaorg inwardly smiled. _"How about this, then?"_

Sairaorg then became the one who rushed in, using his footwork to create several feints, Sairaorg then proceeded to perform a high kick at Issei's temple, which the latter able to block.

Sairaorg then followed with a round-house kick, and Issei ducked down and retaliated with the same high kick. When Sairaorg managed to block the kick, the two quickly engaged one another into another exchange of blows until they chose to break away their distance again.

The crowd kept cheering as the fight became more heated. Sairaorg then proceeded by throwing his left jabs at Issei. The latter managed to deflect the first two hits, then Sairaorg suddenly shifted his angle, scoring a hook on the cheek of Issei's left faceplate.

Issei then retaliated with two-hit combo, which Sairaorg blocked. The former then followed with a hook, which the latter ducked to dodge. Sairaorg then countered with a small jab on Issei's abdomen, and when he followed with a chop towards the head, Issei caught the offending hand and redirected the blow to create an opening.

Issei then followed with another hook, which Sairaorg dodged and countered with another hit to the stomach, and another one on Issei's helmet. Issei weathered the hits as he retaliated with a back-hand at Sairaorg's face.

The two exchanged blows as Sairaorg landed several quick combos on Issei's abdomen again, and when Sairaorg followed by aiming at Issei's head, the latter ducked and landed a solid punch on Sairaorg's stomach, and when the latter was winded from the blow, Issei managed to score another solid hit on Sairaorg's face.

However, when Issei was going to do follow-up strike, Sairaorg was able to dodge and countered with back-handed slap on Issei's temple, and he snaked his hand around Issei's neck to catch Issei in front headlock, and proceeded by throwing knee-strikes.

Issei blocked the knee-strikes, and Sairaorg proceeded to release Issei by throwing him back, and quickly landed another puch on Issei's face. Using the momentum from Sairaorg's fist, Issei countered with a roundhouse kick.

Sairaorg then attacked again with few kick-combo, which Issei managed to block all of them. Then, when the two threw their fists, Sairaorg's hit managed to land first and Issei countered with another kick, which Sairaorg blocked. When Issei followed with his punch, Sairaorg closed the gap between them and caught Issei before he performed an overhead throw.

However, Issei managed to grab a hold of Sairaorg's hand that was grabbing him, and when he dropped to the ground, Issei quickly manoeuvred and performed his own triangle chokehold.

"Uoogh!" Before Sairaorg could have been entrapped, he mustered all of his strength to lift Issei's body up and slammed it to the ground.

Then, before Issei's body could have been slammed to the ground, Issei released his grip so he could manoeuvred his body and used his lower body and legs to throw Sairaorg over him. The Lion King then rolled on the ground from Issei's throw.

The two ended up with another stalemate, and that made the crowd even more excited.

With laboured breaths from pain and exhaustion, Issei and Sairaorg did a quick check over their own conditions after the clash. From Issei's side, while his armour seemingly could withstand Sairaorg's hits that had been enhanced by his sub-species Balance Breaker and touki, the force behind Sairaorg's attacks had actually made through, even the crimson armour had sported several cracks.

_**[Partner… You'd better finish this fight soon. I got a feeling something is about to go down.]**_

And Ddraig's words only made his current issue even worse. Who knew how long Issei could actually last until his power went wild this time?

Sairaorg on the other hand, was not faring any better. The places where Issei hit him were aching and the armour protecting them was crumbling; perhaps leaving his body's defence with Regulus' armour and some touki was not enough to protect him from Red Dragon Emperor's strikes. It was thanks to the concentration of touki surrounding his arms and legs that he could easily block the dragon's blows.

Sairaorg then spat some blood from his mouth, as he was truly not disappointed by the battle so far.

Both combatants then were ready to duke it out again. However, instead of charging like the previous bouts, Issei and Sairaorg were taking careful steps towards each other.

[Oh, both combatants have become wary of each other now, they are closing in in much slower pace, measuring each other!]

When the two were close enough, Issei was the first to attack as he threw several punches, which Sairaorg easily parried and dodged. The latter used his eyes to determine openings he could exploit, and when he threw several surprise counter attacks, Sairaorg's tactic was able to put Issei on ropes.

The fists exchange went on for few minutes, everyone noticed that Issei was more restless than Sairaorg.

It was because Issei was on a time limit; Ddraig did tell him to have a cool head, but he would not be able to get the fight anywhere if he did not attack. His only chance now was to hope that one of his hits would land on Sairaorg.

[It seems both combatants are fighting with their hands only… kind of like boxing match if anything, what do you think about this, Lord Azazel, Lord Belial?]

Naud Gamigin observed that neither Sairaorg or Issei was employing kicks or anything other than punches.

[It's most likely because they had gotten a good grasp of each other's skills.]

Diehauser commented first, followed by Azazel.

[While kicks can produce more momentum, speed and damage; they are far easier to dodge and countered when it comes to experts. The use of hands is more versatile and harder to predict.]

"…_Although, I'm sensing something else is going on inside those two's heads. Don't you think so, _Saitama_?"_

Then, the audience was taken by surprise when Sairaorg took a step back to gain distance, and Issei chased after him. However, when Issei jumped forward, he ended up getting too close, as his lowered body was almost made contact with the Lion King.

[Combatant Hyoudou Issei had closed the gap, but can he throw his punches like before at that proximity?]

Everyone required to gather enough momentum and kinetic force. When it comes to punches, everyone had to 'throw' his fist in order to produce actual force and damage. In case of Issei's current proximity against Sairaorg, the former should not have enough space to throw his fist.

However, Sairaorg then widened his eyes in alarm as he caught on, because he saw Issei's eyes glinted through the helmet.

"…Gotcha!" Issei then aimed his fist, then he spun his whole body, sending his fist reeling towards the intended target.

BAM!

Sairaorg coughed and hacked when Issei's hit landed on his mid-rib, destroying parts of the golden armour in the process.

"Lord Sairaorg!" Kuisha Abaddon – who remained as spectator, could not help but shouted in worry for her King.

[A devastating body blow from that ultra-close distance! How can combatant Issei perform such a feat!?]

Naud Gamigin's comment expressed the audience's cheering, with Azazel providing explanation, while he and Diehauser were amazed at the development.

[A distance of only inches… In normal circumstances, a punch like that isn't possible at such close range. But still, you can still produce devastating power by pushing your entire body into the punch.]

Sairaorg spat as he was put in a tight spot, he stepped back again to avoid more punches, but Issei pushed through – maintaining the close proximity as Issei spun his body again and landed another punch on Sairaorg's other mid-rib.

BAM! CRACK!

The golden armour crumbled some more, and Sairaorg hissed in pain as he could feel his liver was taking the blow. He reprimanded himself for getting carried away with the fight, forgetting that such possibility for such attacks was still existed.

However, now with things had been done, there was no going back. At this rate, Sairaorg's only option was to push through. _"Saitama-sensei… I guess I still have a very long way before reaching you."_ Sairaorg thought as he stared at the biggest obstacle in his path – the Red Dragon Emperor. _"Regulus, let's do _that_."_

The Nemean Lion was not amused when he caught on what Sairaorg was implying.

_**{Master, please reconsider! Using that move is completely reckless! Do you truly want to surrender yourself under my power?}**_

"_Hyoudou Issei is far more formidable of an opponent than we thought. If this keeps up, we might end up going down first before he could reach his limit. It's now or never!"_ Sairaorg replied. _"…Don't worry, I have no intentions to throw my life away just yet. We'll do this quick."_

The legendary beast then complied in the end.

_**{….As you command.}**_

* * *

Issei was suddenly struck with foreboding sense of dread. Instinctively, he immediately leapt back to see that Sairaorg's power signature suddenly spiked up to a new level. What bugged him the most was the fact that the touki surrounding Sairaorg slowly changed into purple shade of colour.

Apparently, at the corner, Kuisha Abaddon seemed to get an inkling of what her master was going to do. Her expression became pensive, she wanted to interfere, to stop her King from whatever he wanted to do, but she clenched her fist, bit her bottom lip, and chose to believe in Sairaorg.

Sairaorg then muttered the words of power, intersecting with Regulus' voice that came out from the lion figure on the middle of Sairaorg's armour.

"This body, this soul, even if it falls to an endless ravine!"

**{My lord and I, will exhaust this body and this soul to rise up the endless royal path!}**

Issei's eyes widened when he saw Sairaorg's armour began to undergo transformation. Some parts of the armour that had crumbled mended themselves, but instead of gold, some armour shifted colour into purple.

"Raze, triumph, play and shine!"

**{This is the body of a Demonic Beast!}**

Issei remembered the feeling, the sensation he got from Sairaorg's build-up pressure. It was awfully similar when he fought against Vali Lucifer.

"Lodged on top of my fist, is the glorious imperial authority!"

**{Dance!}**

It was the same when Vali unleashed the Juggernaut Drive.

"Dance!"

**{"BLOOM!"}**

It was something similar to Juggernaut Drive, albeit not as powerful. Its name was…

**{"BREAKDOWN THE BEAST, CLIMB OVER!"}**

_**Breakdown The Beast: Regulus Rey Leather Rex Imperial Purpure – The Invincible Skin of the Lion King.**_

[Combatant Sairaorg has changed his armour as his energy levels spiked up like crazy!]

When Naud Gamigin announced, the audience was breathless. When Sairaorg had finished with his transformation, everyone else thought that they were looking at _the king_.

Lion themed armour that stood stronger than before, shining in brilliant colour of gold, and additionally, glowing in menacing colour of purple.

Azazel and Diehauser felt more difficult to keep their excitement from showing. _"Now that both legendary monsters had unleashed their full power, who will win now? It has come to swim or sink for both sides!"_

"…_What the fuck am I witnessing?"_ Issei could not help but thought those words.

_**[Breakdown the Beast…]**_

"_Breakdown the Beast?"_

_**[The Beast of Supremacy. It's like another version of Juggernaut Drive with legendary monster that is not heavenly dragons empowering the Sacred Gear. Right now, we are facing the full might of the Nemean Lion itself.]**_

Two titans – monsters that were legendary in their own right, facing off against each other. Sairaorg Bael possessed the power of the Nemean Lion; the very same beast that, prior to its imprisonment inside God's Artefact, was infamous for its impenetrable skin and its ferocious strength for terrorizing the region of Nemea, Peloponnese, Greece until its demise by the hands of demigod Heracles. In the form of golden and purple armour wore by a young devil, it told the universe: _I may have fallen before the hands of man, but I never felt this powerful than ever. Surrender or perished by my fangs and claws._

On the other hand, Hyoudou Issei was the Red Dragon Emperor, possessing the power of Welsh Dragon Ddraig, one of the Two Heavenly Dragons; one among the most powerful creatures existed that had been known and feared for making minced meat out of gods. Even after his imprisonment into the Boosted Gear, everyone still knew not to recklessly mess with its wielder through out generations. In the form of crimson armour clad by an aspiring, hero-wannabe, it told the universe: _I may be just a fraction of my true form in my glory days, but my power can still shake heaven and earth. Tremble before me._

Meanwhile, the two devils unfortunate enough to be on the same plain as these two titans – Rias Gremory and Kuisha Abaddon, never felt tinier than before. Even with their exceptional talents and achievements through out their lives, they agreed that they should kept their distance as safe as possible. They only had two words to say to the universe: _Oh, shit_.

SLAM! BAM! CRACK!

Then, in manner of second, Issei suddenly jerked back, as he felt immense force had been slammed his torso as he coughed out blood, the armour protecting his stomach was smashed. Issei only realised after the pain, that Sairaorg was already moved and landed his fist on him.

Issei gritted his teeth as he did his darnest to weather the pain. He leapt back and put his guard up, but Sairaorg easily caught up and tore the dragon's guard with an upper cut, forcing Issei's arms to spread open. Then, Sairaorg had already land a solid straight at Issei's face-plate, throwing him to plummet on the ground.

The helmet cracked, and as Issei laid on the ground, he grimaced as he regarded Sairaorg's form, while using the little time he had to recover to his feet. The strongest youth was still standing with his fist outstretched, much to the Welsh Dragon's surprise.

_**[Unbelievable… Even in that form, he still retains his sanity, just like that White One from before.]**_

Sairaorg inwardly nodded in satisfaction that his current form did work against Issei's defence. _"Regulus, have you marked the time?"_

_**{Yes, I have set the time limit when I shall forcefully deactivated this form. Please win by then.}**_

He actually had put himself with another time limit in order to avoid accidentally exhausting himself to death. With two successful hits on Issei's form, Sairaorg only needed to push through.

Issei just got back to his feet when Sairaorg roared, ready to attack again. Weathering the pain from his insides, Issei then quickly braced himself. "Ddraig, a little help here!"

**[Boost!]**

Without another word, the Boosted Gear quickly did its job to double Issei's power. At the same time, however, Issei's own time limit was nearing its end as well.

The dragon and the lion rushed forward at the same time, and the former was the first to throw a powerful punch that easily broke Sairaorg's guard. The Lion King skidded backwards from the force, as he grimaced at the sheer damage implanted to him.

However, Issei knew well that Sairaorg was far from done, by the look in his eyes, even in the current state and circumstances, Sairaorg's eyes remained sharp, ready to spot anything to exploit.

Sairaorg just preserved through another attack that met his guard, and immediately threw fast, sharp punches in retaliation. Issei barely managed to dodge a direct hit as Sairaorg's fist grazed his helmet.

Sairaorg did not give Issei any chance to recover as he kept pushing through with his sharp blows. However, as he kept attacking, his mind was holding Issei in high regard.

Hyoudou Issei was strong, he had incredible strength. For as long as Sairaorg Bael had lived, he had been working hard from rock-bottom until he stood at the top, receiving the recognition as the strongest young devil. He was forever grateful for Saitama, for his awkward way of teaching and training him, had contributed greatly for what and who he had become. Sairaorg wanted to keep testing his own strength, how much he had to work for it in order to pass that seemingly immovable wall known as Hyoudou Saitama.

However, when Sairaorg believed that there was only one wall, there was actually another wall that he had to overcome; the incredibly strong wall known as Hyoudou Issei. In addition, being the son of the teacher he looked up to, Sairaorg deemed that Issei was the best person he could test himself with. He had been waiting for this person.

Issei on the other hand, was having hard time on dodging and parrying Sairaorg's onslaught. He could not find the right time to counter due to the sheer speed performed by the Lion King. As the time went by, Issei had grown more agitated.

Such flawless attacks; was what Issei surmised of his opponent's movements. The fact that the opponent had been training under his father did not sit well with him. Was this the result someone could achieve with that baldy's help?

"Why you…!" Issei growled as he finally threw his punch in, the same time as Sairaorg's.

CRASH!

Both fists connected to each other's head. Issei was able to shatter Sairaorg's helmet, and at the same time, the latter also had succeeded to shatter the former's faceplate.

The audience roared in excitement as both fighters staggered back from the hit. However, they noticed something else was occurring when red liquid flowed and dropped to the ground.

[They are bleeding! Both combatant Issei and Sairaorg were sporting an injury just above their eyes, from their punch exchange earlier!]

"Ise!"

"Lord Sairaorg!"

Rias and Kuisha shouted in worry when they saw the fighters were sporting a bleeding just right above their eyes – Sairaorg from above his right and Issei from above his left, the blood was flowing freely from the cut, obscuring half of their visions in the process.

"_Damn… I can only see red on my left side."_ Issei clicked his tongue. It was too late to wipe it off, since the blood had slipped into his socket. However, Issei did not falter as he kept his focus forward. _"It's fine, it's still fine… It's not like I'm completely blind or anything."_

Sairaorg also did not seem to be bothered too much by his bleeding, the blood also obscured half of his range of sight. At this point, both combatants had decided to completely dismiss their respective helmets, leaving their faces and head open for everyone to see.

The helmet was kind of stuffy, anyway.

Since both fighters were still in fighting condition, they rushed in again to engage in close combat. During the vicious exchange, both Issei and Sairaorg would occasionally aim for each other's weak point – the injury above the eye, to worsen the bleeding in order to gain advantage over each other.

Both combatants had sported various grave injuries as the time went by. Bones were cracked and even broken; muscles were torn, and blood was shed. The fact that both of them aiming for the eye injury every now and then only made their conditions even worse. Neither combatant could properly judge their distance and positions with only one eye.

The fist fight kept going, as Issei and Sairaorg would land a hit, dodge, and parry every now and then, without showing any signs of backing down, despite their limits were nearing in each second.

It was an incredible battle, a battle of high-level technique and incredible will power.

oXo

From the commentator's seat, Azazel was impressed – his expectations had been exceeded. Sairaorg Bael had been considered as some sort of a hero among the low-class devils and those who had been scorned and oppressed by the higher-ups of current society, considering Sairaorg's dream to create an underworld where all devils, regardless of background and status, could be proud of themselves.

From the VIP seats, everyone did not utter any word, their attentions were focused solely to see the outcome of the death-match. Saitama looked stoic, albeit his expression was rather serious. Haruka on the other hand, seeing the bloody figure of her son fighting with everything he had, remained surprisingly composed for the time being, albeit one could notice that she was biting her lower lip while clenching her hands so tight.

Back to the stage, Kuisha could do nothing but to keep believe in her King; that her King would come out as the victor, no matter the odds. Even Regulus was still doing his best to support his master.

Rias on the other hand, collapsed on her knees as she kept her hands together, praying for the safety of her Pawn – the man she loved. Even after counselling from Akeno, the princess was still guilt-ridden about Issei.

_Look at him, fighting so hard for your sake._

Rias internally gasped as doubt began to crawl up on her heart again.

_Look at him - do you still believe he should have gone all through that for the sake of someone like you?_

Rias began to tremble as she witnessing Issei getting pummelled by Sairaorg, his crimson armour started to fall apart. Her guilt made her lose focus enough to miss the fact that Issei was not actually losing.

_Yes, go tell him to keep fighting for your sake, he'll obey you without a second thought. Sucker like him is the best, right?_

"_No… No!"_ Rias shut her eyes as her mind could not take it anymore.

The crowd's collective 'oh' sounds snapped Rias out of it as she returned her sight to the battlefield.

Issei managed to push forward as he laid another haymaker square on Sairaorg's head. However, that was also the very same moment where both combatants had reached their limits.

_**{Forgive me, master…!}**_

Sairaorg's armour dissipated, and Regulus manifested behind him, laid exhausted on the ground.

**[RESET!]**

The jewels on Issei's armour shone, particularly the blue on the centre that shone the most, as the 'power' inside Issei's soul suddenly broke through the gate.

_**{Divide!}**_

The Divine Dividing jewel did represent the Dividing Gear feature on Issei's arsenal; however, the purpose was not to be used on the opponent, but for oneself.

When Issei activated his new form, all consciousness of his predecessors would cooperate with Ddraig in empowering Issei's Evil Piece, as well as holding down the gate, allowing Issei to fight in longer periods of time with his strength and power beyond his normal limits. Then, when the time was up – when the 'power' burst through, that was where the enhancement on the Evil Piece, as well as the Dividing Gear inside the Boosted Gear, came to the picture.

_**{Divide! Divide! Divide!}**_

As the enhanced Evil Piece would react less violently during the feedback/rebound, the Dividing Gear would half the energy backlash to reduce the damage upon Issei's body. Crudely speaking, in a sense, it was akin to dumping a bucket of ice onto an overheating machine to forcefully cool it down, or like dumping water into fire.

_**[Sorry, partner… I'm gonna be out for short while. You're on your own now…]**_

Issei exhaled heavily as he felt his strength abruptly left him. The pain was still there, but it was much more bearable compared with his previous episodes. Hence, Issei could still remain in fighting shape, albeit he would not be able to access his Balance Breaker, let alone his new form, for the rest of the day.

Nevertheless, the damage dealt by Sairaorg in his Breakdown the Beast had done numbers on Issei's body. As Issei fell to the ground, he could feel that his entire body was aching from Sairaorg's hits.

Sairaorg himself was on similar state; the damage he received from the Red Dragon Emperor, as well as the strain from his forbidden move had left him drained of power.

[Both fighters are down! It's a double down!]

Naud Gamigin's announcement was followed by audience's jaw dropping to the ground in astonishment.

"ISE!"

"LORD SAIRAORG!"

Various things happened as Rias and Kuisha ran towards the respective combatants – Rias tending Issei while Kuisha tending Sairaorg.

The referee and the committee were considering to end the match in a draw, as both combatants seemingly unable to fight any longer.

Meanwhile, at the sight of her Pawn's sorry state, Rias began to cry. "It's true…." She thought as she sobbed. "It's just… It's just now worth all of this… Ise…" Rias closed her eyes in resignation, and when she was about to do something she might regret…

""DON'T YOU DARE STOP THE FIGHT!""

Everyone froze when they heard both Issei and Sairaorg roared those words. Whether those words were intended towards the committee, or their attendants, the point was that they still wanted to keep fighting.

"Kuisha, step back." Sairaorg ordered his Queen. "Just tend to Regulus, I'll be fine."

The said Queen bit her lower lip, wanting to protest. However, when she looked her King's eyes, she saw that his eyes saying that he would not take any objection. Additionally, Sairaorg's face was the one that full of determination, asking him to back down would be a grieve mockery for his dreams and efforts so far.

Reluctantly, Kuisha nodded as tears escaped her eyes before she retreated to tend the Nemean Lion behind.

On the other hand, Rias was staring at Issei with disbelief look, before more tears began to flow again. "…Why?" Rias sobbed. "Why would you go to such length…?"

Issei, who was still remained in his crawling position, glanced at his King. "…Do you even need to ask?" he gave a weak grin. "Please… just trust me. I can do this!" he growled as he struggled to get back on his feet, while Sairaorg was getting to sitting position in order to stand up.

Rias closed her eyes again, unable to look. However, something unexpected happened.

[Hey, you can't be here-!]

[Don't you dare look away, Rias!]

For the duration of the match, the competitors on the field had been ignoring pretty much the voice of the audience and the commentators in respect of focusing on their own fight. However, at the moment, everyone especially Issei could not ignore that one familiar voice.

While those on the field could not see what happened, the crowd within the dome could see a woman with long brown hair inside the commentator's box. The said woman was currently taking Naud Gamigin's microphone. There was also a bald man effortlessly keeping the guards at bay, until Azazel and Diehauser Belial ordered the guards to stand down with amusement plastered all over their faces.

"M-Mom!?"

"Haruka-san!?"

Issei and Rias were flabbergasted at the woman's sudden interference; wounds and exhaustion were forgotten at the moment.

[Right now, Ise is fighting for something more important! And it's not just about you! There's something else. Whatever it is, that boy is not going to back down! Don't you look down on his resolve!]

Rias widened her eyes at Haruka's speech, which apparently was not over yet.

[And you, Ise! Stop making Rias worried! You told me that you love her on the other night, so you better live up those words!]

Issei felt rather embarrassed than exhausted from his wounds. Rias on the other hand, was blushing when the matriarch blatantly exposed such information to the public.

The VIP audience, especially the Gremory family only giggled in amusement at the human's stunt.

Nevertheless, Issei and Rias exchanged looks one more time, this time Issei wordlessly stared at his King, asking her to trust him more. Rias stared to Issei's unflinching stares for few seconds, and clarity came to her orbs as she nodded and she retreated, letting her Pawn to have the match once again.

Issei then turned his sight to Sairaorg, who only smiled in return. The two then began to struggle again to stand up.

oXo

From the audience's seat, on the side of Gremory supporters, Irina then pleaded towards the other children and supporters to aid her in cheering for Issei. "Let's go, everyone! Let's cheer for Ise-kun, the Red Dragon Emperor!"

The supporters of Bael team did not want to lose, and soon the crowd began to scream the name of their champion over and over.

ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE! ISE!

SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG! SAIRAORG!

[Sudden interference aside, the crowd is now cheering for both combatants! How will they respond to all of this support!?]

Naud Gamigin continuing his duty, Saitama and Haruka had left the scene some time ago.

Issei and Sairaorg were half-way on getting back on their feet. Then, with one last roar, they straightened up.

""I WILL KEEP GOING!""

The crowd roared with cheer when the two combatants finally stood tall.

[They're both up! Both fighters stand up at the same time! They're completely evenly match!]

However, in closer look, both Issei and Sairaorg were fighting for every breath, and neither of them was steady. The fight was reaching its end.

In the midst of laboured breathing, Sairaorg spoke up. "I'm… currently envious of you, Hyoudou Issei."

Issei, who was also breathing heavily, narrowed his eyes slightly. "…Um, what?"

"Your mother… You have a fine mother such as her." Sairaorg smiled bitterly. "But enough talk, let's just go, shall we?"

Issei wordlessly nodded, and the fight commenced again as the two began to pummel each other again with their bare hands.

However, the flow of the fight could suddenly shift for the better or worse, for either or both combatants. It was the moment where Sairaorg managed to land his fist square on Issei's right eye, causing the latter's face to swollen.

"Hn!?" Issei grunted as he kept his balance. He noticed that with his left eye covered in blood from the cut, and his right eye swelling, he was as good as blind. _"Fuck… It's getting even harder to see now."_

The thing that Issei could see with his impaired sights was Sairaorg's gleaming eyes. However, that alone was not nearly enough to help Issei to pin-point his target.

[Combatant Issei threw several wide swings and missed! Combatant Sairaorg flawlessly countered with his sharp strikes, hitting the mark!]

Sairaorg just landed another hit with his right fist flew across Issei's face. The latter growled, and with what remained of his sight, Issei performed an uppercut. Alas, the attack missed as it only brushed Sairaorg's face.

Sairaorg then countered once again with solid straight to the face, pushing Issei several steps back. With his head covered in blood, including his swollen and bloodied eyes, all Issei could see was the ground. It was only through using his other senses to feel the shift in the air flowing around him, that Issei could tell that Sairaorg was definitely right in front of him.

Sairaorg then began his onslaught, not giving Issei any mercy nor chance to retaliate. Issei put up his guard, weathering every single of Sairaorg's blows. Then, he noticed that he could see Sairaorg's foot; using the little information to more or less determine his target, Issei managed to push back by sending a solid punch right at Sairaorg's face.

The crowd became more and more ecstatic with their cheering as Issei and Sairaorg began to simply punch the day lights out of each other. However, after several bouts, Rias noticed that Issei had started to show signs of fatigue as his punch seemed slower and weaker.

Kuisha seemed to know this as well, her expression showed slight triumphant as she believed that it was a matter of time until Sairaorg became the victor.

However, when Issei's hit landed once again, Sairaorg suddenly lost his balance as his legs started to give out. Unexpectedly, Sairaorg was in no better condition – no, his condition was kind of worse than Issei.

Both combatants were already on their last legs, but they refused to give up and kept attacking.

"_I see…"_ Sairaorg stared with his clouded eyes at Issei. _"…You truly are Saitama-sensei's son."_ He thought while he kept engaging in the close combat. _"You can't even confirm my position, can you? Yet, your punches can still hit the mark. This is not just mere flukes – this is a result of strenuous training!"_

Meanwhile, Issei felt that he could fall asleep any moment with his vision almost all black. _"Shit… All I can see is your feet… At least I know where you are."_ Issei thought as he threw another punch that managed to hit Sairaorg again. _"…Whatever, I'll just push through!"_ Issei continued his counter attack; as long as the target was present, it did not matter if Issei could not see or not.

Rias, and especially Kuisha could not understand how Issei could land so many hits despite the condition of his eyes.

Sairaorg regarded Issei with utmost respect in his eyes. _"…And it's not just training, his instinct had been honed into this level. That's what makes him so terrifying!"_ Sairaorg then attacked again. _"But I can't lose! If it's about hard-work and effort, I won't lose to anyone!"_ his fist smashed into Issei's face once again.

Rias could only muffle her gasps as Sairaorg did more numbers on Issei. She knew that both fighters would not stop until either one or both of them fell, but there was also a limit where she could take her servants being injured.

She could not deny it any longer that her love for Issei was greater than her ambition to be Rating Game champion.

"_Hyoudou Issei…"_ Sairaorg thought as he kept his sight on his opponent. _"…I never thought you'd be this incredible. I'm grateful that you've made me giving my all in this match!"_ he then landed another sharp punch square on Issei's face.

"'_Tis an honour to face you on this stage!"_

[Combatant Sairaorg landed another devastating sharp punch on combatant Issei! The Red Dragon Emperor doesn't seem to last any longer!]

Issei's body staggered as if he could stand no longer. Then, after wobbling for couple of seconds, his body leaned forward right towards Sairaorg who had prepared to throw the finishing blow.

"_This will be the final blow!"_ Sairaorg then threw his fist at Issei's falling form.

* * *

Time seemed to slow down around Issei as he fell forward. He could feel the air rushing - something was coming at him. He could hear someone screaming – was that Rias? He wanted to turn and see, but his eyes were unusable at the moment.

Suddenly, he began to think, what was he doing again?

"_Oh, right… I am fighting with Sairaorg-san."_ Issei recalled. Then, why was he going so hard again? Why was he not winning yet?

"_Right… the damage… I'm running out of juice."_ Issei surmised. Then, flashes of images came to his mind.

Akeno, Yuuto, Xenovia, Gasper, Rossweisse, Koneko and Asia - his comrades, who had fallen for the sake of victory.

"_Yeah… I can't go down… But I can't see…"_

Rias Gremory – his master, the woman who had claimed his heart.

"_But… what can I do… And I think I'm forgetting one more thing…"_

Then, the back of a man with bald head appeared in his mind.

"_Ah…"_ Issei realised. _"That's it…"_ he clenched his fists again. _"I gotta win…. I just gotta win by doing what I can….!"_

Back at reality, Sairaorg, along with everyone else were taken by surprise when Issei suddenly moved, he ducked his head, allowing Sairaorg's fist to harmlessly pass through his hair. Then, while Sairaorg's arm was still outstretched, Issei snaked his own arm through the offending arm, sending his fist right at Sairaorg's defenceless face.

"_I JUST GOTTA MOVE FORWARD AND KEEP PUNCHING!"_

BAM!

Everyone was speechless as the hit connected.

Issei could feel that his fist had landed. "_Where? Where is he now?!"_ with his impaired vision, Issei then caught Sairaorg's feet shifted their position. _"Over there?!"_

Issei then threw his fist towards the direction where he guessed Sairaorg at, and the hit landed again, and again, and again.

"_Hit, hit, hit, HIT!"_

Without relying on any other senses, Issei pushed through, landing one devastating blow after another towards Sairaorg Bael. The strongest devil was losing himself as he was placed under Issei's mercy.

The beat-down went on, and after the sixth hit, Issei's punch was able to force Sairaorg to collapse onto the ground. However, much to everyone's shock again, despite his opponent had fallen, Issei did not stop his punching as he kept hitting thin air.

That moment, Issei was not even aware that Sairaorg had fallen. He only thought that he had missed his target at some point, and his only hope was to keep punching until his fist connected with something again.

Everyone was silent as Issei kept punching at nothing, while Kuisha had already run to tend to her King. Some of the audience even shed some tears at the display of Issei's sheer willpower to keep fighting, even Rias was muffling her cry.

"Ise, that's enough!" Rias finally snapped out of it as she commanded her Pawn to stop. "Ise, you've won! Stop this instant!"

However, the world seemed to lost him as Issei kept punching in daze, as if in trance.

TAP!

"_I hit something!?"_ Issei thought as his fist made contact. _"…Wait, that's not Sairaorg'san's feet, isn't it?"_ in fact, there was also other foot that he believed belonged to Rias Gremory, as he felt someone was embracing him.

"Geez, Ise." Issei suddenly heard his father's scolding voice. "You should know when to stop, especially after your opponent is down."

"Ise." This time, Issei heard Rias' soft voice. "You've won. You've done well." She smiled tearfully, as she pulled out a handkerchief to wipe off the blood obscuring Issei's eyes.

When Issei regained enough of his vision, he saw Saitama and Rias supporting him. "…Dad? How did you get here?"

"Sirzechs helped me." Saitama simply waved off. "More importantly, turn around and look."

Issei did as he told, and he saw that Sairaorg was on the ground; his unconscious body was being tended by Kuisha and Regulus. The two servants of Bael nodded to him in respect, and Issei spotted Sairaorg's face looked so peaceful, so satisfied.

The crowd then roared, with those who supported the Gremory team celebrating their teams' victory. Irina was hugging several children while crying tears of joy.

From VIP seats, everyone applaud at the game's result. Haruka in particular, was clapping happily while occasionally wiping off some stray tears from her eyes.

As the crowd cheered, Rudiger Rosenkreutz began his final announcement.

[Sairaorg Bael –King, retires. The game has ended with Rias Gremory team as the victor!]

* * *

Meanwhile, on the peak of certain mountain range in Tibet, an individual was sitting leisurely despite the height, low air pressure and low temperature. The said individual was a handsome boy in his teenage years; he had a well-structured face, with green and black hair which looked more bluish.

The boy's eyes however, possessed a mystery that was beyond mortal men, as he revelled himself with the information he had received regarding the recent Rating Game between a legendary dragon and legendary lion.

While the match was amusing, it was another thing – two things, which piqued his interest the most. One was a certain man with unknown origin and unexplainable strength.

As the boy had been observing this man for a while, the former had actually attempted to use his divination ability to see the latter's future, which apparently, much to his surprise, bore no fruits. The boy could not see anything about the man's future – his divination could not work on the man of his interest.

Then, another interesting individual showed up, which happened to be the certain man's direct descendant – the current Red Dragon Emperor. At first, he had been observing him and his growth with utmost interest, until it became more and more difficult to see his future. Did this have something to do with his father? The boy could only guess so far.

What's more, after trying to read further into the Red Dragon Emperor's future, he suddenly saw blank, as if the supposedly endless book suddenly ended abruptly with no continuation.

Two men with futures that he could not predict - the boy only smirked, concluding that such development would cause the world to change.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Holy shit, that was difficult. Even after learning and improving in writing fight scenes, Issei vs Sairaorg was still very challenging for me. How's it? I hope I did not mess it up.**

**I'm sorry for Sairaorg's fans who were looking forward to see Sairaorg's inner dialogue with Misla. I plan to put my own version in the next chapter, which will be the aftermath.**

**Please review of what you think about the chapter overall. Constructive reviews are appreciated, no flames please.**

**Oh, and for those who are wondering, Issei's new armour was inspired by Incursio and Grand Chariot from Akame ga Kill, as well as Iron Man suit.**


	47. Heart (V)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, folks! Rapid updates, did not expect this coming, did ya? **

**Over 1,000 reviews! Thank you so much for your support, I'll do my best to meet you, reader's expectation as I continued this project! Once again, thank you.**

**Another thing, I decided to write a preview of the future events at the very end of this chapter, like the one I did for the Holy Maiden arc. If you don't want spoilers, you can stop your reading at the 'to be continued' sign or at the final author notes. **

**Lastly, I do not own One-Punch Man nor High-school DxD. Please support the official release!**

* * *

**Chapter 44: Heart (V) – Reconnecting**

A man with muscular build and short black hair was floating inside a void. The man was seemingly asleep as his body kept floating.

Then, a flash of light caused him to stir, as his closed eyes twitched before slowly opening, and the man heard a soft voice.

_Sairaorg…_

"Who…?" the man, known as Sairaorg Bael, lethargically asked.

_Sairaorg… My son…_

"…Mother?" when Sairaorg blinked his eyes, he could see the visage of his mother – Misla Bael. The woman was smiling softly at him. "Mother, I…!"

He tried to move towards her, but he found himself feeling so weak. However, he suddenly was enveloped by the warmth of his mother's arms.

_Hush, my son… You have done than enough._

Misla caressed her son as she whispered.

_I've been watching you, and I've always been proud of what you have become. _

Misla kept speaking, Sairaorg could tell that his mother was shedding few drops of tears along the way.

_You have become so strong, handsome and dignified. I could never be prouder._

"Thank you… mother." Sairaorg replied as he slowly surrendered himself into his mother's embrace.

_It's alright… Your journey may be far from over, but for now, just rest up._

Thus, Sairaorg closed his eyes again in bliss.

oXo

When Sairaorg opened his eyes again, he was met with white ceiling, he did a check-up over his body, and he found was wrapped in bandages, his arm was attached to hospital infusion. When he turned his head, he could see from his bed, that Issei was just waking up from his slumber on the neighbouring bed. The Red Dragon Emperor was in a better shape – presumably thanks to Phoenix Tears, but his arm was also attached to the infusion.

When the two's eyes met, Issei only blinked as he raised his arm in greeting. "…'Sup."

Before Sairaorg could have replied, another voice interrupted them.

"Rise and shine, boys."

The two then shifted their heads enough to see Hyoudou Haruka was sitting on a chair in front and between their beds, her hands were skilfully peeling off an apple with a knife. On a desk beside her, a plate of rabbit-shaped apples had been prepared.

"Mom."

"Lady Haruka."

Issei and Sairaorg then shuffled under their blankets out of reflex to address the woman properly. However, Haruka suddenly stood up to placate the two. "Hey, now. Both of you should be resting, alright?"

Seeing that their bodies were still hurting and exhausted, the two boys decided to comply and relax on their beds, with Haruka fixing their blankets.

Few seconds later, Sairaorg spoke up. "…So I lost."

Issei and Haruka decided not to say anything in return, and waited for Sairaorg to fully finish what he wanted to say.

"…Not bad." Sairaorg smiled. "I actually have forgotten the last time I've lost in official games, that was magnificent, the best battle I've ever had so far."

"…Thanks." Issei replied with his own smile.

"So you two have been dealing with this kind of thing?" Haruka decided to quip in, gesturing the state of the two bed-ridden boys. "I do have my own fair share of watching MMA fights, but those are pale in comparison of your match. You two, especially you." Haruka turned to her son, who flinched at his mother's stare. "…Have almost given me a heart-attack. Good grief, if it's not for the fact that I've been dealing with Saitama's shenanigans, I'm probably gonna file complains and sue Rias and Azazel-san for putting you through that ordeal." Haruka finished with a sigh.

Issei and Sairaorg could only reply with wry laugh at the woman's small outburst. Then, they heard a knock from the door of their room.

"Come in." Haruka opened the door, revealing Sirzechs Lucifer.

"Pardon the intrusion." The Crimson Satan nodded at the woman while smiling pleasantly. Before Issei and Sairaorg could have gotten worked up by the presence of the overlord, Sirzechs held up his hand. "Please, be at ease and just rest up. You deserve it."

Issei and Sairaorg then ended up with a nod. "Lord Sirzechs."

"Ise-kun, Sairaorg." Sirzechs addressed the two devils. "That was a truly splendid performance of both of you during the match. I'm really moved, and everyone else including the VIP guests are all satisfied. On that note, Saitama might not say this out loud, but he's glad of you two's growth and performance."

Issei and Sairaorg glanced at each other and shared knowing grins.

"Moving on." Sirzechs then turn to Issei. "I have something to tell you, Ise-kun."

Issei then blinked, as he prepared himself to listen to what the Satan had to say.

"I'll go to the point. After witnessing the Rating Game, there has been talks between the higher-ups of granting Kiba Yuuto and Himejima Akeno a promotion test to be middle-class devils, in fact…" Sirzechs' smile then grew a tad wider. "You most likely are going to have your high-class test promotion soon."

Sairaorg took this pleasantly as he offered encouraging smile towards Issei, who was a bit lost for words for a moment. "Err… Okay, so I may become a high-class devil should I pass the test…" he drawled out.

"Yep, and once you are a high-class devil, you and Rias will… Well, you know what I'm getting at." Sirzechs' smile became a bit mischievous as he winked at Haruka, who only giggled in return.

Issei's face then blushed at the meaning behind Sirzechs' words, while Sairaorg also chuckled in amusement. Then, to get out of the awkward moment, Issei decided to move the conversation along. "Say, um… Where's everyone?"

Sirzechs only blinked before replying. "Rias was still visiting the rest of her peerage, as for Saitama… I'm… not sure. He said he wanted to meet someone or something."

* * *

Azazel was walking towards the VIP room after finishing his duty as commentator of the Rating Game. According to his subordinate, there was one particular individual that showed up among the audience and the Scapegoat would like to speak with this individual.

He spotted the person in question; a man clad in aloha shirt. One might said that his clothes were too casual for an esteemed guest. However, Azazel was not easily fooled by appearance alone. "If it isn't Lord Sakra." Azazel greeted the Heavenly Emperor. "How's the game?"

"Oh, if it isn't Azazel!" Indra replied with cheeky grin. "Sure, the game was totally awesome, the fighters completely exceed my expectations, especially that Red Dragon Emperor and Lion King brat. So, what does the esteemed fallen angel governor want from me?"

Ignoring the sarcasm laced on the god's words, Azazel put on airs as he proceeded. "I'd like to ask you something."

"Oh, sure, sure! What is it? I'll see what I know."

"…The Longinus possessor." Azazel began. "You knew about Cao Cao before we did, right?" Azazel knew that Indra had been a long acquaintance of the wielder of Longinus spear, and he suspected that they had made contact recently from the information that Sun Wukong, the recently appointed vanguard of Sakra, also knew Cao Cao.

"So what if I did?" Indra then smirked cockily. "You got problem with that? I knew him since he was a brat, and so what if I meet him every now and then? Big deal."

"Indra…!" Azazel began to lose his patience as his aura leaked out.

"Hahaha! Chill, dude! It's not just me you shouldn't worry about; that Hades is also plotting something. Hell, his plot may bring change to the mythology as we know it!" Indra laughed off. "Look, kid. Everyone may be speaking about diplomacy, peace and stuff like that, but you gotta know that those other gods were actually plotting to dominate and devour each other to prove themselves as the one above all. Have you forgotten that the Christianity, where you guys were originated from, was the cause of other pantheons losing their powers and believers? Don't forget that gods and celestials are more upfront with their feelings than humans."

Azazel did not say anything in return as he took in Indra's words. The fallen knew how grave the situation was, but he could not stop, there was no turning back when human world was at stake as well.

Indra then sighed as he prepared to leave. "Anyway, I'll play along for now. I do admit that Ophis can be dangerous if left alone." He then gave a 'friendly' tap on Azazel shoulder as he walked by.

Then suddenly, Indra was greeted by another man. "Oh, hey there, Saitama!"

Azazel tensed up as he turned around to see the Emperor of Heaven was conversing with Saitama so casually.

"I've seen what you and your wife pulled out during the match there. Speaking of, congrats for your son's victory." Indra shook Saitama's hand while giving few laughs.

Saitama on the other hand, maintained his neutral expression while the Sakra kept his 'buddy-buddy' attitude.

"Well, I'll be off. Oh, and please do consider my offer. You won't regret accepting it." with that, Indra finally left before giving one last warning to Azazel. "Don't forget, Bro-Zazel! Watch out for that old skeleton! Peace out!"

Saitama only nodded with his stoic face, while Azazel was having a bit cold sweat. "Say, Saitama…" Azazel called out. "How did you know Indra?"

"Oh, Azazel." Saitama greeted. "Well, I ran to him in the restroom. He's okay, I guess."

"…He said earlier about giving you an offer. Care to share?" Azazel asked again.

"Ah, he just offered me a job as one of his vanguards. He said that Sun Wukong is also working for him too." Saitama replied.

"…Is that so?" Azazel ended up swallowing a small lump. "Let me ask you this, what do you know about Indra?"

"Err… He's a big-shot?" Saitama replied uncertainly.

At this point, Azazel felt a slight headache. "Well, you get the idea at least… Anyway, what do you think about his offer?"

Saitama hummed for a second before answering. "…I don't know, to be honest. I just told him that I'm gonna think about it. That's all."

"I see." Azazel nodded as he let out a wry sigh.

"…You okay there?" Saitama furrowed his eyebrows at Azazel's troubled expression.

"Nah, it's nothing." Azazel waved off. "Come on, the kids are probably celebrating now. Don't want to miss that now, do we?" he smiled as he walked off along with Saitama.

oXo

On his way home, Indra was contemplating. _"Saitama, what an interesting fella."_

The Warrior God had this habit of going inside people's head on the first time he laid his eyes upon them. However, when he met Saitama for the first time, he could not see anything; not his future nor what was in his mind. It made him wonder just what Saitama was.

He had heard the rumours of Saitama's accomplishments, such as lifting up the legendary Mjolnir, which granted him the recognition on Asgard and Valhalla of Norse, more so after he had defeated Thor in one-on-one spar; subjugating various strong monsters and demons; single-handedly defeated a Heavenly Dragon in Juggernaut Drive and Evil God Loki; and the most recent one, stopping the terrorist plot and rescuing the leader of Kyoto youkai.

Indra began to hypothesise that Saitama was strong enough, his destiny, as well as his power were complete wild card that the god could not get any reading about him. Then, there was also the Red Dragon Emperor into consideration.

At first he thought that the boy would end up like his predecessors, living unfulfilling life while being devoured by the power of dragon. Instead, his performance so far had exceeded his expectations. However, the most concerning thing was that, when Indra used his power to read Issei's mind and future, he found some complications.

First, the boy's mind was harder to read than he thought, and it became more and more troublesome for Indra to read his mind. Second, when Indra looked into Issei's future, the reading suddenly ended at some point. Usually, such case happened when the target was meeting his demise, or unlikely to gain some means to prevent Indra's divination.

But Indra would not be shaken. In fact, he saw this as an opportunity to increase his chance of victory against the Rudra. As his carriage escorted him back to 'Heaven', Indra chuckled as he began to consider several plans.

* * *

The day went by, and Kuoh Academy was holding the school festival. People from both inside and outside the academy were enjoying various entertainment and shops being held out inside the academy grounds. Of course, the main high-light was the Occult Mansion held by Occult Research Club, whose members consisted of the school's most popular students.

Asia, Xenovia and Irina were working as waitresses in cute uniform, serving the visitors in their café.

Koneko and Akeno were manning purification and fortune-telling booth, garbed in shrine-priestess outfit.

Rias was actually helping the café as waitress as well, the girls were receiving various requests from male customers.

The boys were holding the haunted house, with Issei and Gasper working as the ghosts while Yuuto manning the entrance. The booth was loaded with female visitors, wanting just to witness the Knight's handsome face and the Bishop's adorable visage.

Ravel was helping out by selling and managing the tickets for visitors.

Overall, the Occult Mansion was quite a success. During free time, Issei was talking with Azazel.

"…So that happened." Issei nodded with dejected look on his face.

Apparently, Azazel just informed him that, after losing in the Rating Game, Sairaorg Bael had lost his supports and connections with the nobles. The nobles did not want to place their stakes on someone who just lost against mere reincarnated devil – Longinus user or not.

Seeing Issei's calm demeanour, Azazel raised an eyebrow. "You're surprisingly rather calm about this."

Issei only sent the fallen a dry glare, which Azazel easily understood the meaning behind it. "…Alright, alright. But still, don't feel bad, okay? That's just how the politics work. Every player would choose the best cards to use, after all."

"…How about his status as the next heir of the clan?" Issei then asked.

"Don't worry about that." Azazel replied. "The house of Great-King isn't that stupid to let household's name to be frowned upon by society by expelling their heir."

"…That's good." Issei nodded with smile.

"Say, Ise…" Azazel then asked. "What do you have about your new crimson armour?"

"I spoke with Ddraig." Issei replied. "From what we've gathered, I can maintain my form for around one hour, depending on my usage of Boost and Gift ability. In the events where the burst out occurs, the Dividing Gear inside me will lessen the rebound caused by my Evil Piece's violent reaction. I'll be still in fighting shape, but not in full capacity because I won't be able to access my Scale Mail for the rest of the day."

"…Fascinating. Anything else?" Azazel asked further while rubbing his chin.

Issei was silent for a second in thought before answering. "Well… That's it for now. The move still needs a lot of trial and run."

"I see… Well, you do that. I bet there's still incredible things you can achieve in future." Azazel smiled encouragingly.

The conversation ended when Issei had to attend another visitor, and Azazel took his leave.

oXo

Issei and Koneko had been allowed to go around the school to enjoy the festival during the break, and along the way, they ran to Saji, who was conducting his duty as Student Council to monitor around campus. Thus, the three were currently walking together.

"So the Sitri group were having scramble flag game?" Issei asked.

Saji sighed in return before replying. "Yeah… And it was tiring because we have to run across the huge field to collect flags… Even I'm still drowsy from all the running." Then he glanced at Issei. "Though… I guess your Dice Figure game with Sairaorg Bael ain't walk in the park either."

"Tell me about it." Issei sighed this time. "Honestly, there were times when I thought I was gonna die." Koneko also silently nodded in understanding as she listened to the conversation. "So, how did the match on your side go?"

"We won, but barely." Saji admitted. "It's thanks to kaichou's tactical skills that we managed to achieve victory. Although…" Saji then became slightly flustered. "At the climax of the game, I ended up going berserk in Vritra mode. I thought I can be looked cool by winning the game in that dragon form in front of kaichou… But we ended up receiving bad reviews from the higher-ups. I fucked up…" he ended with another sigh.

The conversation ended when Saji had to take care of trouble-makers on the campus ground.

oXo

Ravel had returned to Hyoudou Residence with a box of cake that she made using the school's facility during her break time in festival. She pleasantly recalled that the festival had gone smoothly, with the final event to be mixer dancing where boys and girls would dance hand-in-hand together around large bon-fire.

Well, not that smoothly, as Ravel remembered Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan suddenly came un-announced to visit, though their visit was short-lived as they had been immediately retrieved by Grayfia.

Saitama and Haruka also gave a quick visit, the last time she saw them was when the married couple decided to go around the school ground after giving their regards to the Occult Research Club.

"I'm back!" Ravel said as she stepped into the house. She found that the rest of the club members had returned home and were gathering in the living room, along with Saitama and his wife.

However, Ravel noticed that they were short two person. "Um… Where are Lady Rias and Ise-sama? I did receive the word to go home immediately at the end of festival…"

"Well…" Akeno was the one to answer. "Let's say that Rias wanted to settle some private matters with Ise-kun. So she told us to wait for their return here."

Ravel blinked couple of times until understanding appeared on her face. "…Oh."

Everyone then prayed that things would go well between the couple in question.

* * *

Rias was currently sitting alone in the clubroom. At the end of the festival, she had asked Akeno to tell everyone to go home safe for Issei; it was the time for her to settle things once and for all.

Her Queen had offered her presence as support, but Rias politely declined, stating that she needed to do this on her own. And now, Rias was nervous as hell despite the determination she showed to her Queen earlier.

After waiting for some time, the door of the clubroom opened, revealing Issei. The two stared at each other for few seconds until the boy broke the silence. "…Rias."

"…Ise." Rias nodded as she returned the greeting. "Good work for today."

"…Yeah."

"…Since this is my third year, this will be the last year I'll be here, so I want spend some more time in this room…" Rias awkwardly spoke.

"I see…" Issei nodded, but the awkwardness of the situation did not lessen at all.

Rias finally took a deep breath as she prepared herself for what she actually meant to do. "Ise, I'd like to talk with you. Do you mind?"

Issei blinked, and his face slightly hardened as he knew what this was about. "…Yeah, I also want to talk with you."

The two then sat down on the couch in the middle of the room, both of them were only arms-length apart. "First of all." Rias began the conversation. "I'm sorry for the other night. I was… distraught."

Issei simply listened without saying any word.

"Actually, that's not the only thing I want to apologize for… Will you hear me out? Please?" Rias asked with hopeful looks in her eyes.

Issei took a deep breath to resolve himself before nodding, ready to take whatever Rias might had been keeping from him. Thus, Rias told him, from what had been troublilng her – pretty much what she told to Akeno on the other night.

When Rias finally finished her story, she did not dare to look up to see Issei's face. Was he angry? What if he did not like what he heard? What if he came to hate her? That thought alone terrified her to the core.

Eventually, she dared to slowly look up, and when she got a look on her fiancé, Issei's face was more… incredulous if anything; as if he just heard something silly as he blinked owlishly.

"Err…" Issei trailed off. "…That's it?"

"…Huh?" This time, it was Rias who was incredulous. She expected incredulity – yes, but she also expected something at least anger, or whatever that was not the thing Issei just said. "Wha-! I – I've been constantly on the edge by telling you all of this, and that's your only respond!? What do you mean by 'that's it'? That's it?!"

Issei was taken aback by Rias' outburst; the girl was now standing up from her seat in a fit of rage.

Seriously, he did not understand what that was all about. He was expecting to hear something like an eye-opening, or even heart-shattering truth, but after hearing the whole story, he could only come up with that respond – _is that all?!_

"W-why are you angry now? I mean, seriously, is that it? Nothing else? That's the reason why you freaked out on me on that night?!" Issei replied as he also stood up from his seat.

"YES!" Rias blurted out. "And do you know how much I was…. Working up over myself, not having guts to tell you everything!? The thoughts of you angry at me, hating me!? I could barely sleep for that!" Rias yelled as she shook her arms that clutched the collar of Issei's uniform

"Oh, boo-hoo! I'm so sorry to hear that!" Issei sarcastically replied as he shook Rias' hands off his collars. "You're exaggerating things for your own damn good! And speaking of worked up, do _you_ know how hard it was to me? Thinking that you're probably… fed up with me, but you just can't bring yourself to say it in my face because we are engaged!?"

"I wasn't, and am not, exaggerating! It's just you don't understand us girls!" Rias countered as she waved her hand aside.

"Right back at ya! You don't understand us boys!" Issei jabbed his fingers. "Now that I think about it, maybe I should get angry with you right now? That's what you're expecting, right?"

"Oh, so you're not angry until now?!" Rias returned. "Why don't you tell me, then?!"

"I was angry, angry like hell!" Issei yelled back. "But I can't just bring myself to imagine of living in the world where you are not part of it! Then, when I've been worrying sick of what you could've possibly been hiding for me, all I hear is some… lame-ass story and you expect me to back off and leave you?! What is _wrong_ with you, woman!?"

Rias was actually taken aback at Issei's rather harsh confession. "I… You tell me! Is it wrong for me to feel bad after putting you in that kind of ordeal!?"

"Well, maybe! But you've been beating yourself around about it for whole time, that's what disturbs me!" Issei then sighed heavily as he rubbed his temple. "Fucking hell… Just what did I get myself into? I'm starting to feel like an idiot for getting worked up so much…!"

"And guess what, you _are_ an idiot!" Rias yelled.

"And so are you!" Issei then shouted back right at Rias' face.

They were both panting hard, for exactly ten seconds before, at the same time, wrapping their arms around each other – Rias' arms around Issei's neck while Issei's arms around her waist, and had their mouths met each other with such hunger, passion and desperation; as if something had finally broken free, and they started to ravish each other's mouth with their tongues, kissing like they never did before.

* * *

**Explicitness ahead!**

* * *

Issei's hands that were around Rias' waist, tightened their grip and he suddenly pushed Rias down on the table in the middle of the room, while his mouth did not stop assaulting Rias' own.

She grunted when her back slammed against the wooden surface, but she made sure that her open mouth was still pressed against Issei's by keeping her arms around his head, her fingers digging into his scalps and would pull a fistful of his brown hair every now and then, her arms pulling his head against hers.

Her legs were apart, rested on either side of his hips when Issei brought her down onto the table, and as she snarled into the kiss, she drew up both of her legs and slammed against the back of his thighs and compressed her own tightly around his hips, simultaneously grinding herself against him – while discarding her own shoes in the process.

Issei's hand grappled for her breast and gave it a squeeze, eliciting a moan. His strong fingers were gripping hard enough that he might left a bruise, despite the layers of clothing Rias was currently wearing.

Rias then proceeded to undress him, starting from taking his jacket and shirt off him. Then, her hands were clawing at his chest, scratching him through the fabric of his red T-shirt until her hands finally found the ends. She viciously pulled it upwards and broke their invigorating kiss long enough for her to yank it over his head and throw it away – then she returned her mouth on his.

Issei growled while still ravaging Rias' mouth, as her hands returned to rake down on his shoulders and back after undressing him. He could say that her clawing was hard enough to leave a mark or even draw blood, but none of them cared; neither of them wanted to be soft as they simply wanted to unleash their pent-up, carnal desires.

His hands, that were previously cupping her breasts and hips; began to undress her uniform. He took off the shoulder cape, but he found himself fumbling with the circular, plastic beads on her shirt. Perhaps it was because Rias' endowed body that made the buttons seemed tighter.

Rias snarled in annoyance, and in between the rough kiss, she managed to mutter few words. "Rip it off."

"…What?"

In one swift movement, Rias then disengaged herself from Issei's mouth and glared up to his eyes with furious gleam in each of her iris. "Rip. My fucking. Shirt. Off…!" she half-whispered/half-snarled through gritted teeth.

Issei narrowed his eyes for a second before his lips twitched up slightly into a smirk, and in a second, his mouth was back on hers, the back of Rias' head was pressing against the table's surface. She could feel and hear Issei tearing her uniform apart, buttons and all were scattered on the floor. Her hands then moved to Issei's sides and made their way towards his belt buckle.

At the same time, Issei had moved away from her mouth and assaulted her neck, hitting her erogenous zone, causing Rias to moan more loudly. In return, she roughly unbuckled his pants and Issei's lower garments steadily dropped to the floor until he disentangled his pants, boxers and his shoes.

They had moved on from kissing into undressing each other – Rias was busy removing the cuffs and the remains of her uniform impatiently, moaning as Issei was assaulting her; he was now trailing down from her neck to her breasts, ripping her black bra off and played with her mounds and pink nipples – all while both of them were still grinding their hips against each other.

Issei assaulted Rias' boobs without precedent; his tongue wrapped around one of her nipples and sucked hard, his teeth biting and nipping at the nub, probably hard enough to make Rias could not feel her breasts after they were done for a week or so. His hands assisted in the job and kneaded the neglected mound harshly; palming her nipple and squeezing her so hard that forced Rias to scream out of twisted pleasure.

The only thing that stood between Issei's erect length and Rias' lower lips was a thin fabric of her panties. He impatiently rubbed his length across the fabric-covered slit, sending electrical pulse through Rias' being, making her moaned and gasped in ecstasy as she tightened her grip on him.

Rias then snarled again, attempting to push Issei away so she could take control. However, Issei easily overpowered her as he kept her beneath him; while he was still attacking her neck and breasts, his hand firmly grabbed her hips, while the other remove her panties protecting her lower region enough to give him access. Feeling that she was wet enough, Issei immediately pushed in.

Rias' eyes widened when Issei broke through her hymen, she screamed in both pain and pleasure as her hands were clawing even harder on his back – which definitely drew blood.

Issei on the other hand, was not really bothered at the sensation of her fingers digging through his flesh, and was more into feeling the tightness and softness of her inside.

Both of Rias and Issei were panting even harder, revelling the sensation of them connecting – good and bad. Few seconds later, Issei then immediately pounded into her earnestly, while he assaulted her neck once again, eliciting a loud gasp from her as she tightened her leg-lock around him and buckled up, allowing their hips to interline.

Their frustration, feelings and passion were poured out as Issei's hands were now intertwining with Rias' own, as if he was strapping her hands on the table, while they returned to passionately kiss each other again as they fucked like no tomorrow – the wooden table beneath them was creaking from their movements.

The sheer pleasure and pain caused them to climax within only a minute, as Issei groaned when he pounded one more time to release his load inside Rias – who at the same time, cried again as her body was convulsing from orgasm. They both went silent for a moment, their hands held each other tightly their bodies would twitch from the lingering sense of euphoria.

Finally calmed down, Issei let out a breath as he collapsed on top of Rias, who was just as spent. It actually became rather awkward between them as they both knew that, their intercourse was too rough to be considered as love-making, especially since Rias was a virgin just few moments ago.

Issei definitely felt bad that he went too rough on Rias. But that time, both of them just could not help it. It was as if they had been more than eager to continue from where they had left off on that night in the sauna.

CRACK!

Just when the tension and awkward atmosphere were building up, both of them suddenly yelped in surprise when the table supporting them suddenly collapsed, dropping the wooden surface along with both of them to the floor.

Both of them were taken by surprise with Rias took Issei's weight on her, while Issei had his breath taken out from him from the shock. Both of them calmed their breathing again, and few seconds later, sounds of giggle and small laughter were filling the room, as they just found their situation to be purely comical.

At least that helped to erase the awkward tension between them as they suddenly found the courage to speak.

""I'm sorry.""

Both of them blinked when they apologised at the same time, then they shared smiles as Issei chose to proceed. He placed his forehead softly on hers, the tip of their noses touching. "As I said, I'm sorry." Issei said as he stared right into Rias' beautiful teal eyes. "It's just…" he tried to find the correct words to explain himself, but failed miserably.

"I know." Rias interrupted. "I know, and I'm sorry too." Rias then finished by giving a soft peck on Issei's lips, her hands tenderly caressed the clawing marks she left on his skin.

The two smiled, then Issei propped Rias up so they were sitting on the couch, with Rias straddling him. The two did not let go of each other, maintaining their embrace as they enjoyed each other's warmth. Few minutes later, Issei said, "Say… Can we… like, start over?"

Rias opened her eyes to see Issei's bashful expression. She snorted, and she pulled Issei into another gentle hug. "Yes, let's do that. But…" Rias then regarded their current location. "Can we move somewhere else? I think there's a bed in the old infirmary that we can use."

"Okay." Issei then removed Rias from his lap so he could stood up, when he turned his eyes back to her, he found her was looking at him with hopeful, slightly embarrassed eyes.

"Will you carry me?" Rias smiled sheepishly, sending signs that she was still winded from their earlier session.

Issei only smiled and leaned his head to place a soft kiss on Rias' forehead in return. "Of course." He said as he proceeded to carry Rias bridal-style to another room.

* * *

Back to Hyoudou Residence, everyone was still waiting for Issei and Rias' return. It had been almost an hour since Ravel came home.

"I wonder if things are going well between them…" Asia could not help but voice her concern.

"We just have to believe them." Akeno replied as she prepared another set of drinks for everyone in the living room.

When everyone was still feeling uneasy, Saitama and Haruka were seemingly the calmest ones as the former flipped through channels in television, with the latter leaning on his shoulder.

"They'll be fine." Haruka replied with knowing smile, while it elated a bit of their worries, it was still kind of a shot in the dark.

Then, they heard someone pushing the door bell, and Saitama volunteered himself to get the door, much to Haruka's reluctance as she lost her favourite leaning spot.

Saitama opened the door, revealing Azazel. "Oh, Azazel."

"Evening." Azazel greeted with his casual smirk. "I take that the kids are all here?"

"Yeah, they were, except Issei and Rias by the way." Saitama replied. "Say, where have you been? You are their advisors, right?"

"Ah, I just came back from visiting Sairaorg in hospital at Sitri territory." Azazel replied. "On that note, Sairaorg asked me to tell you that Misla is waking up from her coma, the kid was beyond joy."

"That's good." Saitama took the news with small, yet genuine smile on his face.

"And… about Rias and Ise." Azazel somehow became a bit awkward all of sudden. "On my way here, I actually thought everyone was still at school, so I gave the place a visit."

"And?" Saitama asked. "Did you meet them? What are they doing? Everyone's waiting for them now."

"Well…. I 'saw' them, not exactly 'met' them." Azazel grinned. "Those love birds are having a great time as we speak."

Saitama blinked owlishly before he got an inkling of what the fallen was implying. "…Oh."

"Yeah, like rabbits."

oXo

After hours of intense love-making in the old school building, Issei and Rias were trekking their way back home under the night sky. Rias was wearing Issei's shirt and jacket as her top to replace her uniform-top that had been torn to shreds, leaving Issei only clad in his pants and red T-shirt.

Rias now was given piggy-back ride on Issei as they walked. They could just teleport back home via magic in order to save time, but they wanted to spend more time alone together by going home on foot. Not to mention that both of them were rather 'drained' after practically trying out all kinds of position and kinks they could think of.

It was rather strange, while the crime rate was relatively low, it was still be considered strange and dangerous for two high-school students to walk in the middle of the night. But they did not care, as the walk had been peaceful. They hardly say anything as Rias simply leaned on Issei's warm back, her arms was slung around Issei's neck.

However, whenever Rias shifted to fix her position, her breasts would rub on Issei's back, or to be precise, Issei's lacerated back from their earlier intercourse. The boy would take a breath to weather the stinging on his back. Not to mention his crotch area was still aching.

"Sorry…" Rias muttered. "Does it hurt? You could've just let me put a quick healing spell on them, you know?"

"No, it's fine." Issei replied with a smile. "I think I deserve it, since I was also so rough on you. So that makes us even." The lacerations and scratches were already closing as they spoke, but it still stung every now and then.

"If you say so, then." Rias giggled as she rested her head on the base of Issei's neck-to-shoulder again.

Truthfully, her hips gave out and her vagina was still kind of aching as well. But she was fine with it; both of them were fine with it, as everything was worth it.

"We've made everyone else waiting at home." Rias said while enjoying the warmth of Issei's back, touch, and the scent of his brown hair.

"Yeah." Issei said as he revelled himself with Rias' scent, the warmth on his back, as well as the softness of her mounds pressed against his back. "I guess we'll miss the celebration party for our Rating Game."

"Then… You should walk faster." Rias playfully ushered.

"Yes, yes…" Issei played along as he picked up the pace. "And, Rias?"

"Hm?"

"I love you."

Rias was taken aback at the sudden gesture, but she welcomed it all with pleasant smile. "…I love you too." She whispered back to his ear.

Under the starry sky, enveloped by each other's warmth, the couple headed towards their home.

_To be Continued…_

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**Sorry for the short chapter, or if it feels like rushed, but what did you guys think? I hope this chapter is to your liking. Please review! Flames are not allowed.**

**As I have said at the beginning, I put up some preview of the next arc, in order to keep the hype going! Those who did not like spoilers, just ignore this section! SPOILERS ALERT!**

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**Preview**

_In the midst of the void world, a girl with long black hair clad in scandalous gothic lolita outfit was sitting on top of the head of massive red dragon. The face of the girl was screaming that she wanted to be anywhere but her current location, but unfortunately, she had lost most of her immense strength, making her felt so weak at that moment._

_Beside, considering the stunt that red dragon just pulled on her first friend, she could not trust him enough to leave him be. She was needed to retrieve her friend in due time._

_She then lowered her gaze to address the dragon she was riding on. "Tell me, red bastard. What are you planning with him? Why did you throw him to that place?"_

_The red dragon then growled in return. He himself was not particularly willing to let the Not-so Infinite Dragon God to ride on him; he was actually being particularly lenient as of late, as he actually just saved the girl on top of him and another peculiar person out of good will._

_**[Just shut up, will ya? You're lucky that I went out my way to save your and that brat's sorry assess. If you do appreciate what I've done, just relax and wait until the time where we gotta get him back.]**_

_The girl only sighed heavily as she joined the dragon to peek into what appeared to be small hole – a crack on the dimension, showing a bird's view of a certain world._

_Meanwhile, Hyoudou Issei was utterly lost, both in figurative and literal sense. He did not know what was going on, how he ended up where he was, what happened to his body, what happened with his Boosted Gear, and he also happened to be beyond far from home._

_He learned the last part after listening to a locale about the location he was currently at. The name of the place, he never heard of such a town. Hell, when he asked about Kuoh, the said locale, who was riding on bicycle, never heard any place named Kuoh._

_Issei blinked incredulously as he muttered the name of his current location. _

"…_Z-City?"_

_The flames ignited on his furious fist shall light up the eternal darkness!_

_One body, one soul, unmatched in heaven and earth!_

_GO FIGHT, HERO!_

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy – The Promotion**


	48. Promotion (I)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

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**For those who asked about the fate of my side-project, The Fist Marks, fear not; I've planned several ideas for that, but I need to reconsider few things because they might contain spoilers. Perhaps I'm going to write another update for Fist Marks once I'm done with Promotion arc. As for the story about Ise's children in the future…. I can't say anything for now.**

**Then, there was also a question about Saitama vs Issei in Juggernaut Drive. Well… I did hint that Saitama was 'surprised', but it's not the kind of surprised that makes you losing or anything like that. It's like, you are facing someone inferior than you, but while you are still winning one-sidedly against the inferior opponent, you noticed that the opponent's performance was a lot better than you expected; you get what I mean? Saitama was still faster than Juggernaut Drive-Issei in Holy Maiden arc, but he just did not expect to see Issei to move faster than his previous estimation. Caught off-guard? Yes, but only for a second. Besides, his fist still triumphed in the end.**

**And I need to warn you, that there will be some…. Lime-explicitness ahead. That's all.**

**Without further ado, here's the opening chapter for the new arc! I do not own High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man.**

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**Chapter 45: Promotion (I) - Preparations**

It was in the early morning, at the suburbs of Kuoh town, two figures were jogging at decent pace through the quiet streets. One person was a young man with messy brown hair clad in red track-suit, while the other one was a boy with androgynous appearance and platinum blonde hair, clad in pink track-suit. The young man was running ahead with relative ease while the shorter boy was struggling to keep up.

"Come on, Gyasuke! Last spurt, you almost there!"

"Y-Yeeeess!"

Hyoudou Issei and Gasper Vladi were having a morning run. It started when one day, Gasper asked his seniors if he could join Issei's morning training in order to become stronger, after reflecting on his performance during the Rating Game against Sairaorg Bael – much to everyone's pleasant surprise.

While the objective of Issei's style of training did not actually suit Gasper, who was more suitable to be a support-wizard type, everyone agreed that the dhampir could use some work out to improve his endurance. Here they were, with Issei coaching Gasper in the morning.

It was impressive for Gasper to make through the entire running course despite his naturally weak physic. The young dhampir was wheezing by the time they reached Hyoudou Residence. When they arrived, the two were greeted by Hyoudou Haruka and Asia Argento.

"Welcome back, you two." The older woman welcomed the two boys with pleasant smile.

"Ise-san, Gasper-san, good work." Asia happily approached the boys with towels and drinks in her hands.

"Haruka-san… Asia-senpai…" Gasper dropped to the floor as soon as he had entered the manor, and Asia quickly tended him, giving him a towel for him to wipe his sweat off and a drink to refresh himself.

She then turned to her boyfriend, handing him the towel and the drink. "Welcome home, Ise-san."

"I'm home." Issei then proceeded to lean down and give Asia's cheek a quick peck, which Asia returned with a quick kiss on his cheek as well.

Issei then turned to his amused-looking mother. "Hey, mom. Are the others awake yet?" he said as he approached his mother and the two shared a quick hug.

"They are all in the basement now. Go meet them." Haruka jerked her head, gesturing her son to go inside. "I'll be in the kitchen, fixing the breakfast. Asia-chan, want to give me a hand?"

"Yes!" With Asia affirmatively responded to the matriarch, the four split up – with the girls heading towards the kitchen and the boys heading towards the training ground in the basement.

Issei was the first to enter the training ground with Gasper in tow when the former was suddenly greeted by a hurling mass. When he caught it out of reflex, he realised that the said mass was actually Toujou Koneko – her back was leaning on Issei's front with his arms supporting her.

"Whoa, you okay, Koneko-chan?" Issei asked at the Nekoshou in his arms.

"Ise-senpai, nyan." Koneko looked up pleasantly as she enjoyed the boy's warmth as much as she could.

When Issei scanned the training hall, and he saw that Saitama was standing in the middle of the wrecked room, while his friends – those from Occult Research Club were either sitting down or lying on the floor, exhausted and drained; save for Ravel who was standing on the side with clip-board at hand while wearing a protective head gear. Xenovia, Irina and Yuuto seemed to be in the worst state compared from others, as they were wheezing and panting on the floor, clutching on their practice swords. Akeno and Rias were sitting back-to-back next to the Knights looking worse for wear. Rossweisse was regulating her breathing as she was sitting at one corner, looking utterly haggard and exhausted as well.

Apparently, after reflecting on the previous Rating Game against Sairaorg Bael, Yuuto, Xenovia, Koneko, Gasper, Akeno, Rossweisse, and even Rias concluded that they should became stronger by learning from the man who had been claimed to be the reason why Sairaorg Bael had been dubbed as the Strongest Young Devil.

Saitama was obviously reluctant at first, but after being constantly pestered by the kids, as well as some 'convincing' from Issei and (mostly)Haruka, the man finally agreed to help their training for every morning.

Thus, here they were; clad in their training gear and totally owned by him. Irina decided to join as she did not want to be left behind, while Ravel took the role of the manager to keep an eye on everyone's schedule and regime. Gasper had to start from basic physical training before he could take on Saitama for a spar.

"Dad, what happened with self-restraint?" Issei asked as he put Koneko down (much to her reluctance).

"Oh, hey Ise." Saitama merely greeted when he noticed his son's arrival. "As for your question, I've been holding back a lot, y'know? Seems like they just couldn't take a punch." He shrugged.

Issei raised his eyes sceptically at Saitama's claim, as he scanned the entire room once again. From what he heard, Gremory clan and Azazel had cooperated to build the training ground to be sturdy enough to easily withstand the force of consecutive atomic bombs.

When Issei saw that the walls, ceiling and tiles had crumbled and fallen apart, Saitama said he was holding back? Issei could not really buy that; in fact, he was relieved that his friends were still in one piece after training with Saitama Couldn't take the punch? Issei was glad that none of his friends had to take his punch at all.

But at the same time, it also kind of made sense that Saitama had actually held back in his punches. Nevertheless, Issei worried if the training had been fruitful with the current pace and all.

And regarding the state of the room, Issei wondered if Gremory clan was still willing to cover the renovation cost _again_.

"It's alright, Ise." it was Xenovia who replied as she stood up. She let out a breath to regain her bearing. "It's been more than helpful enough for Saitama-dono to indulge in our selfish desire. I can't ask anymore for this kind of training."

"But still, I can't believe that Sairaorg-san had been sparring with you in the past, Saitama-san." Yuuto stood up this time, albeit his legs were still wobbly.

"_Yeah, no shit. I'm surprised Sairaorg-san is still alive after going through…. _This_ kind of thing."_ Issei inwardly retorted.

"Yes! If we can become stronger this way, then I'm all for it! Amen!" Irina also replied with as much energy remained on her.

Issei then turned to the others, Rossweisse and Akeno were nodding with resolved expression, and when he was about to turn to Rias, the said girl was already on him, throwing herself into his arms. "Welcome back, Ise." Rias said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm home." Issei replied back before they immediately went to a quick, deep kiss.

"I miss you…" Rias said as she snuggled her face against Issei's chest and revelled in her fiance's warmth, scent, etc.

"Come on, now… I didn't go that long." Issei played along with the girl's antics.

The two broke away when they heard Koneko cleared her throat to gain their attention. "Tone down the PDA, please." She drawled with half-lidded eyes.

The others were seemingly amused at the so-called PDA; Yuuto was smiling in rather teasing manner, Gasper was blushing when he saw the kiss, while the girls were kind of pouting at them in jealousy, except for Akeno who maintained her usual smile, albeit with a hint of jealousy beneath as well.

"Um, right. Sorry." Issei replied while smiling sheepishly with Rias, although they did not look that sorry. However, the former noticed that the Rook seemed… off; like she was more flustered than usual. "Say, Koneko-chan… Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit tired after training." Koneko quickly replied, but Issei and Rias noted that she avoided eye contact.

"Ise, if you're done flirting." Saitama's call resulted Issei and Rias to blush even a bit deeper. "Are you up for a round? There's still a bit time before you kids gotta prepare for school."

Issei blinked before he focused himself again. "Right, right." He then stepped forward. "Ravel, if you would?"

Ravel also returned to reality as she took the role of the referee upon herself. "Alright, last round for this morning! Ise-sama and Saitama-sama, please take your positions, you may start whenever you're ready!"

Everyone then shifted their attentions to see the spar between father and son. Both men got into their positions, and Issei equipped his Scale Mail. However, he did not stop there as he also chose to use his new power-up.

"I, who have awoken…"

* * *

Everyone was gathering around the dining table, having breakfast. Issei in particular, was kind of in pain while having an ice-pack placed on his nether region (again), with Rias and Asia nursing and doting him.

"So." Haruka started the conversation. "How's the morning? I could feel the commotion from all the way down there." Apparently, while she was cooking in the kitchen, she would occasionally feel vibrations which she assumed, was coming from the underground training room.

"As you can see…" Issei simply replied as he slightly grimaced and shifted his sitting position. Haruka threw a quick stink-eye glance at her husband, who only averted his gaze away awkwardly in return.

"Whatever." Haruka sighed, deciding to let it go for the time being. "That aside, Koneko-chan, are you okay?"

Everyone else then turned their heads when the Rook was mentioned. True, for some time, Koneko had not been her usual self; her face had been flustered with her breathing sounded kind of laboured.

Ravel then got off from her seat to check over the Nekoshou. "Seems like a cold…" Ravel said as she placed her hand on Koneko's forehead. "Very well then. I shall make a special apple sorbet, made from the fruits harvested from my family's territory. You'll feel better after eating them." She nodded with confidence.

Koneko only stared at Ravel's eyes for few seconds before she removed the Phenex's hand off her forehead. "…No, thanks."

Ravel's expression turned for the worse upon rejection. "Wha-! Why, you…! To refuse my generous offer!"

The cat and bird then began their usual bout again, with Koneko coolly pushing Ravel's buttons; making everyone else thought that the cat might be just fine, considering she could still throw several verbal jabs at the bird.

"Say, Ise…" while everyone's attention was still focused on Ravel and Koneko's banter, Issei turned to his mother while sipping his drink. "When can I expect my grandchild?" she said with teasing grin.

Issei took a mighty spit-take as the water sprayed from his mouth caused a rainbow reflection in the air. Everyone else then turned to see Issei hacking out the remaining waters from his system. Meanwhile, it was Saitama's turn to throw a dry look (albeit his expression was also a tad amused) at his giggling wife.

"W-w-w-w-what the hell are you saying!?" Issei stuttered.

"What am I saying? Look at you." Haruka replied. "You're now definitely closer with the girls, especially Rias and Asia. And don't make me start when you and Rias got home late on _that_ night."

On that word, Issei and Rias' faces blushed furiously while everyone else showed differed reactions – from amused to slightly uncomfortable – when that night of the school festival was mentioned.

"Why, indeed." Akeno interjected, placing a hand on her cheek while wearing her signature teasing smile. "They both reconciled and got closer, alright. That poor table in the clubroom was the testament of their reconnection."

Issei and Rias' face fumed even further.

"…I don't think I can approach that old infirmary anymore…" Gasper shuddered when he learned what Rias and Issei had done in the old infirmary for the rest of that night.

"I know that you two are engaged, but I still expected you to know better regarding proper decorum, Ise-kun." Rossweisse lightly chided while sipping her morning tea to cover her flustered face.

The girl of the said couple was now whimpering in embarrassment.

"Desk sex, huh…?" Haruka ended up reminiscing. "Angry, desk sex… Say, dear. Do you remember that time, when we got into that fight, and I finally pulled you…"

"EW, NO! I'm out of here!"

At the sign of his parents were about to talk about their sex life, Issei immediately, tearfully bailed out of the dining room, followed with Haruka's mischievous laughter. That particular subject was still a taboo to his ear, apparently. The others, albeit were also not comfortable with the 'talk' about Saitama and Haruka, could not help but to find Issei's reaction to be hilarious as they gave chase while giving few giggles along the way.

After the kids had left the room, Saitama only sighed as he addressed his wife. "You're more incorrigible than ever, you know that?"

Haruka only replied with a wink as she sipped her morning coffee.

* * *

Issei was napping alone on the school's rooftop during break time at school, his eyes simply gazed upon the blue sky. Few days had gone by in a blink of an eye, yet many things had transpired in that short period of time.

First was the visit by Sirzechs Lucifer and his Queen, Grayfia Lucifuge, as well as Azazel on a certain night at Hyoudou Residence. The point of the visit was confirmation of, and to brief Issei, Yuuto and Akeno regarding the promotion test in the Underworld that would be held after few weeks. During the talk, Issei, Yuuto and Akeno were briefed of what they were required to do for the test, and Issei particularly would have more things to be done since his promotion was a high-class promotion instead of middle-class promotion like Yuuto and Akeno.

Basically, the test would consist of written and practical. All three of them were also required to submit a report regarding their lives and planning for their future prospect as devils; and in Issei's case particularly, Ravel took upon herself to become Issei's 'drill tutor' to ensure that the boy would be ready by the day of the test.

Following that, was mid-semester test in Kuoh Academy, and speaking of, Rossweisse would leave for her homeland at Norse in order to fulfil her own training regime – learning more spells and magic that could be incorporated with her trait as a Rook.

Promotion test in the Underworld, mid-semester test in the human world, and not to mention, the battle against the terror of Khaos Brigade had yet to be resolved, which meant that things could still go awry should the occasion arise.

"Things have become even busier…" Issei sighed as there was actually one more things in his mind – Toujou Koneko.

Lately, the Nekoshou had been showing some odd symptoms such as flustered face, laboured breathing, and lack of energy; as if she was ill or something. However, every time she was asked, the girl would simply brush it off, saying that she was fine. In the end, until Koneko decided to share her troubles, the group could only prepare themselves should anything came up about her.

"_I wonder what's wrong with Koneko-chan…"_ Issei thought up worriedly.

Then, his muse was interrupted when he noticed the entrance to the rooftop was opened, revealing Sona Sitri. "Hyoudou-kun."

"…Kaichou." Issei sat up as he turned to address the Student Council President.

Sona walked until she was only arm's length next to Issei. "I'd like to tell you that the school's rooftop is off-limits, but at the same time…" she then unexpectedly took a seat next to him. "I can use this chance to talk with you."

Issei blinked owlishly for couple of times at the unforeseen turn out of events. Sona Sitri, the Student Council President known for being stickler to the rules, was 'okaying' him to breach them? Issei looked around to see if there was any candid camera, or if anything else was about to go down on that very moment.

Few seconds of silence later, Sona raised her eyebrows a bit at Issei's sort-of dumb look. "…Is something wrong?"

Issei blinked again and shook his head. "No, nothing. So, what is it do you want to talk about, kaichou?"

"Basically… I've heard of what happened between you and Rias as of late." Sona began. "…And to be honest, I don't really appreciate how you treated the property at the old school building." She said with scrutinizing eyes.

"_Words sure travelled fast between high-class devils…"_ Issei looked away awkwardly with embarrassment littering his expression. "Um… yeah, sorry about that."

"But nevertheless…" Sona sighed softly. "I'd like to thank you."

"…For what?"

Sona gave a small smile at Issei's questioning look. "For everything you've done for her. And at the same time, I'm also envious of you capable of doing things that I couldn't."

Issei's expression softened, prompting Sona to continue. "There were many moments where I was powerless to help her in her troubles; like the engagement with Riser Phenex, the case with Kiba Yuuto, Akeno, Gasper, as well as Koneko… I couldn't do anything to help her because I have my own personal standing to look after." Her expression went solemn before she looked up to meet his eyes. "…Yet, when you came into her life, you solved those problems. She's happier with you around."

Issei's smiled fondly in agreement as images of Rias' happy smile flashed in his mind.

"So, my jealousy aside…" Sona's smile widened slightly. "Thank you for being there for her, Hyoudou-kun. And please take good care of her."

"It's my pleasure." Issei replied sincerely. "…And you can leave her to me, to _us_."

Sona understood as she gave a satisfied nod. Then, Issei found the girl to be in thought. "Come to think of it, since Rias is my friend, you've been engaged and getting closer to her, then I can consider you as my friend, correct?"

"Well… Yeah. Yeah, I guess so." Issei nodded.

"Then, why don't you call me by my name as well? Call me Sona."

Issei went silent for a second upon the request. The thing was, he did not meet and interact with Sona that often, not enough for him to consider them as close friends.

Nonetheless, he gave a shot. "Then… Sona….-san…."

The two went silent again after Issei muttered those words awkwardly. Few seconds later, Issei sighed as he shook his head. "Err… Sorry, sorry. I guess I can't call you that way; not yet, at least."

Sona ended up giggling lightly, a notion that Issei found surprisingly _cute_. No wonder Serafall Leviathan and Saji Genshirou came to adore her so much.

"Well, keep practicing until you're comfortable enough." Sona said after calming herself down. She sighed once again as she looked up at the sky. "…Now with how things had gone around me…. Perhaps I should get myself a boyfriend as well."

"Is that so?" Issei perked up. Sona Sitri getting herself a man? Now that was interesting to say at least. "…Yeah. Yeah, I think you should." Perhaps he could try to play matchmaker for the first time? "….Anyone in mind? Like…. Saji, for example?"

Sona hummed for a moment before replying. "Saji…. He's a good man. However…" she then folded her arms over her chest. "No offence to him, he's not exactly my type. Besides… there are already some of my servants who have already fallen for him, I don't want to get in the way."

Issei inwardly cringed as he felt sorry for his fellow Pawn. "Well…. What's your type of man, then? Perhaps I can help you find someone?"

Sona regarded Issei for few seconds, and she eventually shrugged; no harm in telling him after they had talked this long. "I can only tell you that I'd like my long-time partner to be highly intelligent, smarter than me."

Issei regarded Sona for few seconds before commenting. "You know, that's… quite a high bar you set. Someone who's smarter than you? I find it hard to believe."

"That's kind of rude, Issei-kun. But I'll pretend not to hear that." She lightly scoffed.

Issei raised his eyebrows when Sona addressed him by first-name basis. Oh, right. The whole friend with Rias thing.

"Speaking of relationship…" Sona began. "Tell me, Issei-kun. What do you think of the thing between your father and my sister?"

"Him and Lady Leviathan?" Issei furrowed his eyebrows. "…So far I only know that Lady Leviathan… dislikes my dad. What brought this on?"

"It's just…" Sona was not sure how to proceed for a second. "During the times she spent her day off at home, she's been… talking about him a lot, albeit she sounded rather hostile about him. I mean, she talked a bit too much for hating someone. I think she should've just ignored matters about your father altogether if she really hates him."

"So…" Issei stared at Sona. "Are you saying that…?"

Sona finished for him, as she sighed. "…Yes. I don't know how, but do you think my sister is actually interested in your father?"

The two fell into an awkward silence as they imagined such possibility. _Serafall Leviathan and Saitama?_

Issei found himself shuddering. "Can we… Can we change the subject? Please?" Issei slowly shook his head as he banished the previous thought.

"Yes, yes, let's… talk about something else." Sona agreed with the same uncomfortable expression. "I saw the game between you and Sairaorg Bael. I must admit that was one of the best battle I've ever seen."

With that, the mood became lighter in a blink of an eye as Issei smiled in return. "Thank you. But it was team-battle, right? My friends also did their part."

Sona gave approving smile at the humble response. "Nevertheless, you're the key player. That was splendid victory in the end. In fact… my Rook, Tsubasa Yura came to admire you after seeing your performance."

"…Really?" Issei raised his eyebrows.

"Yes. Apparently, she decided that you are her type of guy." Sona said with amused expression. "…And congratulations on your promotion recommendation. I tell you that test to high-class is much more difficult than you imagine."

Issei sighed as he looked worried at the notion of promotion test. Although, he appreciated the advice.

"We've talked longer than intended. Come on, let's get out of here." Sona ended the conversation as she stood up.

* * *

It was night at Hyoudou Residence, and Issei was lying alone in his bedroom, exhausted.

The source of his exhaustion was the fact that he had studied dubious amounts of reference and text books for his high-class promotion test, as well as mid-semester test for his high-school.

Tutoring regarding devil's society as well as his high-school subjects from Ravel and Rias, and also some multi-tasking method by having a light spar with Saitama while answering theoretical questions from the girls standing on the side.

Overall, it was utterly exhausting his body and mind. There were times where he wanted to just skip the lessons, but the girls would not have any of it. To make it worse, his parents also made sure that Issei would fulfil his duty as a student. At this rate, Issei would welcome a terrorist attack, either Vali, Cao Cao or even Ophis herself, as long as he could have some distraction from his studies.

Issei was actually having a break time while the rest of the girls preparing a mid-night snack for him, when he noticed someone entered his room.

He sat up, and he saw Koneko clad in white yukata, her feline features sticking out for him to see. What worried him the most was, that Koneko looked too flustered for her own good; her face was red, her eyes were like in trance, and she was breathing hard.

Before Issei could have said anything, Koneko suddenly closed the distance between them and lunged at him. "K-Koneko-chan?" Issei worriedly asked at the girl who was hugging and straddling him. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" he found the girl was sweating like crazy, while not wearing any sort of under-garments.

"Senpai…" Koneko said with raspy voice between her breaths. "I can't… I can't take it anymore…"

Issei narrowed his eyes and watched Koneko's hazel eyes began somewhat… lustful, almost predatory, even. "…What?"

"…Nyaaa…" she let out a meow that sounded so… sexy, it actually kind of turned Issei on. "I want you…"

Koneko only whispered that Issei failed to catch that one. "Sorry, what? What do you want again?"

"…I want your baby."

One second passed after Koneko said that she wanted Issei's baby.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds.

Five seconds of silence later, Issei came out with a reply. "….Excuse me?"

Without another word, Koneko sprung up and captured Issei's lips with her own. The kiss was rough, and Issei could feel Koneko's hands were already feeling him up, trying to rip his clothes off. It did not take long until Koneko pried off from Issei's lips and began to wildly run her tongue over his jawline, neck and collarbone.

Issei's mind immediately kicked in when Koneko's hand was massaging his bulging crotch, then he pushed Koneko off him; the girl seemed lost for a second while being held in his arms, trying to reach out to touch him again.

"Okay, okay, time out!" Issei said. "Seriously, what the hell's wrong with you?"

"…Senpai…" Koneko did not seem to register his words as she was still in trance.

_**[The cat seems like… in heat.]**_

Issei blinked at the sudden voice of the Welsh Dragon in his mind. _"Ddraig? You said heat? You mean, the horny kind of heat?"_

_**[Yeah, pretty much. I've been hearing stories that youkai like Nekomata will enter mating season, like this one. In this state, her mind will be focused on making offspring with the man of her own choosing. In other words, right now, she just wants to ride you like no tomorrow until you knock her up.]**_

That was a crude explanation, but it did make Issei understood what kind of situation he was in. "Okay, giving into her was out of question, so do I have to knock her out or something?" Issei asked as he kept the horny Koneko at arm's length.

_**[That can work, albeit rather rough on your part. Or… You can just simply 'relieve' her.]**_

"…_What?"_

_**[You know, get her off her current state, pleasure her or something, just… you know, draw a line.]**_

"_Are you fucking serious?!"_

_**[Knocking her out is still an option, but let me tell you that Nekomata in mating season is quite delicate. You sure want to rough her up that way?]**_

Koneko's resistance became fiercer as she began to claw at him with hungry looks on her face. Having his time running out, Issei came out with a decision.

He threw Koneko around onto the bed, then he climbed over so her body was right beneath him. Without further ado, he pinned her on the bed to ensure that she would not pounce at him again. Then, before Koneko could have hissed or reacted beneath Issei's grasp, Issei had already crushed his lips on hers.

Koneko's body went stiff and silent as her mind took in the fact that Issei was kissing her. A second later, her arms wrapped around his neck as she returned the kiss. The two then engaged in a heated session as their tongues began to feel up each other's mouths.

Issei did not let Koneko to gain control as his tongue took charge, feeling the warm wetness of Koneko's mouth. Under the oral ministration, Koneko proceeded to rub herself against him, her yukata had already untied open along the way, revealing her naked front. She became more and more horny as she rubbed her hips against Issei's pants-covered erection.

Noting that he could not give in further into Koneko's motion, he then pressed himself against her, forcing her to stop. Unable to move, Koneko let out a dissatisfied purr and Issei lightly bit her neck to make sure she would not struggle anymore. In return, Koneko whimpered as her purr sounded like pleading.

Feeling that he had to finish this fast, Issei then get to the business. He trailed down to her petite chest, and with his hand cupping her right mound while his mouth playing on her left nipple, eliciting ecstatic cry from the Nekoshou, who was grabbing a fistful of his hair while under Issei's mercy.

Issei noted that her nipples were already stiff and hard, and her breasts were actually not that flat. He could feel their softness, albeit hers were not as ample as Rias or Asia due to the differing sizes. As he lightly bit and licked her left nipple and rubbed her right nipple with his free hand, Koneko gasped and wrapped her tail around his thigh in the process.

_**[Keep in your pants, partner! Keep it in your pants!]**_

"_Shut up, just shut up, you goddamn voyeur!"_ Issei rebuked the unnecessary comment from Ddraig as his hand began to reach towards Koneko's nether region. When his fingers arrived at her slit, he could tell that Koneko was absolutely drenched down there.

When Issei rubbed the lower entrance with a flick of his finger, Koneko's eyes widened as she bucked her hips, followed with another cry. When Issei saw Koneko's body convulsing, he thought that he managed to make her reaching her orgasm, and he could finally put rest at that. However, the girl proved him wrong when Issei found Koneko became more willing as she was now growling and hissing at him, her eyes were more demanding then before.

Having sex with Koneko in her current state would end up badly, considering that her body was far from maturity. If one climax was not enough, then Issei just had to make her cum more.

Ignoring the tightness of his pants against his hard length, Issei then slammed his lips on hers, his left hand pinned her arms to keep her body on the bed, while his left hand put a finger into her slit.

Koneko purred into the kiss in bliss, while she was also struggling under Issei's grasp. She bucked her hips every now and then whenever Issei's finger struck her g-spot, and it did not take long for Issei to remember her pleasure spot, as he kept stroking her while kissing her like no tomorrow.

It took a while, but Koneko's body finally went limp on the bed after going through numerous orgasms under Issei's kiss and touch. Issei let out a breath and he proceeded to put a blanket over Koneko's sweaty naked body, as the girl then made herself comfortable in her sleep.

Out of the frying pan into the fire – when Issei thought he just got out from a crisis, another was already at him when he turned around to see Rias at the door. She was leaning against the frame with a tray of food and drink at hand, and her face was clearly not amused.

Under Rias' dry glare, Issei's eyes darted around nervously between her and Koneko's sleeping form, until he finally gave a nervous chuckle while scratching his cheek awkwardly.

"Heheh, err…. Can I explain?"

* * *

"While it's a good thing that you were able to resolve the issue without crossing any limits…" Rias breathed out while massaging her temple. "I wish you would've asked help from me or everyone else."

"…I'm sorry."

Issei apologised while he was sitting in the living room, surrounded by the rest of the occupants plus Azazel, who came to visit to check on the Nekoshou. Ravel on the other hand, was volunteering herself to look after Koneko who was sleeping in her bedroom.

"To get into mating season of all times… But I guess it's only natural, considering what had transpired around her." Azazel mused.

"What do you mean?" Issei asked.

"Think about it." Azazel began. "This is just a theory, but with you and Rias getting closer, as well as other girls, Koneko might as well feel… left out. Her pent up desires, mixed with jealousy? It's not that surprising for her to enter mating season that easy."

The others thought of Azazel's theory, so Koneko's state had been involuntarily caused by their own actions?

"Though, just to make sure, Ise." Issei then looked up at the fallen angel again. "You… you didn't go all the way with her, right?"

"No, I didn't." Issei said again with dry tone.

"Good; because as you can see, while Koneko's body is barely developed enough to enter mating season, but she's not matured enough to safely deliver a child. Your method of addressing this issue was rather frowned upon, but I gotta say you did make a right call." Azazel surmised. "In the end, I still think we should call in an expert to deal with Koneko."

"I'll make a call to Abe Kiyome. She should know something to deal with species like Koneko, since she is a beast tamer." Rias suggested.

While everyone was discussing about Koneko's mating season, Haruka (who was also present with Saitama) asked her son. "Say, Ise…"

Issei then raised his eyebrows at his mother. "…Did you use whatever you used on Rias that night when you got Koneko-chan off her edge?" she asked with teasing grin.

Everyone paused at what they were doing and they slowly turned to lssei, who was frozen for few seconds before he slowly looked away awkwardly with his face burning.

"…Good Lord, you actually did."

Haruka concluded with amused looks (Saitama only sent another dry look at her in exasperation), while everyone was giving Issei the 'look', that caused Issei to whimper in embarrassment while burying his face in his hands. Rias herself was also looking down with her face in the same shade as her hair.

"Anyway." Azazel interjected again before things became more awkward. He got business to address. "Koneko's issue and those dumb love birds aside, I have something else I need to tell you."

Everyone then turned their attention to Azazel, who happened to be serious at the moment. Even Issei and Rias decided to ignore his jabs about them being 'dumb love birds'.

"Tomorrow, I'm planning to have few guests in this house. Rias, I need your approval as the supervisor of this town."

Rias and everyone else seemed to notice something else behind Azazel's announcement. "Well, the town is practically under the jurisdiction of the Alliance and you are one of the leaders, but rather, who are these guests you speak of?"

"Well…. Here's the thing." Azazel began. "The thing is…. We're gonna to have Vali and his team coming over."

Rias and the rest of Occult Research Club were not exactly amused, considering who they were talking about. Vali had aided them in several occasions, such as during the fight with Evil God Loki, the fight against Hero Faction in Kyoto, and lately, them volunteering in safe-guarding the Rating Game with Sairaorg Bael. Vali Team may be affiliated with terrorist group, which technically made them as enemy, but everyone had acknowledged that the White Dragon Emperor was more amiable than the rest of their latest adversaries.

"Then it's fine, isn't it? Let them come." Everyone turned to see Saitama who was sporting his usual passive expression.

"…Yeah, Saitama-dono has a point." Xenovia conceded. "I mean, it's gonna be fine if all of us and him are prepared for anything, right?"

Everyone also nodded in agreement, if Vali Team came with the knowledge that Saitama was in the house, they would not be too stupid to pick a fight with him around. Then, everyone turned their gazes towards Haruka beside Saitama; come to think of it, the woman had steadily become more and more involved with the affairs of supernatural.

"…What?" Haruka blinked, and she sighed when she learned that everyone actually would like to hear her opinion about the matter. "I honestly don't really get what's going on, but I trust my husband." She smiled confidently at the man next to her.

Azazel looked up, weighing over his options and scenarios. In the end, the idea of Saitama being present did have some merit. Even the 'guest' he actually expected would not go hostile even if Saitama was not around in the first place. "…Fair enough, I guess. Then again, I'd like to ask you lot not to throw the first punch. Can I count on you about that?"

With everyone chorused in agreement, the meeting was adjourned with Azazel arranging the arrival of Vali Team while everyone else would prepare themselves for tomorrow.

While everyone was retiring to their rooms, Haruka then talked to Saitama. "Say, this Vali person… I think that name sounds familiar. Is that the so-called brat you mentioned in your stories, around the time you met Azazel-san?"

Meanwhile on the other side of the planet, Vali Lucifer sneezed.

* * *

The morning came, and everyone was waiting in the living room for the arrival of Azazel's anointed guests. Saitama and Haruka had left the house for their apparent 'weekend date', as well as grocery shopping for lunch-time.

However, they started to go anxious as apparently, the said guests had not arrived at the appointed time.

"Strange, it's not like them to be late like this." Azazel tapped his foot on the floor as his mind ran several scenarios of what could be happening.

It was Sunday, so nobody needed to go to school and could stay on stand-by at Hyoudou Residence to attend the visit from Vali Team.

It was nearing the middle of the day few hours later that Azazel finally had it and was about to leave to check on things, when the doorbell was rang and Issei took the initiative to answer it, revealing three guests. One was a cute young girl with blonde hair clad in what appeared to be a magician hat and robe that people could find in fairy tales; the other one was voluptuous young woman with black hair, cat ears and tail; clad in scantily black kimono; and lastly, a dog with ash-grey fur.

"Kuroka-san and…. Le Fay, right?" Issei recognised the girls, albeit he was not sure about the canine.

"H-hello. It's good to see you again, Red Dragon Emperor." Le Fay Pendragon of Vali Team greeted with somewhat panic and nervousness in her tone.

"We meet again, Sekiryuutei-chin~!" on the contrary, Kuroka was as jovial as the last time Issei saw her.

Issei then noticed the dog that had been glaring at him. Few seconds later, Issei's brain seemed to click. "…Is that Fenrir by any chance? What's wrong with him?"

The apparently Norse God-killing Wolf was significantly smaller and weaker, and Issei could not fathom why would the wolf was glaring at him. It did not seem to be hostile nor out of malice, as the beast did not show any sign of attacking.

"Perhaps he's still scared of you, nya. You almost killed him once, remember?" Kuroka replied.

"…Oh." Issei understood and he reached out his hand to pet the wolf's head. "Um, Fenrir…-san. Look, buddy, I know we started on the wrong foot, but it's all in the past. So… let bygones be bygones, 'kay?" he said with a smile.

However, upon seeing Issei's outstretched hand, Fenrir only growled as it retreated behind Le Fay's legs, the young magician girl then giggled sheepishly as she ran her hand over Fenrir's fur to calm him down.

"Um, perhaps you need to give him sometime to get used around you, Red Dragon- Wait, that's not it!" Le Fay suddenly burst out in panic. "I-I'm terribly sorry for imposing you like this, but there is another urgent matter I need to tell you!"

At the same time, Azazel and the rest also arrived at the door. "Le Fay Pendragon and Black Cat Kuroka, as well as Fenrir…" the fallen angel governor then looked around quizzically. "Wait a minute, where is _that_ person?"

"Lord Azazel." Le Fay then turned nervous. "Well…" she twiddled her fingers.

"Wait, wait. Let's get in first." Azazel cut her off. "You are officially not supposed to be here, can't let you guys be seen out in open."

With Issei and the others making way, the guests then allowed themselves to step into the manor.

oXo

"So, let me get my head around this." Azazel was massaging the bridge of his nose. "The reason you came late is because Ophis suddenly bailed on you, and you spent the entire morning looking for her?"

Le Fay nodded solemnly, while Kuroka did not seem to be worried at all. Currently, everyone else was gathering in the VIP room. Le Fay, Kuroka and Fenrir were sitting on the meeting table while surrounded by everyone else.

"Wait, hang on a sec." Rias then interjected. "What was that about Ophis?"

The others seemed puzzled as well. Why did the strongest dragon have anything to do with Vali Team's visit?

"About that…" Azazel sighed. "I have to apologize, I actually have kept something from you guys."

Azazel then began his explanation about the true nature of the visit. After hearing the story, everyone was definitely not amused.

"So, let me get this straight." Rias said with barely concealed rage. "Our actual guest is actually Ophis, the Ouroboros, who is also the leader of Khaos Brigade, our enemy organization. You allowed her to come here in order to find a peaceful solution with the least bloodshed, by having dialogue with her? And the reason you did not tell us was because you can't alert the Alliance, lest a war will break out?"

"Yes. For that, I'm sorry." Azazel sincerely apologized.

Rias sighed to calm herself down, although she knew that there was another problem. "Then, you told us that Ophis is now wandering out there, unsupervised?"

"I-I'm truly sorry about this, Lady Gremory." Le Fay quipped. "Lord Ophis must have concealed her presence when she slipped through us. It's entirely our honest mistake."

"Calm down, Le Fay-chin." Kuroka waved off. "Ophis-chin is strong as hell, she'll be fine."

"Ms. Kuroka, Mr. Vali trusts us to watch over her! Do you want to know what will he do to you when he learns that we messed up!?" Le Fay chided her companion. Fenrir only rubbed himself on Le Fay's side, showing that he was agreeing with her.

Kuroka only huffed as she looked away. She inwardly admitted that Vali would be pissed if he found out that they just lost their charge.

"In any case…" Rias then sighed again. "We'll trust you for now, Azazel-sensei. For now, let's look for Ophis, then we'll decide from there."

With their King's decision, the rest of Occult Research Club chose to follow as well, albeit reluctantly. "Ise, can you contact Saitama-san out there? We will need every help we can get to locate Ophis."

"Got it."

"Speaking of which, where's Mr. Saitama?" Le Fay asked as she realized that she had yet to meet the man in question.

"He's going out with my mom this morning. And… I think they should've returned home by now…?" As if on cue, Issei heard someone had entered the front door.

[We're home!]

Issei recognised the owner of the voice. "Oh, that's my mom. I guess they're home now."

Issei then got out of the room to greet his parents, when he arrived at the front hall, he froze on his tracks as the words died in his mouth, upon learning that his parents had come home with one additional _guest_.

"Oh, hi there, Ise." Haruka pleasantly greeted her son as she put down her groceries. "We ran to this cute little girl on our way home, and she claims to be acquainted with you and Saitama, so we might as well invited here for lunch. What do you say? Oh, and can you help me with these groceries? Your father is a bit pre-occupied at the moment."

"'Sup, kid." Saitama simply greeted as he stepped into the house while carrying someone on his shoulder.

Issei was too shocked to do anything as he went a bit pale at the said 'little girl', who also happened to be the 'someone' on his father's shoulder. The little girl possessed a long, black hair that fell down to her hips; black eyes like void, along with pointed pair of ears. She was clad in casual clothes that consisted of a set of matching grey blouse and skirt, with blue cross design adorning her top; her clothes were also covered in a pink cardigan, and she was wearing a matching hat on top of her head. She was also wearing a pair of knee-high grey socks with pair of matching sneakers.

Overall, her get-up was completely different than her usual scandalous gothic-lolita dress.

"Ise, what's going on-!?" Rias caught up with her fiancé and gasped on the spot upon the sight Issei was looking at.

The rest of Occult Research Club, as well as Azazel and the guests were also flabbergasted at the sight of, none other than Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, making herself comfortable on Saitama's shoulder.

The said Dragon God only raised her hand in greeting when her black eyes met with Issei's brown. "Hello, Ddraig. It's been a while."

Le Fay and Kuroka were startled and slightly relieved at the same time upon seeing their charge.

"L-L-Lord Ophis!?"

"Oh, there she is. I guess we're no longer in trouble, nya?"

_To be Continued…._

* * *

**Sorry for the short chapter; it's just an opening act, after all. So, what do you guys think overall? Please hit the review button, but with constructive reviews instead of flames.**

**Until then, Ahsoei, over and out.**


	49. Promotion (II)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Alright, discussion among guest reviewers aside, thank you again for all support so far! Sorry if I can't answer some of guest reviewers' questions, the reviews are just overwhelming that I lost track of them.**

**I don't have anything to say at the moment, so here you go, part 2 of Promotion arc! I do not own High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 46: Promotion (II) – The Visit and The Test.**

It was late morning on Sunday, when Saitama and his wife, Haruka, were going out on their so-called weekend date, as well as shopping ingredients for lunch. As they walked pass shops and markets, Saitama reflected on his life so far, while walking behind his wife who was busy scanning over the goods.

Ever since he had come to this place – no, ever since he had met this woman, Saitama never felt any dull moment in his current life. Truthfully, back in the day, he chose to become a hero because he thought it would be _fun_; defeating bad guys, saving the day, receiving gratitude, those all sorts of accomplishment and hero things.

Thus, he trained rigorously, in order to become the hero that he believed to be 'ideal', so strong and powerful that he could defeat any adversary with a single punch.

When he became the very hero he strived for, he was… kind of disappointed. At first, it was a good feeling to be at the pinnacle of strength, where nobody could ever defeat him. He literally sent bad guys flying left and right, he believed that he was going a high road of being hero as he kept blowing bad guys away with his fist.

However, he soon became lonely, as nobody could catch up with him. It was as if he stood in an entirely different realm than the rest.

Then he came to this place, and met _her_.

When Saitama laid his eyes upon his wife, he suddenly remembered a certain conversation with an old friend in the past.

_The noble path of a hero is much more than a mere quest of strength._

It was truly strange, he had been un-thrilled, indomitable in the face of robbers, murderers, monsters and aliens that could easily blow up mountains, as he dominated them with relative ease; and yet, this 'ordinary' woman - her quirk and quality aside, had been easily wrapped him around her fingers and under her thumb, and moved his heart the most.

He never once regretted of meeting and marrying this woman. While what he was doing now did not have much to do with heroism, whenever Saitama spent time with his wife, making family, making a living for his new-found family… Saitama lightly smiled as he probably began to understand a little bit of the meaning behind King's words back then.

There were still fun things he could do aside of playing hero, and he thanked his encounter with Haruka for helping him realized that.

When he was about to follow his wife, who was switching to another shop, Saitama felt someone tugging on his pants. He looked down, and he saw a familiar little girl with long black hair, a pair of dark eyes, and clad in scandalous gothic-lolita dress.

"I've come to see you, Saitama." The girl greeted him in even tone. "Let's go to the gap, and kill Great Red there."

Saitama took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. He was honestly not in mood, nor had any time, to deal with this crap. For now, he just wanted to have a good time with his wife.

"_Is this what people call hallucination? Illusion? Whatever, I don't know if I ever caught by one, but I just have to close my eyes, ignore her, and she will disappear. Yes, yes. She's not here…. She'll go away by the time I open my eyes."_

When Saitama opened his eyes, the little girl was still starring at him with her impassive eyes. "Saitama, are you ignoring me?" the girl asked as if she just read his mind. "Do you still not want to aid me in my quest?"

Saitama bit his lower lip as the girl did not disappear. As he was about to choose to just go with the flow, another thing was coming his way. "Saitama, dear, can you come with me? I need you- Who is that?"

Haruka just came back to him, and her eyes met with the little girl's. The said little girl stared at the woman before her for a second before she looked up to the bald man. "Saitama, who is she? Is she your mate?"

"_Screw this."_ Saitama sighed as he addressed both females. "Haruka, this is Ophis. Ophis, this is my wife, Haruka."

Haruka blinked at the abrupt introduction, but she closed in and crouched to meet Ophis' eye-level. "…Ophis-chan, is it? Nice to meet you." the woman smiled warmly at the humanoid dragon god. "So, you are acquainted with my husband? And where are your parents?" she asked as she gave a quick look around.

"…Parents?" Ophis merely tilted her head. "Parents… I see." She said it as if she just remembered what the term meant. "I have no parents."

Haruka blinked at the little girl as she did not expect such response. "…Oh, my." She said while covering her mouth.

Saitama then decided to interfere before things went out of hand. "Sorry, Ophis. Can you give us a moment? Haruka, come here for a sec." Saitama quickly said as he pulled his wife away from Ophis, far enough to talk privately but close enough for the couple to keep an eye on the dragon.

Ophis stared impassively as Saitama whispered something to his wife, whose face morphed into that of understanding as she let out a silent 'oh'.

After giving his wife a quick brief about Ophis, Saitama could only see where this development would go.

However, much to Saitama's surprise, Haruka ended up returning to address the dragon god again. "Say, Ophis-chan… Would you like to join us for lunch?"

Ophis blinked at the invitation. "…Lunch?"

"Yes, lunch." Haruka nodded. "There will be lots of food, and you can introduce yourself to the rest of my family and children. How does that sound to you?"

Ophis remained silent for few minutes, darting her gaze on Haruka and Saitama, who only shrugged upon her stare. She then looked down in thought. "Food..." Ophis muttered. Then, few seconds later, she looked up and gave Haruka a nod.

"Then it's settled." Haruka nodded back. "Dear, let's finish up. And we'll need to give a quick visit to clothes shop." She turned back to her husband.

"Um, Haruka." Saitama raised his hand. "Not that I mind, but… You sure about this?" while he had no qualms of taking Ophis back home, he also had a feeling that this was not exactly the best idea to be carried out.

"Oh, come on, look at her." Haruka gestured at Ophis. "Sure, the dress is cute, but look at the front! I'm almost fooled by her petite frame, her front is practically exposed! We can't risk her to get kidnapped by some pedo and lolicon, can we?"

Anyone who knew enough would have snorted at the notion. Ophis got kidnapped by perverts? God have mercy on those lolicon and pedophile's poor souls.

"Err, that's not my point, but…" but in the end, Saitama finally sighed and gave into his wife's whims. "…Yeah, sure thing."

"Good. Now I need you to look after Ophis-chan while I'm picking some new clothes for her, understand?"

"…Crystal."

"I'll be right back." Haruka smiled as she gave her husband a quick kiss on the cheek before she went into a nearby clothing store.

"Saitama." While waiting, Saitama turned to see Ophis who just called him from his side. "Your woman, is interesting."

"Tell me about it." Saitama replied. "Say, Ophis. What are you doing here again?"

* * *

Back to Hyoudou Residence, everyone's jaw dropped at the sight of Saitama and Haruka coming home with Infinte Dragon God in tow. They honestly did not know where to start. Should they start with the fact that the leader of terrorist organisation just came in through their front door? Or perhaps they should address her clothing? Or the fact that she was being carried like a child on Saitama's shoulder? Or the fact that the married couple just brought home the Ouroboros Dragon, the creature that represented infinity, nothingness and chaos?

Issei had not met Ophis personally, but from the information he had been fed in by his comrades, as well as the aura that leaked out from Ophis' petite frame like a beacon, the Red Dragon Emperor could guess who the little girl was.

While Issei was not sure how to address the situation before him, the rest of others were already on edge – a civilian woman was standing near one could think as, one of the most dangerous beings in the world.

"Hm? What's wrong, all of you?" Haruka raised her eyebrows obliviously.

"H-Haruka-san… Mother…" Rias swallowed a small lump as she took a cautious step forward. "Stay calm, and walk towards us without looking back. Saitama-san, please keep an eye on Ophis."

The others were ready to take action at moment's notice – swords and spears were drawn, as well as mysteries were activated and conjured. Although, Issei was not as edgy as the others, as he had yet to manifest his Boosted Gear.

Haruka only furrowed her eyebrows quizzically at everyone's expression for few seconds, before her face gained the shade of understanding. "Oh, are you worried about Ophis-chan? It's fine, really. I actually just invited her over for lunch."

Everyone blinked at Haruka's words. "….What?"

"Come on, the sun's already high up." Haruka then quickly moved before anyone else could have asked nor said anything else. "The lunch won't cook themselves, you know. Saitama, Ise, can you show Ophis the rooms? And girls, I might need extra hands in the kitchen."

At this point, when Haruka had disappeared to organise the kitchen, everyone was utterly lost of words. They turned to Azazel, who was actually sporting an amused look, who in return, only shrugged with a small grin.

Rias finally sighed in resignation. "…Whatever. Come on, everyone. Let's get to work for now. Ise, Yuuto and Gasper will take the guests to the dining room, the rest will help Haruka-san."

Clueless of what was going on, everyone simply obeyed and rolled out.

oXo

"So… you want to observe me, who is undergoing irregular growth as Red Dragon Emperor?"

"Yes, I also want to use this chance to recruit Saitama to my aid again, in order to eliminate Great Red."

Currently, in the dining room, Ophis – still clad in her new casual clothes – was talking with everyone while waiting for the lunch to be ready. The dragon god just explained the purpose of her visit to Issei. On that note, Le Fay had volunteered herself to help out in the kitchen, while Kuroka and Fenrir would remain by Ophis' side.

When Ophis mentioned that she wanted to recruit Saitama once again, everyone the shifted their attention to Saitama; the man only blinked and he noticed that Ophis was looking expectantly at him.

"I'm still not up for it, Ophis…" Saitama replied with a sigh. "Unless that Great Red guy becoming trouble, I'm not interested of picking a fight with him."

"But that stupid red is troubling me." Ophis reasoned.

"But… I'm told that I can't kill that Great Red guy." Saitama countered.

Any indication that was a 'wrong' answer, was that Ophis narrowed her eyes to glare at the man. Everyone else subconsciously began to sweat as they prepared themselves for the worst.

However, Ophis only closed her eyes for a second, as if to calm herself, before she turned her head towards Issei. "…Ddraig. Why did your scales become crimson? What do you want to become in this era?"

While it was relieving that things did not go hostile, it was still out of nowhere for Ophis to suddenly turn to question Issei after being rejected by Saitama.

**[As far as I know… My current host wants to become a hero, thus the interesting growth. What of it?]**

"A hero…?" Ophis tilted her head at Ddraig's answer from the Boosted Gear, and she looked down to the table. "Hero…" she said it again, as if she was contemplating something. "I see… Hero." And it appeared she found something in mind.

"Ddraig…" Ophis then addressed Issei by the name of the dragon inside him. "If a hero you want to become, then become my hero and drive Great Red out of my home."

Everyone went silent after Ophis said those words. Those who actually heard stories of the Ouroboros did not expect the humanoid dragon to use such notion in negotiation. Where did she learn that from?

"Err…" Issei was not sure what to say. He could not just go into Dimensional Gap and fight the Apocalypse Dragon there and then, while he still deemed himself too weak to even challenge the True Dragon; and putting the fact that Ophis herself turning herself to ask him into consideration; overall, it was quite an awkward moment for him.

Then, before the situation could have become any weirder, an intervention came in a form of the girls coming out of the kitchen with few trays of food. "Lunch is ready!" Haruka said as she and the girls settled everything on the table.

Ophis' attention about her question was soon forgotten as she immediately focused her eyes on the plates of delicacy prepared before her. Unbeknownst to her, Issei and the rest were sighing in relief, thankful for the distraction.

"Le Fay-chan was very helpful in the kitchen." Haruka smiled pleasantly at the magician girl, who was smiling with bashful expression.

"Think nothing of it, ma'am. I'm already used to cook and prepare meals for my friends back home. It's a pleasure to help out."

It was quite a quick bonding moment between the girls in the kitchen: the females of Hyoudou Residence with Le Fay Pendragon. They soon learned that, despite being affiliated with terrorists, Le Fay was actually a very nice person. She was cute, bright, enthusiastic and very outgoing. In addition, she was polite enough that she used honorifics when addressing every single girl during their conversation.

Everyone else then settled for lunch for the time being, and Ophis seemed to be captivated by the sight of food before her. She then extended her bare hand, reaching towards a plate, only for her hand to be tapped by Haruka, who was giving her soft, yet patronizing look.

"Manners, Ophis-chan." Haruka softly chided. "Wash your hands first, and don't forget to use utensils, okay?"

"…But I want to eat." Ophis simply replied with her impassive face.

"No, no." Haruka wiggled her finger in lecturing manner. "You are in this house, so you will follow the rule of this house; that includes manners, young lady."

The dragon god in form of a little girl wanted to eat, yet she was denied by a mere human.

Ophis downright frowned at the woman. Those who were watching, as well as aware enough about the danger Ophis possessed, did not dare to move a muscle at the sight. Le Fay and Kuroka, who spent time with Ophis the most over the course of her interaction with Vali Team, were about to interfere – to prevent things from going south, when Saitama beat them to it.

"Come on, Ophis. Be nice." Saitama glanced at the Ouroboros. The latter only turned her gaze at the man, who stared back without unflinching.

Few seconds that felt like hours later, Ophis simply sighed softly as she retracted back her hand from the plate, gaining a smile from Haruka. "Atta' girl. Ise, do you mind helping Ophis to reach the sink?"

It took few seconds for Issei to register what just happened and he blinked when he snapped back to reality. "Err, yeah, sure." He then offered his hand. "Come on, Ophis. Let's get your hands cleaned up."

The tension in the room quickly vanished, and everyone had their jaws dropped to the ground with sheer disbelief on their faces. A human, a woman to boot, just treated the infinite dragon god that was infamous for being able to make gods and celestial beings look like choir boys, as if the dragon was just a mere child; and she, along with everyone else as the witness, lived to tell the tale.

In addition, the same human woman easily and fearlessly served some meat she dished out the kitchen to Fenrir, who was known for its god-slaying fangs and capability of making chew-toy out of Asgardian gods. "Here you go, I hope you are fine with this." Haruka spoke to Fenrir in such manner as if she knew that the wolf could understand her. She even gave few pats on its head.

Fenrir in return, found the woman to be… likeable. Unlike the Red Dragon and that… whatever thing that was her husband, Fenrir just wanted to be nice to the woman.

Those from Kuoh Academy could only swallow lumps as their minds began to question the existence known as Hyoudou Haruka; Kuroka began to grow a sense of dread from the woman, while Le Fay was mixed between scared and awed (mostly awed) by the woman – no human just simply told the Ouroboros of what she could and could not do.

Meanwhile, Azazel – with his expression was littered with sheer interest and curiosity, just more or less confirmed of how come Haruka could become Saitama's wife.

Overall, everyone else only had one comment about the entire event that just unfolded before them: _Holy shit_.

The lunch affair went without a hitch, as everyone seemed to enjoy the food serve to them. Le Fay hit it off well with the others due to her bright personality, and the group easily came to like her.

Ophis was silently wolfing down the food at surprisingly decent pace. What everyone did not see coming (again), was that Haruka or Saitama would occasionally tend to her – like wiping her messy mouth, fixing her grip on the utensils, even chided her if she took too much on her plate.

Kuroka, on the other hand, was not faring so well with everyone. Considering her background and past history shared between them, everyone - safe for Saitama, Issei, and Haruka, was still more or less wary of her. Deciding to ignore the fact that Ophis was treated like a child – a feat that nobody could ever pull off until today, Kuroka turned to her little sister.

"How's it going for you-nya, Shirone?" Kuroka asked.

Koneko, who took upon herself to sit on her favourite spot, sent a glance at his sister before she quickly averted her eyes away. "…Fine." Was all she said in return.

While she kind of expected Koneko's reaction, Kuroka tilted her head quizzically as she noticed the oddity in her little sister, and when she took a quick sniff, her face gained a sense of understanding as she got a wind of what was going on. However, Kuroka simply smiled to herself for the time being.

In other situation, she would still be bedridden due to her mating season. However, Issei's 'treatment' apparently, managed to calm her urge better than she expected, enough to allow her to return to daily lives again. Then again, there was still possibility that her mating season had not ended yet, thus Koneko would likely go into heat again. Considering that Issei had to focus on preparing himself for promotion test, he was not allowed to 'treat' Koneko, instead the Nekoshou would be administered sedative drugs to calm her down, should the occasion arise.

"Kuroka-san… Correct?" the black cat turned her head to see the Hyoudou matriarch addressing her. "I think we've met each other before, but we haven't introduced ourselves properly. My name is Haruka, nice to meet you."

"Ah, err…" She found herself stuttering. After all, she never saw this kind of interaction coming to her upon her visit to the household. "Yes, likewise, I'm Kuroka-nya." For some reason, she just could not find herself but to watch her manners around the woman.

Everyone else would have liked to keep Haruka from socializing with an SS-class criminal; but after knowing the woman so far, they believed that there was nothing much to worry about.

"Fufufu… that's quite an interesting way of talking from you." Haruka chuckled. "I heard that you've been acquainted with my husband and son. I hope they didn't cause you any trouble."

Some people, Kuroka included, almost snorted – _it was sort of the other way around, in fact_. "Nyahaha, it's no biggie at all. We hit it off better than I thought." Kuroka waved her hand. "Although…." She then sent mischievous glance at Issei, whose instinct suddenly kicked off.

When Issei's eyes met with Kuroka's, the former suddenly knew what can of worms the latter was about to open. _"Oh no, you bitch. You don't."_

"My first meeting with your son…" Kuroka said with feigned bashfulness. "…Was very memorable, since he literally left his mark on me, nya~."

Issei swallowed his food _hard_, as cold sweat began to trickle down his skin. The others, like those in the 'know', still thought that Issei had brought it upon himself, as they decided to remain silent, staring half-lidded at the boy – leaving him to deal with this situation by himself. On that note, Azazel was grinning – much to Issei's chagrin, waiting eagerly for what was to come next.

While Le Fay had actually heard the story, she was showing uncomfortable reaction at the though of what Issei had done to Kuroka in the past.

Haruka on the other hand, raised her eyebrows before she turned to her son. "…Is that so?" there was a certain glint in her eyes that made Issei paled, as he did not dare to meet her mother's gaze. "Ise, do you have anything to say?"

Issei opened her mouth, but his words died in his throat. He needed to say something, anything that could get him out from the situation, case in point, either his mother's constant teasing, or worst, her ire.

Few seconds later, what came out from Issei's mouth was actually something that could bite him back in the rear. "….I was drunk."

That sounded wrong in more ways than one, as the others either sighed or rolled their eyes in exasperation, Azazel and Kuroka silently snickered to hold in their laughter, while the flustered Le Fay could not help but to send some dirty looks at the boy.

On that note, Fenrir did not seem to care about the whole bout as he was busy chewing off a piece of meat served to him.

On the other hand, Haruka turned out to be not amused, as she narrowed her eyes. "…What?"

Sense of dread came upon Issei as his hands tightened their grip on Koneko ever so slightly, as his face became even paler. "W-well, it's nothing like that! I-I mean, you see…"

"…You're _drunk_ when you did it with Kuroka-san?" Haruka said with scrutinizing expression. She was no stranger to her son banging girls; what got to her was the fact that her son got himself _drunk_ despite being under age. A mother she was, she still had some standard of raising her child – Drunken sex was only allowed with your significant other, and when you are mature enough – according to her own 'dictionary'.

On that note, until this day, Saitama still wondered about his wife's way of parenting sometimes.

"What!? No, NO! It's just…!" Hearing his instinct screaming danger at him, Issei quickly pointed his finger at Azazel. "It's all his fault!"

Azazel blinked in surprise, not expecting to have Issei dumping everything on him. Soon, all eyes turned to him; come to think of it, the whole thing began when Azazel offered Issei liquor in the first place.

Haruka raised one eyebrow at him, silently demanding some answers. "Err…." Azazel looked away awkwardly. "…I didn't know that Ise was a light drinker. I mean, come on! It was a party, everyone's got to have fun every now and then."

The lunch went on with Azazel left to his own device of defending himself from scrutiny and all. In the midst of the noise, Ophis kept observing as she kept eating.

Strange, Ophis was never the type who liked noisy place. In fact, her primary objective of returning to Dimensional Gap was to obtain silence – no noise, just empty void. However, as the dragon god observed at the bantering, laughs, and conversations, Ophis could not find herself to dislike it.

Everything was beginning to change, not just the world and the Two Heavenly Dragons, but probably herself as well; and Ophis deemed that the catalyst was the pair of father and son in front of her.

* * *

It had been decided that Ophis and the members of Vali team would stay at Hyoudou Residence for at least few weeks, as Ophis would like to observe Issei's growth as the bearer of Welsh Dragon. In addition, Ophis had yet to give up on recruiting Saitama's aid to her quest of reclaiming her home back from the True Dragon. From time to time, when Ophis was not engaged in her observation, she would pester Saitama about killing the Apocalypse Dragon, much to the latter's annoyance.

It was quite a hilarious sight, in fact. Seeing Ophis' interaction with Saitama – like pulling his clothes and tapping on his head when Saitama was minding his own business, even clinging to him wherever he went, was akin to watch a child whining and pestering her parents to buy her new toys or clothes.

While it sounded unfounded, Saitama had a gut feeling – which he did not want it to happen or occur, was Ophis to turn to his wife.

Issei and his friends were currently having a study group. However, they could not really focus on their subjects, because there was another person observing them.

Issei glanced to see Ophis at one corner of the room. The dragon god was silently watching him while enjoying the treats Haruka had served her. She had promised not to disturb and only observing, and she was holding her promise so far; however, Issei could not help but feeling her gaze boring into the back of his head. Not to mention, it appeared that everyone else also felt nervous having the founder of Khaos Brigade in the same room with them.

Speaking of which, Le Fay, Fenrir and Kuroka were told not to go outside the house, and they would be expected to spend time in the indoor swimming pool in the basement.

Focusing to read the book before him, few minutes later, Issei suddenly felt a familiar presence. "….Kuroka-san, what are you doing?" Issei sighed. Everyone blinked and they realized that Kuroka was peering over Issei's shoulder with curious looks.

It seemed that the black cat had used her sage art to mask her presence and sneak into the room where everyone was studying.

"What? No need to mind me, nya~" Kuroka half-whined. "I'm bored, but I cannot go outside since Saitama-chin is making sure we stay inside the house, nya."

"Kuroka-san, would you mind not disturbing us?" Rias calmly asked. "Everyone here has big test in front of them and we need to study." The presence of the Ouroboros alone had been distracting enough; they did not need another distraction.

Kuroka pouted at the heiress, and before she could have said any retort, the door opened revealing Saitama. "Okay, there you are."

"Nya-!? Hey, what are you doing!?" Kuroka did not have any chance as Saitama quickly came over and pulled her by the scruff of her kimono, dragging her out of the room! "Nooo~ Let go of me, nya! I want to play around with them a bit more! It's boring here~!"

"_So you're here to disturb us, after all!?"_ everyone chorused in their minds as they sweat-dropped at the sight of the cat being dragged out.

"Then leave the students alone, go play with Le Fay and Fenrir down there. They're lonely without you." Saitama simply replied back before he slammed the door close.

Everyone stared at the door for few seconds until they sighed in relief and returned to their studies. However, Issei blinked at his books, creased his eyebrows before he rubbed his face in exasperation. "Dammit, where the hell was I again…?" the small disturbance by Kuroka had caused him to forget his progress at studying.

"Just take it easy, Ise-sama." Ravel said supportively. "Let's go back slowly, I'll help you out. I think last time you were in the middle of studying... Underworld folklore….? Yes, you were on chapter four, page 220!"

Thus the studying went on with Ravel, followed by Rias, tutoring Issei from time to time. Strangely enough, as the time went by, the group became slowly but steadily more comfortable, even with Ophis' presence. In fact, Asia was brave enough to stand up and offered Ophis another refreshment. Even during breaks, Irina offered the dragon god to play cards together.

In the end, it was a good time.

oXo

It was the night before the promotion test. Issei just finished reviewing his subject one last time before going to bed. After he had relieved himself in the toilet for the night, his instinct suddenly kicked in as he felt something amiss from the floor above him. Out of suspicion, he walked up to the next floor and noticed the door to Koneko's room was slightly opened.

Feeling that he should not waste time, he decided to prioritize safety as he quickly knocked on the door. "Koneko, you okay? I'm coming in, okay?" he waited for several seconds before slowly opening the door.

Issei was greeted by the sight of Kuroka and Koneko – cat sisters on the bed, conversing with the younger sister doing her best to ignore and drive her older sister out of the bed, and in extension, out of her room. The white cat's face was flustered, her breathing was heavy – the sign of her entering heat again.

"…Kuroka, what are you doing in Koneko-chan's room?" Issei asked with little to no light-hearted tone. He honestly had not time to deal with whatever Kuroka planned for her estranged little sister, he had a big day tomorrow, dammit!

"My, my…" Kuroka purred when she saw Issei. "There is a pervy dragon walking in on us, nya."

"Ise-senpai?" when Koneko's gaze landed on the person of her affection, her view became hazy as the heat slowly overwhelmed her.

"'Sup, Koneko-chan." Issei sent a quick smile at Koneko, before he returned his gaze at the older cat. "…Kuroka, you haven't answered my question."

"Nothing much, really." Kuroka looked away, while her sultry smiled was still there. "I'm just helping out to take care of Shirone's mating season, nya." Kuroka then glanced mischievously at Issei. "…And I know what you've done to her before."

Issei's eyebrow twitched as he fought to supress his blush from forming. Noticing the subtle reaction, Kuroka giggled. "Fufufu, someone's aroused, nya~"

"…Shut up." Issei breathed out to calm himself. "Anyway, just get out of here. Koneko-chan needs her rest for now."

"Oh, just get to it, will you?" Kuroka groaned. "Now that Shirone is in complete heat, there are two of us…" she then licked her lips… rather sensually. "We can have some threesome here. And don't worry, I know Shirone's body is not mature enough to bear a child safely, so I'll do most of the work. Just relax and let us take care of everything, nya~" Kuroka said as she began to open top-half of her kimono, revealing her mounds.

Issei swallowed a lump to fight the temptation. However, he suddenly found Koneko had already made her way towards him. "K-Koneko-chan?"

"…Ise-senpai…" the girl said breathlessly. "It's… it's coming again… Please…." She then undid her sleepwear and the clothes dropped to the floor, revealing her petite body for him to see. Her feline features were also present, adding her charm.

Issei began to panic as his eyes darted between the older and the younger Nekoshou sisters. He almost yelped when he found Koneko had began to sneak her hands inside his T-shirt, opening it enough for her to have access to lick his torso.

Kuroka smirked widened, from looks alone, she knew that Issei was no longer a virgin, no longer a stranger to sex. With her and her younger sister looking forward to get their hands inside his pants, she could shot two – no, _three _birds with one stone; getting a taste of the Red Dragon Emperor for herself, getting her little sister out of delicate mating season, and ultimately, repopulating her race with strong genes.

Issei was struggling. He admitted that Koneko and Kuroka were absolutely charming in their own respective ways. While he did not particularly dislike the older one, he actually cared for the younger one to a degree. Laying his hand on Koneko would damage his conscience in more ways than one, but goddamn if Nekoshous were experts in seducing man, especially when he saw Kuroka had begun to undress herself and stood up from bed, looking all sultry at him.

He could not give in, he could not let Kuroka had what she wanted. Again, not that he disliked him, but it was kind of… more of matter of principles. His pants began to tighten from his own manhood, Koneko's administration only made his situation worse by seconds.

"_Just one more push…"_ Kuroka began to grin as she strode towards her target, while she put on some shows by swaying her hips and breasts in front of Issei along the way, putting the boy's sense to the brink.

However, just when things were about to heat up even more, Kuroka stopped on her tracks when Issei also noticed that the door was swung open, revealing Saitama, Haruka, Ravel and Rias. All of them were not exactly angry, but their faces were not that amused either. Ravel in particular, however, her face was as red as Rias' hair.

"Um… Hi." Kuroka awkwardly greeted. Issei himself was also as awkward, as he raised his hand and smiled sheepishly.

Koneko on the other hand, only stared at the four with hazy gaze, while her hands were still planted on Issei's body.

Saitama only rolled his eyes as he sighed silently along with his wife and Rias.

"Kuroka, what did we tell you about behaving yourself?" Rias asked as she rubbed her forehead.

"K-Koneko-san, Kuroka-san! Please get away from Ise-sama!" Ravel squeaked.

"Ise, I know you are stressed, but can you hold it in until you've finished your tests?" Haruka asked her son with raised eyebrows.

Issei's face brightened red. "No, no! It's not like-! Okay, I'm sorry about this, but I just found something suspicious so I went to check on Koneko-chan! I swear!"

The parents and Rias went silent for few seconds until the latter sighed again. "…Oh, well. I guess you're right."

"Kuroka." Saitama merely called out, but when the black cat's gaze met his, the latter could tell what the man wanted from her.

Kuroka pouted and huffed, as she went back to dress herself back before she approached her little sister to poke her finger at her neck. Then, Koneko's eyes widened, as her body shook for few seconds before her body collapsed, leaning on Issei for support, as if the strength just abruptly left her.

Issei blinked in confusion as his arms held Koneko gently. He turned to Kuroka, who only shrugged in return.

"It's that simple when it comes to expert like me, actually-nya." Kuroka then proceeded to give Issei a quick peck on the cheek and wink at him. Rias' eyebrows twitched at the gesture, while Ravel widened her eyes in aggravation. Saitama and Haruka on the other hand, were actually amused.

Issei gave dry glare at the black cat who made her way out of the room, followed by Saitama and Haruka.

"Rest up, Ise." Haruka said one last time to her son. "You have a big day tomorrow, right? Good night." She then followed after her husband, who only glanced at his son with a nod.

Issei then turned to Ravel. "Sorry, Ravel. A little hand here?"

"Yes, right." Ravel then snapped out of it as she proceeded to help Issei supporting Koneko. "Please leave her to me and have some rest, Ise-sama. You can't afford to mess up for tomorrow's test." She said before she guided the exhausted Nekoshou to bed.

"Shall we go, then?" Rias said, causing Issei to turn and followed behind her. On the way to their room, Rias then glanced at Issei.

"Say, Ise…" she said as she noticed Issei's still-bulging pants. "I want to have a quick shower before going to bed. Want to join me?"

Issei blinked at the invitation, only to see Rias was smiling slyly at him. Feeling that he had yet to calm down from the small commotion earlier. He smiled as he eagerly followed Rias towards the bathroom. The night actually turned out better for him.

* * *

The day of the test – Occult Research Club were heading towards the Underworld to send Issei, Akeno and Yuuto to the examination venue, which was located at the stadium at the Glasya-Labolas territory. While Issei, Yuuto and Akeno would head towards the venue, the rest of the club along with Azazel would be waiting for them at the hotel that was also located at the stadium.

On that note, Gasper had separated himself away from the group to head towards Grigori research institute, as his real training would be conducted over there. The true objective was to learn more about his Sacred Gear under the guidance of the Grigori researchers and instructors.

On another note, unlike using conventional transportation like cars, to travel in the Underworld; the group was teleported directly to the venue with special pass. Apparently, ever since the Rating Game with Sairaorg Bael, the news and gossips regarding the relationship between Issei and Rias had become quite a topic in the Underworld. Should they were seen, unwanted paparazzi would be waiting with tons of questions.

Ophis, and the members of Vali team, would be escorted by Azazel personally later, in order to maintain secrecy. Speaking of which, there was a rumour that Vali purposely sent Ophis to Hyoudou Residence in order to keep her away from some _unsavoury_ members of Khaos Brigade.

At the moment, inside the stadium, after the group had separated to their own ways, Issei was in the restroom, preparing himself one more time for the high-class promotion test. When he got out from the restroom, however, he was greeted by the sight of Akeno waiting for him. "Akeno-san?"

"Welcome back, Ise-kun." Akeno greeted with her pleasant smile.

Issei looked around, noting that nobody else from his group around. "Are you waiting for me?"

"I feel kind of bad to leave you behind, Yuuto-kun had gone ahead, so… shall we?" Akeno gestured.

"Lead the way." Issei smiled, as the two proceeded towards the elevator.

Since Akeno would attend the middle-class promotion while Issei would attend a high-class promotion, the two would eventually go off on different floors. While waiting for the elevator to arrive, Akeno began a conversation with Issei.

"How are your preparations for the test?"

"All set." Issei replied. "Though I'm still nervous like hell." He sheepishly chuckled, eliciting giggles from Akeno in return.

"Ufufufu, I guess the same goes for me." she said. "How are things with Rias?"

Issei blinked at the question, and struggled to supress a blush, because he just had done another did with Rias last night. "…It's good." He nodded.

"I can tell. You two are getting closer day by day." Akeno nodded in agreement. Then, she leaned against Issei's side, causing the latter to blink in slight confusion.

"…Akeno-san."

"There it is again…" Akeno breathed out, as her smile sort of dimmed down for a bit. "You back on using honorifics while calling me."

Issei's eyes widened ever so slightly at Akeno's words as the girl continued. "Lately, I've been feeling… neglected." She confessed. "Though, I can't really blame you for that. You have Rias, Asia-chan, and I did say in the first place that I don't mind being the third…. However…" she sighed at this point. "I… I can't help but feel a little jealous." She smiled bitterly at him.

"…Sorry." Issei said while looking down. "I care for you, for everyone, and still am, always will. But…" he sighed this time. "Even with engagement with Rias, dating with Asia, and getting closer steadily with the others… in the end, I'm still not entirely used to this 'harem' thing."

"…I guess I can't blame you for that either." Akeno replied with another giggles. "Anyway, can you let me stay like this for a while… please?" she looked at him in the eye.

Issei was frozen as he felt blood raised up to his face again; because at that moment, Akeno just looked so adorable, just like during their previous date in the town, when Akeno behaved just like a normal teenage girl instead of maintaining her lady-persona.

Issei looked away as he could not fight off his blush anymore, and Akeno giggled some more in amusement as she noticed Issei's subtle reaction of accepting her request. When the elevator finally arrived, the two went in, and Akeno immediately hugged Issei's arm – pressing the limb in between her bountiful bosoms as soon as she confirmed that they were alone in the elevator.

The elevator was noticeably rather slow in transporting them towards their respective destinations. Issei, with his arm enveloped with warm softness that was Akeno's breasts, was tempted further when the girl began to rub her body against his arm.

Issei looked to see Akeno was in her teasing mode, and few seconds later, as the elevator was still moving up slowly, Issei finally just sighed as he could not bear it any longer, and made a decision.

"Goddammit…!" Issei cursed under his breath and he turned to slam his lips to Akeno's own, pushing the unsuspecting girl's body to the elevator wall.

Akeno did not expect Issei to go aggressive with her, but that did not mean she disliked it. In fact, the two then engaged in heated make-out session, ignoring the possibility of CCTV camera installed in the elevator.

As the two bodies pressed against one another, Akeno also began to relish the taste of Issei's mouth as her hands snaked up on his arms, only for Issei to catch Akeno's hands mid-way and he brought the offending hands until they were trapped above Akeno's head, effectively keeping her in place. Akeno struggled a bit to break her hands free from Issei's grasp, but she soon give up as she decided to enjoy the moment. After all, she never minded to be the one on the receiving end when it came to Issei.

DING!

The elevator rang out while the two were in the middle of making out with each other, with Akeno placed under Issei's 'mercy'. The two then broke away from each other, abruptly ending their make out session, as the door opened to reveal several building staffs – possibly the examiners.

The newcomers stared at the slightly winded appearances of Issei and Akeno for few seconds before they chose to ignore the youngsters and stepped into the elevator without second thought.

As they resumed their way up, Issei and Akeno shared a glance and they silently chuckled to themselves. _That was actually quite thrilling_.

When the elevator eventually arrived at Akeno's floor, she kissed Issei on the cheek for good-luck charm before she stepped out, leaving Issei on his own towards his own floor.

oXo

The test was nearly begun. Inside a spacious hall, Issei was sitting on a desk among good amount of other middle-class devils who were also aiming towards the high-class position. As he waited for the test to commence, he recalled few briefings given to him prior coming to the Underworld.

While middle-class promotion test consisted of three parts, Issei's high-class promotion test consisted of _four_ parts. The first three parts were more or less the same, be it middle-class or high-class test; essay writing about your dreams and ambitions for the future, theoretical questions, and practical. For Issei personally, everything that was not practical was rather tricky for him.

For essay session, he honestly did not give much thought about ambitions and dreams for the future. He could not just write that he just wanted to have quiet and peaceful life with his family, so during his study few days before, he received some tips from Azazel and (surprisingly)Saitama, that he just needed to bullshit out of his way to pass the test – they said that method works every time. Nevertheless, Issei would keep that advice in mind only as last resort.

For theoretical questions, both Ravel and Rias had made sure to hammer everything about Underworld history and general knowledge about society, something that forced Issei to pull several all-nighters. At least, both girls' efforts were not in vain as they had deemed Issei to have a good gist of them.

Practical test was probably the easiest for him; it consisted either physical examination, or one-on-one match with other examinees. Considering Issei's power-level and his feats so far, Issei had cemented his reputation as the strongest young devils. All Issei needed to keep in mind was to make sure he would not end up killing his fellow examinees when it came to one-on-one.

The final part, however, was perhaps the most difficult. High-class devils would be expected to participate in young devils gathering in near future. In other words, Issei would soon join the world of Rating Games. The test's objective was to determine Issei's tactical skills and his overall ability to strategize, as Kings in general would require a good leadership skill to lead his/her peerage. If Issei had to pull off all-nighters to study theories, he had to bang his head repeatedly to the hard surface out of frustration during his study for this particular area. He could barely keep up in playing game of chess, and other games that involves tactical skill, against Ravel and/or Rias, and when Sona volunteered to help Issei's study, the Sitri heiress did not show any mercy in 'tutoring' him. In the end, Issei could only hope to whatever deity out there that he could pull something off for this test.

Issei then heard the entrance door being opened and he saw examiners began to fill the room. "Alright, listen up!" one of the examiners shouted, making sure that his voice would be heard by everyone. "We will begin the high-class promotion test shortly. You have approximately two hours to complete both essay and theory session. Good luck!"

Thus, the test commenced. During the first part of the paper, Issei was already tapping his pencil on the table while rubbing his forehead. The essay required him to write his dreams and ambitions for the future as a high-class devil, and he was required to write at least 200 words – roughly one and a half page of papers.

However, he just managed to write: _To live happily and peacefully with my family and those precious to me, as well as protecting the Underworld, and in extension, the whole world as well._

Those lines only covered around two rows of his paper. What else did he have to write? Did he truly have to just bullshit out of his way, just as Azazel and Saitama had suggested to him? He needed to write something, yet time was ticking. Not to mention, he still had theory questions to worry about. _"…Oh, fuck it."_ In the end, Issei decided to do just that.

During theory questions, Issei was actually having easier time. Although, there were few questions where he was really tempted to ask Ddraig for help, considering the Welsh Dragon's vast knowledge.

"_Ddraig…"_

_**[No, no, no. I'm not gonna help you in this. You are on your own, partner.]**_

"…_Figures."_

Two hours had passed, and the first two sessions of the test was over. After the examiners had taken in everyone, including Issei's paper, the third part of the test would commence.

"Now we will proceed to practical test! For this part, we will move to another hall designed for battle simulations. You will do the test there." An examiner explained. "And please change your clothes into your gym clothes before proceeding."

It was quite a spacious hall for practical test. Issei and other examinees, donned in track-suit, were standing in line. Issei saw several equipment, such as metal weights, throwing discs, running tracks, etc. had been prepared in front of the examinees.

"Alright, we will commence the practical test! Please step forward and follow our instructions as soon as your name is called!" one examiners holding a clip-board shouted.

One after another, examinees had gone through several fitness tests. "Next!" then, his turn finally came up. "Hyoudou Issei, pawn of Rias Gremory…" the examiner's eyes then widened slightly in recognition. "Ah, the Red Dragon Emperor, I see?"

Few murmurs and whisperings were heard as soon as Issei's identity was revealed, which the boy simply ignored and nodded at the examiner. "Well, let's just see what you are made of." The said examiner said as he began to give him instructions.

Overall, Issei had demolished the test, as according to the examiners, the pawn of Rias Gremory had broken new record in the entire regimen: 30-seconds side-to-side jumps, 1500m run, weight-lifting, squat-jumps, hell, even Issei accidentally destroyed a punching-machine; it was a total walk in the park for Issei.

On that note, apparently some of other examinee's morals were demolished by Issei's performance as well.

Finally the fourth topic of the test: strategy.

"For the final part, you will be assigned to different rooms, and in that room, you will play different games with several Rating Game veterans that have volunteered themselves to be your opponent, and your gameplay will be monitored from a different place. Winning is not mandatory, although it would be helpful in your assessment. Once the game is finished, please push the button provided in the room to alert the examiners to determine your result."

Issei listened to the briefing as he wondered whom he would face in the final session. He inwardly hoped that whomever his opponent would be someone rather… lenient.

"Hyoudou Issei, pawn of Rias Gremory!" when his name was called out, Issei was directed to a room. "Please go inside room number 16. Your opponent will be waiting for you with the games prepared. Do your best."

Issei took a deep breath as he prepared himself. He stepped into the room, and he learned that it was medium-sized, with a table with pair of chairs facing each other was placed in the middle. He also learned, much to his relief, that the game he would play was a simple chess – nothing too complicated, with a clock in the middle of it; after all, he had been practicing playing with Ravel, Rias and Sona.

However, when his eyes on his would-be opponent, who was siting in front of him, Issei froze on his track. _"Oh, what the shit!?"_

"Well, well… Look who's here." The familiar man in front of him said with somewhat cocky tone. "I didn't expect that I will _actually_ be your opponent when I signed up for this." He finished with a grin.

"Riser-san!?" Issei blinked at the man who was indeed Riser Phenex.

"It's been a while, Red Dragon Emperor." The third son of the Phenex clan greeted back.

* * *

"In all honesty, I knew that you are to become a high-class devil, and when I heard that you are attending the test, I test my luck by volunteering as one of examiners. Who would've known that I'm finally able to have a rematch with you?"

Riser said with chuckles as Issei sat in front of him, listening to his speech. "Alright, let's just begin. I may still lose to you in a fist-fight, but I shall defeat you in a battle of wits." The Phenex said with roguish, confident grin.

"…Yeah, let's have a good game." Issei somewhat awkwardly nodded while Riser set up the clock.

Issei was using white pieces while Riser using black. The latter then gestured the former to make the first move – per rules said.

"However, Riser-san…" Issei said as he moved a pawn into a middle of the board. "I may be new to this kind of game, but… during my preparation for this day, I've been learning hard under Rias, Ravel, even Sona-san's guidance. I won't lose so easily." He finished by pushing the pause button on his chess clock.

That made Riser widened his eyes for a bit. After all, while he did not know Sona Sitri on personal level, he knew well that Sona was one of the most intelligent young devils to date. If the Red Dragon Emperor had indeed been learning under her tutelage, perhaps Riser could not just dismiss the possibility of losing in battle of wits – he had done underestimating his opponents.

However, as if the fate, or we should have said, the flow of the game itself spit on Issei's face; three minutes into the game, and Issei had ended up losing almost half of his pawns, both of his knights, and ultimately, his queen.

"It appears you have lost your most valuable piece." Riser haughtily remarked.

He would not admit it out loud, but Issei was not as bad as he thought. While the Red Dragon Emperor had lost his queen and some other valuable pieces, Riser himself had lost one knight, one bishop, and three pawns. Not to mention, Issei himself was still in possession of five pawns, as well as both of his rooks and bishops.

However, the fact that Riser held the upper hand remained. His king was well protected with a rook next to it and a bishop in front of it, his queen was not far from the king-rook-bishop formation. His pawns were also well-spread on the board, with his knight at the vanguard with one pawn.

With factor of experience included, Issei was quite in a tight spot. His pawns were spreading out on his territory, with only two rooks and bishops as his vanguard, the area around his king was far too open for a check.

Issei frowned at the board, looking for something he could exploit. He could not give up, after all, he had yet to be out of the game.

Feeling that the victory was already in his grasp, Riser's smirk widened as he decided to taunt his opponent for a bit more. "Is this what Rias' so-called ultimate pawn amount to? If so, then I'm utterly disappointed."

Issei was doing well in ignoring Riser's verbal jab for the time being.

"You know…." As the clock kept ticking, Riser began speaking again. "Did you know that Sona Sitri used to be engaged with another devil of noble family?"

"….So I heard." Issei blinked. _What was this about?_ "Rias told me once about it."

Rias once told Issei that, back in the past, before she was still a first-year of Kuoh Academy, Sona Sitri was once engaged with a certain noble devil. However, she managed to user her wits and intelligence to dissolve her engagement by challenging her fiancé into game of chess. The result was overwhelming victory for her, with Sitri heiress declaring that she would only marry a man who was smarter than her. In underworld politics where wits were more useful and valuable than brute strength, Sona was able to gain approval from both her family and other clans as well.

"Good, that makes things easier." Riser then said. "Let's make a little wager."

Issei furrowed his eyebrows. He did not really like where this was going.

"No, no, don't worry. I'm not gunning for Rias anymore." Riser said in placating manner. "I will settle of seeing her bare naked body."

"…Excuse me?" Issei's eyes twitched.

"I'm his former fiancé." Riser continued. "Basically, if you lose, you will send me a picture of her naked body, or even better…" his grin widened. "You can send me a video of your first night with her. Just one of them, that's all I ask."

Issei only pursed his lips in return, then he proceeded to make his move again – he moved his bishop to take Riser's remaining knight out, giving Issei a check with his bishop only two steps away from Riser's king.

Riser blinked at the development, but he was still far from losing as he proceeded to move his king away from between his rook and bishop, to the far corner of his territory – right next to his bishop.

Issei then moved his first rook that was behind his bishop; he moved three steps to obtain another check – three steps away from Riser's king.

Riser began to scowl, he moved his remaining bishop to block Issei's first rook from his king.

However, Issei saw an opening – Riser's bishop was now vulnerable to Issei's other bishop, and the latter did not waste that chance. Once Riser's remaining bishop had been taken out, Issei had an opportunity to take out one of Riser's rooks, or get another check with his bishops.

Riser's scowl deepened as he proceeded to move his endangered rook away from Issei's bishop's range.

However, the move ended up giving Issei a chance to take Riser's rook out with _his_ second rook, but in return, Riser then took Issei's offending rook out with his pawn.

Issei then moved his bishop – the one, _first_ bishop that checked Riser's king before, one step diagonally, so the bishop was on the same row as Riser's own king.

Riser then observed the development so far. The bishop that Issei just moved, had two ways of moving in the next turn – basically to check his king from either above or bottom. Thinking that he could not let Issei to use his bishops freely, Riser then proceeded to move his queen while he still had the chance. Riser's queen had checked Issei's king all the way from Riser's territory in one move, thanks to the queen's property.

However, seeing the distance, and the fact that Riser's queen only path to take down the king was only one diagonal line of black squares, Issei simply moved his king away to the corner of his territory – protected by two pawns in horizontal position.

Seeing that he could not check Issei's king in his current turn, Riser settled with taking one of Issei's pawn out with his queen – the said queen began to breach into Issei's territory.

Issei then moved his _second_ bishop – the one on black squares, away from Riser's king, far deep into Riser's territory. The said bishop was now standing right next to his first bishop, making vertical formation. "Game's over."

Riser's eyes widened, when Issei moved his second bishop away, he also made a path for his first rook to check his king. And it was not just a check, it was a _checkmate_ – with Issei's first bishop blocking Riser's king any escape route, and the said king could not run vertically away from Issei's rook.

"Thank you for the game." Issei merely gave a quick bow before he stood up and pressed the bell to notify the examiners.

One examiner came into the room, glancing at both stoic Issei and still shell-shocked Riser, before looking at the game and the chess clock. The examiner then wrote on his notes and he announced. "Game time: 5 minutes 10 seconds. Hyoudou Issei had completed the final part of the test."

Riser could not believe it – he had been beaten by the Red Dragon Emperor not only in a physical fight, but in battle of wits as well. He had lost again.

"By the way, Riser-san…" the Phenex looked up from the game board to see Issei smirking at him. "You said you wanted video of Rias' first night with me… Tell you what, we've already had our first night together just few weeks ago."

When Issei walked out of the door, Riser's jaw dropped to the floor at the revelation. In his mind, the Red Dragon Emperor just basically had done something he once aimed for with Rias Gremory – the Red Dragon Emperor had gotten a taste of that amazing body of Crimson Princess of Ruin.

"Oh, and I almost forgot." Issei's head popped in from the door. "Actually, I just did it again with her last night, in the bathroom!" he then slammed the door close, leaving the stupefied Riser and half-curious-half-confused examiner.

* * *

"So my brother was your examiner in that test?" Ravel asked to Issei.

Currently, everyone from Occult Research Club – sans Gasper and Rossweisse, as well as Ophis and Vali team, were gathering inside the hotel, having celebratory lunch after finishing the promotion test.

"Yeah." Issei said as he swallowed his food. "He's good, but I still managed to pull it off." He purposely kept the wager part to himself.

"So, how's the test?" Rias asked, not only to Issei, but to Yuuto and Akeno as well.

Long story short, both Yuuto and Akeno had done the test remarkably; both of them had the conviction that they would be middle-class devils once the result was announced. Although, they said that for practical test, they were assigned to have one-on-one spar with other examinees, which they ended up going overboard.

That was given; after all, the devils of Rias Gremory had the experience fighting powerful opponents – the Fallen Angel of Stars, White Dragon Emperor, descendant of original devil kings, Norse Evil God, God-Slaying Wolf, descendants of heroes as well as Longinus wielders; and the Lion King and his peerage. They were already more than qualified to be middle-class devils.

"So Ise-kun was assigned with fitness test? That must have been a walk in a park for you." Yuuto remarked, which Issei only shrugged in return.

Overall, it was a good time. Koneko had seemed to have return to her usual self, with her bantering with Ravel as usual; although everyone noted that the cat and bird had begun developing love-hate relationship.

Meanwhile, Ophis was eating a mouthful of carbonara while staring at Issei, somewhat unnerving the boy in the process. However, Issei soon shrugged it off, having grown used to it. The Ouroboros was also accompanied by Kuroka and Le Fay, whom were enjoying their own treats. Meanwhile, Fenrir who was concealing himself behind Le Fay's legs, was still wary around Issei, much to the latter's chagrin.

On that note, Kuroka, Ophis and Le Fay were wearing disguises. However, while Ophis was the only one who changed her usual gothic-lolita get-up into casual clothes that Haruka prepared for her in advance – Kuroka decided just to utilise her Senjutsu to conceal her companion's presence, Ophis included.

It was quit a mismatch set-up in a diner – a group of young devils with a fallen angel as their advisor, and a group consisted of fugitives and dragon god; but everything worked out as words were exchanged and laughter was shared.

However, every good time had to come to an end, as Issei and everyone else suddenly felt uncomfortable shift in the atmosphere.

They went full-alert, with Kuroka also undid her presence-concealment on her companions, the black cat also had gone into battle-station. "My, my… Looks like Vali was ignored-nya. We have company." She said with sarcastic, yet ominous expression.

When everyone saw a mist unnaturally surrounding them and the building, their expression gained a sense of dread and anticipation, as they got inklings of what their apparent 'company' could be.

_To be Continued…_

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**Whew, that was quite difficult, especially the chess part! On that note, what do you guys think? This is my first time writing such a scene, so I hope I didn't screw up.**

**As for Haruka, I just came to love her so much. Not to mention, I'm building some sort of foundation for her role in future arcs. So… Thoughts?**

**Overall, please review of what you think about the chapter. Next will be another confrontation with the Hero Faction. We might be sort-of following canon so far, but let me tell you, the twist is near.**

**Flames are not welcomed, while constructive reviews are appreciated. Ahsoei, over and out.**


	50. Promotion (III)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

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**Okay, I can only say this, people. This is quite a lot longer than I originally intended. Without further ado, I shall present you this. Enjoy! R&amp;R**

**I do not own High-school DxD nor One-Punch Man.**

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**Chapter 47: Promotion (III) – Ambush**

Everyone was on full-alert as they made their way through the hotel they were in. Nobody was in sight, and before such anomaly, everyone knew well enough of what they were dealing with.

_**Dimension Lost Balance Breaker: Dimension Create – Utopia of Mist.**_

When the group arrived at the lobby, they noted that everything was empty so far… Until a fireball suddenly shot out towards the group, particularly at Asia and Irina who were standing a little bit away.

However, before the two could have reacted, Ophis suddenly appeared before them, and erased the fireball from existence with a simple wave of a hand.

Irina and Asia blinked at the fact that the Ouroboros Dragon just protected them. Nevertheless, the latter was the first to react. "T-thank you for saving us."

Ophis seemingly ignored the gratitude given to her, and when the group traced the origin of the fireball, they found two individuals sitting at the sofa in the lobby. Their appearances were more than familiar enough for everyone to recognise them.

"It's been a while, Red Dragon Emperor, Hyoudou Issei; as well as Governor Azazel." A young man wielding a spear greeted while remained seated.

"….Cao Cao." Issei addressed the man venomously. However, when Issei took another look, he found that the hero's descendant still possessed a pair of eyes. _Strange_, Issei could have sworn that he had destroyed Cao Cao's right eye back in Kyoto.

"Congratulations for your victory against Sairaorg Bael. Giving the Gremory team as the first ranker among young devils." Cao Cao carried on as he applauded. "It was truly a magnificent fight. Saitama must have been proud of you, Hyoudou Issei."

Rias then replied in response. "Should I be honoured by being praised by one of the leaders of the terrorists? I do feel complicated. How are you doing Cao Cao?" she gave sarcastic smile.

"I'm doing well, thank you." Cao Cao stood up and gave a bow. "And I assume… that you've been doing well with your Red Dragon Emperor?" he gave a knowing smirk.

Rias and Issei immediately knew what Cao Cao was insinuating – his parting words at the end of battle in Kyoto.

Issei simply snorted as he put his arm around Rias' shoulder, a gesture that kind of surprised the latter, but not unwelcomed. "Yep, both of us have been doing good, thanks. We couldn't be happier." He replied with smug smile.

Everyone either snickered or smiled at the sight of Rias flustered a bit at the words, although she also smiled pleasantly nonetheless.

Cao Cao regarded the couple for few seconds before he exhaled silently. "…I see. That's good to hear." If there was anything under his tone, it was well hidden.

"Anyway." Azazel then stepped in. "What are you planning this time, dragging us into another of your artificial dimension?"

As if disregarding Azazel's question, Cao Cao looked behind the group, particularly at Ophis. "Hey there, Ophis. I was wondering if you're actually going with Vali, but I didn't expect to see you here."

Kuroka quipped in as she stood shielding Ophis. "Nyahahaha~ We didn't see this coming too. I thought you would've gone after Vali."

"We had another team coming for them. They're probably fighting as we speak." Cao Cao replied.

Everyone was puzzled. They knew that Vali and Cao Cao did not get along, but it seemed there was something else going on without their knowledge. As the Occult Research Club was pondering about things, Le Fay made herself known by clearing her throat, and took the initiative to explain.

"Allow me to explain. This began when Lord Ophis took great interest in the Red Dragon Emperor as well as Mr. Saitama. Mr. Vali then decided to arrange the meeting between them through his connections."

Everyone listened as Le Fay's words sank in.

"However, at the same time, Mr. Vali learned that Lord Ophis is being targeted from the shadows. To find out whoever is targeting her, we decided to lure them out. If we're lucky, we can deal with the perpetrator with Lord Ophis serving as a bait."

Le Fay's explanation led everyone to a conclusion as she pointed at Cao Cao. "That means two people over there are after Lord Ophis and us, and we believed if Lord Ophis were to be taken out of headquarters, we could crush the enemy when they go after us. But we can't just place Lord Ophis in danger, so Mr. Vali and Mr. Bikou split up from us with the latter disguising himself as Lord Ophis, while we took the real one under protection of Red Dragon Emperor and Mr. Saitama."

While everyone understood, they also confused; why would Cao Cao go after his own benefactor?

"What do you expect? It's Vali we're talking about." Cao Cao simply replied as he tapped his Longinus on his shoulder. "We knew that Vali won't just take Ophis around with him. We also knew that Ophis is interested in the Two Heavenly Dragons as well as Saitama. So if he divided his team into two groups, then we also did the same. One group will go after the White Dragon, while I and Georg will check on the Red Dragon. And here we are, finding Ophis to be here and running to you guys."

"Cao Cao is going after me?" Ophis simply asked while tilting her head innocently.

"Yeah, we need you." Cao Cao nodded. "Well… not 'you' you."

Everyone furrowed their eyebrows, not understanding Cao Cao's words.

"I do not understand. But I will not lose to Cao Cao." However, one fact remained, Cao Cao planned something on the dragon god, but the latter believed the former could not do anything.

It was a truth, in fact. Ophis was known of her infinite power and strength. And with the records stating that no Longinus wielder had ever killed a god before, Cao Cao should not have been able to land even a scratch on Ophis.

It was proven - when Cao Cao spun his spear skillfully, and when the spear had brightened up with power, he immediately closed the distance and ran the holy blade through Ophis' stomach. Ophis simply looked down at the spear embedded into her belly, she blinked as if – no, as there was no damage whatsoever on her person.

More over, to enhance the effect of his strike, Cao Cao invoked the True Longinus to unleash its holy power, enveloping the room into brilliant light.

Kuroka and Le Fay went alert "This is bad, Le Fay!"

The two immediately combined their magic, then a dark mist enveloped the room to counter the light from the holy spear.

"I'm sorry, but this is the only way to prevent the Longinus to eradicate us!" Le Fay shouted at the devils. The dark mist filling in the room was not just a mist, it was poisonous mist produced through Kuroka's demon arts. "Please don't breath in the mist!"

It was a risky solution, but a dark mist was easier to deal with rather than the holy light of True Longinus when it came to devils. The dark mist that Kuroka produced was enhanced further with Le Fay's mastery over black arts.

In any case, everyone could not helped but astonished when they saw Ophis' lack of reaction when she was clearly stabbed with the ultimate god-killing artifact. There was no sign of grimace, pain, nor even blood from the dragon god.

Cao Cao who had pulled away with his spear was astonished as well. "That attack earlier should've been enough to instantly kill a devil, even gods would've had half of their power drained out." he said as he examined his spear and Ophis' regenerating hole on her stomach. "Did you see this, Red Dragon Emperor? This is Ophis the Ouroboros. You can't wound it even with the Ultimate Longinus. That attack clearly connected, but even this spear isn't nowhere nearly enough to take down a being with infinite power."

Cao Cao inwardly curious if Saitama could withstand his spear, but alas, he never had a chance to test it out. But the result was likely the same with Ophis' case. Ophis - the embodiment of infinity; there were only one, no, two individuals that could match her power: the Apocalypse Dragon, and most likely, Saitama. Until this day, Cao Cao still could not comprehend the extent of Saitama's potential.

In any case, from the short bout earlier, Cao Cao and everyone else in the lobby noticed that Kuroka and Le Fay had used the time given to them to finish a certain ritual.

"Nyahahaa~ Thanks for the side-show. Now we can call him here." Kuroka smiled at her teammate. "Do it, Le Fay."

Following Kuroka's cue, Fenrir quickly placed himself over the newly created magic circle, and when Le Fay activated the magic, Fenrir vanished, and was replaced with a silver-haired teen.

Vali Lucifer had arrived to the scene after Kuroka and Le Fay Pendragon had swapped his position with Fenrir through long-range teleportation spell.

"Good work, Kuroka, Le Fay." Vali nodded approvingly at his teammates and he turned to address his new enemy. "It's been a while since the last time we met face-to-face, Cao Cao."

Everyone was doing their best to keep up with the development; Cao Cao and Georg of Hero Faction appeared to ambush them, then Cao Cao futilely attempted to kill Ophis with his True Longinus, then Kuroka and Le Fay summoned Vali Lucifer by trading his position and Fenrir.

In return of Vali's greeting, Cao Cao smirked fearlessly. "Vali. Well, I didn't see you coming either."

"Fenrir is now dealing with the rest of your group members, together with Bikou and the others of my group. I was right to have an insurance by having Le Fay enchanting me and Fenrir with swap-teleportation magic. Let's finish things once and for all." Then Vali scanned that there were only two enemies before him. "…Still, to come with only you and Georg. Quite a confident one, aren't you?"

"Well… me and Georg alone would be enough." Cao Cao merely replied.

"I see… Is it because you have this so-called Dragon Eater in your arsenal?" Vali returned. "I take it's some kind of Sacred Gear that is specialised in slaying dragons?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that." Cao Cao shook his head. "It's just a code name for a certain entity, an entity that had been created since the time of creation, by none other than Biblical God Himself."

Georg, who had been silent beside Cao Cao, finally spoke. "Is it the time?"

"Yes, Georg. Now's the time." Cao Cao affirmed. Aside from Saitama, all legendary dragons all are here; the Two Heavenly Dragons and the Dragon God. It's a perfect opportunity to summon it – the jar of hell."

"Understood." Georg replied with a smile as he activated a massive magic circle on the space behind him.

The air began to vibrate as Georg distorted the space to summon their so-called Dragon Eater. Then, everyone was hit by chilling sensation. It felt like the temperature had significantly dropped, but some of them felt that they were suddenly struck by immense fear of whatever that was about to come.

_**[This feeling… What a mass of hatred….]**_

Issei noticed that even Ddraig, one of Two Heavenly Dragons sounded frightened, a feeling that was shared as well with his arch-rival Albion.

When something finally appeared from Georg's summoning ritual, everyone was met by something that could be described as 'ominous'.

It was a bizarre creature; its upper body seemed humanoid, with its wings completely black, and the wings resembled that of a black angel, making the upper body of the creature appeared to be belonged to a fallen angel. However, the lower half of the creature's body resembled that of a serpent, or to be precise, an eastern dragon.

It was already unnerving enough to see a hybrid of dragon and fallen angel. What unnerved everyone the most was the fact that the creature's body was crucified on a cross, with nails driven through various parts of its body – limbs, wings, etc. and text of ancient language was written all over the restraints. The head of the creature, was adorned with a blindfold obscuring its eyes, which were leaking tears of blood. The mouth of the creature, filled with fangs despite being a fallen angel, was letting out something akin to a cry – its voice was mixed with anger and agony.

It was a sight akin to a criminal being sentenced to the worst punishment ever imagined.

When Issei saw the dark aura leaking out from the creature's entire frame, he could already tell that whatever that was, was _the_ bad news.

Azazel, however, was livid when he laid his sight on the creature. "That…! I see…. So you brought that thing out of Cocytus!"

* * *

"…Samael." Cao Cao replied as he took a step forward, he then gestured his hand as if he was about to tell a story. "Once was one of the Lord's most beautiful creations, along with the Morning Star. But alas, soon he fell out of God's favour when he tempted Adam and Eve into eating the fruit of knowledge, thus tainting the mankind with sin, resulting the human's exile from Garden of Eden, and the Lord's subsequent hatred of all dragons and serpents. The Lord punished Samael by cursing him into a dragon hybrid, giving him the upper body of a fallen and lower body of a serpent, thus giving Samael the moniker as Serpent of Eden."

"However, the curse did not end with just transformation, because the curse itself was manifested from the Lord's very own dark side. As the curse was kept pumped into Samael's body, the curse enveloping and filling his being was so potent that it became a poison – an absolute, lethal venom that can kill all kinds of existence, from the weakest cretin to the most powerful creatures, even gods and dragons alike. The power of the curse was overwhelming, driving what once an intelligent angel into utter madness, a belligerent being that still posed a threat to all life forms. Samael was sealed into Cocytus soon after, forgotten by all but the oldest members of Biblical Heaven and Hades himself, lying dormant in the River of Laments for eons."

As Cao Cao had finished his short story, Issei asked Azazel. "Sensei…" he asked while swallowing a lump. "…We're fucked, aren't we?"

Azazel only gave a side-glance as he could not blame Issei's comment. However, there was more pressing issue from the current development. "That Samael is out of Cocytus, what is the Olympian god of the dead thinking…?!" the fallen then widened his eyes in grim realization. "Don't tell me…!?"

As if reading Azazel's mind, Cao Cao confirmed with a smile. "Yes, we have indeed negotiated with Lord Hades. I was allowed to summon him while he's remained in his sealed state."

"That bastard…! Of course, he never liked the whole idea about alliance to begin with!" Azazel seethed with anger.

The others were shocked at the revelation; one of Olympians had assisted terrorist.

While everyone was still distracted from the grim revelation, Cao Cao waste no more time as he pointed his spear at Ophis, who still unperturbed by the development, aside from Samael. "Devour her."

Issei only noticed something black flew, and when he traced its movement, he and everyone found Ophis had been enveloped inside a black block. In addition, the black block was connected all the way towards Samael's deformed mouth with some kind of tentacle.

"Shit, we're too late!" Azazel cursed. "So that's how they intend to deal with Ophis, they're using Samael's curse on her!"

"H-Hey, Ophis!" Issei then shouted at the black block. "Can you hear me!? Answer me!"

In response, the black block only shifted and let out several strange noises. One could say it was as if the black block was 'chewing' or 'digesting' whatever inside it.

No, it was more like 'chewing', because the black block was slowly moving back towards Samael's mouth. Indeed, Samael seemed to attempt eating the dragon god.

"Yuuto, cut it down!" Rias ordered.

The aforementioned Knight then brandished his Sword of Betrayer and swung his blade towards the black block, but the blade was suddenly devoured as soon as it made contact.

Everyone, especially Yuuto, was shocked at the result. It was as if the black block 'erased' the blade that went through the block, like erasing a pencil drawing. What remained of Yuuto's sword was less than half of its original length.

The Knight then produced another sword and changed his target to Samael's 'tongue'. However, the result was the same as the darkness on the appendage erased the offending blade that made contact.

Vali then manifested his Divine Dividing, and without equipping his Scale Mail, he managed to perform Half Dimension on the black block and the black tongue, attempting to shrink them. However, when his signature attack had no effect whatsoever, he cursed under his breath as turned to firing his pure demonic power, yet it held the same result.

Rias then took a shot with her Power of Destruction. However, when a mass of her power landed on the Samael's extension, the Power of Destruction simply vanished, having no effect on the cursed object.

Issei then equipped himself with his Scale Mail. Then, his experience reminded him that Cao Cao was not an enemy you could go half-hearted. Concluding that he needed to end this battle as soon as possible, Issei then focused deep into his power. "Are you ready, Ddraig?"

**[Always.]**

Smiling inwardly at the dragon's answer, Issei then opened his eyes and began chanting. "I, who have awoken…"

Cao Cao then blinked as he could not help but mesmerized at the sheer brilliance of Issei's crimson aura. However, he knew that he had no such luxury to admire the performance. He still believed that Issei was still too dangerous to be left alone. "Georg, you know what to do."

The mage in question nodded in understanding as he focused in maintaining control over Samael. Then, he extended his hand forward, activating a spell and the seal restraining Samael's right _and_ left hand was undone.

The creature felt a fraction of freedom on its limbs. While his forearms were still restrained, he could still move the area of his wrists around. Then, he aimed the palm of his hands towards new targets.

The Two Heavenly Dragons were completely caught off-guard.

"Shi-!" Vali barely managed to put his white Scale Mail on for defensive measure, as he was too focused on destroying the appendage that captured Ophis.

"I dominate all evils in the infinite –… What the hell!?" while Issei was busy transforming into a new form.

Soon the Two Heavenly Dragons were captured inside the same black block that entrapped Ophis.

"ISE!"

"VALI!"

The rest of others shouted in panic and worry when they learned that both teens were caught in a block of cursed poison. The Dragon Eater howled, as if revelling the taste of dragons after eons of suffering.

Rias instinctively reached out her hands towards the block where Issei was in.

"Rias, stop!" Azazel then caught the Gremory heiress to keep her in place. "You can't touch it! That thing was specifically created to kill creatures that are on par with strongest dragons! Forget about you, even Satan can't survive that curse!" the fallen then shouted to the rest. "All of you! Whatever you do to deal with the main body, make sure that you don't make any physical contact! One touch of that poison will be fatal!"

However, around 10 seconds later, the block that was encasing the Vanishing Dragon suddenly burst, releasing the White Dragon Emperor who dropped to the ground while puking blood. His body was littered with wounds as well. Samael howled again, this time it was akin to howl of pain as well as disappointment that he had lost the White Dragon from his grasp.

Everyone blinked, because the black block that was encasing Issei did not show any sign of dissipating – as it still writhing to devour the Welsh Dragon within, while Vali was able to break free.

Truth to be told, when Vali was inside the clutch of Samael's poison, he quickly made a gamble by absorbing half of the poison with his Sacred Gear, and before the infection could have left a fatal damage in his system, the White Dragon Emperor then expelled the absorbed energy from his light wings, causing two negative forces to collide, resulting the Samael's poison to cancel itself forcefully.

Meanwhile, Issei did not have the same absorption ability like Vali, despite his possession of Dividing Gear – the gear had been specifically intended for himself. The power multiplication ability of Red Dragon Emperor combined with Issei's massive reserve, however, made it possible for him to forcefully fight off the poison through brute force. However, Samael's curse was not that weak to be dispelled so easily through raw power alone. That meant Issei was still fighting his way out of Samael's clutch.

"Let Ise go!" Xenovia angrily brandished her Ex-Durandal and fired a massive wave of holy energy towards Samael's main body.

However, Cao Cao quickly stepped in as he deflected Xenovia's attack with his holy spear. "Sorry, but I can't let you damage Samael. Otherwise Lord Hades would be upset."

"Ravel, stay back with Asia!" Rias began to order. "Everyone else focused on destroying the Dragon Eater! We have to rescue all three of them!"

[Understood!]

With time limit looming around them, as well as their worry over Issei's well-being, everyone glared at the fallen angel-dragon hybrid. Vali, with his body wrecked by the remains of Samel's curse, could only remain laid face-down on the ground.

The Strongest White Dragon Emperor was out of the count, while the red one's status was still unknown, which meant the two biggest threats, along with Ophis were taken care of for the time being. However, the fact remained that Cao Cao was still more outnumbered than the last battle.

He then spoke to Georg without looking back at him. "Georg… Can I leave Samael to you?"

"Yes, that's fine. The process is more than half-way finished, anyway." The mage replied.

Cao Cao's True Longinus then shone brightly as he invoked two words of power. "Balance Breaker!"

Everyone then witnessed seven orbs floating around Cao Cao, causing Azazel's eyes to widen. "That's…. a sub-species!? That's completely different than the previous one on the records, _True Longinus __Götterdämmerung_!"

"I remember…" Akeno spoke up. "Each of those seven orbs possessed different ability. So far, he has displayed abilities of teleportation, soldiers summoning, and raw power attack. We don't know about the rest."

"Well noted, Rias Gremory's Queen." Cao Cao nodded. "But now, perhaps I should display the full power of my Seven Treasures."

However, facing a group of capable devils, an angel, a twelve-winged fallen angel, a magician, and couple of youkais – not to mention that all of them would fully focus on destroying his treasured Dragon Eater, Cao Cao thought relying on his skill and Longinus alone would be kind of pushing it a bit too far. Hence, he chose to use his additional arsenal.

"Then again…. I can't take chances recklessly…" Cao Cao then ran his hand over his right eye. "So I'll show you another thing."

When Azazel saw the glow on Cao Cao's right eye, his eyes widened in horror. "Nobody made eye-contact with him! Do not look directly to his right eye at all cost!"

Everyone was confused at the order, but the tone that came out from Azazel demanded them to obey for the time being. They then averted their eyes lower to avoid eye-contact with Cao Cao, some chose to close their eyes all the way and would only take few sneak peeks at Cao Cao's position.

"Wise decision." Cao Cao hummed and nodded in satisfaction. "It had been told across generations that one doesn't simply stare right into Medusa's eyes."

"Medusa? The Gorgon?" Rias recognised the name as she kept her eyes from meeting Cao Cao's.

Eye of Medusa, or Gorgon's Eyes, was once belonged to a Greek deity with the same name. The deity had been once revered as an earth goddess, and her sheer beauty and grace allowed her to gain love and favour from Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea himself. However, the goddess was cursed by goddess Athena out of envy – the curse turned once a beautiful goddess into a grotesque monster known as Gorgon with her hair made out of snakes and petrifying gaze. Fell into rage and madness, the former goddess turned monster ran amok, turning many men and warriors into stone statue until she was slain by Perseus.

Then one of her mystic eyes was extracted from her severed head, and it was implanted in Cao Cao's right eye.

"The very same. Even after death, the power of this eye remained potent." Cao Cao confirmed. "And now, your visions are limited. I can do _these_."

He then activated one orb. "Chatsuka Ratana."

Xenovia was taken aback when she found her prized Ex-Durandal suddenly shattered in her hands. "My… My sword! How…?!"

"The Wheel Treasure has the ability to destroy weapons." Cao Cao briefly explained as he moved, closing his distance with Xenovia and stabbed his spear into her stomach.

The wielder of Durandal coughed out a mouthful of blood as her stomach bled.

"XENOVIA!" everyone shouted in fear when they saw Xenovia's body fell to the ground.

"Asia!" Rias shouted out, and the Bishop quickly moved to tend the fallen Knight.

"Xenovia-san, please! Stay with us!" the girl tearfully begged as she used her Twilight Healing.

In response, Yuuto and Irina charged at Cao Cao with their respective weapons ready. As the three engaged in a fierce fight, Yuuto and Irina were at disadvantage because they could not afford to accidentally make an eye contact with Cao Cao's Gorgon's eye. However, despite they could only rely on reading the movement on Cao Cao's limbs, Yuuto and Irina could still keep up with the spearman, albeit barely.

"Impressive, Sigfried and Jeanne were truly not disappointed when they fought you. However…" Cao Cao commended and he activated another orb while glancing at Irina.

When the orb glowed, Irina's sword of light suddenly vanished, throwing the reincarnated angel out of her rhythm. "Eh?" Irina blinked in confusion, as she could not conjure even a speck of light in her hands.

Before she could have questioned what was happening to her, Cao Cao had twirled his spear and used the butt of his spear to smack Irina right on the side of her face, forcing Irina into a daze from impact. Cao Cao then used the blade of his spear to block the incoming attack from Yuuto's sword, and after pushing the Gremory Knight off, Cao Cao used his chance to drive the butt of his spear again, straight to Irina's abdomen. The angel was launched until she slammed against the wall.

"Gah!" Irina coughed out bits of spit and blood. While the blunt end of the spear did not penetrate her flesh, the force was still able to penetrate through her body.

Cao Cao then returned to his fight with Yuuto. The Knight had grown a bit more accustomed with reading Cao Cao's limbs. And while Cao Cao possessed exceptional speed and agility for a human, Yuuto's enhancement from his Evil Piece made him superior in terms of pure speed. "It seems that you've gotten used to fight me without looking into my eyes, but unfortunately…" Cao Cao then directed his eyes at Yuuto's legs. "Gorgon's eye doesn't work in one way only."

Yuuto suddenly dropped to the ground, he could not move his legs and found the said legs were turning into stone.

"While Gorgon's petrifying gaze is more deadly via eye-contact, I can still use its power on objects within my range of sights, albeit the effect is weaker and not permanent."

People believed that eyes were windows of one's heart. That notion became a theory of why Medusa's victims were beyond saving when their eyes met her gaze.

Despite being immobilized, Yuuto still had some reserve of his power as he used another one of his trump card. "Glory Drag Trooper!"

An army of dragon knights appeared around Yuuto and charged at Cao Cao. It was a means for the Knight to buy time until he could regain the use of his legs.

"Interesting! This is my first time seeing this ability up-close!" Cao Cao fearlessly grinned at the army before him. "Then I'll respond in kind. Kahabatei Ratana!"

It was the same ability that Cao Cao used during his fight against Hyoudou Issei in Kyoto – the Householder Treasure. Cao Cao's cavalry then clashed with Yuuto's army. Since the two possessed similar property and nature, both armies ended up killing each other – resulting the clash in stalemate.

Then, Cao Cao sensed that Rias and Akeno had positioned themselves behind him, out of his range of sight. When the two women aimed their hands towards Samael, he only smirked as he activated the same orb he used on Irina.

Suddenly, when the two great ladies of Kuoh were about to fire their signature spells, nothing happened. Rias and Akeno were baffled as they extended their hands to fire their demonic power, but to no avail. "What's happening!? What happened to our powers!?" Rias wondered.

"This is my Female Treasure – Itsutei Ratana doing its work." Cao Cao replied. "Its ability is to seal women's special power. I told you that I can't have you folks damaging Dragon Eater."

Rias and Akeno were no close-combatant, having their only means of attacking been sealed was as good as rendering them powerless. Then, Cao Cao moved aside to avoid something lunging at him. Koneko skidded to stop and she quickly lunged again to engage Cao Cao in close quarter combat – her nekoshou features in tow, followed with Azazel in his golden dragon armour.

While the two – Azazel and Koneko did not interact much in their everyday lives, they both did quite well in getting Cao Cao busy. Most of the job was for Azazel who had more expertise in allowing Koneko to step in every now and then. It was kind of a mismatch between a fallen angel and a youkai, but that mismatch gave Cao Cao harder time in reading the battle flow into his favour.

Then again, Cao Cao proved his worth again as genius combatant as he lured Koneko to step closer, and when the youkai subconsciously took the bait, Cao Cao used his spear as a lever to throw Koneko high to the air, the girl's body spinning before plummeting to the floor.

Cao Cao immediately knew that Azazel would attempt to blind-side him. The human then intercepted the fallen by putting a small distance to avoid the surprise attack and directly sent his gaze at Azazel's armoured face.

The fallen angel governor was able to prevent eye-contact in the nick of time as he shielded his face with his arm. However, when the Gorgon's eye glowed, a good portion of Azazel's armour that was exposed to the eye, turned into stone, reducing its durability from the dragon's scale into a mere rock.

Cao Cao smirked and did not waste the chance. "Balinayaka Ratana!"

BOOM! PRANG!

When Cao Cao's General Treasure made contact, Azazel's armour that had been turned into stone was not enough to protect his body from the treasure's destructive force in nearly point-blank range. Azazel was then thrown into a wall while coughing out blood.

Cao Cao then noticed, in the midst of chaos, Kuroka and Le Fay had combined their power to launch their own attack at Samael. When the energy of combined mystic arts was fired, the spearman sent another one of his orbs to intercept it.

Both spell-casters widened their eyes when their combined attack suddenly vanished – no, absorbed by the whirlwind created by the offending orb.

"That's Mala Ratana." Cao Cao explained. "The Pearl Treasure that is capable of redirecting attacks, especially projectile types."

Kuroka and Le Fay were smart enough to understand that their combined attack would be sent elsewhere within the vicinity. Then, the black cat widened her eyes when she noticed another whirlwind suddenly appeared behind her little sister.

Koneko only noticed that something was behind her when Kuroka made a move. "Don't just stand there! Move, Shirone!"

BOOM!

Koneko could not do anything but to watch her estranged elder sister took the brunt of combined magic attack that was directed at the younger girl with her own body.

When the attack stopped, Koneko stared at Kuroka's body that was heavily injured and smoking from the burns created from the attack. The elder Nekoshou only glanced back at her little sister before she fell down.

"…Don't just stand there, you airhead…" was the last thing Koneko heard when she saw her sister's body fell to the floor.

"N…Nee-sama!" out of reflex, Koneko then tearfully tend to her sister's fallen form.

When Cao Cao told that his enemies had been taken care of, he suddenly jumped away to see a dragon knight just slashed his sword at him. He looked around and noticed that Yuuto was still not out of the count yet. The Knight's legs that had been petrified before were showing signs of recovering as half of the limbs had returned to normal. While he was still immobile, Yuuto decided to use the ability of his Glory Drag Trooper.

Over the course of his past training with his friends and Saitama, Yuuto had gained enough power to coordinate the attack of his dragon knight army, as long as they were within his range of sight. While the dragon knight army still could not follow specific directions to perform complex technique, Yuuto was still able to control the angles and position of the artificial warriors' attack pattern.

The movement performed by the dragon knights were simple hacking, stabbing and slashing, but with the numbers that Yuuto controlled, Cao Cao soon suddenly found himself trapped into the corner of the lobby.

"_Tch…My back is against the wall."_ Cao Cao bitterly noted as the dragon knight army was surrounding him from every direction.

Intending to end the battle, Yuuto then commanded all of his dragon knight troops to charge. The knights then raised their swords and dashed towards Cao Cao.

Cao Cao could have just used his Atsusa Ratana – the Horse Treasure to escape, but doing so might only repeating the cycle in one way or another. Besides, he had his pride as a hero's descendant.

"This isn't exactly ideal…" Taking the challenge upon himself, Cao Cao only smirked fearlessly as he brandished and spun his holy spear, preparing himself to intercept the incoming army. "But don't count me out just yet! Because I know how to respond to every single one of your amateurish blows!"

The biggest weakness of Yuuto's Glory Drag Trooper was, that each dragon knight could be considered as a total amateur with no techniques whatsoever, despite possessing the same speed and strength of Kiba Yuuto.

It was quite a sight to behold, as the surrounding walls and floor were cracked and slashed from the clash between blades, Cao Cao skilfully deflected, redirected, countered, and dispatched every single one of Yuuto's dragon knights with his unparalleled spearman-ship.

When Cao Cao had finished the last dragon knight, he let out a silent sigh as he believed that he had won; Rias and her Queen were still powerless with Female Treasure was still affecting them; Yuuto was still in the middle of the way in recovering his legs, the last of his reserve had been used on the last Glory Drag Trooper; Xenovia and Irina were heavily injured and still in the middle of the healing; Kuroka, Azazel and Vali were probably in worse state; while Asia, Le Fay and Ravel knew too well that they were way too weak to oppose Cao Cao.

And speaking of one more person, when Cao Cao turned to check on the black block that was encasing Issei, he and everyone noticed that the block was suddenly pulsing, as if whatever inside it was about to blow up.

"What in the…!?"

* * *

While Cao Cao was fighting against both Gremory and Vali team, the Red Dragon Emperor was struggling against something…

_Evil._

That was one description Issei – still clad in his regular Scale Mail, could give regarding the mass enveloping him. It was not just a mere darkness, not ordinary curse or poison; it was some sort of evil in its purest form, its intention was to corrupt every life form on the planet. He could not have the luxury to chant and transform, as one second was enough for Samael to prevail over him should Issei stopped struggling.

_Pain. Jealousy. Agony. Resentment. Grudge. Rape. Murder. Genocide. Destruction. Corruption. Sin. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. HATE!_

It was as if the darkness, the curse constantly attempted to corrupt him, starting from his armour, then his flesh, until finally his very soul. And to prevent it from happening, Issei and along with _everyone_ inside the Boosted Gear resisted the curse of Samael. He once attempted to burn the darkness away with his dragon flames, but to no avail.

"Is this… The God's dark side…?" Issei gritted his teeth as he held his ground against the curse around him.

**[The very same… It is the darkness that came out of the God's anger and hatred towards us dragons and serpents, particularly at the serpent who had tainted his first mortal creations with sin!] **

"**And we are fighting against this very hatred, the curse that is powerful enough to kill even the most powerful dragons – the deadliest dragon-slayer!"**

Ddraig growled through the explanation along with Elsha, Belzard and the rest of past Red Dragon Emperors and White Dragon Emperor from the Dividing Gear, as he was also doing his best to fend off Samael's curse.

Issei could vaguely hear the sound of fighting from the other side of the darkness. Judging from the noise, especially the voice of the girls and his friends, Issei could tell that things were not going well.

"We don't have time to waste here, put everything in this push!"

**["Right!"]**

**[Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost! Boost!]**

As the Boosted Gear kept enhancing his power over and over, Issei simply unleashed his aura, as well as his dragon flames at his surroundings.

However, despite the valiant struggle, the armour eventually began to crack and Samael's essence seeped through and began to infect his flesh. Issei gasped as he could feel the curse running through his veins, his systems.

**[Partner! Get a hold of yourself! You can't give up now!]**

"**Fight, Hyoudou Issei! Fight!"**

Ddraig and the past Red Dragon Emperors shouted to keep tabs on Issei, but the boy was losing strength as pain ravaging his body inside out. However, Ddraig noticed something else going on within Issei's soul.

_BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP!_

**[Oh, shit...!]**

The dragon kind of expected this to happen, but he was still surprised when the power suddenly burst out from the gate in brilliant light, and the next thing he knew, the darkness was purged away.

However, in order to drive the entire curse out of Issei's body, the power had to envelope the whole soul, including his Evil Pieces as well. The past Red Dragon Emperors as well as White Dragon Emperor could not prepare themselves in time when they were still busy fending off the darkness just a second ago.

oXo

Everyone turned to see the black block that was encasing Issei suddenly exploded. It was a different one than Vali, because as the explosion occurred, Samael let out even louder howl of pain, because his whole left hand – from his finger tips until his wrist was literally blown up.

As Samael howled when his hand was obliterated, the appendage that was trapping Ophis abruptly dissolved as well, releasing the dragon god. Ophis who was kneeling on the floor, did not look any different, although she was deeply frowning as she looked down at herself.

"AARGHH!" Issei on the other hand, dropped down to the floor upon his release. His body was shaking and sweating like crazy, while his veins were pulsing. His breathing was terribly haggard as well as he was on his fours. "…GUURRGH…!"

"Ise!" mixed with worry and relief, Rias then ran towards Issei to tend him, followed by the others that could move. "Ise, are you alright?"

"I… I'm fine." Issei said between breaths and grunts, but the boy was clearly in pain.

"Ddraig, how is his condition?" Akeno asked as she also knelt down beside Rias.

**[I have a good news and bad news.]**

The Welsh Dragon provided the answer with exhausted voice.

**[The good news is, that somehow the curse inside my partner's body had been purged, so his life is no longer in danger. The bad news is, the purging earlier left him drained. He won't get to fight for anytime soon.]**

Issei tried to stand up, but he just could not find the strength to do so. All he could do was helplessly saw the other's downed form, before he sent his glare to Cao Cao, who was looking astonished along with Georg.

"Not only surviving my True Longinus…." Cao Cao began. "But you also managed to survive Samael's curse, the evil intentions of Heavenly Father itself? I am both terrified and amazed. Look at what you've done to the Dragon Eater." He glanced at the raging Samael who had one of his limbs blown off.

Everyone could only glare heatedly at Cao Cao. Under everyone's scrutiny, the spearman turned to address his comrade. "Even Ophis ended up free. Georg, how much did we take?"

Georg, who was still astonished from Issei's stunt from earlier, snapped back to reality and looked at the equation on his palm. "Err… Around three-quarters. What do you think of this?"

Cao Cao nodded. "Hn, that should do for now. Then…" Cao Cao looked around to scan his enemies once again, and he noticed that Azazel was struggling on his feet, the fallen was holding some sort of device.

"What are you possibly planning at this situation, governor Azazel?" Cao Cao quirked an intrigue eyebrow at the fallen.

"A real trump card." Azazel weakly grinned as his body was still hurting – the power of True Longinus from zero range was a real deal, indeed. "I honestly… wish that I'd never get to pull this off, because one; I feel really, really bad for him, and two; if I do this kind of thing again, he's probably gonna murder me." Azazel then closed his eyes in small prayer as he activated whatever device he was holding.

Everyone blinked when a magic circle appeared beneath Azazel's feet, when the circle brightened up, Azazel had vanished, replaced by another man.

oXo

When Azazel's view cleared up, he noted that whatever he was trying to pull earlier had been likely succeeded. However, he blinked when he finally noticed where he had ended up. "Oh, boy… I'm so gonna die for this." He sighed as he plopped himself down to sit on a _toilet_.

oXo

Everyone fell into silence as their minds tried to make sense of things. It appeared that Azazel some kind of teleportation spell, one that was similar with Le Fay's magic that swapped the position of Fenrir with Vali Lucifer from earlier.

They understood whom Azazel had swapped his position with, as well as the reason behind it. However, what they could not understand was, the state of the new man before them.

The bald man was wearing white T-Shirt with sweat short, but the said pants were not on his waist. In his hands was what it seemed to be a comic book. When he appeared, the man showed up by unceremoniously dropped to the floor with his _pants down_. He was startled and looked frantically, questioning what just happened.

Out of everyone, Cao Cao was the first to react as soon as he recognised who Azazel just summoned into his artificial dimension. Using every chance and time he had, he quickly turned to his trusted ally. "GEORG!"

The mage was snapped out his stupor as he quickly understood the urgency of the situation. He gave a quick command to the Dragon Eater, and as if attracted to a newly arrived presence – that was brimming with power, Samael howled loudly and he unleashed the curse from his free arm as well as his mouth at the still-confused Saitama.

"Huh? Wha-?" Saitama only turned his head around to find himself encased inside a black block of poison.

"SAITAMA!" Everyone shouted in horror as they just got a grasp of the situation.

All was lost; one second they thought that they had yet to lose against the might of the heroes before them, and next second, their only hope was entrapped in the same attack that was capable of defeating the strongest dragons in the room.

However, Cao Cao and Georg could only stare curiously at the writhing black block, wondering the outcome of the situation.

The fact said otherwise; when the block exploded again – in similar manner with Issei's case, the result was the entire right arm, as well as good portion of Samael's face was blown up. The Dragon Eater frantically howled as he struggled against his restrains from the sheer pain of his body torn apart.

Everyone turned to see where the explosion occurred. The dust cleared, revealing Saitama – with his pants back up, looking utterly _pissed_. Without instructions, Georg quickly used his Sacred Gear to make a hasty escape.

"_What the fuck is going on?"_ was what Saitama thought as he was inwardly aggravated. One moment he was peacefully, relieving himself in the toilet of his house. He was supposed to re-join his wife in the living room, having some more quality time after conducting his business.

Then, his surrounding suddenly brightened up, and he found himself out of the toilet before he could have wiped his buttocks clean. To add salt to the wound, when he was still confused of what just happened, suddenly he was trapped inside… creepy black mass thingy.

He finally had enough, he tore a page of his comic book as make-shift toilet paper, clean up, and broke free – simple as that.

After freeing himself, Saitama took a quick look around as he re-adjusted his pants. When he laid his eyes on the Gremory group – with their members down and all, as well as Vali, Kuroka and Le Fay – with the former two were heavily injured, Saitama got a inkling that a certain fallen angel had just kidnapped him _again_.

He's _so_ going to fuck the bastard up later.

Saitama then turned his head again to see a cloud of mist, he could see Cao Cao and Georg behind the mist, as well as some strange-looking creature nailed on the cross, that seemed to be struggling just to breath. When the fog started to thicken, Saitama wasted no time and dashed to throw his fist at the mist.

BOOM!

The punch did not only blew the mist away, but as well as the entire front entrance of the hotel, causing the building to tremble from the impact. When the mist cleared up, however, nothing was seen.

oXo

At another location, a mist appeared and several figures were blown out of the mist.

Cao Cao and Georg plummeted to the unforgiving ground, as they could have sworn they just saw their lives flashed before their eyes.

"We… We are alive." Georg panted as his hands ran over his downed body to do a quick check. "….HOLY SHIT! WE'RE STILL ALIVE! HAHA!" the mage could not help but laugh.

Cao Cao only gave a short, silent chuckled as he ran his hand over his face. His body was kind of hurt from the adrenaline rush and the blow from Saitama's fist earlier. Even when they barely escaped through Dimension Lost, the impact still connected, thus blowing them away from the mist. He could not blame Georg's outburst, after all, they had just the devil's luck to make it out alive and escape the pissed-off Saitama.

However, there was another issue. "Georg, how's Samael?" Cao Cao recalled that Samael was the closest to Saitama's punch when the guy attacked.

"…Huh? Ah, right." Georg woke up and fixed his glasses. When he got up and turned to the Dragon Eater, he went silent before he sighed. "….Oh, shit."

"Georg? What's wrong?" Cao Cao stood up, and he froze when he was standing next to his friends. "…Unbelievable."

The cross that was holding Samael had been broken, and the known Dragon Eater had ended up in a gory mess. Half of his upper fallen angel body had been splattered across the ground, the creature did not seem to be moving, aside from occasional twitch from his corpse every now and then.

Samael, the Serpent of Eden, the Dragon Eater, was pretty much dead.

It was likely thanks to Samael taking the brunt of Saitama's attack that allowed Cao Cao and Georg to escape with their lives.

"…Hades is not going to like this." Georg commented.

Cao Cao, however, had another thing in mind. "We'll worry about that later. For now, we need to clean this mess up. Also, now that Samael's body had been destroyed, Ophis power that he absorbed earlier must have been scattered around this place. We have a lot to do, lest all of our effort will go down to the drain."

Understanding his leader's instruction, Georg quickly began to work, from gathering the remains of Samael, as well as scavenging bits of Ouroboros' power around their current location.

Cao Cao who also helped in the process gave another order. "We have to notify Sigfried and the others to retreat as well. Now that Saitama has joined the fray, we might need some change of plans." The spearman was taking care of Samael's corpse, while Georg was in charge of gathering the scattered power of dragon god.

"What about the grim reapers that are stationed with Sig?" Georg asked as he kept walking around the area with an enchanted jar in hand. As the mage located Ophis power, he collected the said power that took a form of black snakes, and put them into the jar.

"We have held our end of the deal by presenting the opportunity." Cao Cao merely replied. "The rest is up to Hades and his minions. We just have to make sure that Samael would still be delivered to the Tartarus by the time we are done."

Georg then glanced back. "But Samael is-"

"I know, I know." Cao Cao simply waved off before Georg could have finished. "But there's no arrangement or specific that we have to return Samael alive, is there?"

While the two hero descendants were working, Cao Cao was deep in thought.

Samael, an entity that possessed the power to kill two most powerful gods – Ophis and Great Red had been killed by a human. The mere thought put chills on his spine. Not to mention, after taking the full brunt of Samael's curse without any protection whatsoever, Saitama did not seem to be affected at all – just looked back at his attack from earlier.

Despite their history, Cao Cao still viewed Saitama in high regard. In more ways than one, personality aside, Saitama's power and strength was the very ideal Cao Cao believed in humanity. A human with a body strong enough to house something akin to a _god_, had just triumphed over Biblical God's evil intentions itself.

And there was Hyoudou Issei - the direct descendant of the said human. Despite his humanity had been casted aside for the life as a denizen of darkness, the young man did possess the same potential as his father. After all, it was not everyday one could find a devil who could survive from Longinus Spear and the God's hatred.

Cao Cao silently chuckled in amusement as the day was not completely fruitless.

* * *

The affair following the departure of the Heroes… went rather smoothly.

After Saitama had blown off the entire entrance of the hotel, everyone spotted that there was an army of people in dark robes – some of them even wore several ornaments on their clothes. What got their attention was the fact that each of this people was carrying a large scythe to serve as weapons. The weakest Grim Reaper was believed to possess strength equivalent in-between middle to high-class devil, proving the race not to be something to be underestimated.

Judging from their appearances, Rias and Le Fay immediately recognised them – Grim Reapers. Creatures that had been serving Hades of Tartarus since time of immemorial; their duties were to guide the souls of the dead from the plain of the living to the realm of the dead. Their scythes were known not for their sharpness to cut through things, but their cursed properties that were capable to damage one's very soul, decreasing a living's life-span in the process.

Still feeling in rather sour mood, Saitama decided to walk out and confront these Grim Reapers directly. Of course, he began with civil conversation, asking their business, and them leaving if proven troublesome.

From Grim Reapers' side, things actually did not go as the scenario had told them. According to the mission debriefing – when they infiltrated the artificial dimension, they would wait for the signal from mortal swordsman stationed with them, before they charged in and executed the mission given to them – to assassinate the weakened Ouroboros and if necessary, the witnesses as well. However, the mortal swordsman suddenly vanished, leaving them with no choice but to proceed forward.

Pluto, an ultimate-class Grim Reapers serving under Hades, was suspicious of the turn out of events as he decided to return to report to his liege, after leaving the army's chain of command to his second-in-command.

Things got awry when Saitama requested the Grim Reapers help with the recovery and rescue, and apparently, the Reaper's second-in-command was not as bright and cool-headed as his commander, because he then barked the order for the rest of the reapers to rise their scythes and strike the mortal down.

It took roughly five minutes for Saitama to dispatch every single one of the Grim Reapers, as the dimension would shake occasionally when Saitama threw his fists around; leaving everyone who was watching speechless at the sheer display of power.

Currently – Saitama, Issei, Rias, Akeno, Asia, Yuuto, Xenovia, Irina, Le Fay and Ophis were inside one of the hotel's suite rooms. Kuroka who was recently healed was resting in a different room, with Ravel and Koneko looking after her. Vali on the other hand, while his wounds had been healed, he was still suffering from the curse of Samael, and was resting in another room.

"Okay. I get the situation so far." Saitama said as he was sitting on the table with the others around the room. "Basically, Cao Cao ambushed you guys and you got your asses handed to him. Azazel then decided to swap place with me as counter-measure."

"…Yes, that's about it." Rias shrugged as she sat across him. Her expression was rather bitter from Saitama's blunt conclusion, but decided to keep quiet. "Once again, we're saved by you."

Everyone else, save for Issei, was still looking at Saitama with semblance of respect and reverence. The man before them had displayed several incredible feats during their time with him; single-handedly defeating Kokabiel's fallen angel army, stopping Heavenly Dragon in Juggernaut Drive from running amok, effortlessly defeating Evil God Loki, rescuing Princess Yasaka of Kyoto from the terrorist's clutch, and… _this_.

Until this day, nobody could ever comprehend Saitama's true power. Not only possessing power and strength comparable with gods, he was also immune against the lethal curse coming from the Serpent of Eden.

Some of them swallowed lumps as they glanced at Issei, who was lying on the bed to recover his strength. If the Red Dragon Emperor's 'episodes' indicated anything, they wondered if Issei could perform more similar feats in future.

"So? What do we do now?" Saitama asked while tapping his fingers on the table.

Ophis then stood up from her sitting spot. "I, shall walk around this building."

"No, that's too dangerous." Rias objected, standing up from her chair. "We don't know when Cao Cao might come back and ambush us again."

"Just let her be." Saitama interjected. "She'll be fine, you kids should've known by now how strong she is, right?" when everyone gave him a look in return, Saitama blinked as he started to hesitate as he looked around. "…What?"

Come to think of it, Saitama had not been told about Ophis' current state.

Before Rias could have replied, Issei interfered. "No, I think it's okay as well."

Everyone turned to see the Red Dragon Emperor woke up from bed. "Ise! How are you feeling?" Rias asked as she came over to him, relief etched across her features, as well as the others.

"Not bad. And back on track, if Cao Cao actually wanted to come back and finish the job, I think he had the opportunity when my old man was still busy with those Grim Reapers. I think we're safe for now."

While Rias was contemplating her lover's words, Akeno put in her two-cents. "I think Ise-kun has a point."

Rias glanced at her Queen, before she turned to address Ophis again. "Perhaps, but in fact, what do you want to do in the first place, Ophis?"

"I, want to retrieve my scattered power in a space of this realm." Ophis replied. "When Samael captured me, I managed to release a fifth of my power to a different space. Currently, I've become weak. My power… is only twice of Two Heavenly Dragons in their prime."

Everyone in the room sans Saitama looked at Ophis quizzically, especially at her perception about being 'weak'. She still possessed enough power to triumph over gods and overlords alike, and she deemed herself weak? If that was Ophis' example of weakness, everyone kind of curious of Ophis' example of strength.

"Um…. Yeah, sure." Rias finally decided. "I originally intended to request Saitama-san's help in getting us out from this dimension, but now that Ophis had other business she needed to finish, as well as Kuroka and Vali aren't well enough to move around, then we will wait for time being. We'll be on the look out in case of enemy reinforcement…"

However, before Rias could have finished, she suddenly received a transmission as a small magic circle belonged to Grigori suddenly appeared before her. From the small circle, a holographic image of Azazel could be seen.

"**Hello? Testing, testing… Ha! I finally got through!"** Azazel said with relieved tone. **"How are you doing, kids?"**

"Azazel-sensei. It's good to see you back with us." Rias said with somewhat sarcastic tone, but she did admit it was thanks to Azazel's stunt earlier they managed o make it out alive. "…I guess you did the right thing earlier. Thanks for that."

"**Sorry about that. Glad to see you all alive, though. How's Vali?"** Azazel asked with concerned tone, when he recalled that Vali had been infected by Samael's poison.

Earlier, Le Fay had attempted to cure the White Dragon Emperor by dispelling the curse of Samael. But alas, the curse was too potent to be removed by a mage on her level. Thus, Vali's only option was to circulate his magical reserve in order to prevent the Samael's curse from running amok in his system.

"Not great. He's managing so far, but I believe he requires intensive care." Rias replied solemnly.

"**I see…"** Azazel looked down with regret plastered over his face. **"But at least he's still alive. Saitama, you're there, aren't you?"**

"'Sup, Azazel." Saitama greeted with his usual stoic disposition.

Azazel took a deep breath before addressing the man. **"Alright. Look, Saitama. I know you're pissed, but-!"**

"No, no, no. Shhhh, sshhhh…!" Saitama wiggled his index finger, hushing Azazel to stop speaking any further. "We're going to talk, and I'm gonna skin you alive."

Everyone sweat-dropped at the words and tone Saitama just used at the Scapegoat, who only sighed in return. **"…Fine, that's fair enough. But anyway, we got a pressing issue here."**

When Azazel turned serious, everyone then hardened their expressions as they listened the fallen angel's next words.

"**I just relayed the information about Hades' coup d'etat to the leaders of the Alliance. How's the status on your side? What happened while I was away?"**

Rias then began to re-tell the events, from Saitama easily repelled the heroes until incoming surprise of the Grim Reapers.

"**Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Time out."** Azazel interrupted as he dug his picky finger into his ear. **"What did you say again? I could've sworn I heard Ise and Saitama just survived Samael's curse."**

"You heard it correctly, sensei." Rias smiled a little in amusement at the fallen's reaction. "Somehow, Saitama, along with Ise, survived against Samael's curse."

"**Saitama, Ise…."** Azazel turned to the father and son. **"Are you sure you're okay? Are you not feeling feverish, dizzy, or nauseous at all?"**

Issei and Saitama looked at each other before they did a quick look over their bodies before replying.

"Still exhausted, but other than that, I feel fine."

"Same here, I'm good."

Azazel remained quiet for some time, his mind digesting their words. **"….Okay. And I guess Hades would've sent his army to dispatch the currently weakened Ophis. Speaking of, how's she doing? Where is she now?"**

Rias turned to see Ophis had vanished from her previous spot. "Ophis is... recovering what remains of her powers. Kuroka and Vali are resting from the other rooms. We planned to patrol the area while waiting for Ophis to complete her business, and we will have Saitama to punch our way out of this place."

"**Hmm… Okay, that sounds good enough. You do that."** Azazel gave his approval. **"In the mean time, I'm going to discuss our next steps with the other leaders regarding Hades. It's likely that we will give a visit to Tartarus later on. I also have to make sure that Sona and her peerage is informed. I've sent some guards from the Alliance to make sure that you will have safe arrival when you return to the real world. Until then, stay safe."**

Everyone nodded and the feed from Azazel was off. "Okay, you heard the man. Here's what we'll do…" Rias then began her briefing towards her peerage.

* * *

Long story short, the group was divided into several scouting groups. Everyone was resting and recovering on the 30th floor inside 60-stories hotel; Yuuto, Xenovia and Irina were in charge of patrolling the first until 29th floor. Rias, Akeno and Le Fay would be in charge of 31st floor until the 60th floor. Saitama would be stationed at the front parking lot in case of enemy reinforcement decided to knock on the front door.

Issei, Asia, Ravel and Koneko would be in charge of guarding the wounded on 30th floor. Ravel and Koneko were still looking after Kuroka, while Asia would check on Issei and other patients from time to time, Issei himself was told to remain on standby to restore as much stamina as he could.

Meawhile, Issei felt that he needed to stretch his limbs a bit, thus he got up from the bed.

"Ah, Ise-san! Are you sure you want to move?" Asia, who was sitting not far from him, asked in concerned tone.

"Yeah, don't worry about me." Issei said as he patted his girlfriend's head. "I'm fine now, see?" Issei showed by flexing his arms and legs. "I'll still be on this floor, so just take it easy, okay?" Issei then kissed the girl's forehead, eliciting a blush.

"Then… please be careful." Asia smiled as she recovered from her flustered state and Issei left the room.

"I'll be right back."

Issei then decided to make a quick visit on Kuroka's room, where Ravel and Koneko were also in there. When he arrived at the door, however, Issei noticed that the door to Kuroka's room was slightly opened, and he could hear Koneko's voice which was conversing with the apparently awakened Kuroka.

"Nee-sama…. Why did you save me earlier?" Issei listened from the door that Koneko did not beat around the bush and directly asked Kuroka about her actions.

"Hmm… I wonder why-nya?" despite bedridden, Kuroka still maintain her jovial attitude in replying her sister's question.

"Don't play with me!" Koneko stood up and was aggravated upon hearing Kuroka's answer. "Why!? Why now!? You left me behind to die those years ago… Do you know just how much scorn and suffering I had to go through!? And then, you suddenly came to take me away during the party in the Underworld! Just…. WHY!?"

Ravel was conflicted to butt in or not, as she simply darted her gaze between the sisters. On the other hand, Kuroka did not flinch from Koneko's outburst, while she only shrugged with her Cheshire smile on her lips.

Koneko only growled before she left the rooms in tears. When she ran out of the door, she either ignored Issei or did not notice she had ran pass him. When Issei was about to give chase, Ravel had caught up and noticed his presence.

"Oh, Ise-sama." Ravel greeted. "Please, let me go after her." She asked while looking sheepish.

Issei only nodded in return then Ravel ran after the Nekoshou after returning the gesture. Issei then went inside the room to find Kuroka was still lying on bed. She had her arm over her face, covering her eyes. Issei noted that her expression was rather solemn, unlike her usual cheerful self.

"How's it going?" Issei decided to start a conversation, as he approached and sat by Kuroka's bed.

"Hey, Sekiryuutei-chin~" Kuroka then quickly returned to her jovial expression. "I'm doing fine, nya. And what's with the visit, are you perhaps want to comfort the good ol' me?" she said with seducing tone, while hooking her finger on the edge of her kimono, emphasizing her cleavage for Issei to see. "Perhaps you want a taste from this helpless kitten, nya?"

"Thanks, but no thanks." Issei simply waved off, which Kuroka merely replied with disappointed pout. "Speaking of, I heard what happened, I guess thanks again for saving Koneko-chan."

"…She's still my sister, after all-nya." Kuroka replied, with her gaze somewhat melancholic.

"Sister, huh?" Issei looked down. "Say, Kuroka-san. What's your history with Koneko-chan, exactly?"

"I… believe you have heard the story." Kuroka replied, appearing to refuse to disclose any details.

"So I've heard." Issei nodded. "But do you really think that I bought the story about you going insane?"

"What's your reason for not believing that? That story might be true about me."

Issei sighed. "Honestly? During our first meeting, you looked pretty sane to me."

Kuroka blinked at that. "Wait, so you're actually not that drunk back then?"

"Well, I… vaguely remember that night." Issei awkwardly replied before shaking his head. "Anyway, I don't know anything about Senjutsu, but I don't really believe someone on your calibre could easily lose your mind over some ancient technique. So… What's the story, Kuroka-san?"

Kuroka stared at Issei's eyes for few seconds before she relented. "I guess you're sharper than you let out, aren't you? Just like Saitama-chin." She looked up at the ceiling. "As a matter of fact, there are cases that using Senjutsu might drive someone insane, but that is if we're talking about amateurs."

"When we utilize Senjutsu, we take in nature energy as fuel, and nature energy is always around us, in every living being, on the very planet itself. However, there are both positive and negative energy inside nature energy, and the negative energy is the dangerous one for the mind."

"Then… how did you retain your sanity?" Issei inquired.

"It's actually simpler than you imagine." Kuroka shrugged. "When someone absorbed negative energy, the so-called insanity that clouded their minds is just mere whispers at worst, those hushed words that you'll hear every now and then from people gossiping or talking with you. Proper training is more than enough for you to easily ignore the negative influence of Senjutsu."

Issei then furrowed his eyebrows. "Then why did you kill your previous master?"

Kuroka glanced at him. "…You want short or long story-nya?"

"Short story, please."

"Short story is… because my previous master was a complete, despicable bastard-nya."

"….Okay, long story then. Elaborate."

Kuroka raised her eyebrows. "Just to let you know, this is gonna take a LOT more than 20 words."

"Just… Just start talking, will you?" Issei said with a sigh.

After giggled for a bit, Kuroka then propped herself into sitting position, while hugging her legs together against her chest and chose to begin her tale. It all began when a certain devil noble came to them and offered them a deal – in exchange of her lifetime service, she and her little sister would have a life where she and her sister could live more comfortably; no more sleeping on the cold streets or wilderness, where dangers always lurked; warm food – actual food; even an opportunity to improve their living standards by huge margin.

Seeing that she and little sister had lost their family, had no friends nor anyone else they could rely on in their harsh environment, Kuroka then took the offer, and reincarnated with two Bishop pieces, and began her new life as a devil.

For the first few days, life was good. She and her little sister enjoyed the hospitality and accommodations provided for them upon their arrival at their master's manor. Warm, soft sleeping beds; delicious food, even special training grounds and other recreational areas for them to stretch their bodies.

Not to mention, aside from her newfound weakness against holy and light element, Kuroka liked the enhancement of Bishop piece granted on her reserve, allowing her to easily learn Youjutsu more efficiently. Additionally, the place where she lived in the Underworld was rich of nature energy, albeit tainted – giving them access to master her Senjutsu.

However, Kuroka noticed something was off when she was introduced to her fellow servants. All of them were formerly non-human such as werewolf, elves, dhampir, etc. Their eyes were almost lifeless, their expression was akin to fear, and sometimes even resentment, whenever their master addressed them.

Few months later, Kuroka finally understood that she had made a wrong choice by taking the devil's offer. The devil was a maniac whose passion was to learn and discover all sorts of power and abilities. And by gathering various kind of species into his servants, the devil would learn and research every potential and possibility he could discover from them.

Kuroka and her peers were subjected to various experimentation; strenuous training, drug-inducing, even torturous therapy to forcefully awaken hidden potentials. What made it worse was, some of her colleagues were dying and succumbed to the torture, and the fact that she would be summoned to his master's bedchamber occasionally to serve his _unsavoury_ other needs.

During the story-telling, Issei noticed that Kuroka's eyes would narrow in disgust and contempt as she tightened the grip on her own arms.

The previous harsh life on the streets gave Kuroka strength and experience to endure everything was thrown at her by her master, and most importantly, the fact that her little sister was living in a safe, comfortable life was the sole reason of Kuroka's perseverance. Sometimes she actually thought that her old life on streets was still better.

The day finally came where Kuroka had enough, when her master directed his attention to her younger sister. Something about him wanting to test his theory on a pure-blooded species instead of reincarnated devils. She had gathered enough power comparable to an ultimate-class devil through her days as her master's Bishop, and she did not think twice to overwhelm and kill her master. The rest following that incident was history, until she was finally recruited by the White Dragon Emperor.

"…That explains few things you did in the past." Issei said with unreadable gaze. "But there's one thing, why did you choose to leave Koneko-chan behind? Did you know that she would have died in your place, if not for the interference from Rias' family?"

"…I sometimes question myself about that." Kuroka kept her gaze to the space in front of her. "When I killed him… I never regret that decision, but… I was caught red-handed, y'know? Then, I only thought about escaping with my life."

Issei then saw Kuroka's eyes began to moist. "I ran, ran, and ran, while killing all who pursued me…. When things began to settle down… I just realized that I had left Shirone behind."

Issei then widened his eyes a bit when he saw Kuroka's tears began to drop. "Perhaps… using Senjutsu by feeding off Underworld's energy did make me go crazy…" she said as she buried her face in her arms.

The room fell into silence as Issei watched Kuroka silently weeping. Few minutes later, Kuroka felt a soft touch on top of her head. When she looked up and turned, she saw Issei's hand was patting her black locks. "Kuroka-san…"

Kuroka's eyes and cheeks were still puffy from her earlier waterworks, as she kept staring at Issei's own eyes. There was something akin to warmth as the black cat kept staring into Issei's orbs.

"…You've fucked up."

Kuroka scowled at how sharp Issei's respond to her, despite the warm look he gave. "Gee, thanks for the kind words." She replied sarcastically.

"…And that's why I'm gonna help you making up with Koneko-chan."

Kuroka blinked at what Issei just said. "Eh…?"

"The fact remains that you two are siblings, that will never change." Issei said. "And the fact you protected her earlier is enough reason for me to trust that you are still care for Koneko-chan. I don't care how long this might take, but you have my support until you make amends."

Kuroka could only stare at the sincerity and conviction in Issei's eyes. Soon, she began to chuckle, muffling her laughter. "You-You're really something, Ise-chin."

Issei blinked at the nickname, although he thought it was good that Kuroka had brightened up somewhat.

"Good grief, you can really be like your dad sometimes. You two are way more attractive than handsome guys in general." Kuroka said as she wiped her tears away.

"…Thanks, I guess." Issei shrugged. "And you… also see my dad 'attractive'?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in your old man… Well, not anymore-nya." Kuroka looked away awkwardly. "I'd rather not to anger your mother, thank you very much." She might be not the most polite or obedient person, but she knew how to pick her enemies.

"…Wise decision." Issei nodded approvingly. "My mom can be terrifying sometimes."

"Tell me about it, nya." Kuroka agreed – not every woman could easily talk back to The Infinite Dragon God and got away with it.

"Well, I'll take my leave and go check on Vali." Issei stood up and walked to the door.

"Ise-chin."

Issei stopped at the door to turned back to see Kuroka _smiling_ at him.

It was not her usual teasing or mischievous smile that Issei saw before, it was as if Kuroka was smiling out of happiness. "Thank you."

Issei only smiled back at her. "Glad to help. Just rest up, okay?" Issei then closed the door and went on his way.

* * *

While Issei was talking with Kuroka, Saitama was yawning as he sat cross-legged in the middle of empty parking lot. He was bored as hell, but at the same time, he could not argue against Rias' point about the possibility of enemy reinforcement. Thus, all Saitama could do was hoping that Ophis would finish whatever her business soon, as well as Vali and Kuroka to recover well enough.

Then, he looked behind him to see all the way to the lobby – Koneko was running on the lobby, only for Ravel to catch up with her. Soon Saitama was witnessing the cat and bird quarrelling with one another.

Saitama thought this might be just another fight where Koneko and Ravel were not getting along – one of those moments. However, despite the distance, Saitama could tell that something was happening between them. He saw Koneko waved her hand away while yelling at Ravel, as if telling her to go away. Ravel, however, stood her ground as she kept talking sense into Koneko.

Saitama could not really make out what the two girls were yelling about. Sometimes Saitama wished he could have had higher resolution senses like Genos. However, since he would be intruding on the girls' privacy, Saitama settled by simply watching from the distance.

He considered to interfere as things seemingly heated up between the bird and the cat as they yelled at each other more. However, Saitama saw Koneko finally broke down to tears and was now hugging Ravel, the bird was comforting the crying cat in her arms.

Just in case, Saitama decided to kill some time by approaching the girls.

"What's up, you two?" Saitama greeted as soon as he entered the lobby.

"Mr. Saitama/Saitama-san!" Koneko and Ravel abruptly broke away when they noticed the man's presence, the two looked flustered and were acting a bit awkwardly.

"I… saw you two were fighting earlier. Mind to share with me?" truthfully, Saitama inwardly hoped that the girls would humour him. He could really appreciate some company.

The bird and the cat shared uncertain glance at one another, but they nodded nonetheless. Considering that Koneko felt a little better, they might as well used this moment to get to know Saitama a little better.

Thus, the three sat down together in the lobby lounge, Koneko sharing her troubles regarding her elder sister to Saitama. Saitama remained impassive during the entire story.

"I… still hate my sister. I hate her for abandoning me behind, leaving me to die in the hands of the devils for something I didn't do. But…" her eyes got teary. "She's still my sister…." She said as she wiped her tears away.

"I see… Kuroka, huh." Saitama looked up. "Well, if you ask me, I honestly thought she's not entirely a bad person. Kind of a bitch sometimes, but still okay."

Ravel sweat-dropped at Saitama's response. However, Koneko seemed to kind of agree with Saitama's opinion. "But since you have talked things out with Ravel here. What do you plan with her now?"

"I…" Koneko paused for a second, before she looked up with more clarity in her eyes. "I think… I will start to trust her again, although just a little."

Ravel smiled in relief, while Saitama only closed his eyes and let a ghost of a smile crept on his lips. "Is that so? That's good." The man said and he looked to Koneko again. "Y'know what? You can ask me, or Ise to help you if you want to make up with your sister. The kid is definitely more than willing to help out."

"As will I!" Ravel also conceded with confident smile. "Mending things up with your sister will take time, but no matter how long, everyone in Lady Rias Gremory group will always back each other up, am I right?"

Koneko's expression then brightened up. "You are right… I became stronger thanks to Ise-senpai… Gya-kun and everyone else also became stronger thanks to Ise-senpai…" she then turned to Saitama. "…As well as Saitama-san."

Koneko then stood up, as she returned to the elevator, followed by Ravel. "Thank you very much, Saitama-san." Koneko turned to Saitama one more time before leaving the lobby. "I… once I grow up and get bigger…" her face became flustered as she mustered her courage to speak the next words. "…Please allow me to become Ise-senpai – your son's bride!" she said while bowing her body.

The room fell into another uncomfort – no, an _awkward_ silence. Both Saitama and Ravel were frozen on their spot while Koneko was still bowing, her face was still blushing red.

It was kind of funny, truth to be told. General norms said it was usually the man who would ask his future father-in-law's permission for the man marrying his daughter. However, at that moment, Toujou Koneko just asked Saitama's permission for her marrying his son.

Few seconds later, Saitama only replied with one word. "…What?"

oXo

When Issei entered the room where Vali was resting, the Strongest White Dragon Emperor was seen lying on the bed, with his upper body up. Vali's physical wounds had been healed by Asia, but he was still suffering under the curse of Samael running in his body. His body was sweating, and breathing was a bit laboured, signifying his attempt of circulating his inner energy to keep the poison from spreading through his system.

"Wow, you look like shit." Issei bluntly said, earning a slight glare from his rival.

"…Yeah, I'm definitely feeling like one too." Vali chose to play along with the sarcasm. "What do you want, Hyoudou Issei?"

"I'm just checking up on you." Issei then took a seat next to Vali's bed. "So, other than feeling like shit, what else do you feel?"

"Simply put, unpleasant." Vali leaned his head back as he thought he could relax for a bit. "Look at me, got taken down before the fight could have actually started. Samael truly deserves to be called Dragon Eater."

"Yeah, that thing was wicked, alright." Issei conceded.

"Says the guy who managed to defeat such a wicked curse." Vali retorted. "How did you do that, anyway?"

Issei went silent for few seconds before he replied. "…Honestly, I'm not sure myself. All I remember was kept fighting and boosting my power to forcefully break myself free from Samael's curse, the next thing I know, something inside me acted up and I was suddenly in pain, although I was not poisoned anymore."

Vali only stared at Issei, as if tracing if there was any sort of deception from Issei's answer. Some time later, the former sighed deeply. "It started to sicken me… Just how closer you are to Saitama."

"…Is that so?" Issei could only replied with that.

"You've shown several feats that were only possible when you have an absolute power like Saitama. Even if there are drawbacks in your case, that doesn't change the fact that you do inherit Saitama's blood. Out of everyone, I think you have the highest chance of beating him."

Issei only looked down, digesting Vali's words for few seconds. "I… don't think so." He began. "You know how strong my dad can really be, it's not like trying to overcome a wall… It's as if… you're trying to overcome… a space, or a sky or something like that."

"…Can't say that I'm disagree." Vali said after staring at his rival and digesting his words. "Even so, us dragons will keep soaring towards the sky, keep challenging even the heavens themselves." He said with unwavering smile.

"…I guess you are right." Issei smiled as well. The Two Heavenly Dragons then fell into companionable silence until Issei started to speak again. "So….?"

"So? What is it?" Vali raised an eyebrow.

"Well…. You know that I've achieved a new move in response to the curse of my Juggernaut Drive. What about you?"

"…What if I did?" Vali replied with knowing smirk.

"Then that's good, I guess." Issei shrugged. "Say, you told me that I'm the one who is the closest to reach on Saitama's level. Anybody else following after me? That can't be only me, right?"

Feeling that he could humour Issei for once, Vali looked up. "Well, obviously there is me, and…. Top 10 Strongest Beings."

"Top… 10 Strongest Beings?" Issei repeated.

"Just as the name said, it's a list of the most powerful entities ever known." Vali replied. "I heard the list had been made ever since Ophis came from the Dimensional Gap. The Great Red is not included in that list since he's mostly not involved in world's affair, so Ophis technically secured the first spot."

Issei did not miss the past tense Vali used on Ophis. "Are Ddraig and Albion also among the 10?"

"They would have, if the Two Heavenly Dragons were not sealed into Sacred Gears. " Vali replied. "Most of the 10 are gods from various pantheons; and… I believe you know that Saitama has been recognised as one of the 10?"

That made Issei blinked. "…Really? How? When?"

"I don't know the details, but Saitama defeated Thor, the Asgard's God of Thunder, who was one of the 10 at that time, in one-on-one."

Issei nodded in understanding. Come to think of it, he did hear from Azazel that his father had defeated a god before.

"Other than the Top 10…" Vali then thought again. "I believe Sairaorg Bael and Cao Cao are also making their way to reach Saitama as well."

Issei could understand that. Sairaorg Bael had been growing under Saitama's 'tutelage' after all. As for the human, Cao Cao was a technique master – Issei knew that very well, having to fight him and all; no matter how strong or powerful you charge at him, Cao Cao would always find a way to go around opponents that were stronger than him. Not to mention, Cao Cao was still growing in power, his True Longinus was the testament of his power and skill.

If it were not for Saitama, Cao Cao would have been deemed as the Strongest Human of this era.

The rest of the visit was spend by Two Heavenly Dragons chatting with one another until Issei decided to leave Vali to rest up.

* * *

It was some time later that Issei felt well enough, and he decided to check on Ophis. After getting permission from Rias to move around the building, Issei found Ophis at the roof top of the hotel, which had served as large balcony with an outdoor swimming pool installed. The Red Dragon Emperor saw the dragon god was walking around the area, collecting what appeared to be black snakes, the black reptiles just slithered and absorbed into Ophis' body.

Issei then walked over until he was close enough. "Hey, Ophis."

The dragon god paused on her 'power-retrieving' and turned to address Issei. "…Ddraig."

"Err… Can you call me by name, at least? It's kind of weird to be address by Ddraig's name, even if he's residing inside me." Issei sheepishly replied.

"…What is your name again?" Ophis merely return while tilting her head.

"…Hyoudou Issei."

"Then… Issei."

"That's better." Issei nodded. "So, how are you feeling?"

"…I still feel weak." Ophis said as she returned to her job. "My current power cannot exceed higher than twice of Ddraig and Albion in their prime."

"Uh-huh." Issei merely nodded. _What a confusing dragon_.

As Issei watched Ophis walking around, retrieving black snakes, he asked. "Say, Ophis. Why did you save Asia and Irina back then?"

"Because they gave me tea and cookies, they also played cards with me. That so-called Old Maid game was fun. The tea and cookies were delicious as well." Ophis replied as she kept gathering black snakes.

Issei stared a bit dumbly at the dragon god for few moments. "…That's it?"

Ophis did not reply that question as she kept herself preoccupied. Few moments later, Issei sighed as he turned around to look at the blank scenery from the balcony. The sky was giving unnatural colour, there was no landscape outside the hotel complex due to being artificial dimension.

Issei knew that Ophis was… reasonable, but now he believed that Ophis was not a bad dragon. Now that he thought about it, during her stay in Hyoudou Residence, her behaviour was more akin to a child.

"Ophis…" Issei then asked the dragon god again. "Why did you create this… Khaos Brigade? Why are you cooperate with these people like Old Satan Faction, and Cao Cao with his group?"

"They promised me that they will defeat Great Red, so I can return to the Dimensional Gap and obtain 'silence'."

Issei then sighed lightly. "And you see how you ended up now. Aside from Vali, I don't think they will actually keep their word."

Ophis paused for a second before resuming her retrieval. "As long as Great Red is defeated… I don't care that I gave my snakes to them."

Issei stared at Ophis' back for few moments. This was actually the first time for him to know a person with homesickness, but he never thought it would be so bad, at least in case of Ophis.

"I…" Issei suddenly heard Ophis talking again. "I went to Red Dragon Empe - Issei's house, because I thought I could find something that would fulfill my dream – abnormal growth of the Two Heavenly Dragons. Saitama is also there, so I thought I could eventually ask him to help me. And if I also could learn the secrets of the growth of Ddraig and Albion…" Ophis was not sure why she spoke about this. "…Perhaps I can understand about myself, the reason of my existence."

"Ah, I see…." Issei finally understood. Ophis was never a bad person. She was naïve, innocent to a fault, lonely, and desperate to go home that she was willing to cooperate with all kinds of shady people.

Hell, Issei could even bet that the name 'Khaos Brigade' was not even something that Ophis came up with in the first place.

"Say, Ophis…" Issei then spoke. "Do you want to become friends with me?"

Ophis, who just finished collecting her snakes, paused and she turned to see Issei smiling warmly at her. Few seconds later, she answered, "Friends…?" she tilted her head quizzically. "Why should I become your friend?"

That question might have sounded harsh, but knowing Ophis, it was purely a hypothetical question.

"I dunno." Issei shrugged. "But you will have better people to talk to, rather than those guys like Cao Cao or Old Satan Faction. In fact…" Issei took a deep breath, knowing what he said next could be considered a gamble. "If you become my friend, maybe, just maybe, Saitama will be more willing to help you out."

That made Ophis blink, as her interest was caught. "Will Saitama help me to defeat Great Red if I become Issei's friend?"

"That, I don't know too." Issei replied honestly. "Maybe he will, maybe he still won't. But I guess you have a better chance than mingling with terrorist, right?"

Ophis looked down, pondering Issei's offer. Then, she looked up. "I see. That sounds good."

Issei nodded as he smiled. "Say, Ophis. You have any plans when we get out of here?"

Ophis looked up in thought for a bit, and she shook her head. "I… don't know. I, still cannot return to the Dimensional Gap. I have no place to return to."

Issei could not help but feel sorry at the statement. "I see. Why don't you come to my place, then?"

"The house of Saitama?" Ophis looked up to meet her gaze with Issei, who nodded in return.

"Yep, the very same. You can get along with Asia and Irina, so you definitely can get along with everyone else. In fact, I think my mom found herself liking you."

Ophis then pondered over Issei's offer again. "I, will come over."

Issei's smile widened as things were going great, until he blinked when noticed something was off. "…Huh?"

The space right behind Ophis was distorted, forming a hole that revealed Dimensional Gap.

From the space-rift, Ophis did not have any chance to react when a figure appeared and wrapped his arms around the dragon god. The figure was wearing a ceremonial robe, covered with ornate cloak coloured in silver, and his face – nearly his entire head, was masked with a goat's skull.

The figure then pointed his palm towards Issei and fired a huge blast of light at him.

"Wait, what the fu-!?"

BOOM!

* * *

An explosion occurred at the top of the hotel building, sending tremors into the structure in the process. Everyone who was in the room, as well as those who were patrolling, quickly caught up and arrived at the top of the hotel.

Rias who arrived first, did not see Issei nor Ophis anywhere in sight. "What just happened!? Ise!? Ophis!?" the heiress shouted as she tried to look around through the dust and the ruined balcony.

Then, Rias received a transmission from none other than Issei himself. "Rias, can you hear me?" she heard her lover spoke through the channel.

"Ise! Where are you!? What the hell is going on?!" Rias asked in worried and panic tone.

"Some mask-wearing bastard suddenly showed up and snatched Ophis away into Dimensional Gap! I'm in pursuit. I repeat, I'm in pursuit!" Issei replied as he was flying in the Dimensional Gap with his Scale Mail equipped.

Earlier, when the kidnapping occurred, Issei was able to dodge the attack in the nick of time. After the explosion had occurred, Issei immediately equipped his Scale Mail and jumped into the space distortion before it was entirely closed.

"Wha-!? What are you thinking diving into danger alone!? That's dangerous!" Rias protested.

"I can't just stay back and do nothing!" Issei argued. "Whoever this guy is, I don't think he's up to any good! I'm gonna bring Ophis back!"

Rias looked around to see that there was no access to Dimensional Gap sighted. That meant even if Issei was able to rescue Ophis, he had no means to get out from the void world. She bit her thumbnail as she wrecked her brains, looking for any solution.

"Um…! What about Dragon Gate spell?" Le Fay, who had come in tow with Rias raised her hand. "Mr. Vali and Ms. Kuroka should've been well enough to move. If we get out of this dimension, we can gather several dragons or those who have dragon powers, and perform Dragon Gate to summon Mr. Ise back."

Rias widened her eyes and nodded approvingly at Le Fay. "Alright, Ise. Here's the plan. We'll prepare Dragon Gate for you to go back once you have rescued Ophis. You have approximately 10 minutes before the Dragon Gate appears, and when the gate comes, you must come back; with or without Ophis. Do I make myself clear?" Rias finished with the tone that demanded no objection.

"Understood. Ten minutes are plenty." Issei said as he was slowly catching up with the mysterious figure ahead of him.

"Good. And Ise?" Rias' expression then softened considerably. "Promise me that you will return to me. I love you."

Issei could not help but blink, but he replied nonetheless. "I promise. I love you too." Then the transmission went off.

Issei kept his pursuit at the mystery man. The man actually managed to survive and moved inside the Dimensional Gap. Issei was able to survive thanks to his armour, even so, the armour would not be able to protect him forever from nothingness. Perhaps some enchantments on his mask and outfit?

Now that he thought about it, ten minutes actually asked a bit too much. Someone who was able to infiltrate the artificial dimension, easily kidnapped Ophis and managed to conjure that much power in his surprise attack, was most likely no push-over. When Issei had flown further, Issei noticed twelve pairs of devil wings on the person's back. _"So this guy is a devil? Someone from Old Satan Faction?"_

As he kept flying inside the Dimensional Gap, Issei decided not to take any risk and began to chant. "I, who have awoken, am the Red Dragon Emperor who has rewritten the principles of domination!"

**[He is the man who will force a path open towards the Heavens!]**

**[OUR HERO!]**

As Issei spoke his special chant, the souls of his predecessors responded to him. Meanwhile, the kidnapper noticed behind him, that the Red Dragon Emperor began to shine in brilliant crimson.

"I dominate all evils in the infinite world while pursuing ideal dreams!"

**[He shall never surrender! He will always victorious! Total victory!]**

**[THE FIGHTING HERO!]**

"I shall become the Crimson Dragon Emperor…"

**[Never afraid of what future holds, never regret the present, that is our Red Dragon Emperor, HYOUDOU ISSEI!]**

"AND AN OATH IS MADE! I SHALL GUIDE YOU TO OBTAIN ALL VIRTUES OF THE HEAVENS, THROUGH PERFECT HEROIC WAYS!"

**[CRIMSON FORCE OVERDRIVE!]**

Issei was now clad in his new crimson armour, and he picked up his speed. As if knowing that he would not be able to escape, the kidnapper then decided to stop to face him.

When Issei saw his enemy stopping and turning to face him, he saw that Ophis had been bounded into some kind of glowing rope – possibly enchanted to bind dragons. Seeing that the dragon god was seemingly unconscious and offered no resistance, it was safe to assume that Ophis had yet to accustom herself with her weakened state.

Normally, he would just charge at the enemy when the opportunity showed up; however, Issei's instinct told him that there was something else with the mystery man before him, something that prevented him to charge recklessly head on. Because the aura the mysterious man was leaking felt… _unsettling_.

Nevertheless, now that Issei and this mysterious person were standing and facing each other, might as well he tried to avoid unnecessary fight. "…Okay, I don't know who you are, but I'll just say this once; give me back the girl in your arm, and nobody gets hurt."

In response, the masked man put up a battle stance, with Ophis remained under his left arm's clutch. His free right hand was taunting Issei to come at him.

Issei narrowed his eyes under his helmet and he responded the challenge. He dashed and threw his fist forward as opening attack, which the person before him easily parried – no, more like redirected to the side so the punch missed his masked face.

Issei blinked, it seemed the devil before him had some skill in hand-to-hand combat. Issei then threw several punches, hooks, jabs and straight combination, even adding some kicks, but the masked devil could keep up with him without much trouble.

What felt off was, that during first few minutes into the brawl, Issei noted that his opponent did not give any sign of counter-attacking. The masked devil remained on defensive.

Then, when Issei exploited an opening, his opponent then decided to launch his counter attack. His left arm shot up and Issei had to stop his attack when the man showed the weakened Ophis in front of him. When Issei was frozen on his tracks, the devil then launch a sharp jab on the side of his helmet, followed with an elbow hook at the same spot, pushing Issei back a bit.

Ignoring the counter attack for the time being, Issei furrowed his eyebrows. His current opponent was the type who was willing to use hostage as a shield – a despicable type.

_**[Make sure you don't hit Ophis, partner.]**_

Ddraig gave his input.

_**[While Ophis might be still stronger than you, right now her power is unstable due to lingering effect of Samael's curse. She's no longer infinite; she's fragile, and volatile at the same time.]**_

"_I know…"_ Issei resumed his fighting stance and charged at the devil again, this time with more careful approach, considering that Ophis' well-being was on the line.

The battle resumed for few more minutes with Issei on a disadvantage. His opponent's combat skill was not as good as Sairaorg or Cao Cao, but the fact that he would use Ophis as a shield every now and then had limited Issei's movements.

More over, his opponent had coated his limbs with dense magical power, increasing the force in his strikes, as well as few shots of his demonic power on Issei, to tip the scales into his favour.

PRANG!

"Guh…!" Issei grunted as the masked devil's magic imbued strike finally shattered a part of his crimson armour. Then, the red dragon blinked when he saw the masked devil grabbed few shards of his armour and jewel… and put them inside his robe?

"…_This is not good."_ Issei thought as his armour regenerated. Not only the mystery man before him had kidnapped Ophis for some unknown purpose, he also took few samples of his dragon armour with him.

Why would the masked devil bother to take samples of his armour? Loot? Spoils of war? Whatever it was for, Issei became more prompted to defeat the person before him.

When Issei charged at the devil again, resuming the battle. This time, Issei rounded his opponent for few seconds, and after he had found the right angle to attack, he charged at the devil with a kick.

However, when the masked devil used Ophis again as a shield to stop Issei's kick, the red dragon smirked under his helmet, and skilfully changed the trajectory and angle of his kick mid-way to strike the devil's left wrist, forcing him to release his grip from Ophis weakened form.

Issei easily caught the airborne Ophis, and he suddenly saw the masked devil was already charging at him. Even with his face obscured with a goat-skull mask, Issei could tell that his opponent did not like what he had done to him.

Issei threw Ophis away behind him, making sure that the dragon god would be far enough from enemy's reach.

The devil threw his palm forward, and as soon as the masked devil's palm made contact with the centre of Issei's armour, Issei found his armour disappeared. "…Huh?!" Not destroyed, just… vanished into particles of red light, like a machine that was abruptly switched off without warning. Issei's body was now exposed to the nothingness of Dimensional Gap.

"_Wha-!? What just happened!? How did he-!? It's not even the time yet! And wait, this is bad!"_

Issei went panic for a second. From what he had learned so far, one would not last inside Dimensional Gap without any sort of protection on his/her body. Issei had to at least re-equip his Scale Mail again…

And Issei suddenly froze in his tracks when, before he could have manifested his armour, a pain pierced his chest. Issei looked down, to see a dagger had pierced through his skin and flesh.

Through sheer dumb luck, the blade actually missed his heart, albeit by hair's breadth. However, a part of his left lung had been stabbed; and when Issei saw the masked devil wrenched his weapon out of his chest, Issei spotted some black liquid mixed with his own blood, was drenching the blade.

That was the moment when Issei suddenly felt _it_.

_**[That blade…. Has been coated with Samael's blood!]**_

Ddraig dreadfully concluded. When the Lord placed his curse, hatred and evil into Samael, the cursed fallen angel's blood had also turned into a deadly poison due to the curse enveloping his very being. And that moment, the said deadly poison had been infused near Issei's heart.

Pain began to ravage Issei's body from inside out – starting from his chest, then the pain crept into his stomach, and his neck towards the head, as the venom began to spread out. Ddraig and the rest of consciousness of Issei's predecessors quickly began an emergency treatment by fighting off the curse.

The devil smirked under his mask at the sight of Issei in agony. With the nothingness of Dimensional Gap attempting to destroy him from the outside, and Samael's curse from the inside, the Red Dragon Emperor's chance of survival was near to zero.

When the masked devil was about to chase after and retrieve Ophis, he stopped on his track when he felt something was off. He directed his gaze towards Issei, who was still struggling to live against the pain and the nothingness.

Meanwhile, inside Issei's soul, it was a total pandemonium as the Welsh Dragon, past Red Dragon Emperors and White Dragon Emperor, were busy fighting off the corrupting darkness of Dragon Eater's curse.

The Red Dragon Emperors struggled to overwhelm the darkness through sheer brute force, while the White Dragon Emperor attempted to weaken the poison by halfing them. Alas, the situation was not favourable.

In the midst of the chaos, Ddraig, who was also fighting against the curse, suddenly noticed the gate at the depth of Issei's soul was shaking. What truly got him panic was the fact that there was a _crack_ on the gate.

**[No, no…. No, no, no, no, no! Don't tell me-!]**

Soon, the cracks began to spread out, until the gate was destroyed, and with nothing stood in the way, the power unleashed itself like a raging wave – washing over the dragons, Evil Piece, until the entire Issei's soul was engulfed.

_BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP!_

"…What in the actual fu-!?"

The masked devil could not finish his sentence when Issei screamed, as his body – his aura exploded in brilliant colour of crimson and gold. "GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

* * *

Back to the Underworld, in the spacious hall where the promotion test had been held, Gremory group and Vali team; Azazel, Saitama, as well as former dragon king Tannin, were gathering with large magic circle was drawn on the floor.

"Alright, the preparation is complete. We'll commence on performing Dragon Gate ritual." Azazel instructed.

With the combined power of two dragon kings – Fafnir, who was contracted with Azazel, and Tannin (former), who had been requested to come promptly to aid the ritual; as well as Albion the Vanishing Dragon from inside Vali's Sacred Gear, the magic circle in the room began to glow as Dragon Gate was created.

The rest of others could only watch in worry and hope that Issei and Ophis would come back safely. Saitama on the other hand, looked calm, although with closer look, there was a hint of pensiveness in his expression.

Few minutes later, however, when everyone was expecting Issei and Ophis to appear on the magic circle, what appeared before them ended up leaving them speechless for few seconds.

Saitama was the first to react as he blinked in confusion. "….What just happened?"

Upon recognizing what appeared in place of Issei and Ophis, Azazel then dropped to his knees and he slammed his fist to the floor. "That…. Damn idiot…!" he said with tone laced with regret.

Everyone widened their eyes in dreaded realization.

"Eh…? W-where's… Where's Ise-san…?" Asia who had yet to completely comprehend the situation, could only ask about her boyfriend's whereabouts.

"...No…" Koneko began to tear up as she shook her head in denial, followed by Ravel who came to hug her in comfort, and the two started to weep together.

Yuuto could only grit his teeth as he closed his eyes tightly in grieve, regret, despair and anger.

"No… no, no, no! This can't be happening!" Xenovia, along with Irina, looked utterly distraught as they could not accept what had happened.

Akeno wordlessly dropped on her knees, her face was utterly shocked before she began to tear up and muffled her crying with her hands.

Rias simply froze on her spot, remained standing, but her blank, shocked face spoke volumes as tears were freely falling from her teal-coloured eyes.

Because in the middle of Dragon Gate ritual, instead of Issei and Ophis, eight broken pawn pieces, cracked and even crumbled into tiny bits – Issei's mutation pieces, were laid there.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Whew, that was fun. So, how do you guys think the chapter overall, especially the twist I put here and there?**

**As usual, flames are not appreciated while constructive reviews are welcomed. **

**Oh, on that note, can guest reviewers actually put their reviews in this chapter's comment section instead of prologue? Honestly, it's kind of hard to track the reviews when most of them are bundled in the prologue. Thank you. **

**Until then, Ahsoei, over and out.**


	51. Interlude (IV)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Okay, folks! Firstly, for those who had been asking me to fix the thing about Saitama inside the gap, I've decided to follow your request this one time, and made some changes in the prologue. I hope that will suffice.**

**Secondly... Well, I updated this quick because there was not much to type in the first place, as well as I've been planning on this moment since a while ago. Without further ado, enjoy this short interlude!**

* * *

**Intermission – Origins x Awakening**

_A long, long time ago, there was a certain creature whose power exceeded gods and celestial beings, as well as whose body was the embodiment of dreams. As it flew travelling across the void world that bordered many worlds and even multiple universes, it spotted a universe – a world where powerful monsters and beasts were going rampant, with humans and weaker life-forms had no hope in surviving._

_For unknown reasons – whether out of compassion or out of whim, it decided to bestow some kind of 'gifts', or perhaps 'seeds', for the weaker life-forms in the present, and those which would born in the future, to manifest their own powers and fight back. _

_Coming from a creature who was the embodiment of dreams, the seed's power was to turn 'dreams' into 'reality' – they would respond depending on their host's efforts and mostly, dreams – obsession, ambition, or sheer will. There were cases where the seeds did not bear any fruit, leaving the host remaining powerless for the rest of their lives. The hosts who managed to awaken their powers would either transform into mutants and become the very monsters themselves, or became those who protect the weaker masses – the heroes._

_Whether good or bad, there were numerous examples across the history; like one who transformed into some kind of half-crustacean mutant human after obsessing over crab meat, one who grew his tongue long enough and turned his appearance into reptilian mutant human after obsessing over his reptilian pets, one who became boxing maniac with unnaturally muscular body after obsessing in shadow boxing. _

_There were some who turned their bodies into part-machine, even incorporate their own bodies with animals, or special drugs to further enhance themselves. There were also some who developed psychic powers, and selective few had enough power to destroy mountains with their mind alone. _

_However, background story aside, we were not here to talk about that. We were here to talk about a certain human that had a seed dormant inside him. A man that would surpass his every limits, to possess strength and power without par._

_After the human was born, grew and lived through his life, the man came up with a dream that would change his life: to become a hero; not just a hero, but a hero that was so strong, that he could defeat all of his enemy, triumph and save the day, with a single punch. _

_Thus, the man began to vigorously training both his body and mind to his absolute limits, enough to make him losing his hair from the sheer stress of his regimen. In the meantime, the seed within him began to respond and grow according to the man's dreams, efforts and progress._

_There was one thing to be noted, that upon creation, these seeds possessed a degree of consciousness – sentience. It was the reason how the seeds could grow and bear different kinds of fruits – powers depending on their host. When they were created and manifested into their respective hosts, the seeds had one duty: to grow into something, to bear the power that matched their host's dreams and vision._

_When a particular host dreamed himself as a powerful hero who can defeat his opponents and save the day with just a single punch, what could the seed possibly do to make that dream into reality? The answer was: removing all limits that could impose and prevent the host to realize his dream. _

_The seed awakened, bore fruit, as it started by transforming the man's body to fit the criteria of the ideal hero in his dream. Strong muscles that were not too overbearing, but enough to grant immense strength and speed, bones and body that would never give in under any kind of pressure, indomitable mind and will, supernatural sense, and ultimately, invulnerability against anything short of absolute omnipotence. The transformation, or should have been said, 'awakening', had ran into a small trouble in form of bad tooth, but fortunately, that issue had been remedied easily enough. _

_The process came to a complete success; as time went by, and the seed inside the host had grown and matured, the man had become… way too strong – according to himself. Meanwhile, when the embodiment of dreams witnessed this development, the creature…. Laughed mirthfully. _

_It was just ridiculous, albeit still within the realm of possibility; the seed that came from him, his technical creator, had grown into something with power on par with, if not surpass, his own. The embodiment of dreams laughed and laughed for good one hour at such development, excited of what was to come, should the man and the creature crossed paths. Come to think of it, the embodiment of dreams had been dealing with some trouble with its peers – the embodiment of infinity and nothingness. Perhaps the creature should ask the man to help him out when they meet. _

_The time finally came when the embodiment of dreams and the man met each other, after throwing the man into the dimension where the embodiment of infinity was residing, the man found a mate and copulated, the matured gift/seed inside him reproduced the similar, if not the same, gift/seed into the man's descendant. _

_As the child of the man with the newly born seed made his first step in his life, the embodiment of dreams would still occasionally keep tabs on their growth and progress._

* * *

Inside the Dimensional Gap, something was happening. Despite the view in the void world was a mixture of colours, akin to kaleidoscope, there was something – similar to a sun, was flaring and rampaging its energy inside the nothingness.

When Hyoudou Issei 'exploded', the burst of his aura had blown the masked devil away, forcing him to retreat from the Dimensional Gap without Ophis, whose binds had been snapped free by the violent lash out of Issei's power.

The dragon god woke up and could only stare in awe for the first time, at the sight of brilliant crimson and gold. "…What is this?" Ophis could not help but wonder as she instinctively defended herself from the rampaging power outburst. It was the first time for her to see such power, the power that most likely exceeded her own in her prime, and… the feeling she got from the power was awfully similar when she encountered Saitama for the first time.

However, when Ophis heard Issei's scream of pain, and when she took a better look, she could say that the sight before her was rather gruesome. As the power kept bursting and lashing out from Issei's body, the boy was writhing, screaming and even clawing around as he could not bear the sheer pain through his being.

Ophis could see Issei's bones and limbs were forcefully broken, bent and distorted into unnatural angle, before they were immediately re-positioned to their proper place, muscles and other tissues were torn and shredded apart before they were healed again. In other words, Issei's body was being deconstructed and reconstructed again and again. For how long Issei would have to go through such process, nobody could tell.

Ophis then recalled her last conversation with Issei. She had agreed to become Issei's friends. She did not understand much about the concept of friendship, but for across eons, she had witnessed from the human society, that friends tend to help each other.

Now that Ophis and Issei were friends, should she not do something about her first friend's suffering? She had an inkling what was actually going on, but looking at the circumstances, Issei's life might be in danger if the boy was constantly exposed to such immense pain.

Ophis looked down at herself for a second. Albeit she was still weakened, she had begun to get the feeling of her new state of power. She nodded, and she cast an enchanted bounded field around Issei's body. With her status as the dragon god, Ophis possessed the knowledge that had been discovered across history, from each corner of the planet. Thus, she knew several mysteries and arts that theoretically, should have been able to stabilize Issei's condition.

Alas, when she deployed the bounded field, she silently grunted as she felt the strain from her attempt to at least lessen Issei's suffering; her power was nowhere nearly enough to contain the violent energy that streamed out from the boy. "Issei….!"

oXo

_When the 'sentient' seed – let's just call the seed as IT – was born, IT had been given one job: to respond to ITs host's will and dream, and to realize his dream upon his body. As IT was sentient, IT also came with a 'personality'. One might describe ITs personality as a child that was earnest and dutiful to a fault, as IT would steadily grow when ITs host – a body had found his dream, an ambition – which was to be as strong as his father in future._

_That sounded like a fate. IT did not understand how or why, but IT knew that ITs progenitor had performed a similar task in the past. Thus, IT also had to do the same again – to remove ITs host's limitations in due time. _

_However, there was some…. unexpected interference. The interference came in the form of massive western red dragon. The red dragon was powerful, and IT did not really like the dragon, as the two of them ended up some sort of 'roomies' inhabiting the host's soul. IT learned that while the dragon was not malevolent in nature, the dragon also brought numerous souls in tow. Those souls, however, were somewhat malevolent, brimming with negative emotions. _

_If IT had a face, the face would be frowning in contemplation of what it should do about the dragon and the souls in future. But IT shall be patient, when the day of awakening had arrived and IT had completely matured, something would come up. In fact, should IT wait, perhaps the dragon's presence might be beneficial when the awakening occurred. _

_Years went by, as ITs host began to train his body and mind. IT was steadily growing in respond to the host's growth as well. But unfortunately again, while IT had not grown enough, the red dragon had awakened first and made contact with the host. Thus, while the host kept growing, the growth somehow… influenced the dragon to grow faster than ITs own growth._

_Years went by again, and when the host had reached 17 years of age, IT found that the dragon's growth had stimulated ITs own growth as well. When the host kept training every day and became stronger, the power of the dragon would be stronger, and IT would mature even sooner as well. The day when IT could begin the transformation and awakening phase was closing in. _

_However, as if to add the salt to the wound, one day, the host was dying. Just when IT could have done something, or anything that could realize the 'dream' of ITs host, and IT had to wither along with the host as his life slowly slipping away, while the day of awakening had yet to arrive. Then, something else happened. _

_Eight pieces suddenly appeared out of nowhere, decorating the host's soul. At the same time the host came back to life. However, the eight pieces had rooted themselves deeply into the soul, and IT did not like them, more than IT disliked the red dragon, because they felt… tainted, evil. Their nature was simply not compatible. In response of these… evil pieces, IT ran deeper into the depths of the host' soul and separate IT-self with a large, ornate gate as boundary._

_The feeling and situation were akin to someone who had found his house had been remodelled into something he did not like, as well as been invaded by unsavoury guests, but he could not afford to leave the house he had been living in for so long. Thus the house owner locked himself in the room to seclude himself from the unwanted guest._

_Time went by, and IT had grown and matured enough to begin the transformation, awakening. However, those interlopers – the dragon, and especially the evil pieces had to be taken care of. But how?_

* * *

It was a complete pandemonium – probably worse than that – inside of Issei's soul. Ddraig, along wit past Red and White Dragon Emperors were doing everything they could to keep their current host alive.

When the Samael's poison had crept up, the power finally burst out, and it did not take long for the Samael's poison to be purged. However, the power did not stop as it kept engulfing Issei's soul like a raging ocean, and all eight evil pieces were showing violent reaction upon contact. The dragons were attempting to protect the evil pieces, as well as keeping the power from running amok, lest Issei would die from the sheer strain on his body and mental. In fact, they could have sworn that not only Samael's poison, the power was trying to purge them as well, the past Longinus wielders and evil pieces alike.

However, they knew that their attempts were futile. Now that there was no longer boundary, the power was unstoppable and indomitable. However, they were also well aware: that in the small chance that Issei would survive in the end, whatever would happen to them, Hyoudou Issei would shake the heavens.

As they made their last stand against the raging power, their spirits were slowly being purged away, both red and white shouted their last message.

**[{Our hopes and dreams shall be etched onto his body, his heart and his soul!}]**

**[{The flames ignited on his furious fist shall light up the eternal darkness!}]**

**[{One body, one soul – unmatched in Heaven and Earth!}]**

**[{One man, who is equal to the gods!}] **

**[{THE WORLD SHALL PREPARE THEMSELVES FOR THE STRONGEST RED DRAGON EMPEROR IN HISTORY!}]**

As Ophis could heard the last shouts of Issei's predecessors, she could only watch and listened, as the Red and White Dragon Emperor were standing together for common goal – keeping Hyoudou Issei alive. "The red and white dragons are cooperating…"

**[….Partner…]**

Meanwhile, Ddraig, who was also withstanding the brunt of Issei's _power_, smirked as he faced whatever destiny that awaited him.

**[…No, Hyoudou Issei. It has been fun, and you truly are my greatest host. I don't know if things will stay the same between us by the time all of this is over. But… as long as it's you, I'm sure…] **

oXo

_There was one time when IT sensed the host was overwhelmed with despair, regret, and rage; the souls – the 'package' that came along with the dragon suddenly went into riot, trembling and shaking the host's very soul. In a second, the entire host's soul became… unpleasant, vile, as everyone occupying the soul was screaming like mad men. _

_It was the moment when the host actually wished for more power, and given the duty, IT automatically obeyed. However, IT was still reluctant about those evil pieces, thus IT only shared a fraction of ITself. The result could only describe as… _tremendous_ – things did not end up very well afterwards._

_Since then, whenever a danger occurred, or when the host subconsciously wished for power, it would automatically respond to help the host. However, whenever it made contact with the evil pieces, the pieces would react violently as they seemed not to like it either – the feelings were somewhat mutual._

_Then again, every time IT tried to help, IT only made the host suffered. IT did not really like the notion, IT was supposed to empower him, making him stronger, breaking his every limit to realize his dream. Thus, IT was rather 'saddened' when the host and the dragons – this time, some guy in white had appeared as well – treated IT like some kind of deadweight. They even cooperated the white guy to push IT away in order to supress the damage as low as possible. Nevertheless, IT could only play along. _

_Until one day, there was something… dark, worse than the evil pieces, creeping into the host's soul. As IT had done in the past, IT took upon itself to purge the darkness away. The darkness might be powerful, but IT had matured since long ago to be more than strong enough. Then, few moments later, the darkness returned with vengeance, this time those… incompetent (yes, IT had deemed the red and white dragons as 'incompetent') roomies could barely hold themselves against the corruption. _

_IT had enough – this would not do any longer, IT would not stand for it any longer. The corrupting darkness had to be dealt with, and those evil pieces and dragons were unnecessary. Thus, IT broke out from the boundary IT had set up and went wild. _

_Time for some tough love._

_As the purge was going underway, IT also commence the awakening as well. IT attempted to transform the host by assimilating ITself with the host's body. The purging was going well, the darkness had vanished and the souls belonged to the dragon were slowly disappeared as well. The evil pieces were sturdier than IT had expected, so it might take some more time to completely obliterate them away._

_However, the dragon was more fortunate, as the red dragon did not necessarily incompatible. Perhaps the dragon would adapt himself against the situation, just like what IT did around the beginning?_

_IT knew the host was suffering. But then again, there was a saying: "no pain, no gain", wasn't it?_

* * *

As pain ravaging his body from inside out, Issei actually thought for a moment, that he would better off dying. However, in the end, he suddenly recalled a certain woman's voice.

_Promise me that you will return to me._

A woman with beautiful crimson hair appeared in his mind, followed by several other familiar faces.

_I love you._

Issei gritted his teeth as he decided to keep fighting. He felt his body already numbed, but the repeating deconstruction and reconstruction process would force him to relish the pain of his body being destroyed and regenerated over and over. His throat had already dried from all the screaming, but he could not help but to scream in response to the pain.

Ironically, the pain itself was the only indication that Issei was still pretty much alive. The real problem was, would his mind last until it was over, assuming that it would be over?

As Ophis was still struggling to somehow stabilise Issei with her now-limited power, she did not expect that creature of all things, to suddenly appear.

"**Well, well, what do we have here?"** the creature – the red dragon growled. His golden eyes gleamed with interest as he looked upon the sight. **"Huh, didn't see you coming. You father and son are kind of helpless without me, aren't ya?"**

Great Red, the True Red Dragon God Emperor, _The_ True Dragon, the Dragon of Apocalypse, had arrived.

Analogically speaking, the situation was akin to: Issei was a machine or computer that was overheating, and in the verge of exploding or melting down, Ophis was a helpless child that happened in a wrong place and wrong time, could not do anything but helplessly swinging a stick while frantically looking for help. The red dragon however, was like a technician with experience who finally came to solve the issue.

Even with his immense power and arsenals, for Great Red, what he was dealing with was something volatile. Fortunately, volatile as it was, the dragon already knew what was the problem. He just needed a careful approach and accurate movements to solve the issue.

The issue was the evil pieces within Issei that kept their last stand against the gift – to be precise, the gift he had bestowed on Saitama on a whim and became something else that was insanely powerful. If Saitama's case during his transformation was a bad tooth, Issei's case was his mutation pieces. If this kept up, the boy might as well died from the sheer strain of the process, as the Boosted Gear inside him would not be able to last as well. As Great Red began his procedure to stabilise the boy – not that different than Ophis, the souls of the past Longinus wielders had been purged away, until only Ddraig remained.

It did not take long, albeit rather difficult, for the Dragon of Dreams to technically 'disassembled' Issei's body and soul apart, and extracted Issei's Evil Pieces. When the evil pieces were no longer in the equation, the seed/gift that was inside Issei's body could proceed the transformation and assimilation process without a hitch.

As the two strongest dragons watched Issei's body and soul being 're-assembled' and mended together, Great Red could not help but got himself interested, as that would be the first time to see the process close and personal.

"**Are you seeing this, Ouroboros?"** the red dragon mused. **"The dream seed had been attempting to undo this kid's reincarnation into devil, he's currently transforming into something…. Like **_**that**_** guy."**

"…Saitama did not have a Sacred Gear, but Issei does." Ophis commented. "…Even if Ddraig managed to survive…. By the time we meet again, perhaps things will never be the same for him." The Ouroboros was not close to the Welsh Dragon, but she had acknowledged the Red Dragon Emperor as her fellow species.

"**Well, we'll just have to see what will happen to the Red Dragon Emperor…"** Great Red merely waved off. **"But, still. Things will change regarding the kid himself, as well as things between him and his Longinus."** The dragon chuckled before he noticed several evil pieces in his free hand.

"**Now, what to do with you?"** Great Red wondered around when he noticed a red dragon gate appeared in the Dimensional Gap. After staring at the dragon gate for few seconds, he shrugged. **"…Meh."** And he dumped the broken Evil Pieces into the dragon gate.

"**And as for _you_…"** when Great Red turned to Issei, who was now unconscious with his body stabilised – no more power outburst and all, as the transformation had been completed. **"Kukuku… I have something else you might be interested in.**" the dragon smirked as he proceeded to fly away in the Dimensional Gap with Issei remained in his hand with Ophis in tow.

"Red bastard, where are you going?" Ophis asked while she deliberately kicking her legs on Great Red's scale as she rode on the dragon's head.

"**Some place that the kid needs to learn about."** Great Red said, as he appeared to perform another mystery on the unconscious Issei on his palm, particularly on his head. Even with his body exposed to the nothingness in the Dimensional Gap, the boy did not show any sign of distress whatsoever.

"….What are you doing to Issei, now?" Ophis asked again with narrowed eyes.

"**I'm... blessing his hair."** the True Dragon replied. **"You see that his hair was sort of falling off earlier? Two dudes with power-steroid overdose is one thing, but two baldies? One is enough for me, thank you very much."**

Ophis remained silent for a while as she stared at Issei, who had actually lost some amount of strands of his brown hair. When the image of bald Issei flashed in the dragon god's mind, for once in her life, Ophis actually agreed with her arch-nemesis – not that she would admit it.

When the True Dragon flew off to somewhere – a world; he stopped and literally threw the still-unconscious Issei into the hole.

**"…Do enjoy your trip."** He simply said as he watched the boy's body free-falling. Ophis also decided to watch, inwardly curious of what would happen next.

_To be Continued…_

* * *

**Special thanks for Omnifiction for beta-ed this interlude.**

**Alright, allow me to explain few things. Firstly, this is actually the basic concept that compelled me to write this story in the first place. Again, rather than nerfing down Saitama… While I still **_**want and will**_** make Saitama invincible, I decided to actually sort-of nerfed-up Great Red in the process.**

**God, I friggin' love dragons.**

**As for the thing about the seeds, gift, etc. I did not mention about monster cells, because… Well, details and reasons. **

**Then again, when I thought and wrote this idea, I still find it funny sometimes that a creation surpasses its own creator.**

**You readers may have expected what would happen after this interlude, so I might as well blurt it out – Issei would meet Saitama's old gang! **

**Until then, Ahsoei, over and out.**


	52. Heroes (I)

**One-Punch DxD: Legacy**

* * *

**Hello again, my dear readers! Here's my next chapter of One-Punch DxD: Legacy! I have to say, I have kind of a bad day when writing this, so I'm sorry if this somewhat dissatisfied you. **

**I originally intended to have this as part of Promotion arc, but decided to change it to Heroes. Enjoy! R&amp;R!**

* * *

**Chapter 48: Heroes (I) – The Journey**

_Flashback_

It was nighttime, and in a certain region at the west side of the planet, there was akin to a small revels in the midst of old ruins in the middle of plains. Bonfire were set, camps were established, and people laughed and conversed around the fire with either food – forged from hunted animals – or drinks on their hands.

"Allow me to say this, everyone." One man, who appeared to be a leader, spoke while raising his wooden cup. He had short black hair, clad in an outfit of Japanese and Chinese outfit with a spear held in his free hand. "Today's operation has been a complete success, it was a fight well-fought. We've accomplished our objective of protecting mankind. Rest up and have fun for now, you all have earned it."

His companions – clad in their own set of armour and weapons, cheered as they proceeded on their own way; some chattered, some drank themselves drunk, some simply relaxed and enjoying the night wind.

One man in the group, a man with bald head, chose to seclude himself by moving towards the edge of the ruins , sitting on one of the structures. With a warm drink in his hand, he took a sip and gazed up at the starry night sky.

Few moments of peaceful silence, the man heard someone approaching him from behind. "Ah, so there you are, Saitama-kun."

The man – Saitama, turned back to see a young woman with blonde hair, wearing a set of light armour. "Jeanne."

The woman – Jeanne, made herself comfortable by taking a seat next to Saitama, her hands were also holding her own cup of warm drink.

"Are you not enjoying the party?" Jeanne looked up at the man who was actually taller than her.

Saitama glanced back, noticing that it was rather rowdy around the bonfire. "It's not that bad, but… You really think I want to go join _that_?" He pointed at one particular large muscular man laughing himself silly without care, while his arm was hugging his companions by the neck, strangling them in the process. The onlookers just left the man have fun with amusement, as even the supposed leader only laughed as he enjoyed the atmosphere.

"…Yeah, probably not." She snorted, followed with a few giggles. "Say, now that it's just two of us. Why don't you tell me that secret of how you could become so freakishly strong?"

"Didn't I tell you guys already?" Saitama replied with a shrug.

"Oh, come on! It can't be only just that simple muscle training of yours. I won't tell anyone your secret, promise." Jeanne pouted. "…Let me tell you this, Herc-kun seemed to have dropped the topic, but it's because Cao Cao told him to leave you alone. The guy still hasn't believed you like everyone else, y'know? In fact, even Cao Cao is still skeptical."

"What else do I have to say?" Saitama sighed. "That's all there is to my training, honest."

Jeanne's pouted deepened, but few seconds afterwards, she sighed and took a sip from her drink, and the two soon fell into companionable silence, watching the sky.

As Jeanne stole glances at Saitama every now and then, she would reminisce about the time she had spent with her current group, the time she spent with the man next to her.

She used to be just another country-girl from a village in the middle of France; Looking after her family, her homes, mingling and playing with other kids; just your average girl in general. She had been known to be stronger and faster than average girls within her, letting her keep up with the boys with athletic ease as well.

Then one day, her village was soon under attack by a group of bandits. She then awakened her Sacred Gear – Blade Blacksmith, to fend off the attackers. The villagers were awed by her powerful display, and when things had settled down, the chief-priest of the village church claimed that Jeanne was a saint in the making.

Thus, her life changed, she was taken away from her family, under the premise of fulfilling her holy destiny. During her days in the village church, various tests and trainings determined that Jeanne carried the spirit of Maiden of Orleans – Joan D'Arc.

The people may have been jealous of her life, receiving the honour to be a living saint and receive the duty from the Heaven, but Jeanne thought otherwise. Every day she spent on her private room provided by the church, watching people spending their days normally. She was never actually interested in being a saint or whatever, she just wanted to be herself. She was no longer recognised as Jeanne, only as Joan D'Arc by the people.

She felt she was being kept inside a golden cage, her freedom deprived, her social bonds severed, doomed to follow a forced undesired path. Soon a bunch of officials sent from Vatican came to examine her existence as the one who carried the spirit of a saint. She was not that ignorant to miss the fact that few old farts working in the church were leering at her figure – which disgusted her and betrayed her image of the church, _was that how men of God supposed to behave?_

Then, her world was shattered at one night, when she overheard the talks between the priests and clergies, the fact that the Lord, the whole reason why she was willing to follow the church's demands to cast her old life away, had perished during the Great War between angels, fallen, and devils; and those affiliated with the Heaven and angels had been struggling for power in order to win the favour of the Archangel Michael, the de facto leader of Heaven.

When she confronted the elders about it, it was revealed. While the explanations given to her had been sugar-coated, she knew that the church had been only using her as a tool – a treasured tool, for the chief-priest of her village to ascend to the ranks of Vatican. The thought angered her; she had been deceived, she had been isolated from her family, her friends, her life - for the sake of men's ambitions. When she voiced her objections, she was replied with a threat – a threat that her family would be slaughtered should she opposed the 'commandments'.

She could not do much to oppose the priest's words, as they also served as figure of authority in her village. She could not reveal this fact to the villagers as well, lest she would cause uprising and chaos; nobody would easily believe words of one girl, saint or not, especially if the words were saying something blasphemous that God was dead.

Having her hands tied in the matter, Jeanne could only follow the whims of the church as it had been decided that she would be sent to the Vatican to further the church's agendas.

Then, her life took another course at the night before she would be transferred to Rome. The corrupted church official decided to use the blackmail against her so he could lust over her flesh. When she was about to surrender her fate, _they_ came to her rescue; a band of people who declared themselves as heroes, a group whose objective was solely for mankind's prosperity. They released her from her golden cage, and she was offered a chance, an opportunity for her to become something other than mere tool for the church. She took their offer without hesitation and that was how she escaped from the church with their aid.

She had to admit, it was worth her time to spend her days with these folks – her new companions. Her charismatic leader was an insightful man; he taught her all things she needed to know to master her power. She had yet to fully master it, but she managed to achieve the pinnacle of her power – Balance Breaker.

Then, during the first period of joining these band of heroes, she got to know _him_; a man without any clear background, but with the strength that no man could ever achieve, the strongest man she had ever known, who introduced himself as Saitama.

At first, she was merely curious and intrigued at the man's display of power. Then, she was completely amused at the notion of his reason as a mere _hobby_, he became a hero simply because he liked it, nothing more, nothing less; nothing about grandeur or passion about noble cause or whatever along those lines.

Over the course of time, she was drawn closer and closer to Saitama. She learned that despite his reasons, the man did have what it takes to be a hero – humble and selfless to a degree, despite the occasional tantrum when misfortunes befell him.

One moment he was acting like a normal person with little to no qualities whatsoever, then one moment later he became the most reliable man when the situation calls for it. He intrigued her all the more.

Her feelings for him began to grow strongly after he had saved her life more than one occasions; even when she was prepared to lay her life down for the sake of her comrades and her belief, he would end up saving her again and again. She owed him in more ways than one.

Not to mention, she found his reaction to be adorable when she and the others teased him. She started to become infatuated to him.

Earlier, she found herself disappointed for some reason, when she learned that Saitama was married. But now, when she was alone with him, she found herself smiling in content with the situation, her eyes continued to focus on the man beside her.

Saitama blinked when he found that the blondie had scooted herself closer to him, her body leaned onto his side. "Err… Jeanne?" Saitama raised a questioning eyebrow when she invaded his personal space.

"You are warmer than I thought." Jeanne said as she snuggled herself against Saitama's frame. "…Can I stay like this for little while? The night is quite cold." She looked up at him, giving him puppy-eyed looks as much as she could muster.

Saitama simply stared at her for few seconds before he merely hummed and looked away into a distance; a silent gesture that said he had allowed her to stay like that as long as she needed – It's not like he could just shoo her away just like that. Jeanne only widened her smile as she leaned on, she still could not get a full read on Saitama until that day.

The small revels in the main camp had died down after a few good hours, and Jeanne had been making herself comfortable by Saitama's side. Then, she drowsily spoke.

"Say, Saitama-kun…"

"Hm?"

"You will… always be together with us… Right?" She said as her eyelids grew heavier. Did the sleepiness crept into her mind? She knew well that Saitama had a family to return to, but she could not help but wonder.

Unaware that Jeanne had fallen asleep on his shoulder, Saitama merely replied as he kept his gaze into the night.

"…Dunno."

_End of Flashback_

oXo

In a dimly lit room, a young woman with blonde hair was sitting on what appeared to be her bed. She was hunching over a bit, her gaze was directed towards the floor, although she was not actually staring in anything in particular – just staring into space.

She was deep in thought, considering the current turn of events. The assault launched by the group she affiliated with earlier was… half-successful, for the lack of a better term. The attack on the devils and the Ouroboros had bore some fruit, but her leader said that, _that man_ had joined the fray, thus the leader had called for an emergency meeting to alter their plans.

It was not likely that she would encounter that man again, considering the development and how well enough she knew her leader. However, she could not help but wonder, what would happen if she met him again? Truthfully, she was conflicted in so many ways. The last time they met… Well, exhaustion on both body and mind from the battles ended up making her more reckless than she was supposed to be.

"…_Why?"_ was the question that came up her mind whenever she thought of _him_; as she recalled the moments she had spent with him in the past.

The moment when they met each other for the first time; it was not that impressionable. The man's first impression of his looks was absolutely average.

The moment when she witnessed the man's capabilities for the first time; honestly, she still could not comprehend how a human could perform such feats.

The moments when her life had been saved in multiple occasions, she learned that day that his arms were strong and warm.

That night when she drowsily (she felt a bit embarrassed about it) asked some selfish question; and she ended up not hearing the answer.

And finally, that night when he just vanished.

When she tightened her hands, the door to her room was knocked, and she heard a familiar male voice. "Jeanne, are you ready yet? It's almost time."

The woman, Jeanne, blinked at the door and realized that she actually had an appointment. "Right, coming!" she replied back as she stood up and prepared herself for the day.

* * *

When Issei stirred in his sleep, the first thing that caught his attention was… an unpleasant odor. Then, the next thing he felt was the rough surface beneath him, he could feel it directly with his skin.

"_Wait, my skin?"_

When Issei slowly opened and blinked the drowsiness away, he woke up and found himself sleeping naked on top of what appeared to be a bunch of garbage bags. In other words, he had been sleeping nude in a local dumpster.

"What the hell…?" Issei muttered as he scanned his au naturel state. "Where the fuck are my clothes?"

Apparently, during the time in the void world, Issei's clothes had been burned away during the 'awakening'.

Issei then quickly rose up and checked over himself and surroundings. _Strange_, usually, whenever he woke up from sleep, his body would still feel lethargic and sleepy for a good few minutes before he fully awoke. However, this time, he only felt sleepy for barely ten seconds before he was fresh.

Issei then tried to remember the past events that led him to sleep nude on the dumpster.

Underworld.

The promotion test.

The ambush.

Ophis.

Dimensional Gap.

Samael's Curse.

The pain.

Then after the pain, an unexplainable sense of comfort that lulled him into blissful slumber.

_Promise me that you will return to me. I love you._

He widened his eyes in realization. What happened with his battle against the masked mystery man? What happened to Ophis? What happened after he had passed out? Was everybody okay? He had to return to the others, to _her_. He then looked around and noted that it was early in the morning – the sky of the human world. Why wasn't he in the underworld? How and when did he return to the human world?

There was something else that he noticed; he did not recognise his surroundings. Was he at Kuoh? Was there any part like this in Kuoh? His surroundings seemed like a normal district with several buildings like shops, offices, and apartments, but they looked…. A bit old – eerie, even, to put it simply. Issei had lived in his hometown for over 17 years. He pretty much had known the town like the back of his hand. He did not recognise these kinds of features in Kuoh.

Speaking of which, Issei stared at his hands, his current naked state was temporarily forgotten, as he could not help but wonder. It was actually the strangest thing he noticed.

Something was different, like his body had _changed_. Issei could not put his fingers on it, but he felt his body felt… sort of normal, but at the same time, completely different. The morning was still kind of dark, and Issei noted that his senses were still sharp, but different than the days when he was a devil. It felt… less convenient, but more – very effective nonetheless.

Then he looked around his limbs. His eyes widened that, as far as he could see, his scars had gone. Not to mention, his body felt so… light, and to put it simply, _stronger_. He then tried to contact Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon should know something about what happened to his state.

"Ddraig, are you there?"

Silence.

"...Ddraig?"

"….Hello? Hyoudou Issei to Ddraig?" Issei asked again, drawing his left hand closer to his face, but there was nothing, no response whatsoever.

Growing worried, Issei tried to summon his Boosted Gear, but nothing happened. He tried to focus again, but his Sacred Gear did not appear on his left arm.

"Ddraig, this isn't funny, man! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Things became rather creepy for him; he felt… powerful, per say, but he could not feel even an ounce of demonic power. Even when he tried to sprout his wings, no appendage whatsoever emerged from his back.

"_What the hell is happening to me?"_

Few minutes later, Issei shook his head as he decided that he would think about his current state later. Right now, he needed clothes, and a way to return to the Underworld, or at least Kuoh – if he was actually somewhere not in Kuoh.

He looked around and saw a dirty, discarded blanket around the dumpster. The fabric was torn and dusty, but it was way better than him streaking across the street displaying his naked glory. Wrapping around his body to make him look not too indecent, Issei then decided to walk around and wander around, hoping to find something – anything to be of use.

As Issei continued walking, things became stranger and stranger. If he could not feel any sort of demonic power, shouldn't he be weaker? Was it his touki? Even so, the change Issei was feeling was just plain… weird, to the point of creepy. His steps were clear, no weight whatsoever. His senses felt sharper than before. While he was no expert in science stuff, he expected some major headache when he took in so much information through his senses alone.

He could make out the sound of the wind, the sound of birds and other animals from a far distance. Obviously, there was no crap like X-Ray vision, but it felt that he could make out something from that far distance. Note again, those were not granted by his devilry.

Then again, it all felt… natural for him; so natural that it crept him out. Few minutes of walking later, Issei came across an old, small chapel. Perhaps he could ask some help about his clothing problem, after all, god's follower would not refuse those who needed help, would they not?

At the same time, it was another thing that got to Issei's mind. A chapel could be considered as the smaller version of a church, thus making it a holy ground. When Issei stepped into the chapel's complex, facing with the cross, small angel statues and all, he felt nothing – no chill, fear, just good ol' feelings when you walked past a normal house.

Even with the Alliance between Underworld and Heaven were on roll, every devil should have at least experience a sense of urgency when they stepped into 'technically' enemy territory. However, what Issei felt was simply that he was standing in front of a building, that was all.

"Seriously, what's wrong with me?" Issei scowled, but decided to take a step forward, nonetheless.

However, before he could have approached the chapel's door, a voice halted him. "Excuse me, you over there."

Issei turned around to see someone riding a bicycle. He was a young man of average height and weight. He was wearing an armoured suit, with brown armour covering his torso and shoulders. He had a black leather suit under the armour and black gauntlets and knee-pads. He also had a green, bicycle helmet and dark-shaded goggles. Underneath his helmet and shades, he had short, brown hair. On his back and right on the bike's passenger seat behind him, there were a bag-pack and several bundles of packages respectively.

Issei could not help but stare. _"Wow, he's equipped to the teeth. What is he? An olympics athlete or something?"_ Even a professional athlete would not gear that much.

Things got a little bit awkward, as Issei did not say anything in return. The bicyclist then tilted his head and attempted to call out again. "Um…. You okay? What's with your clothes?"

Issei looked down, he basically just wrapped a dirty rag around his body, only barely enough to cover his modesty. "Ah, err… Well…" Issei tried to come up with a decent excuse, knowing that he could not just blurt out his actual situation to strangers. "Some crazy things happened…" Issei said sheepishly while rubbing his head.

The man on bicycle only stared at Issei for few seconds before he relented. "I see… I guess things have been hectic these days." He looked down for a second, his voice sounded rather grim. "Oh, are you seeking help from this place? They might have some spare clothes for you to wear… I'm actually here to drop some supplies well."

"Oh, is that so? That's good to hear." Issei replied, inwardly relieved that the man before him seemed to buy his words. _"…He's here to send supplies? Is he just some errand guy or is he kind of affiliated with the church?"_

That did not matter, actually. As long as Issei could get some help, he would not look a gift horse in the mouth.

oXo

Issei just finished putting on a new set of clothes – consisting a long sleeved white T-shirt with long sweat-pants; at least that was a lot better than no clothes at all. It was some time later, after Issei and the biker had been welcomed by the priest managing the chapel – Issei was given a guest room to tidy himself up, while the biker and the priest were discussing few things at the front hall.

Issei began to freak out inwardly, because despite the fact that he was inside an honest-to-God chapel, Issei did not feel any sense of dread or danger whatsoever. Then, he decided to perform one last experiment to confirm his condition. He clapped his hands together, closed his eyes, and spoke quietly. "Dear Lord, Father in Heaven…" he paused for a second before hesitantly continued. "Please tell me of _what the fuck_ is happening to me."

A few seconds later, Issei snapped his eyes open in frightful realization. There was no massive headache, no pain at all, despite he – not only just prayed, but he also _swore_ while praying. _Holy shit_. The only conclusion Issei could come up with, was that somehow, somewhat, he was no longer a devil.

Issei then gave a quick scan of his small room, and his eyes froze at the mirror planted on the wall. He stepped forward, slowly approaching the mirror to see his own reflection. It was not just the fact that the scars had been completely disappeared from his chiselled, muscular form, but the fact that his hair now consisted of _two_ colours.

oXo

Meanwhile, in the Dimensional Gap, the two divine dragons were watching the unfolding events.

"Stupid Red…" Ophis, who was sitting on top of the head belonging to a massive red dragon, spoke. "…Why did you give Issei's hair a few streaks of red?"

The red dragon, the Great Red, merely shrugged in return. **"Because it's awesome."**

Ophis suppressed a twitch on her eyes, as she could not tell which one was more stupid, Great Red's reasoning, or the fact that Ophis just asked him what she just asked.

oXo

"What in the hell….?" Issei said as he ran his finger through his hair – the mix of red and brown locks. "Who the hell just bleached my hair like this?" Issei said as he examined his hair closely.

He shook his head again, his mind re-organised and reviewed the order of his objectives again. First, gather information of his whereabouts; second, find a way back home or to the Underworld; third, reunite with everyone and finding out what actually happened to his body; and finally, finding out whoever motherfucker that stripped his clothes away and possibly, bleached his hair red as well.

As he thought, both priest and the biker were sitting and talking at one of the chapel's pews. The former noticed Issei's arrival first. "Ah, how do you feel now, young man?"

"I feel fine, thank you." Issei nodded politely. "Thanks again for the help and the clothes. I'm really sorry for suddenly popping out and causing trouble."

"It's fine, it's fine." The old priest waved. "Perhaps you should thank Mumen Rider here as well, that outfit you're wearing is actually one of his donations."

Issei blinked and he turned to see the biker, who had his hat off, but still wore his shades and other gears on; the other man only nodded while smiling lightly at him. "Um… Mumen Rider?" Issei repeated the name, unsure of what to make of it.

"Yes, the hero Mumen Rider. Many children that visit this place are his biggest fans." The old priest laughed lightly.

"You speak too highly of me, sir." The biker – Mumen Rider said while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "My occupation can be hardly called as hero anymore. Even so, I'm just a C-class."

Issei blinked again at the conversation. _"…Hero? Occupation? C-class? What's this all about?"_ he could not help but feel curious.

Soon, Issei joined the conversation as he began to ask. "Excuse me, but… may I know where I am?"

The priest and Mumen stared at the boy for few seconds, but the latter replied nonetheless. "You don't know? You are currently at the only chapel in Z-City. Where did you come from?"

Issei stared and blinked owlishly for a few seconds, before tilting his head quizzically. "Um… Sorry, what city again?"

"Z-city." Mumen replied patiently. "Look, I know from your reaction that Z-City is the least desirable place for someone to live in, with monsters and mysterious creatures roaming around, but unfortunately, this is also the final line of mankind's defence should things go south."

Issei blinked more in confusion. "Err… Okay, okay. You've lost me there." Issei shook his head as he massaged his forehead. "Mankind's last line of defence? What's going on? Is there another war with Khaos Brigade breaking out?"

This time, the priest and Mumen Rider were unsure of what the young man before them was talking about. "Um…. While the name sounds kind of fitting, I don't think our enemy is called Khaos Brigade." The rider replied.

Issei then turned to the priest. "Um, father. Shouldn't you receive the basic information of the situation from the Heaven, or Vatican, or perhaps the Alliance?"

"Well…" the priest looked even more confused and uncertain. "While it would be a pleasure for me to receive acknowledgement from Vatican and the Lord Himself, unfortunately, this old man had yet to be worthy enough to receive such honour."

Issei wanted to retort, but he did not know what to say himself as the words died in his throat. This made him think again. What was going on? Why was there a holy ground uninformed about the Alliance? Was it too isolated that it missed the angel's radar? Possible, but unlikely. Not to mention… Issei had never heard a town called Z-City in his whole life.

Issei then took a deep breath to recompose himself. "Okay…" Issei said after exhaling. "Perhaps there's some misunderstanding, and… I'm probably in the wrong. Can I know what actually is happening around here? I… probably have missed some important details in the midst of… you know, the crazy things so far." He asked while trying to sound reasonable.

The old priest and Mumen Rider shared a brief glance for a second, before they decided to tell Issei. After all, they thought there still could be few numbers of people who remained oblivious due to the chaos. The former two then showed Issei the world map in order to help the explanation of the whole circumstances.

"Alright, I'll make this as simple and clear as I can." Mumen then began his explanation. "Currently, the mankind is under attack by some new powerful, mysterious beings, whom we decided to name as the Ancient Ones. We believe this is what the prophet Shibabawa prophesied when she believed that mankind would be in great danger. The first attack occurred around two years ago."

While Mumen Rider was explaining things, Issei was barely listening as his eyes were widened at the sight of the world map.

"_That's the world map?! How did the world look like that!?"_

"We don't know where they actually came from, but some experts believed that they are existences even far older than the subterranean-folks. Some even believed that they are created solely to serve as the counter-force when the human population began to disrupt the planet's balance."

While Mumen kept explaining the story, Issei was still perplexed and freaking out inwardly at the map before him.

"_What continents are those?! Nothing even close to the continents I know!"_

"After one full year of struggle and research, it was discovered that the Ancient Ones are holding their primary base at the north-west region of the western continent. We are at Z-City, in here, Japan."

"_That's Japan!? That's nowhere close to Japan! Japan is supposed to be an island on East Asia! I mean, look at that! Japan's size is almost the same size as a friggin' continent itself! And what's with naming cities with alphabets?!"_

"During the first year of the war, we mankind were… kind of in shambles. The Hero Association who responsible for deploying heroes to fight the Ancient Ones had lost great amount of reputation and trust from the masses due to the Fallen King incident. But currently, some heavy hitters of the S-class heroes, including rank-1 Blast, are launching a frontal assault at the enemy's base to end this war once and for all, while some other S-class and the rest of the heroes who are still available will defend the fort. While there are several survivor bases and camps in other cities, Z-City is deemed to be the most operable with most of its infrastructure still intact despite their rundown condition."

Issei barely listened to the story, as his mind was still trying to digest the fact the place he was at, was far from home.

"Um… Are you okay? You look pale." The old priest asked with concern.

"…Father." Issei said after swallowing a lump. "…And Mumen-san too. May I ask you few questions?"

The priest and Mumen Rider shared another glance at each other before they nodded, gesturing Issei to carry on. "…What do you know of Supernatural?"

Both adults raised their eyebrows at the unexpected question. "Well… we are no experts on that field, but I guess there are many supernatural occurrences across the globe, if superpowers, monsters and mysterious beings are any indication." Mumen Rider replied.

Then Issei decided to alter his question a little bit. "Then… what do you know about angels, fallen angels, and devils?"

The old priest furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Angels serve the Lord and protect His children on earth, while devils, and those fallen angels who also became demons, are our enemies by tempting us to sin."

A textbook answer, an answer that hinted that either the priest was completely clueless about the Three Factions, or the history was not the same as what he knew of. It was not exactly enough to confirm Issei's fear, but the map and information fed to him was enough proof. Hyoudou Issei was stranded in a _fucking_ parallel world. He was not sure how much of this he could take. How would he ever go home?

"Um, you sure that you're okay?" Mumen Rider asked this time. "Come to think of it, you didn't seem to be from around here. Where do you live?"

Issei looked up at the question. He highly doubted that there was any city called Kuoh in this world. _Shit_.

"Err… K-City." Issei ended up answering after thinking for a few seconds. He wanted to pat himself on the back that he managed to answer without doubt lacing his tone.

"Hmm…. I guess that explains your condition." Mumen Rider gave a soft sigh. "K-City did receive heavy damage from the Ancient Ones, not to mention several monsters scavenging the leftovers of the town. I guess you're lucky to make your way here."

"Err… Yeah, I guess so." Issei felt drained. Well, more like emotionally speaking. Everything that had happened so far was just too much for his mind. He did not know if Ophis, Rias and the others safely made it back to the Underworld, he had no idea of what was happening to him, and he had no idea how to get back home.

Speaking of drained, however, Issei just remembered – how long since the last time he ate or drank anything? Sure, he felt like he could have something to eat or drink, but not out of hunger nor thirst. It was more like to make him feel better about the entire ordeal.

"Well… Perhaps you'd like something to eat?" The priest offered kindly.

"Eh? Oh, um…" Issei thought for a second. Should he take the offer? He did say that he could have something to eat to liven up his mood, after all. He wanted to find out anything that could help him to go home, but…

Well, this might count as a free food. Again, he would not look at a gift horse in the mouth. "…Yes, please. If you don't mind." He replied with a weak smile.

Then, when they were about to proceed – Issei and the priest were going to have breakfast, and while Mumen Rider was about to leave, they heard loud sirens echoing from outside, loud enough to be heard from a few blocks away.

"Err… What's that?" Issei wondered while he noticed that Mumen Rider's and the priest's face became rather apprehensive.

"This is bad…" Mumen muttered, and a voice via speaker was heard.

[Attention to all citizens! A horde of Ancient Ones has been sighted approaching the city in high speed! All citizens, please evacuate to your nearest shelter! Please move in an orderly manner! Do not leave anyone behind and pack light! I repeat, Ancient Ones has been sighted! All citizens are to evacuate to the nearby shelter immediately! Please move in an orderly manner without leaving anyone behind! All available heroes are to help the evacuation and prepare for battle!]

"That's the broadcast for evacuation…" Mumen Rider spoke. "Come on, we gotta get out of here! I'll take you two to the nearest shelter."

"But, what about the supplies?" the priest asked. "We can't just leave them. People will need them after the attacks."

His words might have sounded greedy, but in a sense, the priest might have had a point. Preservation of supplies could not be dismissed when post-war treatment was required.

"We have carried over half of them to the basement storage, so they should be fine. Now, let's go!" Mumen urged.

When the three ran out of the chapel, they realized that Mumen Rider's bike was only big enough to take one passenger. Prioritizing the present moment, Issei then turned to the rider. "Mumen-san, just take the father to the shelter first. I'll catch up after helping the others evacuate."

Mumen stared at Issei for a second. _Commendable_; however, as far as Mumen knew, the boy in front of him was another civilian. Then again, Issei had a point; if anyone required Mumen's service to reach the safety faster, it would be the old priest. Forcing himself to take two passengers at the same time was pushing it too much.

"…Are you sure?" Mumen asked with serious tone. He could tell from looks alone that Issei was by no means, weak. However, his code of honour still believed that it was a hero's duty to get people to safety. While he appreciated the concern, having a civilian to aid him did not really sit right with him.

"Yeah. I am." Issei nodded. "I'm actually pretty strong, y'know?" Issei said with confident look.

Mumen stared at Issei for few seconds before he relented – there was something in the boy's eyes that somehow convinced him. "Okay, I'm counting on you. I'll return to you as soon as I can. Please stay safe until then." He then ushered the old priest to get on the passenger seat behind him.

"May the Lord be with you, my son." The old priest gave his sincere prayer before he was taken away by Mumen Rider's bicycle.

As he looked at Mumen Rider's bicycle that gradually shrinking from sight in the distance, Issei could not help but snort a bit. Receiving no painful backlash despite receiving a prayer was still kind of new to him. That aside, Issei was not sure if he was actually 'pretty strong' like he said earlier. He did not exactly feel weak like lacking of strength, but he could not use his Boosted Gear or his devilry at all.

Then again, as long as he did not run into anything dangerous, just helping people to evacuate should have been fine, right?

Steeling his resolve, Issei then began to run.

However, few seconds later, Issei found himself running through several walls and houses, destroying a few structures in the process. Issei barely managed to stop himself to look back.

Miraculously, the buildings he just wrecked were empty. But more importantly, Issei looked down to his legs. He wanted to run fast to find civilians, but how the hell did he end up running _that_ fast?

However, his musing ceased when he heard several explosions and saw some dust clouds, and he continued running again. This time, he managed to get the feel of his legs to move like he usually did.

When he got used to it, Issei finally learned how light his legs were. Nothing straining him, as if he could kept running faster and faster without trouble, without any form of gradual exhaustion. He was amazed and baffled at himself; perhaps there was more to his bodily changes than it meets the eye.

Thus, his helping with the evacuation went on without much hitch, he helped out some families who needed to pack several things, directing them to the shelter, as well as warning other people who happened not to hear the evacuation orders.

It was after a while when Issei finally arrived near what appeared to be a shopping district, when something caught his eye from a distance. Issei saw someone crashing through a building wall.

* * *

At the one part of the city, a figure of a young man was thrown through several and buildings before he plummeted and skidded across the ground. When he managed to regain his footing, he was glaring at the several tall figures walking among the destruction.

They were tall, reaching around 18 feet with humanoid posture. They were not exactly built like a truck, more to the lanky side, but the minerals composing their bodies made them sturdy and durable.

Those figures – the Ancient Ones, were walking and focusing their target specifically at one individual they were fighting.

The individual had an entirely mechanical body in the model of a handsome young man. His face and ears looked like that of a normal human, made of artificial skin, and his eyes had black sclera with yellow irises. He had spiky blond hair, and his ears had piercings on them. He was wearing normal street clothes with sleeveless tops and hoodies, presumably to accommodate his mechanical arms. Introducing Genos the cyborg.

It was only the beginning of the battle, and Genos had found himself overwhelmed. He was lucky that his limbs were still intact, considering the strength of his adversaries. Each of enemy units was considered as a strong demon-level threat; depending on the numbers, a group of them could be considered as dragon-level; while during the first attack two years ago, the threat as a whole had been considered as god-level.

Genos gritted his teeth in frustration. He had sent some distress signals for reinforcements, but it would take even the nearest S-class hero a while to arrive at his location. Meanwhile, the cyborg was outnumbered, and most likely, outgunned.

Why? Why would the Ancient Ones launch an assault when the strongest members of the S-class heroes had been sent outside to strike the heart of enemy forces? Genos could only conclude that the enemy had a similar mind of striking the mankind's last fortress. It would be a battle of attrition at this point; who would fall first, humanity or the Ancient Ones?

Each of the enemy units was strong, agile, and it took considerable amount of effort for Genos to take out one or two of them.

Then, before he could have made another move to engage the enemy, he was stopped by a voice.

"Hey, you okay there?"

Genos turned to see a young man in his teens. The man was wearing what appeared to be white T-shirt and sweat-pants, his hair was a mixture of red and brown streaks.

"A civilian?" Genos blinked for a second before he quickly snapped back to reality. "What are you doing here? There was an order to evacuate! Quickly head to the shelter!"

"…You're a cyborg?" Issei was paying more attention to Genos' mechanical features. _"Holy shit, it's an actual cyborg!"_

Seemingly to ignore Issei's remark, Genos shouted again. "Don't just stand there! Go!"

Issei blinked when he registered the cyborg's voice, but before he could have replied, his eyes caught something else. "Look out!" Issei pointed at one of the Ancient Ones lunging at the cyborg with its fist raised.

Both men managed to jump away in the nick of time to avoid the Ancient One's fist slamming the ground, forming a small crater throughout the concrete.

Genos only clicked his tongue as his focus returned to the enemy before him, while Issei ended up launching himself towards the roof of one tall building.

"Whoa!" Issei was surprised as he barely managed to land properly. He only intended to jump far away enough to avoid the attack, but not _that_ far. Issei then looked down to see the cyborg from earlier was engaging a few of tall figures, which he (correctly) assumed as the Ancient Ones.

However, before Issei could have done anything else, he suddenly sensed something big was looming from behind him. He turned around to receive a fist to the side of his head, courtesy of an Ancient One.

After crashing through several more buildings and plummeting towards the unforgiving ground, Issei blinked as he lied down amongst the rubbles. Did that thing just now hit him with enough force and power to throw him like this? Rather, did it actually hit-_hit_, him? Because when Issei rubbed the spot where the fist connected, he felt no pain, no damage at all.

When the hit made contact with him, the feeling was more akin to a nudge or a touch, like you felt it, but it did not affect you at all. Similar thing also applied when his body was forced to go through concrete walls and buildings. Despite the impact and the crash, his body was not hurt whatsoever. _You felt it, but it was not hurt at all._

Were these Ancient Ones actually weak? Not impossible, but very unlikely. Issei then shook his head, putting aside his massive confusion and bewilderment as he turned towards the direction where the cyborg's battle was taking place.

He stepped out from the rubble, and he noticed that his clothes had been tattered and torn, but still useable. Then, this time, he sensed and managed to block another Ancient One slamming both of his fists on him.

BAM!

Issei could feel the ground beneath him caving in from the sheer force and weight behind the hammer fist. However, as he held the enemy's fists with both of his arms, Issei felt another oddity.

"Huh, that's very light." His previously bent legs to weather the impact slowly and easily straightened up into normal standing position, as Issei began to effortlessly hold the Ancient One in place; the tall enemy did not have any facial expression, but from his movements and shifting in its body, one could tell that it was struggling to overpower the human before it.

More surprise after another, Issei found himself easily weathering a force that was powerful enough to crush the ground. Even Issei can now withhold the creature's arms with just his left hand. He did not feel any strain at all, as if he was holding some… light, normal object, which amazed Issei; but again, freaked him out as well.

Seeing that its attack would do no good, the Ancient One then proceeded to lift Issei's body from the ground and slammed his body around for several times, before he hurled him away to some random direction. When Issei was hurled mid air, he noticed another weird fact. When he saw another Ancient One waiting for him at the end of his mid air flight, everything slowed down in his perspective.

He could detect every single movement the Ancient One ahead of him was making – it was preparing to skewer him with its hand growing razor sharp claws. While in mid-air, he looked around and he saw everything somewhat in slow-motion, and not at the same time.

Issei automatically lifted both of his fists forward, using the momentum and speed from the throw earlier, the boy slammed right at the creature's torso, and the result was: the creature's body was literally obliterated, save for its head and its limbs.

After Issei had dropped to the ground and gotten back on his feet, he looked back and forth between the enemy he just destroyed and his fists. But most importantly, he was baffled at how sharp his senses had become.

Shaking his head, Issei then focused on the chaos around him again. After looking around, he assumed that the civilians of the area he was in, had been evacuated. He then turned to see the location where the cyborg's battle was taking place again, as far as he recalled.

Issei then ran again, this time, he made sure that he would make it as fast as he could, while maintaining his speed enough to not lose his sense of direction. However, when he was running, he was suddenly ambushed by another Ancient One, who came out from a nearby building, right in front of him.

Out of reflex, Issei skidded to a stop while at the same time, threw his fist forward. However, much to his surprise again, when his attack made contact, the Ancient One's body was obliterated to bits again. He looked at his fist – it was technically a punch he just did, but he knew that he actually did not put anything behind it. Hell, he actually expected himself to collide with the thing, perhaps stumbling around before he would proceed to battle the creature. 'Accidentally' killing the enemy was definitely not what he had been expecting.

He was out of his stupor when he saw another explosion – presumably the current location of the cyborg, and proceeded to run again. As he made his way to his destination, Issei's mind kept thinking the same question. _"What the fuck is happening to me?"_

oXo

Genos roared as he drove his hand straight into an Ancient One's abdomen, and before the ancient could have retaliated to pull the offending arm out of its stomach, the cyborg's palm inside the stomach began to light up.

"High-voltage fist…!" Genos growled as the enemy before him was electrocuted before its entire systems had been fried, as Genos' energy attack blew it up from the inside.

It was the third Ancient One Genos had defeated, and there was still at least a dozen of them left to fight. His tactics employed to crack the Ancient One's defence by concentrated shot of his incinerator to create an opening, then drove his hand inside them so he could destroy them from inside out.

The Demon Cyborg then scanned around, only to find he was surrounded by the incoming enemy horde. Seeing there was no escape, Genos then decided to charge his incinerator's power to the maximum. With both of his arms glowing and brimming with energy, he then slammed his arms down to the ground as the enemies were approaching.

BOOM!

A massive explosion rocked the ground and destroyed the surroundings. Genos straightened up to look around the destruction and rubbles caused by his incinerator. However, he froze when his cybernetic eyes landed on a certain someone.

It was the same young man he had encountered earlier. His clothes were gone – burned by his incinerator, leaving him completely nude (again), but what caught his attention was, that the fact the man had no injury on his body whatsoever, safe for dust and grime.

"H-holy crap!" the teenager exclaimed as he examined himself. On Issei's side, he actually just arrived at the location to see a wave of fire suddenly engulfed him. And what was more, while the flame burned his clothes away, the flame did not burn him, nor did it feel hot. At the most Issei could only tell the flame was _warm._

Issei then turned flabbergasted at the cyborg. "What the hell was that?!"

If anything, it was the cyborg who was flabbergasted, as he was hit by the sense of nostalgia. The situation was completely similar like his first encounter with a certain man.

A man who he looked up to.

A man who had rescued him in many occasions.

A man who had shown him the way to live his life properly.

A man he had failed to save, and had disappeared two years ago.

The cyborg was speechless, his mind short circuited for a second before he muttered a single word. "…You…"

However, another thing happened when Issei widened his eyes at something behind the cyborg. "…AH!" he yelled in alarm.

Because at that moment, two arms shot out and grabbed both of Genos' arms, then the cyborg felt an overwhelming force was slammed into his back. As his body was launched forward, the offending arms proceeded to tear-off Genos' arms completely.

Genos plummeted and crashed into another wall, and when he got a good look, he found the Ancient Ones were still alive, and one of them just discarded Genos' arms.

Apparently, during the explosion, the shockwave was able to push them back, but before the sheer heat could have damaged them, the Ancient Ones had morphed their skins and armour to adapt against Genos' incinerator. Their bodies were now covered in various elements and minerals that were known to be highly resistant to heat - that was how they managed to survive Genos' wide-area attack.

Seeing that he had no means to fight back, Genos was about to address the brown-red haired teenager to flee, but before any words could have left his mouth, he saw an Ancient One had already loomed over him, ready to end him once and for all.

His life flashed before him. _"Is this what happened when you knew when you're about to die?"_ Genos thought as he recounted all of his life so far – from his birth, the tragedy that led him to the man he was now, and the meeting and time he spent together with _him._ However, despite facing death, Genos could not help but feel content; he had lived and fought well. The only regret he had that he still failed to rescue and properly thank that _man_ – his friend.

However, he saw a blur, and before he knew it, he had been taken away to avoid the Ancient One's final blow. When he got a clear view, Genos found himself cradled in Issei's arms, moving away from the enemies.

The cyborg blinked at the sight of Issei's relieved face. "Whew, that's quite close earlier, eh?"

Snapped out from his stupor, Genos widened his eyes. "W-why are you still here!? Didn't I tell you to evacuate?"

Issei only set Genos' down, where the place was at least not surrounded by the Ancient Ones. "Look, man. I'm not sure what's going on, but now that things already said and done, I just can't leave you here, okay?" Issei reasoned before he patted Genos' shoulder. "I don't know how, but I'll handle this."

"Wha- Ah, wait!" Genos was about to reach for him, but he had no arms. The cyborg could only watch as Issei ran (still naked) towards the group of Ancient Ones. "Dammit…!"

* * *

Issei ran, and he leapt over to avoid an Ancient One that was going to ambush him. He jumped, and he ended up 'stomping' one enemy that happened to be on his landing spot. The boy blinked as he looked at the remains beneath his feet. _What the hell?_ He just dropped on it, rather than stomped. He just wanted to kick the enemy for a bit to make some openings. He did not expect a simple drop managed to defeat another enemy unit.

Issei then suddenly felt something slammed onto him, something oddly 'warm'. He turned to see he was being engulfed by what appeared to be a stream of high-density flames. His eyes managed to catch a glimpse of several Ancient Ones had their faces opened and shot those streaming flames at him. Much to Issei's amazement and confusion again, it did not feel hot or hurt at all.

But it was sort of bright, and Issei simply pushed forward with his hand blocking his face, easily weathering streams of flames on his body. He immediately moved closer to an Ancient One. Issei was not sure if he could do this, especially when he could not access his Boosted Gear nor his other power. However, if what he did so far said anything…

BOOM!

BOOM!

"Whoa!" Issei certainly did not expect the result. He simply drove his fist upward, forming an upper-cut when he was within range. Then, what he did not expect was, his attack produced enough shockwave to blow up the entire region, raising more dust clouds.

And the Ancient One he just punched? Completely obliterated like the previous ones. What was more, that punch was more to test the waters. Issei could not imagine what would happen should he actually put more force into his attack.

Issei then felt something 'nudging' him from behind. He turned to find another enemy just smashed his head. Issei only blinked at the attempt, did the thing just hit him? Because Issei hardly felt that one. Then, before Issei could have reacted, the Ancient One had already landed another punch in his stomach, launching him away in the process.

Issei flew through several walls and buildings again, and after he crashed, Issei easily stood up, as his body was not damaged in the slightest. When Issei stared to his hands, Issei could not help but think again; did his body actually grow stronger than he thought?

His senses, speed, defence, endurance, as well as his power earlier; did he actually do those?

Swallowing a lump, Issei then wanted to confirm it again, this time with more clarity. He looked forward, and caught several Ancient Ones were moving towards him.

The Ancient Ones - around four of them, proceeded to slam their hands together onto the boy when Issei was within range, the boy immediately guarded by taking the brunt of the strikes with both of his forearms. As he thought, he did not feel any weight at all, despite the ground beneath him failing to do so. His defence, endurance and durability had increased.

Then, Issei could make out the details around him, like every shifts his enemies made, even to the smallest details like the flowing air around him. His senses had been sharpened significantly, as Issei then spotted that the Ancient Ones' legs were defenceless.

With swift movement, Issei round-house swiped the enemies' footings, and when the Ancient Ones lost their balance, Issei proceeded to launch another fist, starting by driving his fist to the enemy at one corner, and he carried on his punch by slamming the one he struck first against its brethren beside it. In other words, Issei had punched all three Ancient Ones simultaneously with one swing of his fist.

That had confirmed Issei's thought. Somehow, somewhat, he had become insanely strong. It was a different kind of strength during his days as a reincarnated devil, his current strength somehow felt… human.

Sensing that more Ancient Ones were jumping on him, Issei immediately focused on the current situation. He would think about everything else, once he was done taking out the enemy forces.

While the Ancient Ones were still in mid-air, ready to strike down the boy, Issei's gleaming eyes turned up to look back at them.

oXo

Genos was attempting to get back on his feet. Fortunately, his legs were still there. It took time to get up from his position without arms, but he pulled it off in the end.

At the same time, someone else had arrived next to him. It was an old man with light-blue eyes and white spiky hair, with thick eyebrows and a thick mustache. His skin was slightly tanned, and he was wearing a long sleeved martial arts jumpsuit, light coloured pants, and kung-fu shoes. The looks alone showed that the old man had been tampered with hardships and experience.

"Seems you had it rough, Genos-kun." the old man calmly spoke as he helped the young cyborg to straighten up.

"Bang…" the cyborg acknowledged the old man, the formerly known as the Silver Fang. "Aren't you retired since long ago?"

Bang only laughed lightly in return. "I maybe no longer a hero, but this situation is no longer just heroes against villains situation, it's humanity's war for survival. I can't just sit back and do nothing while the youngsters do all the work, it would reflect poorly on me while looking for new disciples."

Genos had ignored Bang's second-half of his answer as the cyborg directed his focus at the direction where another battle was taking place.

"Hm? Where are you going, Genos-kun?" Bang noticed Genos had started walking. "Shouldn't you get yourself repaired first?"

"...There's no time." Genos replied as he could not bring himself to walk faster, the damage he had received earlier was worse than he expected. "There's something I must confirm." he said as his mind kept thinking about the mysterious young man who saved his life.

Bang stared at Genos for a second. The elder sighed and he proceeded to prep Genos up by shoulders. "Youngsters these days sure are unrelenting…" the former hero sighed as he began to run with Genos' body in tow.

Despite his old age, Bang's physical finesse allowed him to run while carrying Genos' body without much difficulty. "Bang, can you get us to higher ground?"

The former Silver Fang only hummed in consent as he proceeded to enter a building that was still intact. It did not take long for the duo to reach the rooftop, and when they arrived at the edge of the roof, both of them froze at the sight before them.

They saw one young man with brown mixed with red hair, questionably naked, and he was effortlessly defeating the incoming Ancient Ones left and right. All of the enemy forces had focused their attention to deal with the boy at that point.

He weathered any kind of attack, whether it was physical or energy-based attack, without taking any damage on his body.

Each strike from him easily obliterated the Ancient Ones with a single blow; and his speed and reflex were beyond impressive.

At such a magnificent sight, Bang was also overwhelmed with a sense of nostalgia. "Genos-kun…. That boy… His strength and power…"

"Yes…" the cyborg nodded while narrowing his eyes. "That's just like _him_."

When he was mentioned, Bang looked down as bitterness filled his expression. However, he focused his eyes back to the battlefield a second later. But to call it a battlefield was not appropriate to describe the scene, it was more like one-sided slaughter as the young man obliterated every single foe with just a single blow of his fist.

"Say, Genos-kun… That boy, could he be….?"

Genos was about to assume something, but Genos became somewhat conflicted.

"I...I don't know. But that's just…" his rational mind wanted to say impossible, but his heart wanted to cling on hope.

"I suggest you call the others." Bang said as he kept observing the young man. "We might need them when we confront… Whoever this young man is."

It took some time until no more Ancient Ones showed up. Issei was now standing in the middle of the destroyed city block with numerous remains and carcasses of Ancient Ones around them.

"Okay… That should take care of them." Issei sighed as he noticed another thing; he was not fatigued even the slightest. Despite fighting many of those monsters, Issei still felt that he could fight even more of them.

However, his musings stopped when he caught two individuals at the corner of his eyes. He turned to see the cyborg he met earlier, accompanied by a hunched old man. Both of them had curious and questioning looks in their eyes.

Seeing his surroundings, as well as his state of bare body, Issei could not help but feel rather embarrassed. He sheepishly smiled as he rubbed his head with his right, and his free left hand was covered his private parts. "Um… Hello there."

* * *

The post-war went rather smoothly. According to eyewitnesses, the Ancient Ones from across the city suddenly moved to one point, and there was a reporting that a battle suddenly took place near the shopping district. When the officials arrived, they only found the remains of the enemy forces, and soon it was declared that the threat had been repelled. Some even celebrated that the mankind would only have to wait for good news from the assault force on overseas. With the strongest heroes of S-class like Blast and Tornado of Terror storming the heart of the enemy's fortress, the mankind's victory was as good as secured.

Issei - now clad in blue jersey track-suit - was not only still-confused of his condition, but somewhat nervous as well. He was currently sitting before a tea-table, in one regular-sized apartment room, and fidgeting as the old man he met earlier was sitting in front of him, sipping a cup of tea.

"I'll be right back." Genos, now with his arms repaired, prepared himself to leave. "I'll leave him to you, Bang." Genos said after he sent one last sharp look at Issei, before he simply disappeared at the door.

The room went into an awkward silence for a few seconds, as Issei could feel the elder man's gaze on him. "Sorry about him." Issei then heard the old man spoke with soft tone. "Things had been kind of tough for him. But I assure you, he bears no ill-will at you."

"Err… Yeah." Issei could only nod.

"Please, have a drink." the old man offered. "It must have been a tough battle for you."

"Um, yeah. Thanks." Issei then took a quick sip of the tea.

"...So." the old man then began again. "Tell me, what is your name, young man?"

"Ah, it's… Hyoudou Issei."

As soon as Bang heard Issei's surname, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he felt that the name sounded familiar. "Hm…. Hyoudou-kun, then." he took another sip of his warm drink before continuing. "Where did you learn to fight like that? Who is your teacher?"

Issei blinked and was silent for a few seconds. "Well…." Then, he scratched his cheek as he wrecked his brain for an adequate answer. "My father, I guess. But he hardly gave me any proper guidance, I mostly figure things out together with my friends."

Bang hummed in thought. The way the young man's father taught his disciple - his son, nonetheless, sounded kind of irresponsible in his ears, but not uncommon. There were moments when a teacher imposed self-taught training or study method so the students could gain independence and full understanding without guiding hand all the time. And judging from the young man's performance earlier, the teaching method appeared to be successful.

While Bang was still in thought, Issei looked around the room as a distraction. The room was ordinary, nothing luxurious, with one living room that also served as a bedroom with one futon, a small bathroom and toilet; a kitchen, small television set, and a balcony; there were no expensive furniture nor electronic equipments.

Then, his eyes settled at the photograph on the drawers behind Bang. It appeared as a graduation photograph with one man wearing a standard Japanese school uniform. The student had a spiky black hair, and a face that was awfully familiar to Issei. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look, and his eyes widened, frozen when he caught the words on the picture's frame.

It was just a description of what event took place in the picture, followed by the year, but what caught Issei's attention was the name printed on the frame.

_Saitama._

Cold sweat began to form on his forehead, as Issei tried to make sense of things. He focused on the picture again, particularly at the student holding his school diploma. He imagined if he erased the hair, and replaced it with bald head…

It hit Issei _hard_, as the world seemed to stop around him. Swallowing another lump, Issei finally realized. He did not just arrive at some random fucking parallel world, he had arrived in his father's _motherfucking_ home world.

And looking at the situation, it was highly likely that both the cyborg he met earlier, as well as the old man sitting in front of him, were at least acquainted with his friggin' father.

"Hm? Is something wrong, Hyoudou-kun?" Bang's voice snapped Issei out of his stupor. The old man noticed the young man's change on his expression.

"N-no, no. It's nothing." Issei quickly replied while took another sip to calm his nerves.

Bang raised an eyebrow at Issei's change of demeanor, but he decided to leave it for now.

Meanwhile, Issei was panicking within his mind. _"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?! This guy probably knows him. No, no, earlier when we entered this room, the old man immediately made himself at home! He definitely knows him! What do I do if the cat is out of the bag? I can't just say, 'hi, I'm actually Saitama's son from parallel world, nice to meet you', or anything like that! Oh, god, things are already awkward as it is!"_

"You know…"

"Yes!?"

Bang blinked at Issei's panic tone, not to mention, his slightly pale complexion. He just wanted to start another conversation to pass time, yet the young man's response was over the top. But nevertheless, Bang carried on. "That was a battle well-fought. I'm truly impressed by your performance."

Issei blinked at the compliment and at Bang's soft expression. "And I have to thank you for saving Genos-kun. It'd be a shame for a fellow like him to leave this world."

"It's nothing." Issei found himself somewhat calming down. "I… just happened to be around when I was actually helping out with the evacuation."

Bang only hummed again in return, silently commending Issei's humble attitude. "Still, I can't help but to reminisce when I saw your fight back then. Your strength… speed, power, all of them; were so similar to a certain man."

Issei saw a glint of sadness on the old man's expression. He decided to keep quiet as Bang continued on. "In the past 83 years of my life, never once I met someone else of that calibre, then I saw you."

However, Bang's next words caught Issei off-guard. "Tell me, Hyoudou-kun. Who is your teacher?"

Issei did not know how to respond. Should he be honest and tell him the truth? Issei was not ready to reveal his identity yet, but at the same time, he would feel bad if he lied to an elder manly.

Then, interruption came in the form of the sound of the door opening, revealing Genos and several guests.

"Ah, Genos-kun. Welcome back." Bang politely greet the young cyborg. "And you brought the others with you. Any news from outside?"

Despite his cold expression, there was actually a tinge of relief in Genos' tone. "Earlier, I just received a word that the assault on the enemy fortress at north-west continent had been a success. We just had to deal with the final clean-up and the post-war treatment."

Bang took the news well. "I see… That's good." Bang then greeted the other guests as well. "Welcome, you lot. It's been a while."

While Issei was somewhat relieved that things were fine, he blinked again when he took the sight of the other guests that came together with Genos. The first guess he saw was a young woman with a curvaceous figure. She had a chin-length, dark green hair and light green eyes. She was wearing a long white fur coat draped over her dark green dress, she was also wearing several necklaces as accessories.

"Ah, it's you." the second guest was none other than Mumen Rider. This time, his hat and goggles were off, revealing his short brown hair and oval-shaped glasses obscuring his eyes. "I was worried when I couldn't find you anywhere. It's a good thing you ran to Genos-san and Master Bang on your way."

"Sorry about that, Mumen-san. Glad that you made it out too." Issei gave a quick apology before his eyes landed on the final guest - who made him froze a bit.

Issei had to describe the last person entering the room as 'intimidating'. It was a tall, lean-built man with tanned skin. He had blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair that was combed back, down to the nape of his neck. Issei noted that the man's notorious features were one helluva scars straight over his left eye, with sunken cheeks and defined jawline. The man was wearing a long sleeved black turtleneck sweater. Issei could have sworn he could hear his heart-beat all the way from his sitting spot.

"So? Is this kid the reason why I'm being called all the way here?" the woman asked as she entered the living room, giving a brief glance at Issei. "I hope you won't make this long, I have a group to manage, after all."

"And why do I have to come here again?" this time, it was the tall man who spoke. "I'm never even a hero, remember?"

Soon, Issei was now surrounded by five individuals that most possibly, acquainted with his father. There was slight hostility, especially from Genos, and Issei could not help but feel nervous again - not from the hostility, but from the awkward atmosphere.

"Well, then." Genos spoke as he sat at next to Issei. "I'd like to ask you several things."

Issei became worried again, what should he do if he was asked about his identity, or worse, anything related to his father?

The reason Genos asked the guests to come over was, because he deemed Fubuki, King and Mumen Rider to be trustworthy enough when it came to _him_. "First… Who are you?" Genos asked with sharp gaze, searching for any sign of deceit that Issei might used.

Issei slightly flinched, unable to come up with an answer. Should he answer honestly?

Unfortunately for Issei, Bang decided to provide the answer. "This fellow's name is Hyoudou Issei."

Issei shifted his sight towards Bang, who was still as calm as ever. However, Bang returned Issei's look with his knowing one.

Genos, however, widened his eyes in recognition. He could not remember that surname. The same surname of his friend who disappeared into a black hole two years ago. The others with him, at least felt that the surname 'Hyoudou' sounded familiar to them.

However, Genos could not jump into conclusions. After all, the name 'Hyoudou' was considered quite common among the populace; it might be just a coincidence. However, Issei's performance from earlier, made the cyborg could not help but to ask the next question. "What do you know of Saitama? What is your relation to him?"

The others glanced at the cyborg with uneasy gazes. Genos and that man could be considered as close friends, partners in work. Perhaps the cyborg had been putting on a strong front after _his _disappearance, but the topic was still a sore spot for the demon cyborg in the end.

Nevertheless, the question also garnered some curiosity as well. If Genos' testimony about the feats of the young man before them was true.

Meanwhile, Issei felt like a deer caught in a headlight. Should he lie? If so, what kind of lies should he come up with? Issei considered to escape - after all, the window was near. However, Genos was blocking his way by sitting next to him. Not to mention, Issei could tell that at least three out of the five people around him were not pushovers, especially the old man.

Issei glanced briefly at the tall man, that man's looks were sharp, and again, intimidating. Issei could not sense anything out from his body, but if the looks said anything, Issei thought perhaps the tall man was no ordinary person either.

Issei then thought of his objective again. His final objective was to find a way back home. And for that, he would need help, as many as he could get. And in order to gain favours, he needed to build _trust_.

Thus, Issei decided to come clean. "...He's my father."

Everyone widened their eyes at the answer. The young man before them was Saitama's son? However, they sensed the cyborg was clenching the table hard enough to make some cracks.

"I advise you to not lie to me." the cyborg glared. It was just impossible. For two years Genos would occasionally keep tabs on Saitama's whereabouts, and after constant failure to gain result, suddenly some guy appeared and claimed to be his friend's son? "There's no way Saitama would have a child at your age. I even never heard of him dating anyone before he disappeared two years ago!"

That made Issei into thinking. Two years? Did he say that Saitama disappeared only for two years? From one of his past conversations with his father, Saitama indicated that he had been leaving his home world for over twenty years. So why did he say that Saitama disappeared for two years? Issei thought as he tried to connect the dots.

He had no idea about complex concept and theory about parallel world, but he could wildly guess that since both were completely different worlds, the flow of time was different as well?

It was still absurd, but that was the only explanation Issei could come up with. For twenty years Saitama had been spending in his new world, his home world only missed him for two years.

That left little option for Issei. He could not understand the theory by himself, so he had no way to convince the people before him. "Alright, look." Issei tried to reason. "I can only offer you words. In facts, it doesn't really matter if you believe me or not, but I _am_ from parallel world, and I'm looking for a way to go home."

Genos was about to do something 'drastic', but he felt Bang's strong hand held him down by shoulder. The cyborg turned to see Bang's own glare. "Calm down, Genos-kun." the old man sternly, yet calmly spoke. "Do not forget that he did save your life. At least hear him out. Besides…" Bang then turned to see Issei right in the eye. "I don't sense any deceit from him."

"Bang, you can't possibly believe him." Genos retorted. He knew that Bang was not a fool.

"Actually, Genos." This time, it was the scarred tall man who spoke up. "As outrageous the kid's claim is, I gotta say, even science this day approves the existence of multiverse. I don't think the kid's claim is completely unfounded."

"You know what? I'm leaving." the woman stood up with exhausted sigh. "I don't really care who the kid is, or who his father is. I have other business to attend."

However, before she could have made her way to the door, Genos stopped her. "You're not going anywhere, at least until we came up with a decision."

The woman glared at the cyborg, who returned her glare with his own. The woman narrowed his eyes for a second before she decided to huff as she sat back down.

Mumen on the other hand, felt out of place as he decided to just observe how things would turn out.

Genos then looked down in thought, he sent occasional glares at Issei before he finally stood up and walked out of the room. Everyone from inside could more or less hear that Genos was just making a quick visit to the room's next door, which had been reserved as the cyborg's personal storage room. When Genos returned, he was bringing what appeared to be a laptop set and several more machinery equipments.

He set his equipments on the table, where along the laptop, there was something akin to a scanner or some sort. Genos then turned to Issei. "I need a sample of you for DNA test. We'll find out immediately if you're lying or not."

Issei blinked a few times at the 'futuristic' equipments before him. Perhaps Grigori or Underworld had similar technology, but it was Issei's first time to see it up close. "Um… Yeah, sure."

Genos went silent for a second at Issei's willingness to cooperate, before he proceeded to take a sample of Issei's drool. While his computer was doing the analyzing, everyone else could only wait for result.

"So…" Issei then decided to strike a conversation. "I take that you're my dad's friends? I mean, he actually never talked much about his past."

Everyone apart from Genos smiled slightly at the memory. After all, in a sense, they did consider Saitama as… kind of a friend, at least. "Yeah, I guess you can say that." Bang replied. "Oh, forgive me. You haven't known them yet, have you? This tall fellow is King." the old man pointed at the tall man with scars.

"Master Bang, you know people don't call me King anymore." the man called 'King' retorted sheepishly before he turned to Issei. "Anyway, nice to meet ya, kid."

Ignoring King's retort, Bang then gestured to Mumen Rider. "And it seems that you knew him already. He's Mumen." the said rider only nodded at Issei.

"And the woman is Fubuki." Bang finally introduced the woman, who only nodded a little at Issei.

"Nice to meet all of you." Issei returned the gesture.

"But if you're asking earlier…." Bang looked up while rubbing his chin in thought. "Perhaps you can consider Genos-kun here as Saitama's best friend."

Everyone, including Issei shifted their eyes to Genos, who was still frowning at the whole situation. "He's not just a friend." Genos breathed out. "He's the reason I can become what I am today. He used to be my teacher."

As the others listened, as Genos somehow ended up sharing his story. "In the beginning, I was just a normal, 15-year old kid with normal life and family. Our life was peaceful and happy, until one day, a crazy cyborg attacked our town all of sudden. He had completely lost his mind…"

It was actually the first time for the others, including Issei, listening to Genos' back story. So far, everyone had some sympathy for where the story would led up.

"...I guess he suffered a brain damage during his cybernetic transplantation. He then left after destroying everything - the park, my school, my house, the buildings…. Of course, my family didn't survive, leaving me as the sole survivor. But back then, I was just a meek 15-year-old boy..."

At this point, each occupants sent glances to one another, not expecting such a sap poor story. Issei, on the other hand, began to tap his fingers on the table.

"...I wouldn't have survived all alone if Dr. Stench hadn't passed town by chance and found me. By the way, Dr. Stench is a scientist of justice who was pursuing the cyborg that just destroyed my home town, to stop him."

The story became somewhat too lengthy for everyone, but they decided to keep quiet out of respect. Issei on the other hand, started to feel impatient. He felt bad, but he was racing against time at the moment. Not to mention, while Issei did not know much about computer, he could tell from the screen that his DNA test had been completed since a while ago.

"I begged Dr. Stench to turn me into a cyborg, and I was reborn into a cyborg who fights crimes. I made a promise to Dr. Stench that I will find that cyborg one day and-!"

"Okay, okay." Issei suddenly interrupted by raising his hand, prompting the cyborg to stop. "I'm sorry to hear that. But can you at least just compress your story into one simple sentence of 20 words or less? We have other things to take care of, remember?"

It might have sounded rude, but Issei's words struck a chord within everyone in the room. Bang, Fubuki, Mumen Rider, King and Genos were staring wide-eyed at Issei, who blinked at their looks.

"My word…" it was Bang who first spoke after some time, followed by the others.

"...Wow."

"...He's telling the truth."

"...He really is his kid."

Genos was looking downcasted, his eyes and expression were shadowed. The cyborg then noticed from the corner of his eyes, the screening of his computer was showing the result of DNA test. He froze when he saw that the test result.

Then, everyone noticed the cyborg's body was trembling. "...Genos-kun?" Bang asked in cautious tone. "Are you alright?"

Then, out of everyone's expectation, the cyborg laughed, albeit rather weakly, as his body relaxed.

Genos' body might have been mostly machine, with little to none human features. However, Dr. Stench had attempted to allow Genos to live as humane as possible. This included features like human emotions, Genos could technically cry or laugh, but his machine parts tended to prevent him from doing so. It was the first time in a while since Genos had last laughed.

"Thank goodness…." they heard the cyborg muttered weakly after laughing for few minutes. "...He's alive."

"Um… Genos-san?" Issei asked, not sure what to make out of the cyborg's condition.

"Issei-san." Genos then looked up to the boy, his expression was softer than earlier. "Can you take me to where your father… Saitama is? Do you know where and how is he doing?"

"Like I said earlier, he's probably in my world now; and I don't know how to find a way back home."

"I see…" Genos looked down, then, as if recalling something, his eyes widened. "I… may be able to help you."

That caught everyone's attention. "...How?" Issei asked with hopeful tone.

"Actually, around the time after Saitama had disappeared, I proposed a project for Dr. Stench to create a device that would allow me to cross over dimensions in order to search for him." Genos began to recall. "However, before the project could have started, the Ancient Ones had begun their attacks, so the project was soon dropped. Now that we are recovering, we can start the project. It might take time, such device would require lots of research and development, but at least that's a start."

Issei was a bit disappointed that he needed to wait, but that was better than nothing. "But I need to ask you one thing." Genos asked Issei again. "When did Saitama have you? I mean, you're like… too old to be his son."

"As for that…" Issei began to reply, carefully picking his words. "He once told me that he met my mother around… 20 years ago."

The room fell into another silence. Saitama had been spending 20 years in god-knows-where, making a family of his own?

"That… makes sense of things." it was actually King who commented. "Since we are talking about two separate worlds, it's possible for the flow of time to be different as well." he then scoffed. "Huh, Saitama is now an old man, a daddy, to boot."

Everyone actually giggled at the thought of Saitama being a parent. Some still could not believe that Issei was Saitama's son - they had no resemblance with each other at all.

Then, it was Genos who stood up first. "Well, I guess we have no time to spare. I'll make a quick visit to doctor's lab so we can start the project."

"Ah, wait-"

The room fell into another silence as Genos left the room. Issei actually still had a few more questions for him.

"Sorry again about him." Bang apologized. "That fellow is just too happy that his friend is still alive."

"Well, I guess it's settled." Fubuki then stood up from her sitting spot next and put her coat on. "I have to go back to my group, my men needs me." When she was at the door, however, she turned one more time to Issei. "By the way, Issei… correct? I want to ask you something, out of curiosity."

"Which is…?" Issei raised his eyebrows.

"Your mother… Saitama's wife… Is she cute?"

"Well…." Issei rolled his eyes in thought. "I can only tell you that my mom seems to stop aging when she hit 30, but my dad claimed that she actually stopped aging after giving birth to me."

"...Hm." Fubuki pursed her lips as she hummed and shrugged. "Well, send my regards to Saitama when you got home." but she stopped again before closing the door. "...And when I said 'regards', what I mean is a good punch in the face. Do you mind?"

Issei blinked at the woman before he gave a grin. "It'd be my genuine pleasure."

Fubuki's smile widened before she finally closed the door, leaving the room. That left only Bang, Mumen Rider and King with Issei.

"I wish I can talk with you more, but I have to go as well." Mumen then put his biking gear on. "I have to help out with the post-war recovery."

"Send my regards to Saitama as well. Good luck on finding your way home, Issei-kun." Mumen Rider then left the room.

When it was only Issei, Bang and King who were left in the room; it was the latter who spoke up next. "...Well, I guess I'm not needed anymore…"

"Wait!"

Both King and Bang turned to find Issei stopped them. "Sorry, but…" Issei looked sort of shy. "I actually wanted to ask Genos-san, but… Can you guys tell me stories about my dad?"

The two adults stared at the boy for few seconds. "It's just… Dad didn't reveal much about his past, so… I've been kind of curious…" he sheepishly scratched his cheek.

Bang and King shared a glance for a moment before they both relaxed on their spot. "Sure, why not."

"Thanks!" Issei brightened up. "But… let's have something to eat first, I believe it's close enough for lunch."

King pointed at the kitchen. "I think there should be something you can use to cook something up in there. Genos has been living in and maintaining this place, after all. Since you are Saitama's kid, I think it's fine if you use his stuff once in awhile. Oh, you know what? I'll help you out."

Both King and Issei proceeded to the kitchen, while Bang only chuckled in the living room - he had been missing that kind of atmosphere.

* * *

"...So." King spoke as he was helping Issei in front of a boiling pot. "Before we start, first - how's Saitama doing?"

"He's alive and kicking." Issei shrugged. "Still playing hero from time to time."

"Does he do a good job as a parent?"

"Terrible. Even now I still think he's kind of a shitty dad."

Both King and Bang could not help but snort in amusement at that notion.

"It must've been hard dealing with him, hasn't it?" King asked as his expression softened. "I gotta give you credit for putting up with him."

"You don't say." Issei replied with a smile. "So, it's my turn to ask now. How's that baldie like, when he's still here?"

It was Bang who replied. "If I have to be honest, until the last time I met him, I still couldn't understand him completely. Saitama-kun was… a mystery, a complete enigma."

"So he said." King agreed. "If there is anyone who actually understands Saitama _just_ a little bit, it would be Genos. But the guy's not here now."

"I see…" Issei said as he finished his cooking and began serving the food on the table. "Then, tell me. Was my dad… really a hero here? What's he like?"

"Oh, definitely." King replied as he prepared himself to eat, along with Bang. "His way of being a hero is kind of different than society's norm these days. He became a hero not for something like fame, glory, or even that much of noble cause. Saitama became a hero simply he likes doing so."

"This is going to take long, a lot longer than 20 words if you want to hear our stories about him." Bang said. "And the story is from our perspective, so it might be slightly biased. Do you still wish to hear it?"

Issei sat down with clarity in his expression. "...Please tell me."

oXo

The lunch affair went smoothly, as Bang and King told Issei the days they spent with Saitama.

Issei had learned of how Bang met Saitama for the first time, when the old man, along with Genos, witnessed Saitama destroyed a giant meteor that was going to destroy the entire city. Issei was not actually surprised at that; after all, he knew several people other than Saitama who could perform a similar feat back home.

Then, he learned about how people did not take Saitama's action very well. While Saitama was able to prevent a total annihilation, the fragments and debris from the meteor he had destroyed still caused severe damages on the city. Issei frowned when he imagined Saitama was scorned by the people around him, including with a low-class hero who wanted to pick a fight with him out of jealousy. Still, the fact that Saitama simply declared that he became a hero because he simply wanted to, for the sake of himself instead of the sake of the people; was actually something Issei could expect from him.

Issei was amused at the notion of Bang trying to recruit Saitama into his dojo to learn martial-arts, and the fact that Saitama was completely indifferent about it. After that, Issei then heard the rest of Saitama's days as a hero from Bang's perspective.

King's side of the story, however, was rather peculiar. Issei found that despite the appearance, King was just an ordinary person in a wrong place and wrong time, and through the devil's luck somehow, had been recognised as an elite hero, the strongest man on the planet, by 'unintentionally' stealing Saitama's credit.

Issei was not sure how to respond to that. Should he get angry at the fact King had been fooling people? Should he be amazed at how lucky King was? Or should he feel sorry for King's bad luck after receiving the pressure as 'the strongest'?

In any case, Issei was not that surprised when he learned that Saitama was not angry whatsoever when he found out about King's true colours. In fact, the two became gaming buddies ever since.

Following after Saitama's disappearance, his absence caused King's true colours being finally found out during the attack of the Ancient Ones. It was quite a chaos back then; people and society were angry at King and the Hero Association for their incompetence. Of course, the association decided to try throwing all the blame to King for 'deceiving' them. However, surprisingly for the mass, several well-known heroes from the association actually stood up for King, they were Genos, Bang - those who hung out with Saitama previously, and surprisingly, the Blizzard group.

Overall, the result ended up with the Hero Association receiving a massive blow to their reputation and public relations, as the society had deemed the organization as incompetent in selecting the appropriate heroes. People had stopped registering to be a hero, even many heroes from all classes had chosen to quit, deeming the association as not trustworthy. During the war between the mankind and the Ancient Ones, the organisation was barely holding themselves together and was on the verge of collapsing.

Speaking of heroes, while Bang and King did not know much about the details, Issei learned that Mumen Rider was once rescued by Saitama from a sea monster, thus the rider's respect towards Saitama.

Fubuki on the other hand, was once a veteran hero known as Blizzard of Hell as her moniker; who once confronted Saitama to join her group - the Blizzard Group, to increase her influence over lower-rank heroes, but ended up with her mingling with Saitama instead. King once thought that Fubuki had a thing or two towards Saitama.

As for Genos, Bang and King did not know the exact details either, but they knew that Genos used to refer Saitama as his teacher, and tend to respect him too much to the point of idolization. It was actually when Saitama vanished two years ago that Genos started to refer him as a friend, as someone who actually understood Saitama better than most people.

And speaking of Genos; "I'm back." the cyborg said as he walked through the front door.

Issei, King and Bang - who were just tidying up and cleaning the table after lunch, turned to see the cyborg entered the room. "I have a good news and a bad news. The good news is, that the cross-dimensional project is starting and is underway."

"...and the bad news is…?" Issei asked.

Genos' expression dropped a bit. "The bad news is, even someone like Dr. Stench finds that theory about dimensional travelling and multiverse to be particularly difficult. He estimated the project will be completed…. at least ready for the test-run in at least several months." as a matter of fact, creating such a device within months was already a great achievement.

"Months?!" Issei obviously did not like the idea. "I-I don't know if I can wait that long. I mean, my family, my friends, and, and…" Issei wanted to say something else when the image of Rias Gremory and other girls flashed in his mind, but found himself too embarrassed to say it out loud in front of people he just met few hours ago.

"I'm sorry. That's all we can do for now." Genos lowered his head a bit. "By the way, I have something that you should have." he then lifted up a suitcase that he brought along. "Saitama… did not possess much valuables. So after his disappearances, I ended up gathering all of his belongings, as well as some souvenirs from us in here. I think you should have it."

Issei took a look at the suitcase for a second before he accepted it. After staring at the suitcase for few seconds, Issei then looked up to Genos - it was not the time for him to give up just yet. "Genos-san, if there's anything I can do to finish the project and research faster, then let me help!"

Genos blinked for a second, before he gave a nod with small smile. Bang and King smiled at the sight, inwardly willing to help as well, should the need arise.

However, just after Issei had steeled himself to face his current problem, a knocking sound was heard. Everyone turned towards the window leading to the balcony, and right on top of the said balcony, there was a little girl dressed in a gothic-lolita outfit with long black hair. The girl simply knocked on the window with stoic expression on her face.

Issei's eyes widened when he recognised the girl, whom merely waved at him with a small smile on her face.

"O-Ophis!?"

"I, have come to pick you up, Ise."

_To be Continued_…

* * *

**Special thanks to i4md37h and Omnifiction for beta-editing this chapter!**

**So? How did it go? I tried to make Issei and Saitama's world to have different time-line, so I made Saitama's world to have two years pass since Saitama's disappearance – not too long, but long enough for many things to happen.**

**I hope the events and twists I put there are legit. Overall, please tell me what you think.**

**As usual, flames are not accepted, constructive reviews are appreciated. Ahsoei, over and out.**


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